Dwayne had spent the rest of the night and some of the next day pacing the floor of the cave, his mind racing. He hadn't seen Angela in years, and as his mind raced around the thought of it, he became more and more sure that this little girl really was his Angie. He was determined to find her, talk to her, find out just who she really was. And if she was his sister, he was determined to find out why she was here, in Santa Carla, and not home, doing normal teenage girl things, still believing that her brother was long dead, as the note that he'd sent home to them ages ago had suggested.

He'd found her on the carousel. She was looking down, her fingers playing with a small scrap of paper, most likely a flyer that had fallen off one of the multiple bulletin boards that plastered the boardwalk. It wasn't until he was standing right in front of her that she looked up. Her eyes were hollow, with dark bags under them, and her skin seemed even paler now, in the sickly yellow light of the carousel, than it had the night before. Neither spoke for a long moment, both unsure of what to say, if there was anything to say at all. He wasn't about to scoop her into his arms the way he had when she was just a tot, and she wasn't about to beg for a piggy back either. Finally, her soft voice broke the silence.

"See you've still got that irritating habit of being able to find me at my worst." She coughed a bit into a kleenex she'd had squished in her other hand, and looked up at him, allowing one hand to rest brazenly on his shoulder to help her down from the horse she'd been side-saddling. "I thought I'd never find you, but the world is full of miraculous surprises, I guess." She shrugged and hopped off the ride, not really giving him much option of following her, and for the moment, Dwayne got the feeling that she didn't really care if he stayed there or not. Catching up with her as she headed towards the beach, away from the crowds, he stayed silent still, knowing that there was more to come from her. Finally. "Mom's dead."

"Oh." He couldn't think of anything else to say to such a closed statement. Everyone died. Maybe he should have been more distraught, but he wasn't, he couldn't even muster a tear for a woman who had cared for him more deeply than any he'd ever know. He sensed there was more to it than that, but he didn't question, only followed Angela's example as she sat one one of the many rocks that jutted out along the Santa Carla coast. She let her small hands slip between her bony knees as she looked around for a long moment.

"Where y'been Dwayne?" The question was easier asked than answered.

"You know. Around." She nodded only once.

"I'm sick too, y'know." She was silent for a moment, to allow this new message to sink in, though she wasn't sure if her brother would even care any more. Somehow, she sensed that the man next to her now was only a shell of the boy who'd left home eleven years ago. "They don't give me long. And I knew that letter you sent was a lie, even though Mom told me it was just crazy talk to say you were still out there somewhere. I wanted to see you before it happened, let you know that she was gone." There was a long moment of heavy silence after this.

"So what do you need?" His voice was soft, thoughtful, just like she'd remembered it. "Money or something?" If she had medical bills to pay, he was sure that he could pull together whatever she needed without much trouble. Her long, messy hair waved as she shook her head 'no'. Her thin hands had worked their way into the pockets of her jeans for warmth.

"No. Not money." There was a shaky breath and Dwayne was afraid to look over at her, certain she'd be crying. He hated when girls cried - it was the most pathetic sight in the world. "I was hoping for a place to stay until it was over." Her strong voice assured him that she wasn't tearing up, and he let his gaze move from the waves over to her.

"You mean until - "

"Yeah."

Silence again.

"The doctors ... they can't do anything?" He wasn't sure how to feel, if he could still feel at all. On the one hand, his baby sister, his flesh and blood, the child he had piggybacked a mile to school each way every day, had just come to him and told him she was dying without so much as batting an eye. And more than that, she was asking him to watch her as she did. On the other hand, she knew nothing about him now, and how would he ever begin to explain? He looked over at the fragile frame she cut against the darkness that seemed to close in further and further with each passing moment of silence.

"No. They've done what they can, but it's just spread to far." A pause. "I'm not afraid of dying, Dwayne. I'm just afraid of dying alone." When she'd heard her prognosis and begun her search for her brother in earnest, she'd been terrified to lay her head down at night, worrying that she might pass in her sleep. How long would it take for someone to find her in a sleezy place like the ones she'd been shacking up at? Dwayne was staring at her now, and it was making her skin crawl with discomfort.

"Let's go for a walk." He said at length, pushing himself back off the rock, his boots sinking deep into the soft sand. Angela reached her arms out, letting him lift her down. She took a few steps ahead of him, and Dwayne marveled at how her small body didn't sink in the sand, seeming instead to levitate across the top of it as she walked, holding her shoes in one hand to keep them from filling up. As they began to wander down the coast, he began to speak, starting from the beginning and forcing himself to forward.

The lights of the boardwalk were barely a glimmer in the dark behind them when he finished. As he'd spoken, Angela had remained silent, only nodding on occasion to signify she was still listening, and now that he was finished she still remained quiet, lost in her thought. He made no move to speak again, nor to prompt her to do so.

"Oh." She said finally, echoing his own statement from just a few hours ago. Though part of what he'd said was completely unbelievable, she accepted every word as the gospel truth without so much as a second thought. If her brother said it was so, then it was so. But she was still unsure of what to say to such a revelation. "I'm not scared of you." She said finally.

He nodded.

"Come on. Let's go back and get your stuff before the sun comes up."

He'd helped her get her car to the bluff and had carried her things down the rickety stairs to the cave, constantly checking over his shoulder to make sure she hadn't stumbled silently after him. They'd left her things in a corner of the main cave, Dwayne saying they'd find her some place to settle later. But first, they had to get back to the boardwalk so that he could give the boys a heads up and give David his chance to fume if he was going to need it.

They caught up with the other three by Max's Video, near where they'd all parked their bikes at the beginning of the evening when Dwayne had separated silently from the group. Angela felt their eyes on her even though her own gaze was focused on the pavement, a mix of cold stares and mocking ones. The one with the wild yellow hair spoke first.

"So, what … you're bringing pussy home now? When did that rule start? 'Cause I've got some girls I want to bring too." Angela didn't even look at him to dignify that she'd heard a word he said, and besides that, Dwayne had already curled a lip at him.

"She's my fuckin' sister. Shut up."

There was a long moment before the bleached blonde one gestured that Dwayne should step away for a moment. As they stepped aside to talk, Angela felt the other two staring at her, their eyes burning holes straight through her, and she shivered slightly. It wasn't what they were that frightened her, it was the unfamiliarity that they held. After a moment of what looked like a heated discussion, her brother stepped back and the boy he'd spoken to, the handsome one with the blue eyes spoke up.

"This is Angela. She's going to be staying with us for a i short /i while." The emphasis on short made Angela wince, but she didn't speak up, not even when the boy, who she assumed was the leader, spoke up. "I'm David. Marco. Paul." She nodded quietly in recognition to those she'd been introduced to. Dwayne rested a hand on her shoulder and she closed her eyes tight for a minute.

"I feel tired." She said finally, looking up to him. He nodded, cocking his head towards his bike.

"Let's get you settled." She clung to his arm gratefully as he spoke, not wanting to release him just yet – not quite ready to be at the mercy of the others ridicule. She climbed on the bike behind her brother, looking over her shoulder as the other three huddled together. She knew what they were talking about and it brought a shameful blush to her cheeks. Maybe she should never have come.