"Okay," Sunshine says. She's in the car, Uncle Tommy pointing the camera at her. She has a neon yellow jacket on. "I...literally couldn't stand it anymore, and uh, we came to Nolan's mom's house."

"Good idea," Tommy notes.

Sunshine shrugs lamely. "Kind of weird, but yeah, so we're here, and I don't know what we're gonna learn, but I brought Uncle Tommy with me as you can see."

"Backup."

"Mmhm," she smiles. "Anyways, maybe she'll have cookies for me or something."

"Cookies are good," Tommy nods.

"Cookies are delicious." She sighs. "So, I don't know—"

"Seriously?" Tommy says, looking past Sunshine.

"Hm?" She turns and follows his gaze, then visibly deflates. She'd thought it was Nolan. Instead it's his probably autistic brother that's slightly annoying.

"Hey!" Colin calls as he runs up, smiling, hands in his jacket pockets. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Hey," Sunshine and Tommy laugh awkwardly.

"Hey, good to see you guys." He grins and leans down towards the open window.

"Hi..." Sunshine repeats, turning to look at the camera and giving a wide, kinda terrified smile.

"How's it going?" Tommy asks, trying not to laugh.

"Good." He smiles, but when he sees the camera stops, appearing shocked. "Oh my—am I gonna be in the—no! Am I gonna be on the YouTube page?!" He jumps excitedly.

"It's okay, it's okay, calm down," Sunshine laughs.

Tommy giggles. "You're so excited. Wow."

Colin nods, grinning.

"What's your name again?" Tommy asks, extending his hand.

"Oh! Colin!" He does a weird handshake that's more of a wrist grab and pulls back.

"Poofy hair kid," Sunshine remarks.

"He has a name." Tommy raises a brow.

"Sorry. Colin. Uh, so you're...at your mom's house."

"I am, yes."

"Is Nolan...there? Is he here? Is he...?"

Colin shakes his head. "We still haven't heard from him, so."

"Well," Tommy says, "we were thinking of going inside and chattin' with your mom to see..."

"Oh! Mom's not home."

Sunshine looks at him. "What?"

"She's..." He shrugs. "On a trip, I don't know, she's not gonna be here for like another two weeks or something."

"Okay," Sunshine frowns.

"House to myself party," Colin smirks.

Tommy laughs, then steers back to the subject. "You still haven't heard anything, though?"

"No, I haven't. No—wait! Oh my gosh!" He digs into his jacket pocket and pulls out a note. "I have this letter."

"You got a...letter." Sunshine glances at it.

"Yeah! 'Colin, please don't love for me—' " He narrows his eyes. "He has terrible handwriting. 'Don't look for me, I'm fine, I'm working things out, I'm taking care of Sunshine—' "

Sunshine makes a face. He's what?

" 'So don't worry, please, I am fine. Don't worry. Your brother, Nolan.' So, I don't even know what that means, but." Colin looks up. "Have you...heard anything?"

"I got a letter too," Sunshine nods. "Um...does yours have a return address? Mine did not...have one."

"Yeah! Mine did."

Sunshine makes a strangled noise.

Uncle Tommy beats her to the chase. "Where was it?!"

"Um...I don't know, I'll have to, like, double check, but I don't know."

"Okay, well...could ya give it to us sometime and we could go and you could come if you want? You could be in another episode!" Sunshine persuades.

"Wait, really?" Colin smiles. "I could be, like, part of the crew?"

"Well, I don't know about that," Sunshine laughs. "You're gettin' a little excited."

"Uh...yeah, sure—"

"We could go right now," Sunshine suggests.

"Uh, well, I can't right now, but maybe, like, tomorrow?"

"...okay. Does it have something to do with your poofy hair or something?"

Colin makes a face. "Yeah, well, tomorrow!"

"Okay, yeah, tomorrow."

"Cool!"

"Okay, we'll just come back here or...something."

"See ya later," Uncle Tommy waves.

"Bye!" Colin says, then slips back off.

"Have...fun!" Tommy says.

"Bye," Sunshine waves awkwardly.

She looks at Tommy.

That was weird.
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"Yeah, I think it's up here on the left."

They're in the car—Sunshine, Uncle Tommy, and Colin—and the world is shrouded in the darkness of night. Colin points to the left as he gives directions.

"Is that...it?" Tommy asks, squinting up at the house.

"Oh, yeah yeah yeah!" Colin says. "That way."

Sunshine freezes. "It's that one?"

"Wait, is that—?" Colin frowns. "That's grandma's house."

"Yeah," Sunshine says. She remembers it very well, especially Frederic Loren. And the fact that Nolan's grandmother apparently had no grandchildren.

"Wait," Tommy laughs, "the grandma you came in looking for the last time?"

Colin makes a face. "Why was he over there?"

"He..." Sunshine shakes her head. "That's your grandma's house, isn't it?"

