"I'm so sorry, Carmen..." Shelby held her friend as she sobbed in the backseat of Amber's car. The windshield wipers squeaked as they furiously swiped away bombardments of rapid raindrops.

"I can't... I just can't accept it," Carmen bawled. "My dad would never do something like that!"

"Your dad wouldn't, and I believe you, but drugs can change a person drastically," Amber said as she drove to the hospital. The time read 3:30 AM. Eleven hours left to identify Rain's murderer.

"I'm sure it was a freak accident, your dad would never hurt her on purpose," Shelby tried to assure her.

"I know," Carmen sniffed. "If he really is the one... whether it was an accident or... It explains why he started taking stronger drugs. Maybe.. that was the only way to cope with what he'd done."

"For what it's worth, I never wanted it to be your dad," Amber said while shaking her head in disbelief and holding back tears for her friends' sakes.

Carmen nodded, giving a dejected "I know."

When they finally arrived at the hospital, the girls rushed out and sprinted to Hayden's room.

"Hayden!" Amber cried out, running ahead of everyone else and nearly crashing into medical equipment. She held his hand and cupped his cheek with the other, hoping to stir him awake from his sleep. "Hayden, I'm here. I'm here."

Shelby and Carmen watched from the doorway, holding back their breaths to wait for what would happen.

"Hayden, please, it's time to wake up," Amber begged, clutching his hand tighter. "Hayden! Cant you hear me? Please, come on now, Hayden. Don't be an idiot. HAYDEN! WAKE UP, PLEASE JUST WAKE UP!"

Amber clutched him by the elbows and shook him harshly with growing desperation until Shelby pulled her off.

"NO! NO!" Amber screeched. No one had ever seen her in such a state.

Shelby turned her around and pressed her head into her shoulder, stifling her panicked yells so she wouldn't draw in the staff. "Shh.. shh..."

Amber sobbed into Shelby's shoulder and held her friend tight to keep herself from sinking into the ground. "Why? Why isn't he awake?"

"I don't know, but we can't lose hope yet! He's still alive, and we still have eleven hours to save him. We have time," Shelby said.

"Carmen! I thought you said you FOUND OUT who the killer was in your visions!" Amber blamed her.

Carmen stood still, unsure of what to say. On one hand, she was horrified that Hayden's life was still on the line. On the other, she felt guilty for being relieved the killer wasn't her father.

"I— I thought it was. In all honesty, my visions have been getting weaker. Moments are starting to blur together, happen out of order, and I'm almost certain some are straight delusions... I'm sorry Amber," Carmen said while hugging herself. "I thought I saw his figure, and heard his voice as I watched him..." Carmen covered her mouth, urging the vile back down her throat. "Hang her up."

"What are we going to do now?" Amber cried out. "If— we don't find the murderer in time then he's going— What are— where are we going to go now? What are we supposed to do? I don't know what," she gasped between sobs, "HE'S GOING TO DIE!"

"No, no he won't," Shelby affirmed.

"I don't understand," Amber said, wiping away hot tears of frustration. "It should've worked. We conducted the ritual at the graveyard, and the EMF meter even detected high levels of spiritual energy. Rain DIED there. Whoever killed her hung her up on THAT tree. We were right next to it, so why didn't the visions work?"

"But... what if she didn't die there?" Carmen thought aloud.

"What do you mean?" Shelby asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What if she got murdered at another location, and they dragged her body to the graveyard to make it LOOK like she hung herself?"

Amber began to pace the room while brushing her hair away from her face. "So you're saying: you don't think the murderer killed her by hanging her?"

Carmen shook her head. "No. They must have killed her somewhere else, in another way."

Amber let out a deep sigh. "Where do we go now? If not the graveyard, where?"

Carmen's eyes light up. "I remember Rain got grounded. The only other place she would have been is.. at the school!"

Shelby, who was unconvinced with this theory, shook her head. "But wait. She snuck out during your very first vision, and she wasn't even grounded then. What makes you think she didn't sneak out WHILE she was grounded?"

