A/N: A new Valkubus fic as promised. This might be the weirdest, most OOC fic I have ever written for Valkubus. I've been wanting to write some dark mystery for a while and this story finally found me.

After having been away from her hometown, Crimson Rock, for 15 years, Tamsin returned and found out her twin brother went missing. Her sister-in-law, Bo, whom she had known and fallen love with in high school, seemed to have secrets, and so seemed everyone in town...

This fic will progress quite slowly, in terms of Valkubus love. It's told from Tamsin's POV and she had to figure out a lot of secrets so a lot of times Bo seems a bit unreasonable or weird, but everything will be explained at the end (at least I hope so). Also I decided not to use the names of LG characters in this fic, so other than Tamsin and Bo the names are all new. However, you could probably easily figure out who they are :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Lost Girl. I don't profit from it.

Chapter 1

It was a quarter past midnight in a small town named Crimson Rock. The price sign of a gas station right by the interstate exit ramp had suddenly gone off, as if it had been choked by the late Fall breeze.

As the wind strengthened, the fallen oak leaves scratched the concrete surface of the ground desperately before they got blown away.

The red "Open" sign on the gas station convenience store's door bled into the cold, hazy darkness. Joe, the cashier and the only person that was working at the store as of this moment, sat behind the store counter while dozing off.

Beep. Beep. His cellphone rang. A text message came. He took a glance with his weary eyes and typed something back in chuckles.

Buzz. Buzz. A game app sent a push notification. He pried his eyes open and swiped it away.

Ting-a-ling. The doorbell tinkled. He jolted and rubbed his eyes.

A woman walked in. She was tall and had her blonde hair tied into a bun. Her blue leather jacket brought out the color of her eyes, as well as the nonchalance in them. Her lips were clenched, with a subtle mocking smirk in the corner.

The wind she had brought in with her made Joe shiver. She gave Joe a slight nod as she took out a stack of cash from the back pocket of her black jeans. She pulled the binding clip off and counted six five-dollar bills. After tucking the rest back into her pocket, she tossed the five-dollar bills on the checkout counter.

"I need thirty bucks of gas-" she paused with a big yawn. She sighed and went to grab a can of white Monster Energy. Putting the drink beside the cash, she added, "thirty minus however much this thing costs."

"Sure...which pump?" Joe asked absentmindedly as he yawned as well.

"The one that has a vehicle parked in front of it?" The woman replied.

"Oh...," Joe let out a nervous chuckle as he took a glance outside. Only pump 4 had a vehicle parked in front. It was a blue pickup truck with muddy wheels. He could barely see the license plate but it looked like it was an out-of-state one.

He gave the woman a smile as he scanned the drink first. Instead of activating the pump immediately, he paused there as he gaped at her.

He didn't gape at her because she was a stunning woman. Well, maybe he did, but at least that wasn't the only reason. She looked familiar to him. As he looked at her, a vague image of a person he had known before emerged. This woman in front of him appeared to be in her early thirties, or maybe late twenties, but the image in his head was much younger...

"Has anyone ever told you that you shouldn't stare?" The woman drawled. Impatience grew in her light blue eyes.

Joe kept staring at her as he tried to connect this woman to the image he dug out from his old memories, and then suddenly he remembered. "Hey!" He exclaimed. "I know you! You are - you used to live in that big white mansion on top of the hill! Your dad was-"

"I'm kind of in a hurry, in case you haven't noticed," the woman interrupted him.

But, Joe wasn't listening to her at all. He grinned at her excitedly and continued, "it's me, Joseph, Joseph Miller. We went to the same high school! I was in your brother's class! You remember me, right?"

"Oh sure..." the woman snorted and rolled her eyes.

"You are...Tamara, right? Wait...I don't think it's Tamara..." Joe mumbled. He knew her name definitely started with a "T", but what was it?

"It's actually Tamsin, and I really need to go," the woman corrected him, emphasizing the word "really".

