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When Sebastien got back to the apartment he shared with Mathew and Mavis—whom he'd promised Clementine he'd take care of, but were pretty much taking care of him since his father disowned him—he flew in through the door and set his eyes on Mathew. The dark-haired, red-eyed boy was sitting in front of the flatscreen TV on the beige rug with a bowl of popcorn and a large stack of papers. The white curtains were drawn, and the smell of cooking bacon came from the kitchen.

          "Matt," he said hastily, kicking the door shut behind him.

          "Oh, Sebastien," the lanky, dark-haired guy said, looking up at him as he stopped to his left. "Did you meet him? What—"

          "You have a car, right?"

          "Yes..." he drawled, his crimson eyes filling with skepticism. "The one the law school provided."

          "Great. I need to borrow it."

          "Is that Sebby?" came Mavis' high-pitched voice. She skipped out of the kitchen in a pink apron with a greasy spatula in her hand and her grass-green hair tied in a bun. When she set her sparkling eyes on Sebastien, she fluttered her butterfly-like wings and smiled. "Is it good news?! Share with us all the what's, where's, and who's!"

          He looked down at Mathew again. "Where are the keys?"

          "Uh...I need the car to get to school, Sebastien."

          "I need the car to get to Aldergrove—"

          "Aldergrove?" Mavis called, still standing in the kitchen doorway. "Why do you have to go to the place you loath?" She then gasped. "His Lord Caedis said yes, didn't he? You have to go and collect Clem's body—is that the key?"

          "What? No—well, he said yes," Sebastien confirmed, "but he's got me completing some task before he grants my wish, and that's why I need the car," he urged, clapping his hands on each word.

          Mathew sighed and pointed to the glass bowl sitting on the cabinet by the door. "Just don't break it, Sebastien. It's not mine to break."

          "Don't you want us to come, too?" Mavis asked as Sebastien made his way to the bowl and took Mathew's car keys.

          "No," he said, heading down the hall to his room. He snatched his clunky cell phone and shoved it into his trouser pocket. Then, he grabbed what cash he had in his savings tin, stuffed two handfuls of clothes into a rucksack, and then carefully slid the white envelope Caedis had given him in there, too.

          "What do you have to do?" Mavis called from down the hall.

          Sebastien shut his door and walked to the front door. "Find some random guy. Simple as shit." He pulled the door open—

          "What was he like?" Mathew then asked.

          Looking over at him, Sebastien frowned. "Lord Caedis?"

          "Mm-hmm."

          "He was...surprisingly chill."

          "Was the Zenith there?" Mavis asked. "I heard he and Lord Caedis always travel as a pair."

          He didn't have time for all their questions. "I think. I gotta go." He stepped outside before either of them could say anything else and shut the door.

          "Call us when you get there!" Mathew called from inside.

          With no time to waste, and a biting desperation eating away at him, he sprinted down the hall and past the out-of-service elevator; he flew down the seven flights of stairs and into the parking lot.

          Mathew's old, rusted red car sat against the far wall. Sebastien raced over to it, unlocked the door, and climbed in. He put his rucksack on the seat beside him, fastened his seatbelt, and twisted the key.

          The car churned and groaned.

          "Come on," he pleaded, twisting the key again.

          With a loud bang, the car started.

          Relieved, Sebastien exhaled and relaxed. But he couldn't get going just yet. He reached into his rucksack and pulled out the envelope. He opened it up and flicked through the papers inside until he found that with instructions telling him how to get from Eimwood to DeiganLupus; once he was there, he knew how to get to Aldergrove.

          "The docks?" he mumbled, reading the instructions. "Take any westbound freight ship to DeiganLupus. Show the enclosed pass to anyone who asks...."

          Sebastien reached into the envelope again and pulled out what looked like a black business card. A shimmering gold symbol sat on the front: a beautiful, twisting A entwined with a Z. The Nosferatu sigil.

          With a smirk, he tucked the card into his trouser pocket. He placed the instructions on the other seat and set off.

          He drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road. Following the road signs, he easily found his way to the docks.

          After asking three different people for directions—and the first two sent him around in circles—he finally parked on a freight ship heading for DeiganLupus.

