Marta finds Ransom standing in the doorway of his room, one hand grasping the doorknob and his head tilted. "Huh…." He doesn't make any other sound even as Marta comes to stand next to him. The study is organized now, all of Harlan's old knickknacks tucked away in the basement out of the way, nothing out of place that Marta can see.

"What are we staring at?"

"The Go board." Marta's gaze travels to the board, finding it on the little coffee table like it's always been. The pieces are scattered over its surface in a familiar pattern, but not the one they'd formed the night before. Marta tilts her head, trying to figure out why the pieces are on the board at all. Ransom always puts them away when the game is over.

"Did you do that?"

"Nope. Do you think Alicia did it?"

"She's still in bed." It's a Saturday, Alicia never crawls out of bed until noon. Still, who else would mess with the board? Mama's knees hurt too bad to make it all the way up here and Marta had gone right to bed after last night's game. It's…. Well, she doesn't know what it is. "Are you sure you didn't do this? Maybe you're sleepwalking."

"That's undignified and I'm not undignified."

"I've seen you trip and belly flop into a pool. Try telling that lie to someone else." Ransom scoffs and shakes his head, moving into his room to clean up the pieces. He places them on the shelf near a picture of Harlan, a nightly ritual that's rarely changed. "I came up here to ask if you wanted to run into town with me."

"What for?"

"There are spiders in the kitchen, so I was going to get some peppermint tea bags." Ransom's brows furrow and Marta's fingers itch to soothe them out. She'd thought this man was handsome when she first started working here, had even slept with him a time or five, but his attitude always ruins everything. Trying to frame and murder her is also a huge mood killer.

"Peppermint tea bags?"

"Spiders and mice hate the smell of it. Are you coming or not?"

"It's not like I have anything better to do, I guess."

They head out to the local Walmart, Ransom looking out of place amongst the sea of ordinary people. Even in cheap clothes, Ransom Drysdale looks like a model and people take notice of that. Three women give him their phone number by the time they make it to the tea and coffee aisle.

"You're just jealous," he's saying as they browse.

"Of what? Your split ends?" His hand flies to his hair so fast that it almost blurs and Marta giggles. This is her new favorite pastime, picking on Ransom. She and Alicia have a bet going on who can make him cry first; the loser has to dye their hair bright green.

"I do not have split ends, Marta. That's blasphemy."

"Blasphemy was when you used Mama's crucifix to scratch your back." He's got nothing to say to that, just gives a slight nod. Marta grabs the cheapest box of tea bags she can find, stuffing them in the little basket hanging off her arm. "Do we need anything else?"

"Alicia wants the new Stephen King book. I promised to buy it for her if she brought back proof that she aced her math test." Marta hums and they head to the other side of the store. The books share an aisle with arts and crafts, something that drives Ransom up the wall on most days. "Why do they need to put markers next to the books? Leave the books alone and let them have a whole goddamn aisle."

"Will there ever come a day where you don't complain?"

"No." He grabs the new book and slides it into the basket, then grabs two westerns and slips them in as well. He pouts a little when Marta raises her brow. "What? Not all of us like sticking to one genre of book. I read spooky books throughout October and westerns during November."

"It's October fifteenth."

"Exactly, I gotta prepare." Marta says nothing because she knows it would just lead down a rabbit hole of explanations she doesn't want to have in a fucking Walmart. She gives a simple nod of understanding and thanks God that Ransom doesn't know her well enough to read her tells yet. "Oh, hey, I need one of these bad boys."

"A camcorder?"

"Hell yeah. I wanna catch Alicia in the act of messing with our Go board." He waves at a worker and tells them which camera he wants, waiting patiently for them to get it out. They end up paying in the electronics aisle, Ransom insisting on hauling the bags out to Marta's car.

He's excited the whole way home, like a puppy on its first car ride. He barely waits for her to put the car in park before he's out and running, taking the steps two at a time all the way up to his room.

"What was that about," Mama asks. She's on the couch, giving one of her gnomes some TLC while Unsolved Mysteries plays in the background. The gnome in her hands is holding a daisy, its cheeks rosy and its overalls a dusty blue. Marta thinks this one is Steve.