"Right, Tamsin! I'm so sorry," Joe babbled as he tried to get the pump ready for her. "Wow, I don't remember seeing you in town like...ever! Did you move away or something? I mean...I see your brother Dylan and his wife from time to time but-"

"Is my pump ready or not?" Tamsin cut him off as she raised her eyebrows at him.

"Oh yeah...it's ready. It's ready," Joe said. He handed her the receipt but she just waved her hand at it telling him to throw it away.

He stood there anxiously and scratched the top of his head while smiling. Seeing that the woman was about to leave, he started, "hey, Tamsin, wait!"

"What?" The woman turned to him as she bit that word out.

"Listen, there's gonna be a high school reunion in two weeks. You should totally come!" Joe suggested.

"Oh trust me, I totally won't," Tamsin mimicked his tone before she opened the door.

"Ummm...it's very nice seeing you, Tamsin," Joe shouted and waved as Tamsin walked out, but she did not even bother to respond.

Tamsin flinched when she saw a dark shadow with bright eyes in the middle of the road. She slammed on the brakes hard and jerked the steering wheel a little. Her truck stopped with a loud squeak, almost going over the edge of the road.

A coyote, who carried a bloodied prey in his mouth, stared at her with a pair of glittering eyes, before it sprinted into the woods and disappeared.

Tamsin let out a deep breath as she slowly maneuvered her car back into her lane. She pulled her truck forward and parked it beside the road where there were two parallel parking spaces for emergency pullovers. She rolled down the window and inhaled the misty air. Lowering the back of her seat, she closed her eyes.

She was exhausted and agitated, for having driven over ten hours today while only eating energy drinks and gas station food. Her right leg hurt, and so did her back. Her arms were sore and so were her eyes. She could fall asleep at any minute now, but at the same time, she was too disturbed to rest.

The susurrus murmur of the woods, the smell of the mountains and the distant city noise all reminded her that she was back to Crimson Rock again, the place she was born and raised, the place that had given her life and then taken it away from her. It had been 15 years since she had left. She had sworn to herself that she'd never come back here again, but here she was, driving on the winding road at night, heading towards her destination - the big white mansion on top of the hill.

Everything smelled like a blend of rotten leaves, wet mud and mountain mist. That smell struck her as something slowly dying, decaying or withering. And it was contagious. It would spread. Each second she spent in Crimson Rock, that smell would take a tiny bit of life away from her, until one day, all the essence of her life was drained. Then, she'd become a part of Crimson Rock. She'd become a part of that smell, decomposed, disintegrated, unable to leave.

She drifted into shallow, uneasy sleep briefly. In her dream, she saw her twin brother Dylan in front of the white mansion. He stood here beside his car, a yellow '78 Camaro (a gift he had received from their father when he got his driver's license). The car looked, surprisingly, rusty and worn out, mud in the wheels, old leaves on the windshield, cobwebs on the steering wheel...

Dylan was talking to someone behind the window of his room, which was on the second floor. That person was behind the drapes, and Tamsin couldn't see their face. She couldn't see anything, really. In fact, she couldn't even be sure if that truly was a person. It could very well be a vague, dark shadow lurking inside.

Dylan headed to the mansion. The moment he stepped in, the front door slammed shut like the closing of a trap. For a moment, Tamsin thought she had heard the house chuckling.

The house started to collapse slowly. It turned into a dark presence, with a hazy center and fuzzy edges. It turned everything it had touched into shadows...

Tamsin gasped hard as she jolted. It was a dream. She told herself. However, the dreadful feeling was very real. She closed her eyes for a few more seconds till she gathered enough energy to continue her journey.

Slowly she drove. A part of her hoped that this journey would never end. That way, she wouldn't have to face the one and the only person she had wished to never see again in her life.

Though, that wish never came true. She'd always see her whenever she closed her eyes.

She stopped at a slightly tilted stop sign and waited for a few seconds before taking a left turn. She expected a dogwood tree to creep into her view any second now.