          It took a while for the ship to start moving, and the weird screamy music he'd found in the glovebox kept him distracted for most of the journey, but when the CD reached the end of the last track and ejected itself, Sebastien just stared at the player. And in the silence, he sunk.

          Sadness lingered in his heart. Despite the fact that he now knew he was going to see Clementine again, he couldn't shake the feeling that something might go wrong, or things might not work out the way he'd been picturing them to. But he didn't understand why he felt this way.

          With a quiet sigh, he rolled down his window in hopes the cold breeze and smell of seawater would force his mind to think about something else. But it didn't help. He kept wondering: what if something happened? What if he didn't get this job done as quickly as Caedis wanted or in the way he desired? He should have asked more questions; he should have asked for some sort of assurance that Caedis would definitely bring Clementine back to him.

          They'd signed a contract, though. Sebastien read its terms, and it very clearly stated that so long as he got this task done—so long as he found Caedis' missing man—then Caedis would bring Clementine back.

          He sighed away his doubtful thoughts and focused on the horizon. As the sun descended, and the sky flooded with an array of orange and purple, Sebastien spotted land.

          DeiganLupus. Perhaps another twenty minutes or so and he'd be back on the road. All he had to do once he reached Ripperton's docks was drive up to Traeychester. But it wasn't Aldergrove Academy he was heading to; he had to get to Alder Estate.

          He reached into the envelope again, but there was no map inside. With an irritated frown, he double-checked. No map.

          "You've gotta be kidding me," he grumbled. He picked up the instructions and read through them. "Blah...blah..." he mumbled. "Blah...follow map on back of—" He turned the paper over, and to his relief, there it was. A map leading from Ulrora Slope's capital to Alder Estate.

          Sebastien glanced out of his window. It was getting dark, and by the time he reached land, it would be past sunset. But that wasn't going to keep him from continuing his journey. He was going to get to Alder Estate tonight. He wasn't afraid of the dark.

          He placed the map beside him and returned the CD to the player. As the music began screaming at him, he leaned back in his seat and gazed out of his window.

          The ocean passed by, the sky faded darker...and once the ship docked, Sebastien followed the line of cars onto the main road. But where every other car turned left to head deeper into Ripperton, he turned right and followed the stretching highway away from the bright lights of civilization and along a country road.

          From Ripperton through Bermondsey, Lambetham, and Iclury. The wetlands were a struggle for Mathew's ancient car, and every time it slipped and slid across the muddy roads, Sebastien was sure he was going to skid into a tar-filled ditch and drown. But he made it through...and when he drove into Itamore—the place Clementine had once lived—he felt that sullen dismay gnawing at his skin.

          Every time he let the sadness in, it felt as though a cold, clawed hand wrapped itself around him and pulled him into a deep, dark sea, and there was no escape. It just pulled him deeper and deeper, stealing his breath, crushing his body, and filling him with the most terribly suffocating feeling of loneliness. Clementine was a part of him, and without him, every day felt longer than the last.

          He did his best to hold on, though. Those ten months of research and planning had paid off. He'd found Caedis, he had made his deal, and now he was so close to getting Clementine back. He just needed to hold on for a little longer. With a deep sigh, he continued his drive through Itamore's thick forestland.

          But not too long after he crossed into Ulrora Slope, his determination simply wasn't enough to keep him going anymore. He was tired...and he needed to rest.

          Sebastien tried pushing through; he drove up the steep mountain roads and navigated the twisting turns. But when he drove down onto flatland and followed a road with thick, gloomy woodland on either side, his eyes became heavy.

          He scowled and leaned forward, but every attempt he made to wake himself—shaking his head, slapping his face—nothing worked. He kept driving, and when he saw the glow of light up ahead, he sped up a little.

          The flashing neon sign of a gas station broke through the thickening fog, and Sebastien pulled into it. He parked in front of the on-site convenience store, got out and locked the car, and headed inside.

          There was no one else in there apart from the guy behind the counter, who gave Sebastien a skeptical glare when he glanced over at him. Quiet country music played over the speakers, and the smell of gasoline and popcorn lingered in the air.

          Sebastien headed over to the fridges and grabbed a pack of four energy drinks and two iced coffees. He snatched some chips and chocolate on his way to the counter, and as he paid for everything, something pinned to the board behind the desk snatched his attention.

