"That's...a very nice way of welcoming us here."

Seeing another drawing adhered to the wooden safety sign by the boardwalk of the old swamp was very disturbing. Cation tape wrapped around everywhere to prevent trespassers. The first six feet of boardwalk from the ground to the water was deliberately destroyed. Shun peeled the drawing off and showed it to the girls. "Is this how Daisy died?"

"It is..." the girls answered simultaneously.

The drawing showed a silver-haired girl stuck in the water with her hands up. The boardwalk was broken at the edges, most likely caused when Daisy lost her step. What didn't make sense was that the boardwalk in the picture was broken at near the opposite side of the swamp from Shun. However, the boardwalk was only broken at the first six feet. The rest looked like they'd been untouched for years.

"So why did you invite Alice here if not to kill her?!" Dan burst out in anger again and spewed his rage on the girls. Shun was too focused on the inconsistency to pay attention. "Answer me!"

"Daisy only gathered the four of us here at the swamp to talk about Alice!" Julie screamed. "She, Alice, and I had no choice but to believe my parents were dead, but we had to keep it a secret. Daisy said so. Runo knows nothing about my parents' deaths until now, I swear. Alice isn't the only orphan anymore. Daisy and I are, too. We just wanted to talk about what to do with Alice."

"Julie only said that Doctor Michael got electrocuted by an ECT machine, and we were discussing what to do with Alice." Runo shook her head violently. "I feel so awful about this right now. Why did Daisy have to die?"

"Why don't you explain the exact details of your chat, including every minor action?" Shun asked suddenly. "Because your conversation might just be able to help me solve the inconsistency between the picture and the actual scene."

Julie and Runo looked at each other for a moment, just like they did back in the diner.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Wait, since when?" Runo placed her hands on her head and spun around, not knowing at all what she was doing. "Rest in peace, Doctor. You were the best Sunshine Point ever had."

"It's okay, Runo. There's not much we can do now. Daisy, have you contacted my aunt yet?"

"Mom and Dad were going to, but—" Realizing Runo was here, Daisy couldn't really say exactly what happened. "-then something else happened. I have my phone with me. Tell me your aunt's number." Alice recited Clara's number as Daisy entered it onto her phone. "Thanks. Julie, I need to talk you."

The sisters walked down to the boardwalk, and Runo dragged Alice to solid ground. "Tell me what's wrong. Clearly, there's more on your mind other than your grandfather's death." She tightened her grip on Alice's arm and puller her closer. "It's Shadow, isn't it?"

"Runo, keep quiet. Who knows if he's around here somewhere?" Alice insisted they chat on the boardwalk. "I will be honest about this. Shadow visited my grandfather's lab before my grandfather left. He gave me a drawing, but I threw it away. Then my grandfather came back and—"

"I thought you left the keys in the ignition of something."

"He had spare keys. I tried to stop him from fixing the ECT machine, but it was too late. I knew Shadow had something to do with this. He caused Mira and Serena's deaths, too."

Runo closed her eyes and sighed. "I heard about them. Mira openly criticized Shadow and didn't want him near you, and Serena was trying to perform some purification ritual. But how does killing your grandfather relate to do with this? How is he even capable of doing this at all?!

Alice brushed Runo's hand off and turned around. "Grandfather was going to take me back to Bayview someday to see Shun again, but now I can't. Who else is there to blame?"

"I had no idea Shadow had such strong ambitions. It's not like him at—"

"Crap, there's no reception." Daisy paced back and forth on the boardwalk trying to find an exact spot for a cell phone signal. "Julie, tell Alice this call will take a while."

"I'll be back." Julie ran back to Alice and reported. "Bad signal. Might take a while. Runo, we should go back to the diner now."

"But Alice and Daisy—"

"You two can go back. All Daisy's doing is making a call." Alice replied. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Going back to see Shun... that can wait."

"If you insist." Julie grabbed Runo's wrist, but Runo didn't want to go. "Ouch! Stupid sign!" When Julie accidentally bumped into the danger sign, a light item fell to the ground with a small rustle on impact. "Whoever stabbed this sign here is blind."

"Julie, let me see your arm. You have splinters."

While Runo was checking Julie's arm, Alice picked up the item on the ground. Again, it was another crayon drawing, this time with a girl reaching out from the deep water. "Daisy, there's reception here!" she lied. "Come back!"

"I'm connected already! Just—ah!" Upon turning around to respond, Daisy missed a step, and the boardwalk broke, sending her into the water. "Help! My feet are stuck!"

