Sunshine is jerked awake by a scream downstairs. She immediately fumbles for the camera, turns her lights on, and clicks record.

"Sunshine!" her mother screams from downstairs.

"Mom?" Sunshine practically leaps from the bed, memories rushing back in torrents. She wonders, for a moment, if the demon is back, if the demon is just leading her somewhere with Kat's voice—

No. She can't think like that. If her mother is in trouble, Sunshine has to help. "Mom?" she calls again, stumbling into the darkness of the upstairs hallway.

"Sunshine, come here, help me!" Kat exclaims, closer this time. Her voice turns panicked. "Help!" She begins to sob, then screams from deeper in the house.

"Mom!" Sunshine is fully alert now. She runs down the stairs and makes it to the kitchen, wiping her gaze across the empty rooms. She backs away and turns toward the living room, where most lights are off. "Mom?" No answer. "Mom, where are you?"

Sunshine makes her way towards one of the back door and frowns. It's gaping out into the darkness of night, cold air flowing in. "Why is the door open?" she mutters, more to herself than anyone else. Sunshine feels that prickle of adrenaline rush through her veins we she sticks her head in the backyard. "Mom?" The sprinkling of rain is quiet, but Sunshine has a harder time hearing out here.

She slides the glass door shut and turns. A gasp wrenches from her throat and she jerks back when Victoria is suddenly standing in front of her.

"It's okay," Victoria says. "Sunshine." She shakes her head softly and sighs. "I need you to understand how important it is to determine the difference between what is real, and what is paranormal."

Sunshine narrows her eyes but says nothing.

Victoria continues. "That— that wasn't your mother screaming."

"What do you mean?" she asks, panic rising. "Is my mom okay?"

"She's fine," Victoria assures as Sunshine backs away. "She's okay." A breath. "What I mean is that, there is a difference, and that difference is whether you can hear something or whether you can feel it. And when you feel it, that means that it's real. Do you understand that?"

"Y-yeah," Sunshine stutters, unsure of what to say. She did notice the lack of feeling in her gut — the hint that her mother's screaming wasn't even real in the first place. But she can't always tell. It's hard to tell, with everything she's been through. Sunshine can't help it if she feels like her mom is still possessed sometimes. "Why can't— my mother hear us?"

"Because I've created it so that she can't hear us. That's— that's one of the powers that I acquire."

"W-will I have— that power—?"

Victoria nods and gives a small smile. "Yes you will."

"Oh."

"You'll have— you'll have many powers."

"Oh," Sunshine dumbly says again.

"You just have to learn them." Victoria turns away and walks back into the living room.

"Wait." Sunshine starts following. "Victoria, wait!"

She turns around.

Sunshine's heart pumps heavily against her ribcage as she stares at Victoria. The question burns on her tongue, and she realizes that she has to ask. If she doesn't, she...she may never get an explanation. "Why did you help kill Anna?"

Victoria's face morphs into one of grief and distress. "Because... like you, I didn't know the difference." Her voice breaks and she swallows hard. "I thought what I was hearing was real. And I was just doing what I was told." She whirls around and walks through the shadows, opening the front door.

"Victoria..." Sunshine whispers.

She leaves.

Sunshine sighs. I really wish she would stop coming and going like that. She raises her brows. Couldn't she just knock like a normal person?

No, apparently not.
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"So, apparently," Kat begins as she sits beside Sunshine in the living room, looking at the camera, "you guys like— follow up videos, or something?"

Sunshine makes a face. "Yeah, they always have."

"And so— they always have?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, so—"

"So," Sunshine interrupts her mother, "this is a— recap."

Kat nods. "Follow up. To last night's... craziness."

"Yep."

"That was— bizarre. If you didn't watch it yet, you need to go back and watch it."

Sunshine nods. "Stop watching this one and go watch it."

"Yeah, just go right now." Kat waves her hand. "Cause, there was some crazy stuff with— Victoria and— she— she's crazy."

Sunshine raises her brows. "Sometimes."

Kat stutters uncertainly. "I— I don't know, I don't know— I don't know what she is, I don't know if she's real, I don't know if she's a ghost, I don't know— but she's crazy, I know that part."

Sunshine looks at the camera. "She has weird powers."

Her mother nods. "She does have weird powers, she has powers and— like, is she— I don't understand, is she supposed to be your mentor? Is she—?"

"Yeah, I don't know. Kinda."

"I don't know that I want her to be your mentor."

"Yeah, should we file in for another one?" Sunshine says sarcastically. "I mean, I like Victoria, but I just..."

"I— you do?" Kat's eyes widen and she looks at her daughter incredulously. "You like her?"

"Okay, well." Sunshine tries not to smirk. "Sometimes. I— I don't know!" She looks back at her mother. "I feel like you're judging me."

"No, no, mmm—" Kat sighs. "Please. I'm your mother, I don't judge you. I— I'm still scared of her. Is that— is that normal? I dunno. And there's so much we still don't know or understand about her, and I feel like every time she— appears, we know less, not more."

Sunshine hums. "Yeah, that's..." She nods. Good point.

"Are you scared of her...? You're supposed to have, like, powers. Maybe you're not supposed to be scared of her."

"I don't know." Sunshine shrugs. "I'm not really...scared of her—"

"You're not really scared of anything," Kat grunts.

"Yeah. Well."

Her mother scoffs and shakes her head. "Crazy."

Sunshine looks at the camera in boredom. "So that was all our thoughts."

