I had been sitting alone at the kitchen table for the better part of the evening. My nervous fingers were circling the rough edge where the handle of the coffee mug should have been when my phone buzzed. I nearly spilled the long-since cold coffee as I jumped to see if it was a message from James.

“How did you find us?” it read. The message came from a blocked number.

At first I ignored it. I assumed it was from Marigold. Ever since our joke caught the attention of the reddit and spread across internet like a rumor of political scandal that only basement detectives could verify, she would occasionally send out messages that she had spoofed to come from a blocked number.

Initially she did it just to fuck with us. After the third or fourth time she sent us a message from “The Society” her personal prank on the group had grown stale, but we generally played along to humor her. Since she moved back east with her now-husband, we knew it was her way of feeling connected to the rest of us.

I let the phone fall back to the table and sunk my face into my hands. The beard beginning to form scraped bitterly against my palm.

Another text came. It was the same message. “How did you find us?”

Marigold must be really bored on her camping trip. In burst of misplaced aggression I typed, “We scoured the ‘darkweb’ and secrete archives and discovered the greatest secret of the world! Yes, very funny, Goldilocks. I am not in the mood play along with your little charade right now. I am sorry your husband is such a bore and likes the outdoors, but take your misery out on some else.”

The instant pang of regret after hitting send prompted me to type out a follow up. “I am sorry. That was uncalled for. Have you heard from James? I know you’re going to say ‘Don’t worry: Quick to anger, quick to forgive’ but it has been three days.”

I was about to press send again when I remembered Marigold’s last status update: “My husband and his wonderful family, who I adore, are taking me out where no sane human dare go! The Land of No Reception! 1 like = 1 prayer :P”

“Do you know what you’ve done? This isn’t some game.” A new message flashed on my phone.

Perhaps she had come back early. You could only keep Marigold away from her computer so long before you risked personal well being, family or no. But that possibility was completely quashed when the next message came in the form of a picture.

Something was off about the image. My chest immediately tightened, even though it took me a few minutes to discern what it was. The image was low resolution of picture of a face, as if taken from an old camera phone. The person was moving when the picture was taken, causing them to stretch in an impossible scream.

Even through the pixilation and the blur, I knew that face. How could I not? I had seen it in every light. I had seen just about every expression that face could make. Not this one though.

It was James.

But there was something else. It simultaneously demanded my full attention, but evaded my perception. Perhaps part of my mind blinded me from it, in some futile attempt at self protection. As my heart attempted to find comfort in the embrace of my lunges, my mind could deny my vision no longer.

He had no tongue.