The story is told from the perspective of an unnamed boy. In kindergarten, as part of an assignment, he and his classmates tied notes to a balloon and set them afloat. The notes were requests that the finder of the balloons would reply and become penpals for each child. All of the other kids, including the main protagonist's best friend, Josh, got replies. Our storyteller did not.
However, by the end of the school year, strange things began happening to the boy. Someone sent him several photographs. Chillingly, the pictures were of the boy and his mother in various activities indicating that they had a stalker. In the months that followed, there were more disturbing occurrences, including the murder of an elderly woman who lived in the same neighborhood as our story teller. One night, our protagonist awakens to find himself in the woods with no memory of how he got there. After making his way back home, he discovered that someone had left a note, ostensibly from him, claiming he was running away. When the boy denied writing it, and as proof showed that his name was improperly spelled, his mother became frightened and made plans to move.
Things went well in their new house, until our story teller's cat disappeared. He worried that the cat may have gone back to his old house so he and Josh go there to look for her. They bring their walkie talkies so they can communicate while searching separately. In a crawlspace, our story teller found his old clothes and dozens of pictures of himself, along with some cat food. Something began chasing Josh and in his bid to get away he lost his walkie talkie. Our story teller then heard the meows of his cat on the other end. He realized that the stalker was living at his old house and had taken his cat.
Not long after, the boy had a birthday party. Josh attended but was not himself and after he leaving, our story teller never saw him again. Fast forward a few years, and the protagonist began dating Josh's older sister, Veronica. One night, he left her side briefly and she became the victim of a hit- and- run. When visiting her in the hospital, Veronica told him that Josh ran away years ago, leaving a note on his pillow. Just like the one found on our story teller's pillow when he woke up in the woods. Veronica and the protagonist communicate by text while she is in the hospital. He believed she was being released and they arranged to meet at a movie theater. She never arrived; instead a man sat beside our storyteller during the picture. Following the movie, the boy got a text which stated "See you again, soon." Weeks later, he learned that Veronica had died at the hospital and her phone can't be found.
Josh's dad was a landscaper and was hired by a man to fill in holes on the man's property. A month later, he was working at the same place and unearthed a coffin which, to his horror, contained the body of Josh and the man who had hired him. The man had apparently kidnapped Josh two years previously and had changed his hair and his clothing to match that of our storyteller, his "penpal" with whom he was obsessed. The man gave Josh something to knock him out and locked himself and Josh into the coffin, which Josh's dad unknowingly buried. When Josh awoke he panicked and fought to free himself, biting the man on this neck in the process. The man bled to death. Josh, trapped inside the coffin, died sometime later.
Our storyteller felt tremendous guilt over his role in Josh's death, but tried to focus on their friendship and what Josh meant to him.