"Sis! I'm coming!" Julie and Runo ran over to save Daisy, but the boardwalk broke even more, and now Runo was in the water, too. "Runo! Not you too! Alice, a little help here!"

"Coming!" She placed the drawing in her pocket and hauled Runo while Julie hauled her sister. "Runo, is your foot caught on something?"

"No, but I feel something sharp—owwwwwwwwww!" Runo's scream pierced the sky, and a dark shade of red emerged in the swamp water. "My right leg..."

"I should've known." Alice pulled Runo by the arm over her should and managed to drag her onto the boardwalk. Puncture wounds lined up on Runo's right calf like a deformed crescent. "I'd say a piranha attacked you, but I'm not in the mood for—"

"Daisy! No!" Julie lost her grip on her sister and fell back. The boardwalk cracked under the older sister's feet, and Julie ran back for safety. "Daisy..."

"Never has there been a double appearance of drawings in one day." Alice muttered. She ran back to the dirt path, stood for a moment, and ran toward the swamp onto the boardwalk again. Julie and Runo stared in amazement as Alice jumped from the end of the boardwalk on their side to the other side.

"Alice! What are you doing?" Runo cried.

Alice turned around, staring at the girls with fury in her chocolate eyes. "I'm not coming back."

"What?!" asked both Runo and Julie.

"Simple as that. I'm not coming back. I don't care what happens, but you're not going to find me unless I come back myself. I'm going to leave this place and find Shun again my way."

She ran down the rest of the boardwalk and was never seen again.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"I'm sorry about your loss." Shun covered his mouth and turned around, not wanting to face the girls or Dan. "I guess this is temporarily settled. You two meant no harm, even though having a meeting at the swamp sounds unsuitable."

Dan walked up to the girls and apologized. "I'm sorry for suspecting you two for attempted murder when all you wanted was for Alice to have a place to live and stay after her grandfather died. What's this you saying about Alice picking up an item?"

That interested Shun, as usual.

"I bumped into that sign and heard something fall, but the splinters were so painful that I didn't pay attention."

"Me, too. I was busy removing the wood from Julie's arm to noticed why Alice was ducked down right there."

"And if it was the picture that was stuck on the sign," Julie added. "then I'm shocked. She was looking at another picture earlier that day before the fire. Two drawings in one day isn't at all like Shadow, regardless if he's the culprit."

"And if Alice realized that, then she'd be twice as angry." Dan concluded. He turned around to see Shun, standing still while the wind blow through his hair. He also noticed something floating in midair from a wire of some sort. "Is that another poem dangling from a fishing line?"

"I'll get it." Shun reach up and pulled on the note, followed by a loud snap.

Two drawings in a row, two deaths in a row.

Whether thirds will come way, I don't want to know.

I secretly found out what laid beyond the lake.

This is the last and only path of hope that I can take.

Why Alice decided to refer to this swamp as a lake was unimportant yet misleading.

"What does she mean by secretly?" Runo wondered. "Could she have planned to leave us since the beginning? Maybe Alice didn't trust us at all."

"Runo, don't say that" Julie grabbed the paper and showed it to her. "Look at the word hope. After all these scary events, people moved out, and she felt it was necessary for her move out, too. Staying here didn't do her any good."

"But she should've told us. I wonder how she jumped over so far like—"

Before Runo could finish talking, Shun snatched that poem out of Julie's hands, jumped onto a nearby tree branch, and landed on the other side of the broken empty area. "Because I taught her that."

"You what?!" asked the other three in unison.

He stood up and faced them with despair and hope in his eyes. "I taught her a few moves before she left, just in case she wanted to run away. Long distance jumping was just one among many. Looks like they really paid off. I guess this is my fault."

"How so? All you did was—"

"Teach her to escape. Now she did escape and run away somewhere because I taught her to. Might as well take responsibility for it and find her."

"Shun! Don't do what Alice did!" Runo cried. "Who knows where you'll end up?"

"Alice went this way for a reason, and I'm going to do exactly what she did to find her. If this was her last hope in getting out of here, then it's my last hope of finding her." Much like Alice, who left Julie and Runo behind went she ran away, Shun left Dan, Julie, and Runo behind and went down the rest of boardwalk.

"Quick question." said Dan, trying to relax the atmosphere. "What is on the other side? You can't see anything with the trees in the way."

Again, the girls looked at each other uneasily. "We don't know. That's why we were so worried about Alice and now Shun."