My neighbor warned me about someone in my back seat. I just found out the horrifying truth about what's really been watching me. I always thought Mia was the perfect neighbor. Blue house across the street, kept to herself, never caused any drama. She'd walk her golden retriever Rex every morning at exactly 7:00 a.m. and we'd exchange those polite waves that make you feel like you live in a safe place. It was the kind of normal suburban life where the biggest worry was forgetting to putyour trash cans out on Tuesday. That all changed 3 nights ago. I was sitting in my car outside Walmart at 11:47 p.m. exhausted from covering my co-orker's shift. The parking lot was nearly empty, just scattered cars under flickering street lights. I grabbed an energy drink and chips, planning to eat quickly and head home. But my apartment felt so lonely since Jake moved out. So, I decided to eat in my car while watching Netflix. That's when I heard the tapping on my passenger window. Maya wasstanding there in her pajamas and slippers looking panic. Her hair was messy like she'd just rolled out of bed and she was gesturing frantically at my back. Emma, there's someone in your car, she whispered urgently. I saw them get in while you were inside the store. My blood went ice cold. I slowly turned to check my rearview mirror, heart hammering against my ribs. The back seat was empty. My Honda Civic doesn't have much room back there, and I would have noticed someone climbing in. Plus, Ialways lock my doors. Maya, there's nobody there, I said, confused. How did you even get here? She pressed her face closer to the window, and something about her expression made my skin crawl. Her eyes look too wide, too desperate. Please, Emma, you have to get out of the car right now. They're waiting for you to drive somewhere isolated. I glanced around the parking lot. Mia's car was nowhere inside. How she gotten into Walmart in her pajamas? And why was she out at midnight? I'm fine, I told her,starting the engine. Thanks for checking, but I need to get home. Mia stepped back as I reversed, but she kept kept staring at me with that strange, intense look. In my side mirror, I watched her standing motionless in the empty parking lot until I turned onto the main road. When I pulled into my driveway, Mia's house was completely dark. No lights on, no sign of life. How had she beaten me home? I hurried inside and locked every door and window. Something felt wrong, but I couldn't putmy finger on what Mia had seemed genuinely concerned, but her story made no sense. Around 3:00 a.m., I heard Rex barking frantically from across the street. It went on for 20 minutes before suddenly stopping. The next morning, I decided to check on Maya. I knocked on her door, but nobody answered. Her mail was piling up, and Rex was nowhere to be seen. The neighbors mentioned they hadn't seen her in over a week. That's when I remembered something that made my stomach drop. 6 months ago, Mia had beenin a terrible car accident. She'd been driving home late when a drunk driver ran a red light and slammed into her driver's side. The impact killed her instantly. Rex had been in the car, too. I attended her funeral. I watched them lower her casket into the ground. But if Mia died 6 months ago, who had warned me about my back seat three nights ago, I started researching the area around that Walmart. What I found made me sick. Over the past year, five women had vanished from that exact parking lot, all of themalone, all late at night. Security footage showed each of them talking to someone outside their cars before getting out and walking away. The footage was too grainy to see who they were talking to. But in every case, the women looked confused at first, then terrified, then completely blank as they left their cars behind and disappeared. I drove back to the Walmart yesterday during daylight. As I sat in my car, I noticed something that made my hands shake. There was Maya standing by the cart return, wearing the same pajamasfrom three nights ago. She was watching a woman get out of her car, pointing at the woman's back seat, and shaking her head frantically. The woman looked confused just like I had been. Maya stepped closer, pressed her face to the window, and started talking urgently. The woman's expression changed from confusion to terror to that same blank stare I'd seen in the security footage. Then the woman locked her car, and walked away with Mia into the tree line behind the store. I understood then whatMia had become. She wasn't trying to save me from some hidden danger in my back seat. She was the danger. Something about dying in that car accident had trapped her here. And now she was collecting others, luring them away from their vehicles with warnings about threats that didn't exist. Maya had tried to get me out of my car that night, just like she'd succeeded with those five other women. But I driven away before she could finish whatever she does to make people follow her. I called the police, but how do youexplain that a dead woman is kidnapping people from a Walmart parking lot? They took a report, but I could see they thought I was crazy. I haven't left my house since yesterday. Every time I look out my window, Maya is standing in her front yard staring at my house. She's still wearing those same pajamas, and Rex is sitting beside her. Both of them completely motionless. The worst part is that I keep hearing her voice calling my name through the walls. She's getting closer to my house each hour, and I knowshe's not going to give up. Last night, she started knocking on my door at exactly 11:47 p.m., the same time she'd approached my car. She kept repeating the same words over and over. Emma, there's someone in your house. You need to come outside where it's safe, but I know better now. The only danger is Maya herself and whatever she's become since that accident. She's been hunting in that parking lot for months, using people's concern for their safety against them. I'm writing this because Ican hear her voice getting closer. She's not just outside anymore. She's inside my house calling my name from the basement, from the attic, from the room right next to mine. Emma, you have to get out. They're already here with you. But I won't fall for it again. Maya isn't trying to save me.
