"You're lying!"

"Am not!"

This was not how a reunion was supposed to go.

Shun's original intention was for Runo and Julie to tell each other truth, but there was more denial instead. Dan stood on the dirt path, away from Julie's old house. The girls eventually settled down, so Shun spoke up. "I didn't bring you two here to argue. I want to find out what happened to Alice during the time Daisy offered her a place to stay. I thought you two were close friends of hers."

Julie and Runo stopped arguing and stepped away, still angry at each other. "It's not that as simple as you think." Julie explained. "Alice was a close friend of ours, but we couldn't deny the fact that all these deaths and weird events happened after Alice moved in."

"Yeah, but they also happened after Alice met Shadow." Runo objected. "Everyone knows he's bad news."

"But he met Alice after Alice moved here!"

Runo had nothing else to argue back with. This was the only thing she and Julie never got along about, and the only reason why they hadn't talked ever since Alice went missing.

"Julie, can you please tell me exactly what happened? I don't want this to cause any more misunderstandings." Shun pleaded.

Julie sighed and said everything. "After we came back from my grandmother's funeral services in Australia, Daisy found Alice wandering in the rain, and that's how it all started..."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Don't cry. No matter how tragic this is, stay strong and have faith, Alice."

Alice didn't even react, because Serena said that same phrase and ended up dead. "Thanks, Daisy. What am I supposed to do now? I have no family left."

"Considering you're Julie's friend, we'd be glad to take you in." Mrs. Makimoto offered. "You can stay as long as you want with us. You'll be a part of our family."

Mr. Makimoto nodded his head in agreement. "I'll get the guest room ready for you to stay in now. Is there anything you need to get from your—where's Julie?"

"Dad, she's at Runo's diner. I don't think they even know about this."

"Thank you for the offer, but I'd rather stay at my grandfather's house. Maybe I can call Aunt Clara or something."

Mrs. Makimoto understood Alice and gave her a hug. "We'll call her for you, but in the meantime, you are staying with us. Daisy, find Julie and Runo and tell them that Alice will be staying here for now."

"Okay, Mom. Be right back. I have to leave later, though."

"Oh that. You need a ride back to the university later."

Alice followed the Makimotos inside the house, and Mr. M. grabbed the phone. "What's your aunt's number? And where does she live?"

"Wardington. I remember her number by heart." Alice recited Clara's number as Mr. Makimoto dialed. Afterwards, she locked her fingers together and prayed. "I hope Aunt Clara still lives in Wardington. That's not too far from Bayview, so maybe I have a chance to see Shun again."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Neither one of you were even there!"

"Enough, Shun! They're just girls!"

"And lying fair-weathered friends. Let me in."

Julie scoffed and opened the front door. "There's a reason why I never told anyone what really happened to my parents." The door creaked like the front door of Alice's house, and inside was literally pitch black because of the soot.

"No wonder you decided to live in the room upstairs of my parents' old diner. There was a terrible fire." Runo realized. "I'm so sorry."

"Daisy told me to keep a secret, that's why."

That immediately caught Shun's attention, but it had nothing to do with the house. "Where did Alice stay?" he asked.

"I'll take you there. Just you, though." Julie led Shun up the stairs carefully, for the stairs went fragile from the fire and couldn't support too much weight. What used to be the guest room had roughly the word Wonderland on the door. "Wonderland? As in Alice in Wonderland? It's just like her room in her grandfather's house. Did she stay long?"

"She didn't even move in. That word was made from decorative stickers. Alice did sleep here for the night. She said she wanted to be alone, and closed the door. I thought something was wrong, so I peeked inside and saw her looking at a drawing, probably from Shadow. Then my mom called her down and asked for Clara's number because my dad called the first time, so Alice wrote the number down. Not long after, there was a fire."

"And it destroyed half the house and killed your parents?"

"Inevitably...all because she wanted to be with her aunt who lived in Wardington."

"Wardington? That's close to Bayview." Why didn't Aunt Clara take care of her then?

"And close enough to where you lived." Julie added with a hint of anger.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Alice wrote down Aunt Clara's number and posted it next to the telephone so no one would forget. "Here you go. Hopefully your call is successful." But she knew for a fact that the picture stuck in my windowsill would predict the future. At this point, Alice was beyond hopeless.

