Thomas was restlessly walking towards his fields. The warm, yellow lights of the streets were still glowing strong, but the calmth had returned. The police had banned everyone that wasn't an officer of the law from the station, so now he kept paving around the town, hoping he could calm his racing mind.

"Pssstt..."

Thomas turned around at the sound, but only saw darkness stretching over the meadows. He shook his head before continuing his wandering.

No one else seemed to have the same problem he had. They would all sleep well, knowing they caught the killer. Or so they thought. In times like these, he wondered how Esmeralda could have lived here, with these narrow minded people. People that were convinced that they captured a serial killer because they found a woman they didn't recognize at the scene. Thomas sighed, he used to be one of them. A person from a small town, thinking the world was simply good and easy. Their biggest problems being the talk of the town. How wrong they all were.

He felt bad for Mykayla. Once again, she became the scapegoat. He felt restless, Mario's endless amount of questions had made certain memories resurface. Memories that hurt because he would never experience them again. Esmeralda wasn't here anymore. He felt powerless because once again, he was in a position where he couldn't do anything.

"Psst..."

There it was again, that sound. Thomas turned his head, looking for the noise. Out of the shadows along the houses, Luna appeared, her eyes darting from left to right.

"Oh my goodness, you're okay."

Thomas ran towards his little friend and swung her around in the air. Her eyes looked sad and tired. It made her look a lot older than she was, and that made Thomas angry. Not at his younger friend, but at the world, for being cruel to someone as innocent as Luna.

"How do we get my sister out of prison?" Luna sounded just as distressed as she looked.

"Relax, she'll be fine. Mario, my best friend, is interrogating her-,"

"-trying to," Luna corrected him.

He almost snickered before he realized what Luna meant. Thomas' eyes turned big at the realization.

He sighed in defeat. "She'll never cooperate, will she?"

Luna shook her head.

"Oh boy, that ... is a problem. Not cooperating, her warm personality and the fact that they found her at the crime scene is not a great combination."

"No shit," Luna huffed. "So when will we break her out? Or do you always leave a teammate behind? Because that would be nice to know right now, before we actually take on the freakin' devil."

Thomas was taken aback at her straightforwardness. Thomas had noticed it before, but it kept surprising him how cold she could be. Her aura had shifted to a much darker color over the years. He wondered if it was only because of the circumstances or if the warm, cheerful girl simply left once puberty had started.

"Not tonight, she's too heavily guarded. Let's wait a day and break her out at night, when everybody is asleep. The police station is always empty, the officers don't really work overtime. I'll speak with Mario first. If there isn't a case against her, we'll let the system do its thing. It's much cleaner that way and it won't leave a wanted poster behind," Thomas explained.

Luna seemed to consider his plan. For a second, he feared her clear impulsivity would get her in a rather unfortunate situation.

"I guess you have a point. But if she isn't out by tomorrow, I'm breaking her out. With or without you." Her arms were crossed and her eyebrows pulled up.

Thomas threw his arm around the red-heads shoulder, and hummed.

"Come on, let's go to my house. You need sleep and I'd feel better if you were close by." He gave a small rub on her shoulder, before leading her towards the White River. "Nice sweater, by the way."

Luna's smile was immediate, and her body seemed to relax.

"It's Vanessa's favorite shirt," Luna said in a warm tone, but her eyes fell to her glittering sneakers.

Thomas's heart squeezed painfully in empathy, he recognized that pain in her eyes. He saw it every time he looked inside a mirror.

"You guys were close?" He asked, trying not to prod too much, but he was also genuinely curious about his old friend's life. He had already noticed the many times Vanessa's name had fallen. Together with the sadness he kept finding in Luna's eyes, the girl must be important to Luna.

"Yeah, she is my girlfriend." A shy smile curled the corner of her lips and her cheeks turned an innocent pink. Where her maturity had leaked out before in her sadness, her youth now glimmered like a morning sun.

Thomas smiled at her genuine happiness, that was until he realized something.

"Wait, weren't you dating Andy?"

"Well." Luna looked uncomfortable. She sighed, then rubbed her face and put her wild hairs into a ponytail. "Yeah, but also, not really."

Luna walked in front, turned around and kept walking backwards.

"Mom and dad didn't like me dating a girl. Surprise, surprise." She rolled her eyes. "Especially not someone like Vanessa, who came from a much poorer family. When they learned Vanessa was deaf as well, well ... I deserved more, they said." Luna huffed in disbelief. "They didn't even know her. But their image, goodness, that would not be good for their image. So ... they casted me out, just like Mykayla."

She turned around, looked towards the big mansion towering on top of the northern hill. The Devon mansion, or rather Luna's home.

She exhaled slowly. "Not exactly like her, but the result was the same. Two weeks before Ness got kidnapped, I went to live with her. The Delgado's are really nice people," Luna seemed to cringe, but went on. "I couldn't take it anymore at home, so I ran."

Tears rolled down her face, and her hands were once again busy with her hair, this time curling it in a bun.

"Hey," Thomas had pulled her in a side hug. "Why are you crying?" They stopped walking and Thomas lowered himself to Luna's height, bending his knees only a little bit.

"It was my fault." Her voice broke into a painful whimper.

"What? No, it's not. How can it be your fault?" Thomas asked, genuinely shocked at this confession. How could she think what happened was her fault?

