"Maya, are you ready to go?" Phoenix asked as he slipped on his jacket in preparation to brave the chilly autumn night. All he wanted was to go to Mia's apartment, find her phone, and shut it off. He wondered why Maya hadn't simply canceled Mia's plan when she died, but he couldn't bring himself to ask. This wasn't Maya's fault, he reminded himself sternly. He couldn't blame Maya for her sister's phone sending out repeat texts. Besides, Maya was probably suffering more than he was in light of Mia's death. He had just been Mia's boyfriend, he could only imagine what her sister was going through.
Maya rose from the couch with a yawn, having just sat through a major marathon of The Steel Samurai to catch herself up on the series. In Kurain, she didn't have access to cable television, which put a damper on her ability to watch her favourite show regularly. She stretched lazily and shot him a bright smile. "Yeah, I'm ready! Let me just get my coat!" The teenager padded over to the coat rack by the front door where her purple jacket was hanging and slipped it on while Phoenix made sure everything was secure and locked. He hated to have another break-in so soon after Mia's murder, even if he and Maya were going home for the night.
The pair tried to keep conversation going as they walked down the street; neither of them wanted to think about the task they had at hand. Phoenix attempted to distract Maya by asking about her show, which she responded to with enthusiasm over the latest story arch. Nick mindlessly admitted that he thought the Steel Samurai only ever had one plot. This remark earned him a steamed lecture from Maya about the intricacies of the overarching plot, which would last her right up until they were standing on what had once been Mia's doorstep. Maya dug her key out from her small purse and hesitantly unlocked the door.
Everything painstakingly reminded Phoenix of Mia from the tidy way the mail was piled on the coffee table to the stale scent of vanilla and lavender that permeated the apartment. It looked almost the same as all those times he had spent the night with Mia, but emptier. Maya was beginning the process of moving her sister's things back to Kurain. He stood in the middle of the room and gazed around at the familiar decor; he still couldn't believe she was gone. Maya, now immune to the nostalgia of her sister's old apartment, was systematically combing the area for her sister's cell phone.
Phoenix pulled himself from his thoughts to help Maya find the missing phone. While she was searching under the coffee table and between the couch cushions, he searched the usual places Mia was wont to keep her cellphone. He scanned the counter in her kitchenette and the nightstand in her bedroom. He even took to her closet to look inside of her jacket pockets. He wasn't surprised when he couldn't find it, but he wasn't going to give up. "Can't you just call her phone to see if it'll go off?" he finally called out when his search of her bathroom turned out fruitless.
"Don't you think I've tried that already?" she yelled back, perched precariously on a stepladder to search the bookshelf. Finding nothing, the spirit medium hopped down with a heavy thud and padded over to where Phoenix was currently searching under the bed. Maya leaned against the doorjamb, her arms folded across her chest as she watched the attorney turn the room over with an amused smile. When he turned to ask her about it, she explained, "It's been shut off for the past week."
They didn't spend more than a couple of hours going through Mia's belongings to find her phone, but it felt like an eternity of going through a lifetime of memories. When they couldn't find the device, Maya laughed it off nervously and said she must have brought it back to Kurain already. Phoenix raised an eyebrow to silently ask about the messages and the sad smile remained on her delicate features. "Pearly must have found it and started playing with it. That's all." Not wanting to argue about it, Nick nodded and quietly agreed with her explanation. He didn't want to think too much about it; in all honesty, the less he thought about Mia, the better for him.
After a quiet and relaxing dinner at the burger joint down the street, Phoenix walked Maya back to her own apartment building before making his way home. As he strolled through the chilly night air, he couldn't help but feel as if someone—or something—was watching him. He quickened his stride and could have sworn he heard another set of footsteps behind him. Nick didn't want to look back; he was too afraid of what he'd see if he did. He wasn't a religious or superstitious person, but he had a bad feeling that visiting Mia's old apartment wasn't the best idea. He made it home safely, but in his jumpy state of mind, every noise, every flicker of light, felt like something coming for him.
Disturbed by his walk home, Phoenix had difficulty falling asleep that night. No matter what position he was in, he couldn't get comfortable enough to drift off to sleep. When he finally did sleep, after hours of tossing and turning, he was awoken by a faint rustling coming from his window beside his bed. Phoenix had assumed it was his curtains swaying in the brisk autumn breeze when he remembered he had shut his window before going to bed. He sat up at once to see who or what was at his window when he saw her.
Mia Fey was sitting on his windowsill and looking down at him with an almost curious look on her face. She looked the same as when he had found her dead two weeks ago. Her skin was nearly translucent in the pale moonlight and her clothes were still splattered with her blood, which was now a cakey, dry dark brown. She met his gaze with the cool demeanour she had possessed in the courtroom, but this wasn't the Mia he had known. This Mia raised chills in his spine and left him speechless. She leaned down closer to him and cupped his cheek with one icy hand. He opened his mouth to scream and she fell backwards from his window. He woke up with a start.
That night would be the first night Phoenix dreamed about Mia since she had been murdered in her office. It was an unsettlingly vivid nightmare and he tried his best to block it from his memory. He wasn't going to go back to sleep anytime soon, so Phoenix decided to start his day earlier than usual. It was five in the morning, but he didn't care. If he went about his day like nothing had happened, the dream he had would fade from his conscious. Coffee in hand, he quickly made his way to Wright & Co. Law Offices to watch some Steel Samurai before Maya arrived to work.