She went back upstairs to her room and observed the picture again. "How am I supposed to tell the Makimotos that their house is going to be on fire? In fact, they might think that I'm the one causing the fire, but I'm not." Alice looked out the door to see Mrs. Makimoto downstairs shaking her head.

"The wireless receiver is out of power. Let's try the wired phone upstairs."

"Odd. I remember putting it back on the stand this afternoon." her husband insisted.

With Julie's parents upstairs in their room, Alice sneaked out of her room to the downstairs telephone and placed a folded sheet of paper by it. Hopefully, they understand why I'm leaving, but doing this makes me feel really guilty. Alice hit herself so many times until a voice called above. "Help! Our room is on fire! It's spreading!"

It's true, just like always. Julie and Daisy ran to the living room, but Mr. and Mrs. Makimoto were nowhere to be seen. "Julie, Daisy, where are your parents?"

"They must be upstairs!" Julie screamed. She ran up the stairs but came back down halfway after the flames came. "I can't go upstairs!"

"And there's no other way up except through the windows." Daisy cried. "I'm calling the fire department!"

"There's no point, Daisy. The house may be sturdy, but Mom and Dad can't jump out the window with arthritis, remember? And since the fire started in their room..."

"I guess we have no choice but to say they're goners."

And so is my chance of living with Aunt Clara in Wardington, Alice cried mentally.

How perfectly accurate this picture of a fire starting from an overloaded outlet destroying the very top floor and killing two people was...

-x-x-x-x-x-

Shun picked up the picture stuck in the hinge of the open window. "No doubt this is another one of Shadow's drawings. Alice must be terrified of them. He's killing all the people around Alice who've given her help through the hard times."

Julie shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know why he would do that, especially since Alice was an outsider, but nobody liked him."

Shun descended the stairs and walked over to the telephone. "A folded piece of paper. How did I not notice—"

"What did you find, Shun?" Dan asked, hopping over.

Shun looked at Runo, who stood with her back facing Dan. They must've had an argument, but they barely know each other. He showed the drawing to Dan and replied, "This is the reason why this house is black and the true explanation of Julie's parents' whereabouts. Right, Runo?"

"I—" She twitched a few times and finally turned around. "No wonder you kept it a secret from me, Julie. You always thought it was Alice's fault, didn't you?"

"Runo, there are some things that are too complicated to be explained all at once, but please listen to me this time. I had my reasons!"

"Shun, why don't we leave the girls alone? Literally?" Dan suggested silently.

Shun grabbed the folded paper and followed Dan to the doorway. "The sooner, the better. Let's see what Alice left us now."

"This had better be the last one."

Something isn't right about this terrible fire.

He would've done more to fulfill his desire.

The girls told me to meet at the swamp tomorrow.

At this point, I really have nowhere else to go.

"Now where would that be?"

"Shun, we should ask the girls."

But Julie and Runo turned around and walked over without being called. It looks like they reconciled, but they certainly are still hiding something. "Is there a swamp near here?"

Julie stuttered. "The swamp? I won't take you there. I just can't—"

Runo pushed Julie behind her and answered. "Daisy drowned there."

"Okay, stop. None of you are making sense." Dan snatched the note from Shun and shoved it in the girls' faces, mainly Runo's. "Let me guess. Your original intention was to lure Alice to the swamp and drown her in hopes of getting rid of this bad luck because you two knew Alice was the one who caused all this, wasn't it?! Well?!"

"Dan, relax!" Shun pulled Dan away by the collar. "Even I wouldn't yell, not matter how mad. Can't you see they just settled their problems?"

"Shun! Did it ever occur to you that Alice's closest friends who helped her here could also be the ones who hurt her? You're so stupid! Maybe that's why everyone's been leading us in a wild goose chase. They were all accomplices in this murder." Dan yanked one of Runo's pigtails firmly. "What kind of a best friend are you?"

"Shut the hell up!" Never did it occur to Shun that he'd end up slapping Dan one day, but he just did. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Not because I don't care enough for Alice, but you're overreacting right now." After seeing the girls back together again, Shun couldn't believe what he just did to Dan. "Just take us to swamp."

"If you insist..." they muttered.

I don't know who's the real culprit that caused all this to you Alice, but I know you're hiding for a reason. Everyone's a suspect, and I can't ignore anyone until I find out what happened. Shun gripped his piece of the jade koi pair tightly in his fist. But neither can I not rely on their help.