Truth be told, it's not like I had never broken the law before. Petty theft of family heirlooms. Arson of said heirlooms. Trespassing. Typical exercises to help spirits and families to move on. The thing was I never stayed around long enough to get caught. That was the opposite this time. I needed to be caught, but if it wasn't at the right time, me and everyone I cared about would be as good as dead.

Man, this was insane. It would be even harder to break into the Chu family house than it was fifteen years ago. There was security all over the place. It felt like I spent hours tracing the paths of the guards and the location of the cameras. The house would be nearly impenetrable if it weren't for the underground passages.

The house was hundreds of years old after all.

I only knew about them from what I remembered when Yao and I learned from each other over fifteen years ago. Going through all the security checkpoints was a hassle, so Liang had shown my mother and I a secret passageway to get into their home. I just had to bet that the passageway was still a secret from the security guards.

The passageway let out in a dark corner of the house. I was in, but I still needed to figure out where Dr. North was. I stayed tucked away in the shadows while I scanned the immediate area for auras. No people. Trying to find the cameras would waste time I didn't have. I just had to find Susannah's husband before they could catch me.

I walked as fast as I could without my feet making a sound.

He had to be around here in one of these rooms. I reached out for any connections we might share. My first thought was Susannah. She was close to both of us. It would be faint, but it should be strong enough to distinguish him from the people I was not looking for.

I found his connection rather quickly, but I miscalculated the strength. There were feelings seeping from him that was much stronger than both of us knowing Susannah. Loneliness and heartbreak much too acute and personal than I expected. It was crippling. Why was I reacting this way to his feelings? I don't remember ever letting myself feel this way.

I tried to fight the tears as they betrayed me and rolled down my cheek. I only held the connection long enough to confirm Dr. North's location.

I hid my body around the corner of the hallway leading to the room Dr. North was kept in. There was nobody keeping guard at the moment. I was wary as I approached. I tested the doorknob to find it locked, of course. I pulled out a couple of lock picks disguised as pins from my hair and got to work. I couldn't help but look over my shoulder through my hair to make sure that no one was coming yet. It was a good thing these locks were almost as old as the house or this would never work.

The door unlocked with an audible click. "Finn," I confirmed as I opened the door.

He was sitting in the back corner, his head nestled in the crook of his arm. He looked up when he heard my voice. His eyes were red.

"Elenora, thank god. Is Susannah okay?" he asked. His voice was strained with exhaustion. Part of him was relieved I hadn't been her, but he was mostly glad I wasn't Chu.

"Susannah's at home. Hurry up. I don't have much time," I urged.

"I-is she okay?" Dr. North hurried after me. "The Chus didn't..."

"As far as I know, the Chus never touched her. She'll be more okay when you're out of here safely." I went back through the maze of hallways the same way I came. I quickened my pace.

"Hey!" A gruff voice called out behind us.

"We're being followed," Dr. North panicked. "Oh god..."

"Calm down..." We were almost there. I turned the corner and was met with one of the Chu henchmen. Without a thought, I snapped my fist forward and clocked him in the nose. He fell straight to the ground, allowing me and Dr. North to get around him.

Shit, that hurt. I hastily opened up the false door in the wall. "Run! Follow the tunnel all the way through. I'm staying behind."

"Why?"

"There's no time to explain. Just go." I shut the door in Finn's face and stood with my back to the wall.

I didn't have time to try to stop Finn's crazy idea to go get help. I was a little busy at the moment trying to defend myself from the next Chu. An actual Chu this time, not just some henchman. One of Yao's nephews.

He fought without thinking, making predicting his moves very difficult. His face was blank, but his eyes always gave away a moment before his next move. His thrusts were strong. My blocks were barely effective. His leg swept just under my knees and knocked me on my side.

I gasped and rolled away from his next kick. The one after that I wasn't so lucky. I caught it right in my stomach, causing all of my air to be forced out of my body.

"Was that really necessary?" I coughed out. "You were so much cuter in middle school."

"My parents were still alive then," Kiku Chu said coldly. "You two," he ordered to some of his goonies. "One of you let Uncle Yao know of our intruder and the other go after Dr. North."

"Wait," I begged. "Please just let him go. He's worthless to you now that you've got me. In exchange, I'll cooperate. I'll let you know anything that you'd possibly want to know."

Kiku glared down at me. "You aren't exactly in a bargaining position, Elenora Callaway."

With a gesture of his head, the two went off. "Get up," he told me. "I'm taking you to my uncle. He'll be the one to deal with you."

Kiku led me further in the house. The further I went, the more familiar I became. I was able to connect with different parts of the house I had been to before. And some I hadn't. Death still lingered here, suffocating the life from this home. I cut myself off from making any connections to the dead here. That would definitely not help my situation.

Kiku opened up the door to the family room where the rest of the Chus were gathered. Yao's two other nephews, not counting Leon, and niece were up pacing the floor while he stayed seated on the couch.

"There she is," Mei Chu muttered angrily. She crossed her arms and made no effort to hide her disdain for me.

"Are we going to kill her now or later?" One of the nephews I didn't know yet said. Max, I gathered.

"Ooh, tell me we'll at least torture her to figure out what she wants," Soo Chu begged. Still so childish. He barely changed.

"There's no need for that," I sighed. "Yao and I need to have a discussion, that's all. I'm willing to talk if he is."

