Lena Matthews

"And this is everything?" I asked, glancing down at the file in my arms. Every yuki onna suspect had a profile dedicated to them in this overstuffed manila folder.

"Yep." Makaya confirmed. "Are you sure you have this handled?"

"Yeah. Taylor, Kiara, and Carter are waiting for me at Taylor's." I said.

"And you trust them?" Makaya asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked. "There's no way you can be two Forbidden at once, and I'm pretty confident about each of their identities."

"Fair enough." Makaya shrugged. "I'm going to have a little chat with Mrs. Pearce."

"Tell me everything." I commanded. "If it isn't Mrs. Pearce, then we can present our yuki onna theory to the court. We're going to need all the help we can get."

"I know that," said Makaya. "Trust me honey, my life's at risk too. And I'd prefer that it ended on my own terms." She sighed. "Let me know what you find. I'll see you soon."

"Okay." I said. Makaya walked calmly to her car, which was parked a block away from my house.

I took a deep breath before turning around. The entire walk back, I feared that the papers would tumble out of their flimsy file.

I had shared my yuki onna theory with Carter, Taylor, and Kiara, and they agreed that it made sense. Since I was the only one to actually see the yuki onna, I was technically the most knowledgeable about her.

For a brief time, I had considered bringing Jessica into this. She could probably help, but I was unsure whether she would say something to Mrs. Pearce. It felt like every adult in this town had a strange, unspoken alliance, and since we distrusted one of them, we distrusted all of them. Makaya was the only exception, though. She was an outsider who broke the family rule, and she knew the truth about me. It was too late to take that trust back now.

When I made it back inside the house, I grabbed my coat and phone.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked, staring at the suspicious looking folder I had tucked under my elbow.

"Nothing." I lied. My phone buzzed and I glanced down to check it. It was a text from Jacob.

Are we still on for today?

I sighed, and the folder fell dramatically, its contents spilling unceremoniously across the hardwood floor.

I almost forgot. I have this giant group project and some friends and I are meeting at Taylor's to get it done.

"Lena..." Finn was holding one of the papers in his hand. He turned it to show me a picture of a Japanese woman that read, Stephanie Kawaguchi. 32 years.

"It's for a project." I explained.

Finn glanced down at the photos of suspects that littered the floor. "Most of these people have a pretty similar profile. You're monster hunting." said Finn.

"Am not." I argued childishly.

"So what is this?" Finn asked, neatly stacking the fallen papers into a pile.

"It's nothing." I said.

"So you wouldn't mind if I called Dad?" Finn asked.

"Are you seriously threatening to tattle right now?" I asked.

"You're the one monster hunting. I thought you were over all of this." said Finn.

"I meant everything I said earlier." I clarified. "I'm not monster hunting... I'm..."

Finn looked back down at the papers, the gears turning in his head. "You're trying to save this town, aren't you? And that starts with finding it before Dad."

I glared at Finn, refusing to betray the fact that he was right. Finn tapped his phone, reminding me that his childish threat still applied.

"Okay fine. You caught me. I'm trying to find her." I admitted.

Finn handed me the papers before checking to see if anyone was listening. "I'm not going to pretend that I know what you're thinking, because clearly, you're not telling me something. But let's say, hypothetically, that you find this Forbidden. What are you going to do then? Give it a stern talking to? Ask it to pretty please stop murdering?"

"I'm not sure." I admitted. I hadn't thought about that yet. "All I know is that she's evidence. This mission can't succeed. Atalka doesn't deserve what we're going to do to it."

"Do you know how dangerous going against the Agency is? You're not going do anything that stupid without me." said Finn.

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I'm saying I'm coming with you." said Finn as if it were obvious.

"What?" I asked, shocked.

"Yeah." said Finn, building confidence as he said it. "I trust you way more than I trust Dad. If you're willing to risk everything for this, then I am too. Let's go save a monster."

"Yuki Onna."

"Same thing."

"It's really not."

Finn and I bickered pointlessly the entire car ride to Taylor's. I pointed out every missed turn signal, and even caused him to miss a stop sign. As annoyed as I pretended to be, I had missed my big brother.

