A/N: I don't own anything, except for the characters I've created. Please comment and let me know what you think.

Chapter Three

Candice had almost reached her car when she felt her phone vibrate in the back pocket of her jeans. She pulled it out and saw that it was her mom calling her and pressed the ignore button because she wasn't feeling like talking to anyone at that moment. There was still no messages from Reed, but she noticed with a frown she had missed four calls from her mom in the last two hours. Candice didn't think she needed to worry about it though since her mom had the habit of being a little melodramatic sometimes. She probably just wanted to call to remind her to pick up Malcolm on her way home, which Candice didn't need to be reminded of.

She unlocked the car and got in, placing her phone in the storage compartment in front of the shift lever with all the old McDonald's receipts, and put her seatbelt on. After checking behind her, she carefully began to back her car out of the tight parking spot.

Her phone rang again as she was driving towards Malcolm's school but Candice knew better than to use her phone when she was behind the wheel and turned up to music to drown out the sound of her ringtone before the call automatically went to voicemail.

A couple of songs and a commercial break later, Candice parked right across the street from the main school entrance to wait for Malcolm to come outside. She didn't have anything better to do than to go on her phone, and as she was scrolling down her Instagram feed she came across a photo that reminded her of how little she actually cared about what her boyfriend does behind her back.

Brandy, a junior she knew from a couple of classes they'd had together last semester, had posted a photo yesterday of herself in a short, tight dress, cozying up to a smiling, shirtless Luke at what seemed to be a house party. There were other people posing in the photo too, but no one Candice knew by name except for the strawberry-blonde on the far right. She zoomed in on the picture and was pretty sure she could spot herself in the background, being held upside down above a keg with a thick rubber tube in her mouth. It was no wonder she could only vaguely recall this night, she thought just as someone opened the passenger side door and jumped in.

"Did you have a good day?" Candice asked her brother as she put her phone down.

"It was okay," Malcolm replied, flipping his hair out of his eyes. "You?"

"Same," she said and prepared to start the car at the same moment her phone started ringing. "Ugh, God," she groaned and reached for it.

"Who is it?" Malcolm wondered. "Is it your boyfriend?" he asked her teasingly.

"It's Mom. Again," Candice told him, scrunching up her nose as she stared at her screen. "She keeps calling me."

"Well, aren't you gonna answer it?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "I guess I should," she agreed and reluctantly pressed the green button. "Hey, Mom! What's up?" she spoke chipperly into the phone.

"Thank God," she heard her mom say under her breath. She sounded so relieved, Candice started to wonder right away if something bad might have happened after all. "I've been calling you for hours. Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

"I've been in classes all day, I'm sorry," Candice apologized, feeling bad for not picking up earlier in the parking lot. "Is there something going on?"

"Have you been at the middle school to pick up your brother yet?" she asked her instead of answering the question.

"Yeah, he's in the car with me now." Malcolm gestured to himself and mouthed "Me?" as if there was anyone else in the car she could have been referring to. Candice nodded at him and reached over the console to ruffle his mop of blonde hair.

"You're not driving and talking on the phone at the same time, are you?" her mom asked her, her concern heavy in her voice.

"Of course not, Mom," Candice assured her. "We're still parked outside the school."

"Okay, that's good," she said, sounding off.

"Mom, did something happen?"

"We'll talk when you get home, all right? Don't make any stops. Just come straight home."

"Yeah, okay. Sure," Candice replied, frowning.

"I'll see you soon," her mom told her and hung up. Candice removed the phone from her ear and frowned down at it for a moment before she let her head fall back against the headrest as she closed her eyes.

"What did she say?" Malcolm asked her curiously.

Candice shook her head to clear it. "She said she wanted us back at the house."

"Did she say why?"

"No, but I gather we'll find out soon enough."

They pulled into the driveway approximately ten minutes later and they were getting out of the car when their mom stepped out onto the front porch. Her blonde hair, the same shade as her children's, was still pulled into a messy bun at the nape of her neck that she'd had this morning, which meant she hadn't been in at work.