          Missing person posters. Eleven of them. Men, women, and children. All different ages. And all from a town called Alderon.

          Alder. Was this town connected to Alder Estate...or Aldergrove Academy?

          "Gold, point-five silver," the shopkeeper said irritably like he'd asked once before but Sebastien hadn't heard him.

          Taking his eyes off the posters, Sebastien took one gold and five bronze coins from his pocket. He placed them on the counter, took his things, and headed for the door.

          "Drive safe..." the man called, and his tone made it sound almost as if he was daring Sebastien to do anything but.

          Sebastien didn't think too much of it, though. As he left the store, he opened one of his energy drinks and downed it as though he hadn't had a drink in days. He tossed the empty can into the trashcan, got back into his car, and sat there for a moment.

          It was 2:45 a.m.

          He yawned and stretched his arms behind his head. As much as his body was trying to convince him that it was time to at least take a nap, he wasn't going to give in. He'd sleep when he reached Alder Estate.

          Reluctant to waste a second longer, he reversed and drove back onto the forest highway.

          He followed the road while his headlights lit the way through the murk. But as he approached a speed limit sign, he saw something.

          Someone.

          A man on the edge of the road. He held his hand out as Sebastien approached, but he wasn't going to stop to pick up a hitchhiker.

          So he drove past, following the road.

          When he swerved around a corner, he glanced at the time again.

          3:00 a.m.

          He yawned and leaned forward a little, but then he saw another speed limit sign...and a hitchhiker holding out his hand. This guy, however, looked older and had a beard down to his neck.

          Sebastien hadn't changed his mind. He wasn't picking anyone up.

          He drove past and glanced at the time.

          3:15 a.m.

          His eyes were getting heavy as he swerved around the bend...and there was another hitchhiker standing next to a speed limit sign. This guy's beard was down to his chest, and he was leaning on the sign while holding his hand out.

          With a frown on his face, Sebastien pressed his foot down on the peddle a little harder.

          3:30 a.m.

          He continued along the road...swerved the corner....

          Another sign, another man. The hitchhiker held out his hand, leaning forward on a large stick he was using to keep himself from falling.

          "What the fuck?" Sebastien uttered, turning his head to get a look at the man as he drove past.

          But he couldn't see much through the man's thick, knotted hair and messy beard.

          He set his eyes back on the road, driving through the fog.

          3:45 a.m.

          Another bend, another sign. No hitchhiker this time, though.

          Sebastien slowed down...and when his car's headlights reveal something piled up on the grass below the speed limit sign, he pressed on the brakes and came to a halt.

          He leaned his head out of the window. "Hey," he called, sure that it was a person sitting with their back against the sign.

          But no one answered.

          "Yo," he called again.

          Nothing.

          He squinted, and as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he was able to make out a backpack and a jacket wrapped around what looked like a man. The last thing he wanted to do was get out of his car in the dead of night, but someone was over there; what if they needed help? His instincts told him to leave, but Clementine had once taught him to be better than that.

          With a hesitant sigh, he got out of the car and slowly approached the guy. "Dude, are you all right?" he called. He wasn't sure why he was expecting a response anymore. He evidently wasn't going to get one.

          So, he walked over there—but it wasn't the face of a man or woman he saw when he stood in front of it. Grinning up at him was the skull of a human; it was picked clean of any flesh and looked like it had been there for years.

          He frowned strangely and looked around...but he was alone. This might not be the first dead body he'd seen, but it was definitely among the strangest of circumstances he'd found himself in. All the way up until this point—every fifteen minutes—he'd seen a hitchhiker standing at a speed limit sign...and this time, the hitchhiker was dead.

          This was either a really odd coincidence...or something was going on.

          Twigs snapped in the forest behind him.

          Sebastien swing around and focused his senses. His ability to see in the dark as if it were day activated and his ethos prepared to shift if need be. But he couldn't see anything. As far as his sharp senses could tell, he was entirely alone. There wasn't a hint of lifeforce for miles.

          He took one last look around before heading back to his car. The moment he got inside, he rolled the window up and sped off. He wasn't going to hang around out here, nor was he going to freak himself out by trying to work out what the hell that hitchhiker shit was all about. As far as he was concerned, it was none of his business. His business was in Alder Estate, and he wasn't going to stop again until he got there.

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