"Aunt Hazel, Aunt Hazel!" Kingston ran to the car, loving the days she'd pick him up from school. "I made a new friend today!"

He climbed into the car and closed the door behind him, his short legs not touching the floor of the car. "Her name is Lily and she loves the flower lily. Ironic, huh?"

She nodded. "That's awesome." Hazel started to drive back to Nico's, where he was supposed to be researching Kingston's father. "You talk to her a lot?"

Kingston shrugged. His hoodie fell off his head, revealing the hair that almost looked normal at this point. "She's in my gym class. We were sitting on the bench together today when we were waiting to bat."

"Nice," Hazel smiled at him. "See? Isn't normal life pretty good?"

Kingston nodded. "It's happy. But...but I still have nightmares about him..."

"I know, but we'll get through it," Hazel promised. "We have to keep looking forward."

"Keep looking forward," Kingston repeated to himself, having heard her say the phrase too many times to count. "Has Nico found my dad?"

"We'll have to see when we get there," Hazel replied. "He hasn't said anything to me."

"Why do you think the devil wants me to meet him?" Kingston asked. "Doesn't that seem a little weird?"

"The devil is a man of many tongues." Hazel pulled into Nico's driveway and turned the car off. "Don't worry about it, Kingston. There's nothing you can do right now. So why worry?"

She led him inside soon after speaking, the house empty without Will and Bianca. Nico sat in the living room with his knees to his chest and a laptop beside him, tabs open but no one there to read them.

"Did you get any farther?" Hazel asked, sitting beside Nico. "Anything new?"

Nico kept staring at the floor, his mind far away and his heart a shattered host of what it used to be. He stared, he regretted, he was full of guilt. Without Will in his life, he'd never be the same.

Hazel sighed before taking the computer, looking at the stalker websites Nico had somehow gotten to. A headline for a missing person filled the screen, a person by the name of Ronnie Sanford and who looked exactly like their little Kingston.

Of course, it had to be a criminal.

"Kingston," Hazel gestured the little boy over. "Look what Nico found." She pulled the boy next to her on the couch, turned the computer screen so he could see. "We finally found him."

Kingston stared at the screen, emotions flickering in those eyes. "How are we supposed to find him? He's missing, it says."

"I'm not sure yet, but at least we have a start." she ruffled his hair, glad it had grown back. "But we'll figure it out. We're a step closer to getting this all done."

Kingston nodded. "I have to go do homework. Can I cook dinner tonight?"

"Yeah, but I'm helping." Hazel gestured to his room. "Go get that homework done, King. I know you and your procrastination."

Kingston gave her a tooth-filled smile before rushing to his room, the air of happiness leaving with him. Nico still slumped into the couch, Hazel stared at the computer screen. How would she ever find this man?

A Thursday morning, the air cold with the incoming snow. Hazel was at Nico's house again, her hair in a bun and her eyes fixated on that laptop screen. Kingston was at school, Nico was still asleep. The house had been eerily silent.

The doorbell broke the silence like someone had taken a hammer to it. Hazel shot up from where she sat, walked to the door, peeked out of the peephole. Standing there, in black clothing and black shoes, Kingston's father stared at the door as if it were below him, as if it wasn't worthy of stopping him.

That Thursday morning something changed, but she'd never know what. She opened the door, put on a fake smile. "Yes?"

The man looked at her, looked with the same eyes that rested within Kingston. "Is Kingston Sanford here? I...I was told he lived here."

"By who?" Hazel asked, her voice small.

The man shrugged, a glance filtering towards the earth. "A man. May I come in? Is he here?"

Hazel gave him a mute nod, let him in, let him into where she was alone. "He's at school."

"School?" the man laughed as he sat on the couch. "That's something, ain't it?"

"Ain't it..." she whispered in agreement.