Candice and her brother walked passed her through the front door and dumped their bags on the floor before they followed behind her into the kitchen. Candice opened her mouth to ask her mom to just tell them what was wrong but closed it again when she noticed Sheriff Stilinski sitting at their breakfast table, a steaming cup of coffee sitting in front of him on the table.

"Hey, kids," the sheriff greeted them both and took a sip from his coffee.

"Sheriff," Candice greeted him back before giving her mom a questioning look. Why is the sheriff in our kitchen?

Renée cleared her throat and wiped her hands on her pants legs and turned her gaze at Malcolm. "Why don't you go into the living room and watch some TV, okay baby?"

"Okay..." he replied uncertainly and slowly turned around, leaving Candice alone in the kitchen with their mom and Sheriff Stilinski. Shortly thereafter they heard the sound of whatever sports channel he put on.

"Take a seat," the sheriff spoke calmly and gestured towards the chair across the table from him. Candice cautiously went over and sat down, getting more nervous when she saw him pull out a pad and a pen. "When was the last time you saw, or heard from your cousin?"

Candice frowned and glanced between her mom and the sheriff, confused. "What is this?" she asked them.

"Please just answer his questions, honey," her mom told her softly.

Candice shifted her gaze between them again and said, "First you need to tell me what this is all about. Where is Reed?"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Sheriff Stilinski said to her.

She shook her head, bewildered. "What?"

"Reed wasn't in her room this morning and her bed looked unslept in. Your uncle reported her as a missing person a few hours ago," the sheriff explained but Candice still wasn't able to wrap her mind around what he had just said.

"What?" she asked again.

"My deputies and I are on it and doing our best to find her, but we need your help. When was the last time you saw or heard from her?"

"I-" Candice was at loss for words and looked helplessly at her mom as she felt her eyes welling up with tears. "I don't understand."

"It'll be okay, baby," her mom told her in an attempt to comfort her but when she saw on her daughter that her words wouldn't be enough to help her hold it together until Sheriff Stilinski had asked all there was to ask her, she came up to her and took the seat next to her. "Everything will be okay," she repeated, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I promise."

Candice took a deep breath to calm herself. "We texted last night when I was in bed," she shakily told the sheriff, who right away began to take notes.

"What about?"

"Uh, she said Stiles had shown up at her house."

"Stiles?" he asked, looking up at her wearing a small frown.

Candice nodded and wiped a tear away. "They were going to Scott's house next and Reed asked if I wanted to come with them."

"To go where?"

"The woods. They were going to the Preserve to look for the other half of the body."

"Were the boys aware it had been you and Reed that had found the first half?"

"They might've. I don't know."

"Did Reed mention anything else?"

"No, only that she agreed to text me if she had gotten home all right."

"But she never did?"

Candice shook her head and wiped away more tears with her hand.

"You did good, Candice. Really good," Sheriff Stilinski told her gently and squeezed her arm as he stood from his chair. "This was very helpful."

Her mom got to her feet as well and offered to see him out to his car. When Renée returned to the kitchen a couple of minutes later, her eldest was still sitting at the table, her shoulders shaking as she silently cried into her hands that she had her face buried in.

Candice felt the warmth and comfort of her mom's hand as she began to stroke soothing circles on her back just as she heard someone approach.

"Did the sheriff leave?" Malcolm asked quietly from the doorway of the kitchen.

"Yes, baby," Renée told him, the corners of her mouth pulled up into a sad smile as she gestured for him to come over to them. When he reached them, Renée put an arm around him and pressed a kiss on the top of his head. "It'll be okay," she whispered.

Candice barely touched her dinner that night and went to bed early, but she still hadn't fallen asleep hours later when the rest of her family went to bed. Another hour passed and Candice got tired of just lying there and kicked off her covers and went to stand by her window.

She suddenly felt the same feeling of being watched that she'd had the night before when she and Reed had gotten out of the car. Candice had ignored it then, but after everything that had happened, she couldn't help but think that whoever it was watching them in the woods last night, and was watching her again right now, was somehow connected with the dead girl they found and Reed's disappearance. It left Candice wondering if Reed would eventually be found in the same way, having had suffered the same brutal death, and if she should be watching her back because she might as well be next.