And then, there it was, much taller than she had remembered but still as crooked. The twisted branches reached towards the sky desperately, while the main trunk was half dead. Above the tree, there hung the paper white moon. It looked too perfect to be real.

Another stop sign appeared, and she carefully steered her truck through a sharp right turn uphill. Now, she was able to see the mansion on top of the hill. Among the shadows of the trees, a three-story, white building stood quietly. Silhouetted by the moon, it looked as if someone had cut the entire scene out from paper.

As she drove towards the building, the low hanging branches kept scratching the top of her truck. Then suddenly, a mailbox with the number of 721 jumped into her sight.

She was here. She was back, to the place she had promised herself never to come back to. Knowing what would be inside - and what would not or might not be, her hands quivered.

She took a deep breath, before she pulled her truck forward.

The front gate to the mansion was open. It surprised her a little. At this time of night? She frowned as she drove through the gate carefully. The beast devoured her into its belly with that wide open mouth.

She circled around the front garden. In the center of the garden, it was a big, round fountain. The jug holding, half naked female statue stared at Tamsin. The combination of moonlight, shadows, moss and old watermarks made her look like she had tears rolling down her cheeks.

The garden itself was shaped into an eight petal flower. Each petal of the garden had different arrangements of perennials and bulbs that would sequentially flower from early Spring to late Fall, but as of right now, the entire garden was in a limbo. The snowdrops had not produced any white flowers yet, for the weather wasn't cold enough. The dahlias, on the other hand, had surrendered a while ago. A few spent heads of late bloomers stood there listlessly, and they made Tamsin wonder why Stella (her step mother and a gardening enthusiast) would leave them like that instead of trimming them on time like she had always done. Guess a lot shit has changed here for sure...

Tamsin pulled her truck into the guest parking area. After she killed the engine, everything seemed to have gone dead around her. She opened the door and went out.

She walked to the front door, and it opened before she even knocked. A middle aged woman came out. When she saw Tamsin's face, she gasped and pressed both of her hands against her chest. She took a step forward, but stumbled. She had to put one hand on the wall to stop herself from falling down.

"T-Tamsin?" She murmured with a shaking voice. She tried to give Tamsin a smile, but with only her tears bursting out.

"Hey, Stella," Tamsin greeted. She raised her hand and waved at the woman awkwardly.

Stella let out a happy screech and took Tamsin into her arms. Joy lit up her eyes. "I heard a car coming in. I thought it was Dylan. I swear I had no idea that it was you! I can't believe it's really you, Tamsin!" She babbled along as she pulled back a little. She cupped Tamsin's face and examined her closely with her teary eyes. "It's really you..."

"Yeah..." Tamsin murmured., nodding slightly.

Stella smiled at her. "So you...did you come back because of Dylan? Did Dylan contact you? He did, didn't he?"

"Ummm, what?" Tamsin frowned, feeling like she was missing some important context in this conversation.

Stella didn't answer her immediately. Tamsin's heart sank as she noticed the look of deep sorrow in Stella's eyes. Those eyes, they weren't just sad. They were red and swollen. Stella must have been crying for days.

"Is there something...wrong?" Tamsin asked.

The happiness of seeing Tamsin, and that hint of hope for something else, was completely wiped from Stella. She nervously locked her fingers together and lowered her head. "Oh...I guess you don't know about it then..."

"About what?"

"Dylan is ummm...something's-you know what, let's go inside and sit down. I think we should all sit down and talk."

Tamsin nodded. She followed Stella into the house and closed the door behind her.

Stella led the way into the living room. Tamsin got slightly distracted by all the old and new things she saw around her. The rustic foyer console table and bench set had more wear and tear than she had remembered. The Fall decor set on and around them looked quite new, although she was able to recognize the candle holder centerpiece - a gift from her late father to Stella years ago. There was also a vase on the table, and it held some withered mums. Tamsin frowned again as she wondered why Stella had not replaced them yet. This was the second time she had seen withered flowers in Stella's vase. The first time was after her father's death.

