They're back at Tom Waters's house, again. Sunshine slowly steps up on the patio and clangs the door knocker against the wood, leaning back and nearly running into Nolan, who's being clingier than usual. Ugh.

Oh. Oh. The door sways open from the pressure of Sunshine's palm, a draft pulling the wind inside.

"Oh. Well that's dandy," Nolan says.

Sunshine frowns, heart thumping wildly in her chest. "The door is open," she mutters, more to herself than anyone, leading the way inside of Tom's house. "Mr. Waters?"

"Are you sure we wanna be in here?" Andrew asks hesitantly.

"Mr. Waters!" Sunshine whispers-yells, ignoring Andrew.

"Hey Tom?" Nolan calls louder, peering over their heads into the kitchen. As they walk past the living room Sunshine realizes most of the lights are off, save for one in the open study. The static of the box television gives off an eerie, unwelcoming vibe. "The door was open."

"Shhh, you don't have to yell," Sunshine grumbles, "What if he's, like, sleeping or something?" She looks into a side bedroom. "Go look in there."

Nolan shuffles over and pokes his head inside the dark room. "Mr. Waters?" he whispers. No answer.

"Sir?" Andrew tries. "Sir, are you there?"

Sunshine doesn't have a good feeling. The closer they inch toward the kitchen, the tighter her stomach seems to clench. She thrums her fingers along her jeans, twitching slightly from the pain.

"Okay, maybe he's not here, right?" Nolan pads up behind Sunshine and Andrew, hesitantly glancing around. "He left his door open, we don't need to be here when he gets back— let's just come back later."

Sunshine doesn't listen. She can't listen. Something buzzes in her ears and her mind feels like it's floating. "No," she replies, but the word feels foreign on her tongue. "I think he's here." She doesn't really know what she's saying, or what is happening behind her, but can recognize that gut feeling.

"Good," Nolan sarcastically says, "you think he's here. Great."

Sunshine makes her way into the back hallway next to the kitchen, blinking at the bathroom light streaming in front of her. "Mr. Waters?" She's not sure why she's calling out— he hasn't answered any of them yet.

Nolan frowns and checks in another bedroom. Sunshine peers into the bathroom, and Andrew nervously looks down the dark hallway. "Sunshine," Nolan sighs, "at this point we're basically just breaking and entering. That's all we're doing."

She looks at him, raising a brow. "We're not breaking in—"

A sharp bang jolts Sunshine into place. Her eyes widen and she blankly stares at the slammed front door, blocking their way out of the house. Oh, wonderful.

"Every time with the—" Nolan runs a hand through his ashen-brown hair. "I'm just saying doors, in general, I hate them now."

"What was it?" she asks, following him back near the kitchen.

Nolan widens his arms to his sides. "It was nothing," he says with an edge to his voice. "Of course, it was nothing. It's always nothing. It's just a—" He scrunches his nose and makes a vague motion.

"So he's not there," Andrew concludes.

"I don't think so. No, I don't see any Tom."

Sunshine has to refrain from rolling her eyes. God, he's in a horrible mood.

"Sunshine, let's go," he stresses, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"No. I know he's here." She slowly turns and walks into the kitchen, eyes widening when she sees a figure standing there. Oh! A kid! Wait, why is there a child in here? Does Tom have children? "Hey, kid, do you know—" The kid turns into another brightly-lit closet.

Okay, random kid.

"Uh," Nolan calls suspiciously, "who ya talking to there?"

"Wait—"

"Sunshine, you saw a kid?" Nolan rushes to her side in an instant, puffing out a breath.

"I wanna talk to you," she says, blindly following

"Where are you going?!"

"Sunshine!" Andrew yelps, following like a lost puppy.

"What happened?" Nolan demands when she stops at a dark green curtain leading to the pitch-black basement.

"There was a boy here," she murmurs. Sunshine feels dizzy and her stomach is flopping like a fish out of water, and god, she can't think straight—

"There was a child in the house?" He throws his arms up. "Did he have black eyes?"

"No, I didn't see his face."

Nolan chews on his lip and closes his eyes in frustration, holding the curtain open for her to pass under. "Sunshine, Sunshine— we have to go, okay? There's nothing for us here. Please?"

"Mr. Waters," she calls down, ignoring Nolan.

"Just for me, not for yourself?"

Andrew's frown deepens as Sunshine begins to descend the stairs. "He doesn't seem like a guy with a kid."

Nolan groans. "Thank you, Andrew." He follows Sunshine down into the darkness, stumbling behind her. He hits the bottom floor and tries to reach out for her, but she's already a few paces forward. "Sunshine, are you sure we should be down here?"