Kat purses her lips. "I'm sure they have thoughts."

"Yes."

Her mother points at the camera. "If you have thoughts, share 'em, I guess."

"There you go. That was nice. Good— good ending."

The YouTube people will be....happy.
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"All right," Sunshine says, camera in hand, mother beside her. This is going to be one hell of a video. "So..." She's smirking. "Mom has decided—"

"Decided?" Kat looks dubious and amused.

She smiles. "Agreed."

"That's better."

Sunshine sticks her tongue out. "To—"

"She has something on me."

Sunshine looks at her mother with a strange look. "To— answer questions on camera. About....my dad."

"I don't— is that—"

Sunshine grins widely.

Kat laughs. "I didn't think it was gonna be about your dad." She looks down then back up. "Can we talk about something else?" Her voice gets higher. "Let's talk about boys."

Sunshine makes a face. "No."

"Choose?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Okay." Kat looks away.

"So..." Sunshine starts awkwardly. "Dad."

Kat shrugs. "What do you wanna know?"

Sunshine blinks. "Was he part of paranormal cult stuff?" she asks obviously.

Her mother is silent for a moment. "Yes," she finally says sarcastically, "that's why I hooked up with him—"

Sunshine makes a disgusted, weird face.

"I— no," Kat says. "No. This is gonna be a really short video. He— was a really, really cute, sexy—"

Sunshine jerks back with another weird face, caught off guard.

"—bad boy, and I— I was young and stupid, and— it's like a classic 80s movie story. There's no— no, there's no— he was totally— not paranormal-y."

Sunshine stares at her mom like she just said she wants to eat pizza with mustard on it.

"He was just a cool— he was just a cool guy that ended up being a total jerk."

She raises a brow.

"This story has been told a thousand times."

"So....nothing," Sunshine finally says, looking at her mother, "to do with the cult."

"No."

"But Victoria said my dad might've been a—"

Her mother is lost.

"—Luiseach at one time....?"

Kat sighs. "She also told you to sacrifice her. Do we really believe everything she says? Do you think she knew your dad?"

"I don't know," Sunshine says.

"I barely knew your dad."

Sunshine looks around like she's been accused of something. "Okay."

"And no, he never said, 'By the way, I like beer and I'm a Luiseach.' No. No. I'm sorry. I— what, did you want him to be, did that help you—?"

"No, I was just wondering!" she replies, scratching her eye. "Okay? Sorry. Jeez."

"No."

"'Kay." Sunshine takes hold of the camera. "That was all guys. So."

"Told you it'd be short."

"There you go." Sunshine squints and makes a face at her mom.

Well. At least Creepy Guy isn't her dad.
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So, Sunshine hasn't heard or seen Nolan in a while, but that kid is pretty erratic, so she's sure he's doing good. He's done this before, so. Really, nothing to worry about, he'll come back around eventually. She is TOTALLY not worried. And she totally does not miss him. Nope. Not at all.

Also, her toy unicorn hasn't moved in a while. She kinda wonders where Anna is. And she kinda wants to name the unicorn. He's very majestic.

Anyways.

Everything is going great.

Yay. Wonderful. Blah.

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Sunshine hears a noise.

As per usual, Sunshine grabs her camera, turns her lamp on, and hits record.

Except now her lamp won't turn on. Great. This shit only happens in horror movies, so it looks like she's gonna die.

Luckily she has her flashlight cause she is a nerd and sometimes gets scared of the dark. Whatever. Sue her.

Sunshine pans the light around the room, narrowing her eyes. What did she hear earlier? When she flicks the flashlight toward her open door, a face is peering at her, but quickly disappears.

Sunshine jerks. "Victoria? Is that you?" She tries to feel for something in her belly, but....there's nothing. "Victoria..?"

There's a shadow and Victoria slowly walks into her room.

"Victoria." The hair on Sunshine's neck stands up when she hears the inhuman, demonic growl. "What are you doing? Why are you in my house?"

Victoria suddenly screams and runs forward, arms outstretched and jaw widening into a horrific snarl. Sunshine rolls from the bed and cries out, stumbling to her feet and running down the stairs. The adrenaline is pushing her forward and she stops in the kitchen, a scream running her throat raw when she sees Victoria again.

"Sunshine," she says softly. "It's okay."

Sunshine is crying. She can't help the tears rolling down her cheeks or her shaking hands.

"This is me. This is the real me. That up there was not the real me."

Sunshine can't find it in herself to respond.

"You need to be able to determine what is real and what is not." Victoria's tone is serious. "They're getting desperate. The Markons are getting desperate because they know that your power is getting stronger. Are you all right?"

She's breathing heavily, but at least she's stopped crying. Somehow, Victoria is managing to calm her down. Great. Wonderful. This is just splendid.

"Mmhm," Sunshine eventually gets out shakily.

"Promise me," Victoria says.

"Mmhm." Sunshine nods.

"Okay." Victoria sighs. "Please, just be careful. Stay focused. Trust your instincts. Be aware of any Groundlings that come around because they are going to."

Sunshine shivers with fear. "Okay..."

"Do you hear me?"

"Mmhm," she nods quickly.

"This is very important."

"Okay."

"Okay, I'm gonna go." Victoria turns and walks into the living room, opening and closing the front door behind her.

"Okay," Sunshine whispers, staring out at the empty living room.

She's really too damn tired for this.

things are happening

also next chapter NOLAN!!!