The third empty coffee cup slid into the stack I'd made with the first two on the passenger seat. A stern warning from the last barista ran through my head like an annoying fly. Apparently young ladies shouldn't be out so late and hopped up on caffeine. Even my normal school studying excuse didn't shut him up. At least his neck hadn't been as revolting as his opinions.

Sunset had come and gone hours ago. City lights blinked into existence like earthbound stars. I'd parked on a hill that gave a clear view of the retirement home. It was one of the few buildings that had gone dark before nine. Light spilled out of the back windows in two solid squares, flickering shadows dancing over the grass as staff moved from side to side.

I checked the time on my phone. "Looks like it's go-time," I said to myself. Headlights were useless at the best of times given my enhanced sight, but now they would be the thing to immediately give me away. I shut them off and let the car coast quietly until I was a block away. If the car was quiet, I was the complete absence of sound as I ran over the grass.

Barb's old room was on the side opposite the staff room. I ran at the wall and used the momentum to run directly up it and swing into the room through the window I'd left open. So much of it had been packed away in the few hours since I'd been gone. My knees shook for the briefest of moments, but I had no time for sentiments. If things were half as bad as I thought, I was looking at revenge.

The hallway was deserted, which was to be expected at this time of night. I took the opportunity to stroll through the facility instead of creeping through the shadows. It was nice to walk around like a normal person.

A normal person looking to break into confidential records, but I digress.

It only took a quick forceful turn to undo the lock on the door. I caught the escaping screw before it escaped across the floor. It wouldn't do to leave evidence lying around, even if that was exactly what I was looking for.

File cabinets lined the right wall. Unlike the door, there wasn't a single lock on them. That was basically asking for someone to read them. I flicked through the manilla folders as fast as I could, searching for Barbara Wilson. They really should have switched to digital files by now. I could have snooped through them from the privacy of my own home if that had been the case.

I finally found her file in a section labeled Past Residents. "Push through it, Peg," I told myself. My hands trembled just slightly as I flipped through the folder. Her medical reports were here. They were completely clean, Over her time there she'd been to the hospital a few times for both routine health checks and two bad falls. Nowhere did it mention a heart condition.

A light turned on down the hall, pooling under the doorframe. I slid the files back in place and dashed to hide behind the door as it swung open. The man who entered was the nursing home director. The digital clock on his desk read thirty minutes to midnight. Just what business did he have here?

His hand reached for the light cord and I slid out of the room in time to avoid it turning on. There was no more digging I could do if he was planning to be there for long.

I made the long drive home through the winding hills of Southern California without encountering another car. That wasn't unusual for this area and I didn't mind it. The silence and open road gave me room to think.

Barb had been healthy, elderly but healthy. I'd seen her just one week before her death and smelled nothing out of the ordinary. This was nothing like the time I'd pushed Anita to the doctors to deal with the blood clot lurking in her leg. Even with no outward warning signs for that, I had known about it.

If I wanted answers, my next step would have to be the hospital where she'd been treated through her stay at Sunset Hills. Just not tonight. Breaking into hospital records took much more planning than a retirement home. Badges and ID were just the start of what I'd need.

The automated front door light of my cozy two story home was on when I pulled into the garage. I'd installed it years ago when Sean had started traveling more frequently. It felt like I was coming home to someone who cared about me seeing the front door, even if the house was empty.

I called out for him when I got inside, just in case. The box of things Barb had left me was balanced on my left hip so I could use my right side to shut the door. Not a single indoor light was on but I had no trouble finding my way down the familiar hallways to the study. It was there, among my old books and relics from my extended life, that I could finally allow the grief to surface.

Cold tears trailed down my cheeks and off my chin as I sifted through the box. It was mostly odds and ends. A bracelet of Barb's I'd always envied, letters I'd written her that could be left in others' hands, a key, and a sealed letter.

The key got tossed into a ceramic bowl on my desk. It was just the spare to my house from when she'd been able to visit. The letter I carefully opened as if Barb herself might step out of it. A silly notion. It was hand written with a fountain pen. The letters rose and fell in elegant tight swoops across the page, Her handwriting wasn't so different from what I remembered from school.

My Peggy,

I know exactly what you're doing right now. Sitting in some dark room trying to figure out how you could have stopped this all. You listen to me, this wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could have done to stop it. They were always going to come for me.

It doesn't matter now, all that matters is keeping the magic away from them so they can't unleash hell on earth. Pardon my language, but there's no time to mince words. I can't say much in case this is intercepted. You need to find her and keep her safe, Peg, for me.

She is the key to everything and without her there will be no world. I would ask the others but they have their own charges. I need your help where I can no longer go, my dear friend.

They're coming.

These were the last words from my best friend? What kind of dime store trash book plot was this? I tossed the letter down but snatched it right back up. "Who are they, Barb? You could have told me an iota more but instead you decided on being tight-lipped and dead." The paper stayed silent.

This was fine. It wasn't the first time I'd been down a path blindly. When I'd been turned it was all new and there was no one to guide me. The first time I'd hunted had been all instinct and no rules but I'd managed it. This didn't have to be any harder.

I refolded the letter and slid it into my pocket. "What do we know, Peg?" It was my father's voice that I heard in times like this. He'd always pushed for me to be the calm dependable kind of woman that someone would want to marry and take care of their house.

Ideal housewife wasn't in my list of goals anymore but the calm center he'd drilled into my head remained. That and the car were the strongest tangible connections I had to him. So I moved through the house without direction. Once upon a time this had been nothing but an empty shell where I could carve out a new life. Barb had been with me every step of the way, even forcing me to add in a room just for her when she visited.

She is the key to everything...

I'd meandered back to the study and realized I had pulled the spare key out of the ceramic dish. It was small and silver with a square head rather than the normal circle I had for most of my keys. In fact, the key I'd given her was round. The key hadn't had a name carved into the back either but there it was scratched into the back in thin spindly letters.

Liswitch Storage 346

"Clever. I'd expect nothing less," I whispered. The key dug into my palm, somehow not warping in the iron grip I kept on it. I slid into my desk chair and flipped open the laptop to search up Liswitch Storage.