Sunshine stops before she can speak and screams, voice raking against her throat. She stumbles back and Nolan catches her, staring with wide-eyes at the sight. "Oh, shit!"

Tom Waters is hanging from the ceiling, rope wrapped tightly against his throat. His arms are limply splayed at his sides, eyes rolled into the back of his head, color drained from his face. Sunshine screams and sobs into Nolan's jacket, who quickly turns her head away into his chest. They rush back up the stairs, camera crew first for some reason, and break back out the front door.

Sunshine flops to the ground and gasps in air, feeling the grass crinkle beneath her palms. She's shaking so badly she can't even walk, and ends up dropping completely flat on her stomach.

Time goes by quickly and, after what seems like moments, she doesn't really know where she is or what's going on. She knows someone plops down beside her and comfortingly runs fingers through her hair and a hand over her back, but Sunshine doesn't know who... she doesn't even think to wonder.

Blue lights flash in her vision and Sunshine groans. Soft hands help her up and she sniffles, sobbing once more. "Shhh," Nolan whispers, pulling her close to him without even thinking. "Hey, it's okay. Yeah? It's fine. Trust me."

Sunshine trusts him, she thinks. She's confused about the lights and the sirens but comes to realize that the police are here— Andrew must have called.

"Ma'am, will you come with me?" a police officer asks. She numbly follows him to the ambulance and sits down, blinking slowly when a blanket is wrapped around her shoulders. But— but Sunshine doesn't want to be here alone, she wants Nolan, and she wants her mother and Uncle Tommy and— Her throat rumbles with a deep cry.

"Sunshine," a familiar voice speaks. She looks up and sees Nolan, who's trying to smile but failing miserably. She realizes he's been crying. "Maybe you should call your mom."

Her mom. Yeah. Kat will want to know about this and know where they are. But... even then..

The whole thing seems to fly by. Hours have passed, Sunshine's pretty sure, and the police have questioned them and are allowing them to leave. Unfortunately she's the only one that can drive, so promptly leaves the house with a heavy heart and drooping eyes.

"Okay, we're lost," Nolan eventually mumbles from the passenger seat. Yeah. They are. Sunshine doesn't even know where she's going.

"I have no idea where we are," she says.

"Yeah. That's obvious."

"Thanks," Sunshine snaps. She doesn't want to deal with Nolan's moodiness right now, not when that just happened. She does understand where's he's coming from, though.

"Okay, you know what?" Nolan shakes his head. "Stop going in circles, okay? We're not gonna find our way out of here— just pick a direction and let's just go."

"Okay!" she growls, voice raising in pitch.

"Okay, okay."

"I get it!"

"All right?"

"Jeez. And you just—" She sighs, frustrated and shocked and— agh! "Just calm down for a second?"

"Don't get snippy with me!" he snaps back, glaring daggers at her.

"Hey," Andrew sighs.

"Andrew, stop talking," she says, really only able to focus on one annoyance at a time. Nolan is taking that pedestal.

Who feels the need to continue arguing. "I'm not the reason that we're out here, you understand? I'm glad you're having fun! Okay?"

Sunshine groans.

"I'm scared, all right?" Nolan's voice shakes but Sunshine refuses to look at him. She's scared too! "I wanna go home—"

"I get it."

"I'm tired of all this— first, we find nothing, and then we find stuff we don't want to find—"

"Sunshine—" Andrew panics.

"I know!" she snarls.

"Sunshine!"

"What?!"

"Uh," the camera man says, voice deep and grating. "Up ahead."

Everyone looks forward. Sunshine loses her breath when she sees the Black-Eyed Kid from the tram earlier, staring at them with pitch black eyes. Another one rounds to the sidewalk on the left and the girl slowly comes to the side of the car, tapping on the window with a finger.

"Don't do it," Nolan says. "Sunshine, don't open the window, let's just go!"

"I feel like I have to," she growls.

"Sunshine, do not—" Andrew shakes his head.

Sunshine ignores everyone else in the car and rolls down the window, staring at the entity. It looks at her, unblinking. "Can you take us to our Mother? He's really worried."

"Sunshine!" Nolan whisper-yells. "Let's go."

"No! No, we can't, no." Sunshine turns back to the BEK.

"We don't want you to leave us, Sunshine," it continues.

"What?" Her voice trembles and the hair on the back of her neck stands up at the bone-chilling smile the BEK gives. Before anything else can happen, the child smirks and whirls away, running alongside the other entity.

"Sunshine, we have to go," Nolan begs.

"No, we don't." She wheels the car around, narrowing her eyes.

"What? No, no no no no— no, no NO! No! We're not—" She floors the gas, engine rumbling as they begin to follow. "Come on!" Nolan yells.