The living room looked like it was brand new. The brown leather couch sets still had that new leather smell. The HD TV appeared to be the latest model. The stereo seemed to be new as well, and expensive. The only thing that she recognized was that coffee table. It even had those coasters with blue jays, winter berries and pinecones that she liked when she was a kid.

Tamsin moved her eyes slowly around the room, and eventually she noticed a young girl sitting in the loveseat.

She was about 8, 9 years old, with raven black hair, big dark eyes and a pale face. She was playing games on a Switch. When she noticed Tamsin's stare, she raised her eyes a little and peeked at her from behind the game console.

"Oh I don't believe you've ever met her, Tamsin," Stella introduced. "This is Kira. Kira-" she turned to the little girl. "can you say hi to Tamsin? She's Dylan's sister."

Kira waved at Tamsin with a rather stiff smile. As she turned away, that smile disappeared. She slid off the loveseat and went upstairs. Tamsin noticed that the little girl spied on her from the second floor for a while, before she disappeared.

"So where's Dylan?" Tamsin asked.

Stella sighed and sat down. She patiently waited for Tamsin to sit down as well, before she said, "Dylan's missing."

"What?" Tamsin exclaimed. "What do you mean?"

"He disappeared. We can't find him, and we don't have any idea where he is. He hasn't come home for four days now."

"Seriously? Have you contacted the police yet?"

"We have. They are looking for him. Sadly, they are just as clueless as we all are," Stella said, shaking her head. "It's been four days, Tamsin. We don't even know if he's still-"

She stopped abruptly. "I can't believe this is happening," she whimpered.

"Tell me what happened," Tamsin pleaded.

"I don't really know, Tamsin," Stella said. "Tuesday morning, he left the house after breakfast. He didn't say where he was going, but we all figured that he went to check on his store or something. He just...he usually leaves home around that time in the morning, and there was nothing weird that day.

"Mhm," Tamsin nodded.

"He just...he never came home that day. We started to get a little worried so we tried to call him, but he wasn't answering. We figured maybe he was with his friends or something and didn't pay much attention to his phone, you know. The next day, we still couldn't get a hold of him, so I called detective Philsburg. You remember him, right?"

"I remember an Officer Philsburg..." Tamsin answered as the image of a uniform wearing young man with dark hair, chubby cheeks and honest eyes came to her. Philsburg was a friend of his father's, and sometimes he'd come over for dinner. "He's a detective now?"

"He is. Anyway, I called him and asked him if he could look into it. He said okay. Later he called back, said that they found his car behind the...the town square shopping mall. They found his phone in the car, too. They couldn't locate him. Now they have opened a missing persons case. I just can't...I can't even-"

She started to sob and was unable to talk for a while. After having used many sheets of tissue paper, she held Tamsin's hand and asked, "has Dylan contacted you lately?"

Tamsin cleared her throat a little while forcing herself not to lower her eyes or look away. "No," she answered. "The last time we talked was before Christmas last year. It was just a Merry Christmas phone call. I don't think he mentioned anything in particular."

"You haven't heard from him since? Not even a text message or...or Facebook message?"

"No," Tamsin shook her head. "I don't do Facebook."

Stella let out a deep sigh. "Then, you coming back to Crimson Rock has nothing to do with his missing?"

"No...I'm just..." Tamsin muttered. "Just...I was in the area and thought I'd drop by..."

Stella nodded, and then she shook her head slight. "Could you..." she tried. "Could you stay for a while then?"

Tamsin clenched her lips. She took a deep breath, before she said, "guess I'll have to...I'll help you and-I'll help you and Bo find Dylan, okay?"

That name "Bo" seemed to have taken away all her strength.

"Great," Stella nodded. She stood up and paced around anxiously for a while, before she asked, "is it okay if you could stay in your old room for a few nights? The guest rooms are being renovated right now. It's a big mess on the third floor."

"That's fine," Tamsin said. "I just need...maybe a couple of clean sheets and stuff."

Stella nodded. She was about to say something, but someone interrupted her.

