"I always thought you worked at the hospital."

"But I worked here before that and still do part-time."

Doctor Michael used to be a lab technician before he worked at the local hospital. The laboratory was old and dusty, but the equipment still worked as new. There were some old hospital machines in the corner. "What's this?"

"Some outdated equipment that unfortunately have caused a few problems. I'm using them for experiments on how to improve them to prevent similar problems. What's wrong?"

"These machines are the exact same models that are treating Shun's mother."

A moment of silence and inactivity followed until Doctor Michael spoke up. "Alice, I know you miss your friends, but you can't assume something's going to happen because there's a common factor between the two."

"I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to her. What if she's already—"

Her grandfather put his work aside and hugged his granddaughter. "Don't worry. Once my work here is done, I'll take you back to Bayview to visit them for a week or maybe longer. That depends on my workload, you know."

"You really mean it?"

"Anything for my beloved granddaughter. I promise."

Alice covered her mouth but still squealed loudly. "Thank you Grandfather! Even a day is enough for me to talk to—"

"Doctor Michael! There you are!" Shadow appeared from nowhere at the front door. "Oh, sorry. Was I interrupting something?"

Alice glared at him, but Doctor Michael stood up and shook his head. "Nothing at all, Shadow. Please continue."

"Okay. The hospital staff need your help with some of the machines. The trainees don't understand how to plug the wires."

"Oh dear. That's exactly why we've been postponing surgeries. Let's get this fixed and over with. Alice, you're free to stay or go to the hospital with—"

"Doctor, you should get going. I need to talk to Alice."

Doctor Michael looked back between Shadow and Alice. "I'll leave this up to you two them..." replied the doctor, leaving afterwards.

"What do you want?" Alice asked irately. "You looked eager for my grandfather to leave."

"Because I have something private to talk to you about." He approached Alice, who walked back for every step he walked forward. "What were you two talking about?"

"Nothing of your concern, especially since you don't like science at all."

"Alice, what's wrong with you? You've been avoiding me, and people said—"

"I can choose who I want to see whenever I want. Did it ever occur to you that my grandfather and I haven't seen each other in a long time, and we wanted to talk and bond?"

"Not really. My mother and I don't get along really well, so..."

"If you have nothing else, then please go. I need to clean this place up."

Alice did everything she could to get Shadow out, but he was persistent and lingered at the door. "Before I leave, can you just take this picture? I sketched it the other day at the church."

"Thanks. Now get out." The redhead slammed the doors shut and looked at the picture. "It's a profile of me with my hands together and praying in front of the church..." She felt something sticky on her hands and flipped it over. On the back was a drawing of a weird, sci-fi style machine generating blue electricity onto an elderly man in a lab coat. "Oh no. This can't be happening."

In the corner was a signature, date, and time. "One in the afternoon today?" She looked up at the clock and read 12:34 PM. "That's less than half an hour from now. I can't do anything." Luckily, Alice noticed her grandfather left his keys in the ignition of a machine. She locked the doors from the inside and closed them without removing the keys. "If Grandfather can't come inside, then he can't have an accident. If something happens to him, I'll never be able to see Shun again."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"I've never been here before."

While Fabia led Shun to the laboratory and went back, Dan went back to Runo's house to get her and arrived minutes later. Even Runo was here for the first time. "Alice told me her grandfather was a famous scientist back then, but I never thought he'd have his own personal lab. Why would she come back here?"

"The poem said her grandfather called her back, right?" Dan asked.

"It did, but I still don't get it. Maybe she was using this as an excuse to get away from something."

Runo placed her chin other palm but stood up and snapped her fingers. "Shadow! She told me he confronted her here after she began avoiding him. Alice also said she accidentally left the keys inside but didn't seem worried. I found it weird but never heard about it again."

"Sounds like Alice did it on purpose or knew about it. Remember when she locked me out of the party at school?"

"Dan, I told her to do it because you'd ruin everything. Runo, did anything weird happen here?"

"Not sure. I went to visit my aunt for a whole month, and Julie went back to Australia for funeral services."

"And with you two gone, she wouldn't know who to go for help or comfort if something bad did happen here." Shun leaned back against the machinery and accidentally hit a button, lighting up the massive screen behind him. "What did I do?"