"He bought a video camera for his room." She drops down onto the couch beside her mom, resting her head on Benita's shoulder. "Is Alicia up yet?"

"Yes, she went off with one of her friends." Mama waves a hand in the general direction of the woods, not noticing the splotch of red paint that falls onto the leg of her shorts. "She thinks I don't know that she smokes cigarettes."

"Want me to sit on her while you give her a speech? I'll do it." It's not a well-known fact to anyone outside of their family, but Marta's a vindictive person and she remembers the way Alicia had flung mashed potatoes at her last night.

"I'll think about it."

It's two days later that Ransom drags Marta into his attic room, gesturing at an office chair that he's placed behind a desk. There are three TV's set up on the desk, similar to the ones in the groundskeeper's office, all of them showing a clear feed of the room at large. Marta can see herself reflected back on screen three and makes a note to brush her hair.

"I've got proof!"

"Too early for English," she reminds him. Ransom switches to flawless Spanish as he begins fiddling with one of the cameras hooked up to screen two. The feed rewinds rapidly before pausing, a stripe of static cutting through it. "What am I looking for?"

"You'll know it when you see it." He presses play, waiting expectantly before letting out a sound of excitement. "You see? Proof!" She squints at the screen, trying to spot something more interesting than the fact that Ransom Drysdale has bedhead.

"I don't…."

"Oh, come on! It's obvious." He rewinds again and plays the tape in slow motion, pointing at the bookshelf. Marta squints and finally understands his excitement. The baggie of Go pieces fell off the shelf. That's it. She might have to start testing Ransom to make sure he hasn't stolen some of Alicia's Adderall.

"They fell, Ransom."

"No, they were nudged."

"We had an earthquake last night. I got the alert on my phone." He frowns and pulls his cell out of his pocket, swiping through his notifications. Mama recently got him hooked on some game called Township and the earthquake notification is hidden somewhere between one for returning ships and another for collecting his sheep's wool.

"Dammit."

Marta wakes up on day four to find the black pieces spread out along her nightstand, spelling out her name. Considering her door creaks ominously whenever it's opened, no one could have snuck in to do this.

Ransom might be on to something.

"You shouldn't smoke," Mama's saying as Marta comes into the kitchen. "Do you know what it does to your lungs? I've found some videos on YouTube…." Marta grabs her coffee and then makes a strategic retreat before she can be drawn into the drama. It's unhealthy for Alicia to smoke, yes, but Marta's not awake enough to be a disappointed sister.

She heads up the stairs to Ransom's bedroom, rapping her knuckle against the door. He opens it soon after, still dressed in his sleep pants with messy hair and a trail of drool on his chin. It says something about her social life that she finds this look attractive. God, I need to get laid.

"Did I wake you?" Ransom grunts, taking her coffee and moving over to his desk. There are two more screens now, these ones focused on the basement room and the secret door that leads to Ransom's room.

"As far as I can tell, Alicia's not the one moving my stuff around. She never comes to my room."

"Never? But you guys hang out all the time."

"We text." He holds up his phone, waving it a little. "If one of us wants to chill, we send a text to see if we can agree on what to do. Last week, we went bowling and made fun of people."

"You're both assholes, so that tracks." Marta might be a spiteful person, but Alicia goes into full on Judge Judy mode when she's out in public. When Marta was still in school, she'd sit with Alicia in the cafeteria just to listen to her talk shit about the other kids. "So who's moving your stuff around?"

"No friggin' clue." He drops down into one of the chairs and runs his fingers through his hair, messing it up even more. "My best guess is ghosts." It's a testament to how sleepy Marta still is that she doesn't shoot this theory down right away. She steals her coffee back and takes a long drink of it. They spend the rest of the afternoon reviewing the footage, trying to find any hint as to who the culprit is.

A little after midnight, long after they've both fallen asleep in front of the screens, the Go pieces begin to move. They don't spell out anything, just form a familiar pattern on the board that both kids should recognize but their logical minds keep out of their reach.

Downstairs, Benita and Alicia are flushing cigarettes down the toilet.