Kiku tightened his grip on me. "Need I remind you, you're still in no bargaining position."

'And what sort of 'conversation' justifies you breaking into my house," Yao finally spoke with a chuckle.

"This is what you wanted, isn't it?" I posed it as a question, though I already knew. "You took someone who was precious to my friend so we could have this exchange."

"Granted. I didn't expect you to break into my house. That was a stupid and dangerous move, Elenora Callaway. There's no telling what would have happened if Kiku hadn't been the one who found you."

"I wagered it'd be no more dangerous than trying to talk to you in general, Yao Chu." I said his name in acknowledgement of his position and show that it meant little to nothing to me.

He sighed. "Well, let's get on with it. I assume you found out where your sister is now after your little escapade with the detective."

I shook my head. "I know where she was, but I don't know where Emily is at the moment. But she is with someone I think you're very interested in."

Yao's irritation barely masked his relief. "So, he's alive then. Are you going to amuse me with some little exchange proposal?"

I shook my head. "Unfortunately, I can't do that either. Neither one of them are very keen on giving the other up. They are in love after all."

There was a collective gasp I the room, followed by a mix of horror and dread. I expected them to be shocked, of course, but this had taken a drastically different term.

"You're lying..." Yao said through his teeth.

"I'm afraid it's true," I said cautiously. "It probably won't be long until we're one big happy family."

"Uncle Yao, what does this mean? Are we going to die?" Mei started to panic.

Yao didn't say anything. He glared at me. No, it wasn't quite that. His eyes had spaced out slightly. As if he was remembering something. I quickly tapped into his connection.

He took me back to that night. Yao was barely in his twenties, but he hid behind the couch as if he was just a little kid. His arm was broken, and I could feel his pain.

A high pitched scream sounded and almost immediately cut off. Yao gulped though another round of adrenaline and courage to get up. If he was going to die, he'd rather do it fighting than hiding in his own house. He ran through the hallways until he got to the room where my mother strangled a woman. "Why did you have to get in my way?" she cried. "We would have been happy. This is all your fault!"

"Let go of my sister, you bitch!" Yao screamed as he charged my mother.

But she wasn't my mother. Just her body, controlled lifelessly through that woman. Upon hearing Yao's voice she bolted for his legs, knocking him onto his side and broken arm. She crawled on top of him.

"Why can't you just love me? Dr. Chu, why can't you just love me the way I am?" she begged. "You don't know what it's like to be in love so fiercely that it tears you apart." Her blood caked nails raked down his chest

Yao was rendered speechless though fear and confusion. Lydia Callaway had called him a doctor when she should know very well that he was nothing close to that. Just the last in a dwindling line of successors in a crooked business.

"Say something, John!" she screamed. She reached for his neck.

"Go to hell!" Yao managed to kick her off violently.

She stuck her lip out as she got up. It was busted open again with a fresh gloss of blood. She sauntered over to the doorway as Yao breathed heavily on the ground. "You always push me away, Dr. Chu. Every time you tell me to go back, I'm always afraid I'll never see you again." She leaned against the door frame, blood splatters apparent on her sillouette.

"Lydia Callaway," Yao seethed through his teeth as he dragged himself over to his sister-in-law. "Even if it takes my final breath, I'll kill you with my bare hands for what you've done."

She giggled from the door. She hid behind the frame playfully. "Promise?" With that last chilling word, she ran off.

Yao was too late to save his brother's wife. Her throat was deeply bruised and her last breath had long ago been strangled out by that murderess.

"Damn it!" Yao cried. She was still so young, her son even younger. Yao had seen his father and two of his brother's murdered at the hands of Lydia Callaway. There was no way of knowing if anyone else had survived. "Why?" he had to ask. Why did she betray them like that? Why was he the only one spared?

She had said that he didn't know what it was like to be in love. That was true, but this felt horrible enough. He swore to himself that he would protect his family. He swore to protect what was left of his family from this kind of pain. And most of all, he swore that the Callaways would pay.

I was stunned. I had never had the opportunity to see this. Yao had kept this hidden from me all these years.

"You've known... You've known this whole time..." I said in a trance. "You have to know who she is."

"What the hell is she talking about?" Soo exasperated.

"I knew you hadn't killed my family yet because you knew that we weren't really at fault, but this..." I continued.

"Of course it was your family's fault! If it weren't for your mother, our family would be alive," Mei argued.

"You've known this whole time how it works. You're one of the only people in this town who really believe that my family is psychic and not crazy. You know about connections, vaguely at least. Yao, you have to have figured out who possessed my mother and why she targeted your family." I was beginning to pick up steam as the pieces were falling into place. He was the key. "You can't keep this a secret any longer. If you tell me about her, I can..."

"Get out of my head, Elenora. It's because of psychics like you that we're in this whole situation. I may have hesitated to kill you before, but that won't be so if you continue to endanger my family," Yao growled.

I took a deep breath. "You want to know why I came here? We're the only ones left that kind finally put this matter at rest. I want to get rid of that bitch just as badly as you. As soon as you tell me what you know about her, I'm going to the asylum."

"Maybe you really are crazy. What makes you think you'll end up any different from your mother?" Yao chastised me.

"Because I'll be prepared for what I'm up against. But if she does manage to possess me, I'll have you there to kill me," I stated.