I made sure to text everyone that Finn was coming along, and told them that Finn thought he was helping us with a group project. Meanwhile, I had to tell Finn that everyone had no idea about the Forbidden. Trying to keep every lie straight was making my head spin, but at least everyone was on the same page, even if they didn't know it.

"Thank goodness." said Carter when he answered the door. "I seriously don't like being left in a room alone with them. I have no idea what to talk about and I still think Taylor's contemplating murdering me." He paused when he saw Finn. "So you really did bring your brother." Carter scanned Finn up and down before walking back to the kitchen.

"That went well," said Finn.

"You were the one who decided to make a terrible first impression." I reminded him.

"He punched me first!" Finn exclaimed.

"And I'd do it again!" Carter yelled from the kitchen. "Try me."

"Play nice." I instructed Finn. "Don't forget what we're doing."

Kiara had made chai tea for everyone except Carter, and brought an extra folding chair into the dining room to accommodate Finn. A map of the town was unfolded in the center of the table, which had been divided into three parts. I brought out Makaya's folder and let everyone see her curated list of suspects.

"No way it's Nurse Kawaguchi." said Taylor, holding the paper with her name on it. 

"What do you mean?" Finn asked. "What project is this exactly?"

Taylor glared daggers at me for deciding to bring Finn along. Carter crossed his arms, not willing to make up an elaborate lie for Finn's benefit. Kiara cleared her throat awkwardly, noticing how the tone in the room was shifting. A part of me was upset with Finn for even asking about the project in the first place. He knew that it was a cover, he just didn't realize that everyone was in on it.

"Yeah, Ivy?" Taylor asked. "What is the project?"

I glanced around, wracking my brain for something believable. "It's for civics. We're practicing canvassing. One of the people listed in the folder is going to give us our grade when we ask them certain questions." I lied. It was a pretty terrible cover, but one that everyone was willing to accept.

"So if we split into three groups, Kiara and I can take this sector, Lena and Finn can take this one, and then Carter might be stuck by himself." Taylor decided, pointing at the map.

"If someone else shows up, Carter might not be alone." Kiara piped up.

"I don't mind going alone," said Carter. "Do these profiles have addresses? We need to sort them by sector so we know who has who."

I ended up dumping the entire contents of the folder onto the table. All of us sifted through the files, sorting them into three stacks. Taylor paused to check her phone.

"I've been downstairs for almost an hour. I really need to check on something." She grabbed Nurse Kawaguchi's profile before heading upstairs. "Might as well ask her my questions." She added.

I made sure Taylor was out of sight before asking, "How is he?"

"He's not good." said Kiara, not wanting to say much more about it.

All of us continued to filter the suspects patiently. While a lot of them looked like Japanese females, there was some variety. I spotted a couple of guys, and more than a few people that didn't look East Asian. I knew that predispositions weren't exact, and that there was a high chance Makaya had missed someone. Still, this was the best shot we had.

There was way too much riding on this to give up now.

The doorbell rang, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts. I opened the door to reveal Jacob Wilde, a bag of takeout in his hand.

"What are you doing here?" the words slipped out before I could think better of them. I hadn't meant to sound rude, but this was the last person I had expected to see today.

"Kiara didn't tell you?" Jacob asked. "I thought I was supposed to come."

I turned to glare at Kiara, who was focusing intently on her tea and trying not to laugh. Taylor walked down the stairs to find Jacob in the doorway. She quickly put the pieces together and turned to Kiara accusingly.

"Seriously, Ki?" Taylor asked.

"I can go," said Jacob.

"He brought food. He should be able to stay." Kiara replied pleasantly. Taylor crossed her arms like an angry mother, but conceded to Kiara's logic.

"That means Lena can partner with Jacob, and Finn can partner with Carter." Taylor announced.

"Are you sure about that?" Finn asked.

"Are you scared or something?" Carter asked. "I don't bite." All of us stared at him for his really unfortunate choice of words. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?" Carter asked, exasperated. "Oh wait. I hear it now."

"That's not what I'm worried about," said Finn. He glanced at me, then Jacob, and back at me again. I rolled my eyes.,

"He's just a friend, Finn." I hissed so that Jacob couldn't hear.

