A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

Sleep schedule still not as consistent as it used to be, the morning hours that day had been no stranger to him. He had received a couple hours of sleep until eight in the morning when he had heard more than a few people in the funeral home. No doubt, (f/n)'s parents were hosting a funeral. Normally, he wouldn't have cared for whom, but he had recognized the first name, and it was one he wished that he never would hear again. Annoyingly, he hadn't been able to fall asleep, so he had committed himself to more research. Eventually, he had drifted off to unconsciousness again about four hours later.

He had been expecting to sleep through the rest of the day, but a similar noise woke him up again. A groan escaped his tired lips, and he rolled onto his stomach and cuddled his face into the pillows, wishing that at least her scent was there to greet his waking state. Instead, it didn't smell like much to him except the laundry cleaner that her mother used on the linens. The chemical smell was surprisingly inviting, and he was thankful that she didn't decide to use food- or certain plant-based smelling detergent. Otherwise, he might've gagged upon waking up.

When the noise didn't end, he tuned his ears in more and figured that another service was happening. The name of the deceased soon hit his ears next, and he shoved his head into the pillows more. Just his luck, it was another one of those kids. Thankfully, it wouldn't be all four since they still couldn't find the other two, and he doubt that they ever would. Those two's skeletons would be lost in the waters of that cave forever. Well, the one might've flowed to a different underground area. A slight giggle parted from his lips. They deserved that for trying to keep vital information away from him in hopes of taming him like some pet.

Once more, though, he tried to slip into sleep, but like before, he failed after several minutes. Another groan parted from him, and he moved out of the bed. His feet carried him over to the desk, and he turned on the laptop. It loaded up soon after, and he noted that the time was five pm. Admittedly, he had slept long enough. (F/n) needed his help, and he had enough energy for the day. He just wished that he didn't have to wake up to another one of their funerals.

Seating himself at the desk, he frowned a bit. Oliver Lahim. He tsked. What an idiot for trusting that group of kids. The kid should've run away when he had the chance. Instead, he had chosen to confront him, and he severely had lost. His attention, though, shifted to his right.

Leaning back on the chair, he reached out and pulled the curtains back slightly. Outside, people dressed in black proceeded to the burial site for the urn with his ashes in it. The curtains slipped back into place before anyone saw him, and he positioned the chair normally again. When he died, his wish was to be buried or cremated with the hope that his pink flower would be placed next to him. Maybe, their ashes could be combined into one urn, or their bodies placed together in a couple's coffin.

Unfortunately, he doubted that would happen, but it was nice to think about, especially since his parents probably never received such treatment. His lips fell down into a slight frown at the memory of his grandfather. If only he could kill him again. Then again, that man didn't deserve to view the world another time.

As his thoughts continued to delve down that road, he forced himself to take a breath and stop. The funeral and his grandfather were distractions from his main objective; he needed to locate some information about where Callest would've taken (f/n). Already, he had created that list for her parents, and they were exploring places separate from those ones. Both they and he also had compiled a larger list of all of the potential correct spots, and the amount of places was overwhelming. They couldn't let that deter them, however, from finding her.

During his search on his first day, second, third and now fourth, paranormal groups would pop up too. Some were advertisements and others were reports about their findings, which were kind of advertisements in their own way. The information was frustrating due to the group of kids, who were a mockery of the groups online, and because it reminded him of that human: the one who he had promised to torture and kill.

It still pissed him off that the male and one of his colleagues had helped his partner out of Castle Lake. Perhaps, they never would've encountered Callest if that hadn't happened, but that thought also pointed out that if he just had ended the game, (f/n) wouldn't be in his clutches either. Back then, though, he hadn't wished to end the game except for when he first had encountered her after the amusement park. His anger and jealously had gotten the better of him.

After she had calmed him down, though, he desired to keep it going, give her more chances. It bought him time, and it kept up appearances. Combing his right fingers through his locks, he released a sigh at it all before he clicked on the next location. His eyes scanned over the information, and the deserted mansion seemed like it might fit, but it also was a tourist attraction with high ratings. He doubted that it would receive such reviews unless Callest or another one of his kind, if there were any more, had managed somehow to write those different reviews himself.

But since he found video footage of humans entering and leaving in one piece online, he doubted that to be the case. Again, he could be wrong, but he still was marking the location as a low possibility. Tourists or not, Callest didn't want to draw attention to (f/n) or him, and he imagined that his partner wasn't exactly being quiet during her captivity with Callest. The thought made his stomach clench dreadfully, and he pushed out any images of torture scenes from his mind.

Closing the information about the mansion, he went to click on a new link until his eyes fell upon another paranormal group. He would've skipped over it since he didn't have the patience for one presently, but he paused upon seeing a familiar name in the description below: Nick Calamiss. The creature wanted to ignore it, but he didn't move the arrow. Rather, it stayed hovering over the link to the website: Paranormal Inquiries.

His right index finger tapped the side of the laptop slightly. He didn't know what to do. Much to his irritation, (f/n) knew Nick better than he did, but he seemed ... capable. After all, he had survived his wrath twice, but the human did have (f/n)'s help. Still, he deserved some credit for sneaking his little helper out of that amusement park. And, he had more knowledge about abandoned locations. Maybe, the human only investigated haunted areas, but those tended to be deserted locations. Some probably were like that tourist mansion, but others most likely were lesser known or were just too dangerous to enter without the right equipment.

Personally, he did wonder why her parents hadn't mentioned him before as a possible source, but he figured also that they didn't want to drag someone else into the huge mess. Either that or they had forgotten about the human male in all their worry. But, the truth was that they required more aid. They could formulate a massive list of all of the locations Callest and (f/n) could be, but searching them would be ... Well, things just weren't in their graces.

There also was the simple fact that Nick had researched his species before. He found a legend about them, which was the truth, as well as old police reports. Nick knew how to navigate such information better even if he hated to admit it. Sure, he may have known about the pregnancy on his own, but that was because of his grandfather, and that man wasn't exactly around anymore. As much as he'd love to torture him to get more details out of him, the creature again didn't wish for his grandfather to behold the world again.

Despite his own will to resist that option, his mind practically was yelling at him to click on the link. And, it wasn't like he could call Nick again. Most likely, he had changed his number. In fact, he did know that because he had tried calling the male just to mess with him back during those seven months with (f/n). A little prank here and there had entertained him at points when (f/n) hadn't been available.

Perhaps now, though, he could call him ... if he had to. His site might give him enough information. Hopefully, it did because he really didn't want to resort to contacting the male directly. Working with him wasn't exactly on his agenda, but he would if he had to for (f/n)'s sake even if he'd much rather rip the human's head off.

With great reluctance, he clicked on the link and watched the website load up. The homepage had pointless information and talked about the team and their past experience. He noted that there were no pictures posted of the crew. Probably, it was a safety matter enforced by Nick. At least, he was that smart. There was a page, though, that listed examples of some their past work, which could hold potential.

Moving to that page, he scrolled over the locations. Some, he had found on his own, and others were new. Those ones he wrote down, and he marked whether they had a low or high chance of success. Each of them was in a different region too, which only added to the difficulty of learning where (f/n) was, especially since the high potential ones were in farther out spots.

Finished with the page, his optics diverted to another link on the website: availability. Curious, he hit the link, and when the page loaded on screen, he read the hours that someone could email them. There was no call number, and they requested certain info to be listed in the email, such as name/company name, location, details of events happening there, etc. That didn't catch his focus too much. No, it was something else on the page that caught his attention, and he read over it multiple times to ensure that he was reading it right.