Though it was considerably darker when she was returning from her head clearing walk with Asami, Sam decided to still take her normal shortcut down the alley near the apartment building.

She took a quick, but thorough, look over of her surroundings before continuing on her way.

The cut was generally peaceful as usual, right up until she reached the end of the alleyway and heard a weirdly familiar voice call her name.

"Sam?"

She gripped more tightly onto Asami's leash and held her buck knife in front of her.

"Woah, WOAH!" The voice grew more panicky. "It's just me….Mandy, remember?"

Mandy held her hands out in surrender, one of which was still holding the cigarette she'd been smoking.

"Yeah…" Sam chuckled nervously. "Right, no I remember…..So, what are you doing out here?"

Her tone became a little more suspicious.

"Cutting down this alley, so late at night, I could ask you the same thing." Mandy pointed out.

"Touché." Sam snickered at the thought a little as she glanced around a bit again. "Just gettin in another walk with Asami for the night." She chuckled, reaching down to give Asami a head scratch. "And I have scary dog privilege, so…"

Mandy chuckled with her at that. "I see, and does the scary dog like scratchies?"

"Well, if she turned 'em down, it'd be a first." Sam chuckled, patting Asami again as she encouraged her.

Mandy got down to her level and started giving her all the pets and head scratches she could want. "What a good girl! Yes, you are! Yes you are!" Mandy stood back up after a good while. "She is so cool! What'd you say her name is?"

"Asami." Sam answered. "You know, from that movie, Audition?"

"With the piano wire." Mandy recalled with a slight shiver. "Niiice."

"Really?" Sam snickered, sensing the chill that went down Mandy's spine at the thought.

"Well, yes and no." She chuckled. "Good movie, but once is enough for me." She took another drag from her cigarette.

"Alright, respect." Sam chuckled. "What about you then? What brings you down to a creepy, dark alley, alone at night?"

"This is when I like to come down and have a few smokes while I listen to this true crime podcast." She explained. "Tonight he's talking all about that guy that was gutted tonight. You hear about it?"

"Who didn't." Sam scoffed with a half chuckle. "So, what's the podcast?"

"He calls it The Cult Of Colton."

Sam finished the last part of it at the same time Mandy did.

"Yeah, I know it." Sam chuckled. "My roommate's brother runs it with some girl he has on the show from time to time."

"Shit, small world."

"Apparently." Sam chuckled, looking for her out. "Guess I'll see you around then."

"See ya."

Kinsey, who was still chilling on the couch, flipping through channels with Cory while the two of them waited on Sam, perked up when she heard Sam finally come in the door.

"Hey." She greeted. "All good now?"

"I'll be fine. The walk helped." She reassured her.

Kinsey smiled back at her. "That's good."

She smiled again until she spotted Cory on the couch. "Oh, hey, Cory, your brother really has no shame, does he?"

"What'd he do now?" She sighed.

"I ran into one of his little fan girls in the alley. Apparently Mandy, from two doors over, listens to him." She scoffed as she looked up. "Says he's already talking all about Dani's little boy toy getting gutted tonight."

"Oh God…" Kinsey chuckled.

"You know, I'm no expert on this, but isn't it like horror movie rule number one not to go wandering around dark alleys at night?"

"It is one of them." Sam chuckled, wrapping Asami's leash around her hand and hooking it onto the nearby hook. "Though, you'll find that walking a big dog and toting a buck knife tends to considerably lower its ranking."

"It is quite the deterrent." Cory agreed with a chuckle as she stood up from her spot on the couch. "Alright, I think I'm gonna call it a night. God knows, I'm gonna need the extra time to ring Colton out for this one.'

"Right." Kinsey chuckled.

This even got a bit of a laugh out of Sam. "Good luck."

"Thank you." Cory chuckled. " I will be needing it."

Sam glanced down to check her phone, just before walking over to make herself comfy right next to Kinsey.

She sighed as she clicked off the unknown number that flashed across the screen and continued on her way to the couch.

"What was that?" Kinsey asked.

Sam forced a smile at first to reassure her, which shifted to a more genuine one when she snuggled up closer to Kinsey on the couch and put her arm up around her.

"Probably just a scam caller."

"Are you sure?" Kinsey asked, considerably even less convinced.

"Very sure." She reassured.

Kinsey, wanting more just to trust Sam's word for now, just shrugged it off and just happily let her girlfriend hold her close.

Still feeling considerably uneasy about the latest unknown number calls on her phone when the next morning came, Sam approached the tattoo shop particularly cautiously.

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of her name from behind her, calming back down a little only when she turned to see that it was just Dani…..and her scare quickly turned to suspicion.

"I'm..sorry." She finally said. "I've been trying to get a hold of you since last night…" She sighed. "I probably should've just had Seth ask you."

"Yeah." Sam scoffed. "You probably should've." She sighed. "...buuut, you're here now, so what do you want?"

"Just to talk." Dani insisted. "Do you have a few?"

Sam shot her a look as she took her time considering the request.

She sighed and shook her head to herself. "Fine….ten minutes."

She nodded, urging for Dani to follow her to somewhere more private.

"I didn't even know you were in LA." Sam told her, trying to hold herself back and keep things a little friendlier than what she knew it would inevitably become.

Dani shrugged. "I've just been all over the place, really….then, earlier this year, I started seeing this guy…"

"Ray." Sam added.

"You heard."

"Kinda hard not to." Sam scoffed. "...sorry."

"Appreciate it." Dani sighed. "...and I appreciate your condolences last night...Seth passed them along."

"Yeah, I told him to. He's a good guy."

"Yep…" Dani sighed and shook her head. "...anyway, I'd been staying with him, and then Seth mentioned that you were in the city, and…..I don't know, I guess I wanted to touch base with someone who…"

"...who, what, Dani?"

"Who...gets it…" She sighed. "I figured that you of all people would understand."

"Understand." She chuckled humorlessly. "Understand what, Dani? Why you've been MIA for the past three fucking years? Or why whenever you do look at me, I feel like you blame me? Like I ASKED to come from where I did?!"

"Why- you SLAUGHTERED my sister, SAM!" She was losing the battle with herself not to shout at her. "Okay, th-there's self defense…..a-and there's whatever THE FUCK you did to her on my kitchen floor!

"Your sister, and her psycho girlfriend, tried to kill me , tried to kill my girlfriend, tried to kill my dads, AND TRIED TO KILL YOU! Forgive me for getting a little angry….if anything, from where I stand, maybe you owe us a fucking thank you."

"And from where I stand, maybe they should've." She practically spat. "...because from where I stand, you're just as psycho as they are….guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Sam shot her a glare as she listened to those words fall out of her mouth.

"Don't ever fucking talk to me again!" She spat back, turning to storm off.

"Sam- "

"Your time's up! …..I'm fucking done."