When I see the caretakers and the large quantity of senior citizens, it's more than obvious where we are. He sent us to a nursing home. Fair enough I suppose; but we still don't know why we are here. The check-in area is beautifully festooned with mums and other autumn flowers. The woman at the desk is young and has pearly white teeth.

"Hello," she greeted, "are you visiting?"

"Yeah, just visiting." I replies.

"Name and visitee?" She asks, typing something into her computer.

Before I can say anything, Dawn puts her arm around my shoulder and says, "actually, we're here on account of a newspaper article about the lives of elders who lived through the Civil War. My name is journaler Lily Dawson and this is my partner and best friend, Michelle Makarov."

I smile and go along with it– not that I really have a choice at this point. The woman prints us some name tags and tells us to have a nice day. We thank her and walk away as we put our name tags on.

"Whoa," Dawn whispers to me, "I can't believe that actually worked."

"Dawn, why did you make up names for us?" I ask.

"Because we would be considered suspicious if we are going around asking a ton of people random questions trying to figure out who we are looking for." She explains, scanning the room. "That, and I really wanted to go undercover."

"Dawn you're an idiot! What if we get caught?"

"Huh, you know, I'm having flashbacks to the first hint when I said the exact same thing to you when you flew across lanes like a madman!"

"Fine, you win."

We look around the room feeling lost and out of place. What are we looking for? I guess we should start with our fake reason.

"Let's go ask those guys over there if they were in the Civil War or what they can remember of it." I say, pointing to a group of men on a sofa, discussing politics.

"Wait, we aren't actually going to go along with our aliases, right?" Dawn asks.

"Well, we would be considered suspicious if we don't, right?" I say, walking up to them.

I smile as I walk up to them. When I sit down in an empty armchair, they immediately stop talking and stare at me. Suddenly a familiar feeling comes in my head. Not now! My heart is racing and my mouth won't move. A cold chill goes down my spine as I try to think of something to say.

"Good morning gentlemen!" Dawn greets, reaching her hand out to each of the men. She shakes hands with each of them, and as she does I calm my racing heart. Dawn to my rescue again! I hate myself for having social anxiety. Who knows how Sam became extroverted with a mom like me, freezing up every time I'm in a social situation with anybody I don't know.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Lily and this is my partner Michelle. We would love to talk to you all about your experiences in the Civil War," Lily– I mean Dawn, said.

"Ah, war," one of them groaned, "why would you want to hear about a dreadful thing like that?"

"Ah, come on, Harry," another said, "look at the beautiful young women. I can tell you all about the war, misses."

"Thank you, sir. Please, go on." Dawn insists.

"I don't like talking about war," one man with a raspy voice said, "it just reminds me about how I lost my son and my brothers."

"Nothing good came out of World War Two," Harry says. "Just a bunch a idiots looking to try out their weapons on each other. Plain and stupid."

He took a drink of his cranberry juice and coughs a couple times.

"Well, in my time in the Civil War I was a soldier for the north. I remember I came across a group of slaves on the run, so I gave them an origami crane I had made from a newspaper and helped them find a place to hide!" The man laughs.

"I'm going up to my room," the raspy voiced one says, "tell Bobby to come pick up his vacuum cleaner."

"Sure thing Jonah." Harry says, taking another sip.

"Bye Harry, see you later Christopher," Jonah tips his hat towards Dawn and I, "ladies."

"So what made you feel so obliged to learn about the war, young ladies?" Harry asks.

"Well, you see–"

"We are doing a newspaper article about the Civil War, and thought we might get some first hand witnesses." I said, interrupting Dawn.

"Ah, I see." Christopher says. "Well, I remember my entire family lived in what became West Virginia, and we knew slaves had to be freed. All of us joined in and helped them escape across the border until I joined the war."

I take out my phone and start recording everything he says. He continues about how he celebrated with the freed slaves and ate a hearty meal with them. Harry finishes his drink and gets up to get another one. It was surprisingly interesting, but as he continued getting deeper into the story, I got more and more afraid that we were wasting our time.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Christopher Artlon," I say. "We do however need to question as many people as we can. We are so grateful for your story and help."

"I'm glad I could help." He said, smiling. "Really is a shame though, the world is really coming down on itself. It's terrible."

"Before we go, I was wondering. Do you maybe, have something... special for us? An envelope, maybe?"

"Don't believe so, Miss Makarov," He answered, reading off of my nametag. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. Thank you very much for your input." I reply disappointingly.

"Thank you sir," Dawn says to him.

Then Dawn and I get up and walk away.

"Dawn, I don't think we are getting anywhere."

"I know," she admits, "but he didn't tell us where to look or who to talk to."

"I guess we'll just have to keep interviewing people, then."

Dawn and I talk to a lot of different folks, some have a lot to say and some have nothing. Different folks who were in the war, and folks who donated to the war. We talk to vets, soldiers, and bystanders. A few of them had horror stories. Some of them didn't have much to say about the war, so they talked about how they are wasting their time until they finally died. I don't know what we're doing, but I'm sure all this war talk is certainly not going to help us find Sam. After a while, we head outside the building for a quick breather.

"What do we have?" I ask Dawn.

"Well, we have a lot of facts about the war that we don't exactly need." She says. "But that lady who sold pastries to fund soldiers was pretty cool."

I rest my head on the car.

"We found nothing in an hour. What are we going to do?" I say. "Are you sure there weren't any other clues hidden in the message?"

"Pretty sure," Dawn says. "Well, there was this one thing."

My ears perked up.