"Hey, Stella, I heard you talking to someone-" a woman's voice came before she appeared in the great room. When she did appear, she stopped at the doorway looking shocked. "Tamsin?!" She frowned.

"Bo..." Tamsin stood up from the couch immediately as she whispered the other woman's name. She swallowed hard as she met that woman's brown eyes. Suddenly her hands were covered in cold sweat. Her heart raced painfully as she let her eyes wander on that woman's face, then her dark brown hair, her rosy lips...

She had pictured this moment countless times. She had thought about all possible situations and come up with ways to deal with each one. She had considered herself well prepared for this reunion, but...the moment she saw Bo, her heart was no longer hers. Dangling inside her chest, it was both empty and fulfilled. It was both excited and frightened. It throbbed frantically when she had let Bo's name slip out, and then it just stopped completely.

"Tamsin, you are back?!" Bo exclaimed as she gaped at Tamsin.

"Yeah...Stella was just telling me about Dylan..." Tamsin murmured. She could barely form coherent sentences. Her throat was clogging up, and her ears were burning. She tried to maintain her indifferent, cold look, but she knew her eyes must have betrayed her.

"Oh...of course..."the woman nodded. The joy of seeing Tamsin again fleet across her face briefly, and the only things that remained were haunting sorrow and anxiety. She came over and gave Tamsin a polite hug. Tamsin closed her eyes and held her breath while loosely wrapping her arms around the other woman's waist.

"Oh...look at you two..." Stella murmured. She smiled at them, like a mother was pleased to see her daughter and her daughter's best friend finally reunited.

Tamsin pulled back and forced out a smile at the brunette. She could still feel her heat lingering on her skin. It made her sweat.

"Bo is ummm..." Stella tried to explain the situation as she turned to the brunette then to Tamsin. "You two should-maybe Bo could elaborate the entire situation to you. Dylan's her husband, after all."

Tamsin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The look on Bo's face hurt her, and the statement of "Dylan's her husband after all" hurt her even more. "Ummm..." She stuttered. "I think I'm gonna go get a few hours of sleep first. I've been driving all day and I'm really-"

"Oh," Stella nodded. "Of course...sure...you must be really tired. Let me show you where your room is then..."

"I think Tamsin would know where her room is, Stella," Bo reminded Stella softly.

"Oh of course. Would you look at me..." Stella laughed at herself awkwardly before she led the way upstairs. Tamsin followed her immediately. She couldn't afford spending one more second with Bo alone right now.

Right before she walked into the hallway of the second floor, she turned and caught a glimpse of Bo's gaze. It almost made her jump. She quickly turned away, but still felt it stabbing and burning her back.

Those eyes, they were her nightmare and her sweetest dream. Every time she closed her eyes, she'd see them and remember all those bitter and sweet moments she had with Bo.

15 years was a long time. A lot of things had changed. Crimson Rock had changed. Even the old white mansion had changed. Bo had changed too. When Tamsin had left town, Bo was a 15 year old girl who had just started dating Dylan. Now, she has become a grown woman and also, Dylan's wife.

During the past 15 years, Tamsin had forgotten a lot of things, while some other things branded her soul with permanent scars. One of the things she desperately tried to forget but couldn't was Bo's eyes. She couldn't forget those bright flames burning in them. She couldn't forget that subtle uncertainty and vulnerability. She couldn't forget the shimmering light and the brown beam.

She could not forget her. She tried but she just could not. Frustrated, she had convinced herself to make a compromise. She just needed to settle for less pain. She trained herself to feel less agony. She thought she had been successful, until now.

That pain had never left her. It went hiding. It lurked there and it grew. The moment she met Bo again, it exploded. It was an ache, a yearning, the dire need of having something she could not have.

It reminded her that she was really back in Crimson Rock again, inside the house she grew up, now with Bo under the same roof as her sister-in-law. For years, she had imagined what it would be like if she was to return to Crimson Rock and reunite with Bo. And now she had her answer: a polite hug.

It's better this way. She told herself with a heavy sigh.