"Fine." Finn agreed. "I'm more than happy to work with Carter if he's okay with that." Carter gave Finn an awkward thumbs up. "See? It's settled. Just don't do anything stupid, Ivy."

"Me? Do something stupid? Never." I said. As expected, everyone groaned at my tactless lie.

"Hey. Ms. I-don't-do-stupid-things. A word." Taylor nudged her head to the side as she spoke.

"Sure..." I responded uncertainly. Taylor's motives were always unclear to me.

Taylor directed me to the living room and sat down unexpectedly close to me on the sofa. She glanced back at the kitchen to make sure no one was listening. "You know you can tell her to stop, right?" Taylor asked.

"I'm not sure what you mean." I admitted.

"Here's something you might not know about Ki. She's always seen relationships as shiny little toys that you play with and then throw away when you get bored. If Mrs. Pearce hadn't banned both of us from dating, she would have gone through half of the students at the Academy." Taylor explained.

"Your point?" I asked, besides the fact that Mrs. Pearce was a control freak.

"My point is that the way she sees what she's doing and the way you see it are different. She started a rumor about you, she felt bad, and now she's giving you a shiny toy to make up for it. She doesn't understand how emotions can get tied up in these things." Taylor continued. "All you have to do is tell her to stop, and she will. She's not trying to make you uncomfortable or get into your personal life. She thinks she's giving you an apology gift, not forcing a relationship on you."

"It's fine." I said.

"Is it?" Taylor asked, crossing her arms.

"Don't look at me like that." I defended hotly.

"I'm giving you an out." Taylor clarified. "And you're not taking it."

"Don't we have more important things to worry about?" I asked. "I don't even like him like that, so let's focus on finding a killer."

"If you don't like him, stop dragging him along and have Kiara stop. It's that simple." said Taylor.

"It's not!" I argued.

Taylor glared at me.

"It's not." I repeated with a softer, but insistent tone.

"I'm just saying: getting dragged along when the other person doesn't have feelings for you is absolute torture." said Taylor. Her expression didn't give me a single clue about who she was talking about.

"Are you guys done gossiping?" Kiara asked, interrupting the conversation. "We're ready to go."

Taylor stiffened immediately, terrified that Kiara had almost caught her acting with real feelings for once.

"We're done." I assured Kiara. "Let's go."

I tried my best to explain to Jacob that we were doing a civics project, but I could tell that he didn't totally believe me. I didn't blame him. I usually prided myself on being a sufficient liar, but the project was a flimsy cover. On top of that, I refused to let Jacob see the files. Even I had to admit that it looked suspicious.

"I just don't get why half the town would volunteer for this." said Jacob as he drove us to our sector of Atalka.

"Have you ever been to school before?" I asked. "Like normal school. No homeschooling, no online, no private classes."

"No." Jacob admitted sheepishly.

"Well, this kind of stuff is normal for people who go to school normally. No offense." I felt bad for using Jacob's inexperience against him, but it was better than telling him the truth. Jacob was the only person I knew who wasn't caught up in the Forbidden or the Agency.

"Okay, first up is Tiffany Moriyama." I announced, pulling out the first file. Makaya had mentioned that she was chosen because she had a lot of preconditions for a yuki onna, even if she wasn't registered as one of the Forbidden. Being Mrs. Moriyama's daughter, she was already half Forbidden, and fit the Japanese female guidelines.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Jacob asked.

"Second house to the right." I instructed, pointing.

"And she has no idea we're coming?" Jacob asked.

"Don't worry about it." I replied.

Thankfully, there was a car in the driveway already, which meant that Tiffany had to be home. Jacob opened the passenger's door and helped me out of the car, even though I was capable of doing it myself.

I took a deep breath as I walked to the front door of the Moriyama residence. I knocked gently, knowing that there was a solid chance I was knocking on the door of a killer.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed that chapter! It was nice to see everyone interacting in a more casual way. It's always a lot of fun for me to write the more lowkey scenes. But we have a lot of moving parts: Kiara's scheming, Finn's change of heart, and Taylor's interesting sidebar. Never a dull day in Atalka, I guess.

QOTD: If you have any yuki onna theories, now's the time to let it out. A particular yuki onna will be exposed in the next chapter. Until next time...