"Yeah? Spit it out!"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh," She started. "Don't serial killers normally have a signature?"

"Sometimes, but his is the Glasgow Smile. What are you getting at?"

"What if he has more than one signature though? He was talking about how 'only five of the six others passed the challenge' or whatever, right? So, maybe the way that the challenge was named 'Faith' has some connection to this one."

I think about it for a while. She does have a point.

"Sounds possible. But there are hundreds of things that include the word faith. Sentences, religions, acronyms, teachings– how do we know what to pick it from?"

All Dawn did was shrug, which irritates me beyond belief.

"Let's just get back in there, and find my daughter!" I whisper-yell.

"Calm down, Kelly. We are going to find her, I promise."

Instead of walking back inside the building, we decide to go around to the mini-golf course. There weren't many people at it, surprisingly. I would have thought that a bunch of people who didn't have any jobs or stuff they needed to do would go for some free golf any time. Some people were playing in singles, talking about kids and grandkids. Most of the people were plowing through the course as fast as they could. It didn't take us long to single out a group that was laughing, taking their time on the course.

"Hello, gentlemen and woman!" Dawn says. "My name is Lily Dawson and this is my partner–"

"Don't be selling me no girl scout cookies, I'm trying to lose this gut!" one man laughs, rubbing his abdomen.

"Nah, gorge on the goods while you can, Ralph! I'll take twenty boxes of your thin mints." His friend says.

"Boys, be patient and let the girl speak, for heaven sakes!" The woman says. "What is it you need, Ms. Dawson?"

"My partner Michelle and I would like to ask you about the Civil War. Do you have anything you would like to say about it as a witness?"

"Oh boy, I don't know." The man says. "I don't really like thinking of the past much, just looking ahead. I guess that's how that war happened, though. People were thinking towards the future and great things came from it."

We pause, taken back. Dawn gives me surprised look. I smile at the man.

"Wow," I say, "that was awesome. We've never had anyone say anything quite like that."

"Bobby is quite the inspirational speaker, isn't he?" The woman laughs. "He used to be a math teacher, and I swear it was magic in that classroom. Kids who didn't understand a lick of calculus were masters after a semester."

"Ah, shucks, Mary." Bobby gushes, then kisses her on the cheek.

"Oh, you're Bobby?" I ask.

"That's my name, don't wear it out."

"I think somebody wanted you to come pick up your vacuum." I say, pointing back to the building..

"Oh right, I should get that. He's been nagging on me to pick it up all week." He groans. "Eh, I'll do it later! Thanks for reminding me."

"No problem!" I say, nervously blushing.

"Is there anything else you girls need? A lesson on how to be as good at mini golf as I am, perhaps?" Ralph jokes, pretending to putt a golF ball with his club.

"Maybe you'll be as good as me someday, Ralph!" Mary says.

"Ah, second only to the amazing Mary Fitzgerald!" Ralph replies, bowing slightly to her.

That's when I remember what we are here for.

"Hey, actually, Mr. Bobby?" I say

"Yes, youngun?"

"Do you have anything for us? Something like an envelope or a flash drive?"

There was a short pause as he watches my hopeful expression.

"Tell you what," He whispers and points at the golf ball on the course. "You make that in, hole-in-one, and I'll show you what I got."

"Oh! I got this!" an excited Dawn squealed. "My dad works as a golf pro. He taught me everything."

She pushes me aside and says, "step back, rookie!" She takes the club from Bobby and steps onto the green. Dawn separates her legs and aligns her club with the ball. Her arms shift to an angle and her back leans slightly forward. She adjusts her stance about a hundred times, looking at the hole, then back down at the ball, then back to the hole. She licks her lips and takes a deep breath.

Do it for Sam, Dawn. Do it for her.

Dawn hits the ball and it hits a few walls. Off it goes. I'm holding my breath as I watch it ping-pong its way across the green. The orange ball stops three feet short of the hole. Dawn and I together let out two, huge sighs.

"Mini golf is not exactly the same as regular golf, is it?" Bobby chuckles. "Nope, 'fraid not."

"Can I try again?" Dawn asks, noticeably embarrassed.

"No need," Bobby says, reaching into his pocket. "Here's your envelope."

He hands Dawn the envelope identical to the other ones.

"You had it? Who gave it to you?" I ask, shocked.

"It was given to me by a sweet teenage girl." He answered.

"Can you tell us what she looked like?" Dawn questions.

"She had curly orange hair pulled back with a black hairband," He describes, "and freckles on one side of her face."

"Wait. Are you sure it was one side?" I ask to clarify.

"It was hard not to notice." He explains. "The right side of her face was completely clear, except–"

"One mole to the side of her eye?" I strain.

"Yes, that's correct." He says. "She told me that this was a scavenger hunt for her mother's birthday. Is that not the case?"

"Dawn– I mean, uh, Lily, we have to go right now." I grab her arm and start running. "Thank you very much, Mr. Bobby!"

"Uh, no problem, kids!"

"See you again some time!" Mary calls.

"What's the matter, Kelly? Is something wrong?"

"That girl he described. There's no other girl who looks like that." I answer, panting and fidgeting for my keys.

"That girl is Sam's best friend, Cassie."

N/A Thanks for reading! With this chapter I've finally hit a total of 20,000 words! Woohoo! Be sure to comment your favorite part of the story so far, and what you think will happen with our "mystery" character in the next chapter! Love y'all~

A/N So this is months and months after posting this chapter- I must be some kind of idiot because the civil war was like two hundred years ago and this story is set in modern times. I'll change the war eventually, just not right now.