The girls stood in silence as they considered other places where Rain could have suffered her untimely demise. Amber paced in front of Hayden's hospital bed as Shelby peeked through the curtains and wet windowpanes, staring out at the lonely streets down below.

Carmen took a seat on an uncomfortable chair with torn fabric. It had probably been worn down from all the decades of stress experienced by family and friends of various patients as they waited for their recovery.

After waiting for an idea in vain, Carmen decided to take out her dad's camcorder and click through old footage. Group photos of Joel, Sloane, and Rain from the 80s flashed by. There were also a lot of pictures and videos of city lights from a distance. One picture was of Rain and Sloane— the other one of Joel by himself— standing next to Sloane's limo. The limo was surrounded by dark trees, and the blurred background glowed with what appeared to be light from the city far below.

Suddenly, it clicked. That was the hill! The same one Rain and her friends had shouted their crush's names from, and the very one that Sloane, or Madam Vadoma, had taken them to after helping Amber escape the rogue police officers.

Carmen stood up and looked at the girls. "Guys... I think I know where to go."

***

"Please let this work," Amber pleaded under her breath as she parked the car. Red headlights illuminated the trees around them. The storm was starting to die down, or so she thought. Amber opened her door only to be met with a fierce gust of wind and a few sparse raindrops. They felt cold and piercing against her cheeks.

Amber shivered and hugged her coat around her. The EMF Meter cried loudly in her pocket. She took it out and made sure to present the wild flash of colors in front of the camcorder Shelby held.

"Well, one thing's for sure. We're in the right place," Amber announced. She shivered again, but not from the relentless wind this time. The buzzing of the EMF Meter indicated residual energy. Something intense and life-changing, or rather life-ending, had unfolded in this very spot at the top of the hill years ago.

"I wish we would have brought an umbrella!" Shelby yelled against the wind as she huddled into herself and struggled to hold the camera still.

"With this wind an umbrella would be pointless," Carmen said, squinting after a raindrop flew into her eye. She pushed against the wind and walked closer to the edge of the hill, where she could see the whole cityscape no longer hidden by the silhouettes of trees.

It was electrifying. Not that many lights were on, since it was almost 4 in the morning. However, the puddles of rain on the roads reflected an array of soft yellow and white lights from the aging street lamps. Nightlife from downtown illuminated the city with the most color, as neon signs from small businesses and clubs glowed green, red, pink, blue, and purple.

Carmen sighed at the breathlessness of it all. No wonder her dad loved to come up here. It made everything else feel so small and insignificant. Leaves suddenly crunch behind her, causing her to turn around.

"Here. I'm sorry it's not much.. but I have this sunshade I got from my trunk. You can use it to sit while you focus on your visions," Amber said gently while holding out a folded metallic sunshade with bright pink borders.

Carmen smiled softly before taking it. "Thanks Amber, I appreciate it."

Shelby walked up to them as Amber and Carmen opened the sunshade and set it on the wet grass. Once Carmen sat down, Amber motioned Shelby for a moment aside. The two walked closer to the car and out of earshot, where Amber began to narrate the updates on their investigation as Shelby recorded.

Meanwhile, Carmen forced herself to focus on envisioning Rain's life. She squinted her eyes shut tighter. The branches around her trembled in the wind, threatening to break. Intense gusts of wind flipped her curls this way and that, and every frigid drop of rain on her skin reminded her of where she was in the current moment. She opened her eyes to be met with the same 4AM glow of her sleepless city.

"Ugh, how am I supposed to concentrate with all this noise?" Carmen sighed in frustration.

"You got this, Carmen!" Amber cheered her on. "Just try a little harder, you'll get there soon enough, I know it!"

"Wait girls," Shelby interrupted before handing the camcorder to Amber. "Hold this real quick?"

Shelby removed her black hairband and twirled it around in her hand. "I know what we have to do. Sitting there and meditating isn't going to be enough, especially with all this wind and rain."