"Yes, it is Thom. I was the reason why we were in the forest that night." She sounded defeated and angry. "Vanessa was jealous of me and Andy. She wanted to have what Andy had, she wanted to be the person on my side wherever we went. I couldn't do that to my parents, even after all of their judging and manipulation. I still couldn't ruin their lives." Frustration slipped between her words. "We got in a fight and that's why we went to the woods. We went for a walk. To talk in private."

Her shoulders dropped in defeat. It made Thomas uneasy to see how much she blamed herself for everything that happened.

"Hey, come now. What happened wasn't on you. Yes, you guys fought, but that's not the reason why Vanessa was captured. That's not on you." His hands were gently placed on her shoulders. He made her look at him, making sure that she understood his words.

"But what if she dies?" A broken whimper was the only thing left of her strong voice. "She would've died with the thought that I didn't want her by my side. Thom, how could I live with that? I was so stupid to put my parents before her happiness. Again."

Tears were freely running down her youthful face. She hid her face inside her hands and cried. How could a person look so old and so young at the same time? Thomas wondered. This girl has gone through so much at such a young age. He started to think that maybe the mayor and his family weren't so perfect after all.

"Hey, hey," Thomas hugged her in a comforting embrace. "We'll find her before anything can happen to her, okay?"

It stung to promise the girl something that he didn't know was even possible. But seeing the corners of his young friend's mouth turn upwards, even if it was only a tiny bit, made it worthwhile.

***

"Come on, man. I want to see the face of Esme's killer."

Thomas's voice bounced off the windows of the glass bulb office from his best friend.

"Possible killer," Mario corrected. "We don't know if she's guilty yet. And to be honest, we don't really have a lot to go by. Even though most of the town wants her to pay for what she did, we don't have any evidence leading to this girl. We don't even know who she is," Mario explained in his typical work tone. Not showing his emotions, but having enough feeling in his words to not come over as a cold careless person.

"Please, man. You know how much I need it. Maybe it'll trigger a memory of that day that can help us."

"Or maybe it'll make you relive that day and send you back into your black hole of depression. I'm sorry, Thomas, but I can't," he said with a comforting hand on the other Latino's shoulder.

"Fine," the younger man said, "but if you think the idea of this person sitting behind bars doesn't already pull me inside that hole you speak of, you're very wrong." He sounded a bit irritated, and not for the reason Mario probably thought. He expected it to go a bit smoother than this.

Mario rubbed his hand over his wrist, a sign that he was fighting an inner dilemma. Thomas turned around, ready to walk out of the office. Before he was out of the door, Mario coughed, trying to get his friends' attention. Thomas' lips pressed together into a small smile.

"Okay, fine. But you only get two minutes. I'll distract the idiots here," Mario sighed. "And Thom, please don't do anything that might get me fired."

Thomas turned around, his lips still pressed together while he nodded.

***

Thomas entered the room with the two holding cells. Mario shut the door behind him, starting a fit about the broken printer. Only one was occupied, which was more than usual. These cells were mostly used for drunk people, who got released by the next day when they slept off their intoxication.

"Great, you're here." Sarcasm was dripping of Mykayla's words.

Mykayla was sitting slouched on the metal bed, her back against the wall, her head tilted back.

"And I thought that a prison cell might make you friendlier, I guess I was wrong. Listen up because we only have two minutes."

"That's not very much," Mykayla agreed. "Which means you're going to listen to me first, because I've something important to say."

"What?" Thomas protested. "No, I came here to talk to you, so I'm going first."

"Idiot, this is more important, so listen." Mykayla jumped up from the bed, grabbed the bars and leaned as much forward as she could. Thomas sighed in annoyance, but kept quiet. "When I was in the woods, I found Perry's phone. It was pink and sparkly. When I heard those idiots come, I had to hide it again. In case,"

"- this might happen?" Thomas's left eyebrow was pulled up while he had a small victorious grin across his face.

"This isn't funny, dumbass. Time is counting down and we're still nowhere. Just get the damn phone and find out who she met up with."

"Fine, I'll text Luna to meet me there."

"Glad to hear she's fine." Thomas was getting used to that frown between Mykayla's eyes.

"Don't be like that, you interrupted me before I had the chance to tell you that she's fine. She's worried by the way."

"Good, that means she understands how bad the situation is. Now get going. And be angry or something! I don't know, can you get angry? Oh and before I forget, figure out a plan to get me out of here!"

Thomas swung his hands in the air in defeat while he sighed. This girl was impossible.

"What?" The girl asked innocently.

"I was going to say that. We have a plan to break you out of this prison tonight."

"Tell Luna, I'm proud of her."

That only won the girl a 'seriously?'-look. Which got returned by a smirk and a victorious glistering in her eyes. This girl had just too much fun in pushing Thomas's buttons.

Thomas used his frustration towards Mykayla and turned it into a dramatic slam against the bars to alarm Mario.

When Thomas burst through the door, he walked past Mario and out of the police station. He could only hope that his theatrical slam didn't get Mario into trouble.

On his way to the forest, he texted Luna to meet up with him at the crime scene in the woods. Before he had the chance to slip out of town, two familiar faces intercepted him.

"Thomas?" Sinu, Esmeralda's mother, asked before she pulled him into a bone breaking hug.

Just in time, he held his sigh inside. He was not going to get to the forest any time soon.