Layla

Leeds makes pasta for dinner. Layla is picking at her food, and Leeds thinks about how her appetite has diminished since coming home from the hospital. She weighs herself frequently and picks around carbs. They discuss the fact that Aspen—Layla’s sister—and her husband, Chad, are coming to visit later that week, and Leeds thinks about how Layla hasn’t been answering her mother’s and sister’s phone calls.

Suddenly, Layla begins eating her pasta with gusto and asks for more. She hasn’t shown this much delight in and appreciation for food in a long time, and Leeds is happy to see her eating heartily. Just as suddenly, she closes and opens her eyes and is shocked and frightened when she sees that her bowl is empty, as if she doesn’t remember eating the pasta a minute ago. She frantically searches for her anxiety medication, and they go to bed after she has calmed down.

That night, Leeds wakes up to find Layla staring at herself in the mirror. She catches him watching and tells him to go back to sleep. She goes back to bed as well. Leeds cannot fall asleep, so he calls his mother, who lives in Seattle. He tells her about the strange occurrences he’s seen in the house and asks if she believes in ghosts. She believes that guilt over the shooting and the stress of taking care of Layla are getting to him and asks when they will come to see her in Seattle.

After the phone call, Leeds opens his computer to write music. After writing a few lines, he thinks that he should buy the bed-and-breakfast. He prepares to send an email to the realtor when the computer slams shut over his hands. This scares him, and he runs to the bedroom and locks the door. He hopes that he is just delirious from lack of sleep, but he decides to buy security cameras the next day.

The next morning Leeds wakes up and hopes he only dreamed about the computer. He checks his laptop and sees that the document he had opened to write music is two pages long even though he only wrote a couple of sentences the night before. He scrolls to the second page and sees the words “I’m sorry I scared you.” He doesn’t understand how that could have happened unless Layla is playing a prank on him. Given her sullen demeanor, he doubts she would have thought to do it, and he doesn’t want to upset her by confronting her about it.

He asks her if she wants to come to town with him while he buys security cameras; the nearest town is about an hour away. She declines, wanting to stay behind and rest.

UndercoverInc interrupts Leeds to ask why he didn’t just leave the house after this point. Leeds is unsure but answers that he was more intrigued than scared. His life had been so monotonous that he felt more alive, and his senses were heightened, with these mysterious incidents around the house. He wanted to try to solve the mystery.

Leeds installs security cameras in the kitchen and grand room. He is distracted by the presence of whatever caused the disturbances a few days ago, and he stays up late every night reading about supernatural activity. One night, he falls asleep on the couch in the grand room, and when he wakes up he realizes he is covered with a blanket that he didn’t put on. He checks the camera and sees that Layla covered him. After two days, he hasn’t seen anything on the cameras that explains the strange events. In video footage, however, the video goes dark as Layla leaves the room, and he realizes that the camera lens had turned to face the wall. He has no idea how that could have happened on its own.

Over the next few days, Leeds asks questions on a paranormal forum online. Many of the people he talks to think he is crazy to remain in the house, but one user named UndercoverInc seems more sympathetic and asks questions.

One night when Leeds is in the grand room on his computer, the piano plays a note by itself. He realizes that he can communicate with whatever presence is in the room by asking questions. They play a C note for “yes,” a D for “no,” and an A for “I don’t know.” The ghost answers that no, it is not dangerous, but it doesn’t know much, like who it is, whether it is dead, or if it knew Leeds before. He asks it to pull a book off the shelf, and it does so. Then he has an idea for how to take their communication to the next level. He opens a blank document on his computer and asks what its name is. In a moment, the keyboard spells out: W-I-L-L-O-W. This confirms to Leeds that there is a ghost in the house and her name is Willow. He waits for more signals, but none come, so he leaves the room. Before going to bed, he takes one of each of Layla’s medications for anxiety, pain, and sleep.