"Yeah?"

"She lives there, or she...didn't?"

"No, no no. She died," Colin says.

"Oh. She died."

"Sorry," Tommy offers.

Sunshine nods. "Yeah, sorry."

"It's okay."

"A while ago...? Or recently?"

"Yeah, like, a while ago."

"Oh. Okay, well." Sunshine's mind is whirring. Longer than a year ago? Because that's the last time she, Nolan, and her mother went.

"So," Colin continues, "there's no way he's there."

"Uh, yeah. The lady we talked to was not grandma."

"Do you want to go...ask them?" Tommy suggests.

"No! I want to go home," Sunshine says. "This is ridiculous, this isn't—this isn't a thing, why would he use this as the return address?"

Colin sighs. "No idea."

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"Alright," Sunshine says as she stands in her room, "so I wanted to talk about...I dunno, just recap for myself, mostly, just talking to myself and fill you all in on everything that's going on with Nolan and Colin and—for crying out loud, Nolan has a brother! Nobody said anything about his brother, who's Colin, his brother."

Ugh.

"And, where is he? Where's Nolan? Why is he off gallivanting and, I don't know, like—not answering texts or phone calls or emails or letters or other forms of communication? Ridiculous! It's absolutely ridiculous.

"I just...and I don't even know what to say about Colin, I mean. He just shows up out of nowhere! And he's all, like, giddy and excited and I remember when Nolan was once like that and now he's cynical and..." She sighs. "Cranky."

She really doesn't know anymore.

"I just...I almost want to talk to Victoria about this. It's really weird, isn't it? Talk to her about that. She'd be like, 'Oh, Sunshine, you silly little girl,' I don't know. Why would I ever talk to her?"

Victoria walks through her door.

Sunshine gapes for a moment. "Uh. Hi?"

"Hi," Victoria says, serious as usual. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Um...Nolan."

"Okay." Victoria nods. "About?"

"Where is he?"

"He's fine," Victoria says. "He's safe."

"So...I shouldn't be worried?"

"You shouldn't worry yourself about him. He'll be okay."

"Okay." Sunshine feels a little better.

"For now."

Never mind.

"For now," she deadpans. "What does that mean?"

"It means what it means," Victoria says cryptically.

"Okay..." Sunshine rubs two fingers between her eyes.

"Sunshine, you just need to be patient," Victoria advises. "I know that's very hard for you, but you can do that."

She nods slowly. "Okay. Be patient. He's okay."

"Yes. Everything with Nolan will work out."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah."

Victoria raises a brow. "You're going to be okay?"

"Yeah. Just...be patient."

"Exactly." Victoria turns and exits her room.

Okay, then. She has no idea what any of that means.

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"I thought you got rid of it!" Tommy exclaims.

Everyone's staring at the vent. The familiar Latin words rake through on repeat.

"I thought I did too, I'm sorry!" Sunshine snaps. She sighs and looks at the camera. "To fill you all in, it's chanting again, as you can see."

Tommy shakes his head. "What is it even saying? It's not English!"

"It says 'I see you' in Latin, I thought you were watching the videos."

"I—watched some of them, not everything."

"Yeah, mmhm."

"I can't—" He laughs. "You post so many things, kid!"

"Okay, okay, sorry!"

He sighs, looks at the vent, then looks back at Sunshine. "Do something!"

"Well—I don't know what!"

"Why are you not freaking out? It's silenced you guys before!"

"Okay!"

"Sunshine," a familiar voice says.

Uncle Tommy jumps. "My God, it's Creepy Lady!"

Sunshine rolls her eyes. "It's Victoria." And there she is, standing in the middle of the living room.

"...Hi." Tommy gives a small wave. "I'm...Tommy? We met at the warehouse? You look good, you lost weight?"

Victoria ignores Tommy. "Sunshine, can we talk about this?"

"Yes...sure."

"Go for it," Tommy says, taking the camera and showing both Sunshine and Victoria as they near each other.

"I thought we discussed what to do about..." Victoria motions toward the vent. "That."

"Well, I thought it worked, but...it didn't?"

"Well...you know what to do," Victoria says.

In the kitchen, Anna looks on. No one notices her.

The voice grows louder and Sunshine shifts on both feet uncertainly.

"Don't second guess yourself, you know what to do." Victoria nods.

"...Stop?" Sunshine calls out after a moment. "Please?"

Victoria inclines her head forward.

"You need to go away?" Sunshine shrugs.

The voice stops.

Victoria almost looks proud. "Well done."

Sunshine raises a brow. "Thanks?"

As usual, Victoria walks out the back door.

Sunshine throws her arms out. "Every time."

"Wait, so that's it?" Tommy asks.

"That's it."

He smiles. "Awesome."

nothing to say except EXCITED FOR UPCOMING THINGS