"So what are you suggesting?" Amber squinted against the wind.

Shelby twisted the hairband nervously around her hand. "We have to do another ritual, but this one's going to be more dangerous than the seance. I read about it in a spiritual contact book I skimmed through at Madam Vadoma's shop." Shelby looked up into Carmen's eyes with worry. "We'll only do it if you're willing, Carmen, since you'll have to be alone for it..."

Carmen closed her eyes. Was there even a point in them asking about her comfort anymore? If she said no, it would be harder to save Hayden. If ever there was a moment to trample over her fears and trick herself into bravery, it was now. Carmen opened her eyes. "What do I need to do?"

"In order to improve your chances of connecting with a spirit, you have to go through a sort of sensory deprivation." Shelby held up the hairband. "I have this to block your eyes, but we need a dark, enclosed space as well."

Amber looked around. "What about the car?"

"It's not dark or enclosed enough, we'd need to block out every window," Shelby said. "The other problem is.. they don't call it the most dangerous ritual for nothing. People's heart rates have gone up too high because they couldn't control their fear. In most cases, it's not even the spirits that are dangerous. It's the paranoia that has killed people. There's been cases of heart attacks in people who couldn't control their fear. Some have even.. died."

Carmen gulped and found herself instinctively clutching her cross. "Let's get this over with. The more time we spend out here contemplating whether or not to do it, the more paranoid I'll be. Let's just go."

Amber nodded. "But where?"

Carmen glanced around, surveying the shadows underneath the trees as leaves blew around loudly. It wouldn't be enough, the ritual had to happen somewhere indoors.

"Over here!" Shelby called from a distance.

The girls followed her voice a little ways into the trees until they found her standing in front of a shed. The weak incandescence of a solitary lamp post next to it revealed unintelligible graffiti and peeling paint.

Amber gagged while Carmen pulled her sleeve over the lower half of her face.

"It smells like..." Carmen started.

"Like piss," Shelby finished her sentence.

Carmen marched forward and tried the door. To her surprise, it opened without any struggle. The air inside was thick and musty. Amber sneezed.

"Bless you," Carmen and Shelby said in unison.

"Thanks," Amber murmured.

Shelby turned on her flashlight, casting light over decade old dust that covered the cramped space. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, connecting to a rusty shovel and a rake that leaned against a shelf. The shelf was empty aside from a few boxes and rolls of toilet paper. One of the boxes was open and had a roll of trash bags hanging out the side. Suddenly, something with too many legs crawled across the shelf before disappearing behind a metal ladder.

"Oh god.. I can stand the darkness but not spiders," Carmen muttered as she pulled on her sleeves.

"Carmen, you are so strong," Amber guided her by her free arm and turned Carmen to face her and the camera. "A stupid spider or two won't hurt you. You've conquered way worse."

"Yes, way worse!" Shelby piped in. "Just focus on Rain and her visions, everything else will start to fade away like it normally does."

Carmen took in a deep breath before exhaling. "You're right. Screw the spiders! I'm only going to be thinking about those 80s neon lights and questioning everyone's fashion choices."

"Woo! You go, girl!" Amber cheered.

"Go Carm!" Shelby pumped her fist. "Oh before you go in, let me put this on you," Shelby said as she pulled out the hairband.

"Is it not enough to sit in darkness?" Carmen asked.

"If you see any light at all it will interrupt the ritual. Besides, it will help your eyes play less tricks on you."

"I'll put the camcorder in there too for a little extra comfort," Amber said before setting it on a shelf and turning on the night vision mode.

"Alright," Carmen submitted. She stood still as Shelby wrapped the black hairband over her eyes and tied a knot at the back.

"This won't blind you from their wacky fashion choices, but you'll be fine," Shelby said assuringly as she tapped both of Carmen's shoulders to indicate she was done.

Carmen let out a chuckle. "Thanks guys. I appreciate it."

"You got this Carmen. We'll see you soon," Amber said confidently.

"Ok! Let's get this over with."