Chapter 1

"Elizabeth."

Red stands staring at his friend Anne and the gun held to her head by Lizzie, wondering how on earth he is going to manage to deescalate this unfortunate situation Lizzie has thrust them into.

"Elizabeth, put the gun down and let her go. She has nothing to do with this. This is between you and me."

Lizzie stares back at him, looking strangely frantic despite the obvious upper hand she has, seemingly unable to stay still behind Anne. "This is the only way to get you to talk! What else am I supposed to do? I need answers! The woman you shot wasn't my mother, was she? Tell me!"

Anne's lip trembles and Red tries to reassure her with his eyes, willing her to stay calm and not try anything rash.

"No, she wasn't. But let Anne go, Elizabeth," Red tries again softly. "Let her go and we'll talk. I know you don't want to hurt an innocent person just to get to me."

Red's gaze switches anxiously between Anne's fearful face and Lizzie's, making an offhand note of her odd behavior, but too worried for the gun perilously close to Anne's head to think any more about it.

That is, until she speaks again, her words completely and utterly unexpected.

"You and Kate underestimate me."

Red frowns, his eyes immediately cutting back to Lizzie's face, confused and the slightest bit exasperated. What on earth does Kate Kaplan and her many betrayals have to do with any of this? Feeling his mouth hanging slightly agape in surprise, he can't help the snark that slips out without his permission, his gaze flipping concernedly back to Anne even as he speaks.

"Oh, so she's here too?"

But Lizzie doesn't seem to catch his sarcasm, instead suddenly staring at him with a strangely desperate expression that captures Red's full attention in an instant, his eyes sharply studying her face, surprised to see - now that he really looks at her - her eyes wide and slightly wild, her mouth open, her breathing fast and shallow -

And what exactly is going on -

"Do you see her?"

Lizzie's words are breathless and excited, her eyebrows rising high on her forehead and her body leaning unconsciously toward him, apparently forgetting about the woman she's holding hostage in her haste to see if he too does, in fact, 'see her'. A cold sense of fear and dread blooms in Red's heart and sinks down to his feet, holding him firmly frozen in place as he continues to stare at Lizzie, a warning starting to creep into his mind.

And as he watches, her eyes flick repeatedly, uneasily, spastically a singular spot in the kitchen where Red can see that -

Absolutely no one is standing.

(And Red knew Lizzie was having a hard time dealing with everything - her self-proclaimed quest for vengeance was evidence enough of that - but here, now, the completely unexpected, horribly unthought of, terrifying idea that -

Lizzie is seeing things.)

And she's still standing there looking at him with bated breath and a disturbing hope in her eyes, apparently waiting for him to confirm that he can also see the long deceased form of Kate Kaplan standing in the middle of his friend's kitchen -

"I do without even having to look," Red breathes, unwilling to take his eyes off Lizzie to bother looking at the empty place where she keeps glancing, as she makes it clear where she's seeing Kate. And the intense worry now riddling his body is making him want to step forward and reach out to her, his newfound fear for her mental state overriding all his previous irritation with her erratic behavior, the awful fear that something is very wrong with her urging him to reach out and hold her -

But her gun is shaking slightly now, still pointing unsteadily at Anne's head, and that's the only thing that gives him pause, as he now feels completely unprepared with how to handle this new and disturbing development, because he just wants to ensure Anne's safety and help Lizzie -

But before he can do much more than reach out a tentative hand, the front door is banging open and Red hears the familiar thudding footsteps of Dembe and the rest of his team and, before he can even blink, Lizzie is pushing Anne toward him and darting through the room for the back door.

"Lizzie, wait -"

But she's gone in a flash and Anne is now trembling in his arms and Dembe is standing at his side, gun drawn and waiting for an explanation.

"Raymond?" Dembe inquires quietly.

"She's gone," Red murmurs, his hands drifting comfortingly over Anne's back, his gaze fixed to the back door Lizzie just disappeared through. "Arrange for a safe house for Anne until things calm down, please. I'm sorry, Anne. It's for the best."

Anne says nothing, just nodding with a quiet sigh, letting Red squeeze her in a final hug before she moves out of his arms and heads for the stairs, going to pack a bag, proving for the hundredth time that he doesn't deserve a friend like her.

"What about Elizabeth?" Dembe asks quietly. "You do not want to give chase?"

"No," Red murmurs, shaking his head slowly, thinking hard. "No, not yet."

Because he knows it won't do any good to try and talk to Lizzie right now. She's too scared to listen, that was evident enough in her eyes, frantic and panicking. They need to be alone with enough privacy to talk everything through and, most of all, he needs to get a better idea of what exactly she's going through so he can help her. And he knows the perfect place for that.

He'll take her to the place he went when he was spiraling, suffering, seeing people who were long since dead.

He'll take her to Cape May.