"I do not wanna follow!" Andrew cries.

"I wanna go home!" Nolan says, lifting himself up, as if he can fly away from the seat. Haha. Good luck. She's doing this.

Andrew tries to reason with her. "Sunshine, I know you want this, but I don't think we should go."

"Yes. We need to."

Nolan shakes his head. "Sunshine, this is supremely stupid, all right?"

"It's not stupid—"

"It is!"

"No it's not!"

"This is how people die in films! Do you understand?" Nolan says in a dark, terrified voice.

"Sunshine, this is dangerous!" Andrew barks.

"It's the whole point of the film," she snaps back. She's the driver. They're doing this. "There they are." She peels the car next to the curb and looks at the two children peering back.

"Sunshine, come on," Nolan says thickly. "We can't do this, Sunshine. Okay? Not now, not like this. Okay? Nobody knows where we are—"

She unbuckles her seatbelt and turns the engine off. "Get out of the car."

"Sunshine— fine! Fine! I will!" He throws himself from the passenger seat. "I'm gonna die today."

The BEKs giggle and run to a dark house. Sunshine swiftly follows, adrenaline spurring her forward. She can see the shapes of the entities in the distance, and then— they're gone.

"Sunshine!" Andrew screams from the distance. Sunshine looks around, eyes wide. He screams as loud as he can, but the echoes of his voice slowly die away, until they can't hear him at all.

"Andrew?" she cries.

"Andrew!" Nolan yells. "Andrew!"

"It's coming from that way," Sunshine says, pointing toward the abandoned house. The camera man turns to look at his boom guy, who shakes his head. They both back away, nearly tripping over their own shoes.

Oh, shit. This is what the camera crew bailing on them looks like. "What are you doing?" she demands. "I paid for that! You can't just— leave!"

Leave they do. In fact, they sprint. Fuck!

At least Nolan has a camera. She picks it up in her hands and sighs stressfully, closing her eyes and tapping her fingers to her forehead. This isn't the best situation to be in.

"Are we good?" Nolan asks, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Can you go?" she sighs.

Nolan stares at her but eventually complies, turning and walking toward the house. "Damnit," he mutters bitterly. "Yeah. You know where Andrew is.."

"In the house," Sunshine mumbles. "Stupid Andrew."

"So now we have to go into the house." Nolan shrugs his way through the broken fence, the edges rattling around his precious leather jacket. Sunshine follows, ducking and missing the snap of the chain-link across what should've been her face, but is now empty air.

"We grab him," Nolan explains as they flank the abandoned home, traveling to the front, leaves crunching loudly under their feet, "fight off whoever's got him, get him back out of the house, get him home, safe— agh." He trips over a root and Sunshine can't help but laugh. "Or—"

"Sorry," she giggles.

"Or, you know what we could do?" He faces her in the darkness of the night.

"Ouch!" Sunshine complains.

"We don't have to go into the house, you know why?"

She looks up at him, raising a brow. "Why?"

"We can call— we'll call the cops, and then we'll have his release negotiated through a— a megaphone—"

"We have no service."

Nolan stops, breath hitching. "What?"

"We have no service," she repeats, "I just checked my phone. This is like a horror film." Well, it kind of is but this is scarier than anything she'd ever imagined. Maybe Kat was right.

"All right. Fine, fine. We'll go into the house. Just be very— very quiet." His voice drops into a whisper as he crouches. "And stealthy!"

"I'm being very quiet!" she whisper-yells back, ducking down as well for reasons she doesn't really understand.

"No one we'll know we're in there," Nolan says. "I mean, how bad could it be? Just some— kidnappers, with weapons."

"Yeah, just some kidnappers with weapons..." Sunshine leans forward and peers through the dusty window.

"Can you see anything in there?"

"No, not really."

"Me neither." He sighs and squints his brown eyes. "You know— we could just leave him. We found him on Craigslist. Right?"

"Nolan!" she snaps. Seriously? Why does he even think that's a possibility? Sunshine shoves his shoulder and he stumbles back. "We can't just leave him."

"I was kidding."

"No you weren't," she mutters, following him up to the porch.

"We gotta find a way in. Unlock the door, or a window, or—" Okay, but this isn't James Bond. "A rabbit— hole. Or something."

"Yes, a rabbit hole." Sunshine rolls her eyes.

God. They just need to get in, save Andrew, get out, and return home.

Sunshine's pretty sure it won't be that simple, though.

Fuck. Looks like they're doing this the hard way.

YO i totally forgot tom waters dies omg i was so shocked i??? anyway this chapter was hella fun to write i can't wait to continue yeah enjoy and stay tuned!