"Another one of Alice's vague poems." Dan groaned. "This time, on computer."

What can I do now in this situation?

I know that he must've overheard my conversation.

Daisy came by shortly and gave me an offer.

I'll stay with her father, mother, and sister.

"Daisy..." Runo gasped. "She's Julie's sister, but that was a long time ago."

"Runo, what are you not telling us? Why would someone offer Alice a place to live when her grandfather was—" Realizing what might have happened, Shun stopped talking.

"After coming back from funeral services, Julie didn't talk to Alice at all." Runo explained. "But Daisy came by with her parents and made the offer. I didn't know what happened next because I wasn't back yet. What if Julie's parents—"

Suddenly, Runo burst into tears, and Dan went over patted her back. "It's okay, Runo. After learning so much of these things, it's not an oddity anymore."

"But Julie's parents were close to me, too. Why did this have to happen?!"

Shun was already angry enough that Shadow was stalking Alice, but he said nothing. "Stop. I'm copying this poem down. Two people are underlined, and despite the lack of evidence, I can't eliminate—Dan, move over. What's that?"

"Uh, okay?" Dan moved away and revealed an arrow down at the bottom left corner of the screen. "It's pointing to a trash can."

"Therefore, something is in the trash can." With two stirring rods on the lab table, Shun picked up a crumple piece of paper with the improvised chopsticks and flattened it. "Fourth drawing so far along with five poems."

Dan pointed to man on the drawing being electrocuted. "That's Alice's grandfather! He died?!"

"Now I know why Daisy made that offer. People close to Alice keep dying because of Shadow. But this one's different, not because her relative died, but something else."

"Alice also told me Doctor Michael planned to bring her back to Bayview for a week," Runo explained, "but this is evidence for what happened afterwards. Let's go to Julie's old house. Julie asked her parents moved out after the weird events, but Daisy had a different story..."

"And you two never talked to each other about this? You really think Alice is responsible for this happening?" Shun interrogated.

"I don't know. To this day, she still thinks of you and never ever accepted Shadow. Not even once."

It's my fault all this is happening. He pounded the keyboard on the panel and almost broke it. "It's my fault. I did absolutely nothing to help her when she needed me the most."

"You didn't do nothing." Runo then spoke softly. "You gave her one of the jade koi, didn't you? That's what she remembered you by."

"Thanks, but no thanks. Anyway, let's go to Julie's old house. Might as well ask her over." He stopped at the door and turned around. "You girls could use the reunion since whatever that was at the diner was nothing."

"That's the Shun whom Alice would want to see..." she muttered very silently.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Grandfather! What are you doing here?!"

Alice swore she locked the laboratory with the keys inside, but her Grandfather came in anyway. "Why can't I be here? I taught the trainees how to use the equipment, and it's all good. You look shocked, Alice."

"I just realized the keys were still in the ignition, but since you're here inside, everything's all good..."

"Yes, I just realized that, too. Luckily, I carry a spare front door key and a key for the back door. Could you step aside while I fix this ECT machine?"

"ECT?! As in electroconvulsive therapy? Grandfather, don't!"

"Don't worry. It's not plugged in. I'm only fixing a few loose—aaahhh!"

So much for not being plugged in.

Doctor Michael fell to his side stiffly. "Grandfather? Are you okay?"

No response.

The grandfather clock struck once for one o'clock, and Alice took out the drawing Shadow gave her earlier. "He only wanted to give me the praying sketch, not the electrocution sketch. Shadow heard our conversation and didn't want my grandfather to take me back to Bayview." She erased the pencil sketch of her praying, crumpled the artwork, and threw it in the trash can.

Footsteps echoed outside along with a familiar voice. "Alice, are you in here? I heard a loud explosion and—"

"Get out, Shadow. You're only going to distract me the more you wait outside." she lied. Alice knelt and watched her grandfather's lifeless body. She would've held his hand one last time, but she was afraid of getting shocked as well.

With Shadow out, Alice took out the jade koi and held it tightly as usual. "Shun, wherever you are, I'll be back someday, even if my grandfather's not here to take me back anymore. Shadow can't stop me."