"That's nice. At least you don't feel like you're as alone, I guess?" He noticed the look and shrugged. "A healthy dose of paranoia never hurt anyone," he said. "And can we not mention that I was the one who did it? I'd like to not be run out of town, personally."
He shifted uncomfortably at her words. "It's been a few years," he said. "Feels like a lifetime. It's okay." She stood up to try the door again and Nasir was waiting, hand on the door and ready to get in, when he heard a laugh.
"Don't you know not to talk to strangers, little brother?"
He whipped around, cursing, his brother's name on his lips, but as before there was nothing there. But he could hear more voices echoing close by. His mother's, his father's, and...Nasir swallowed and forced himself not to look at where his Master's - no, shit, not Master, he wasn't supposed to think like that anymore - at where that voice was coming from. "There's no one there," he said through grit teeth, looking over the roof of the car. "There's no one there, right? Please tell me there's no one there."