The party moved in slow motion for a few seconds as I considered defeat. Corina and the man disappeared around the corner of the street and we couldn't stop it. I shook my head to snap out of it, telling myself that I wasn't one to give up.

So, I ran.

I apologized absentmindedly to the few people I bumped into on the way, without taking my eyes off the edge of the street. Once I made it to the corner, I heard Paxton and Millie shout behind me.

"Over there!" Paxton pointed at a distance at the top of the man's ball cap as he moved away from the passenger side of a van after closing the door.

We moved against the current as people continued moving towards Main Street. Their excited faces lighting up by the colors in the sky, their voices drowned by the sounds of the explosions and the music.

"We won't catch up with them, but at least take a glimpse of the license plates!" Tania yelled from just a little behind.

From the corner of my eye I saw Paxton press on, he ran fast enough to pass by me. I slowed my step, catching my breath, as I watched him run close enough to get his phone out and with his shaky arms aimed at the license plates of the van that was now driving away.

The rest of us stopped to catch our breath in the middle of the street when Paxton yelled, "I GOT IT, KINDA!"

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Tania yelled back.

Paxton had his hands on his hips, his chest heaving as he was catching his breath after the run. He made a signal to Tania to give him a moment before he began walking towards us. He extended his phone over to her and we all got close to try and see the image. On the screen there was a dark and a little blurry picture of the van pulling off, but when you zoomed in you could see the license plate... kinda.

"That's good enough. Great job," Tania patted Paxton's shoulder and smiled at him.

We decided to walk back to The Oak Hotel, the path feeling longer than it did when we walked in the opposite direction. While on the way, Tania walked behind us as she was deeply focused on her cellphone. We all walked in silence until we arrived at the main entrance of the hotel where Tania perked up and ran inside before we could even reach the doors. We looked around to one another and followed along. We followed her over to a small library and business center that was located in the lobby. Inside there was only a kid playing a video game on a computer who didn't even look up when we came in.

Tania went straight to the farthest computer in the room and began clicking and typing on it. Black windows began coming up on the screen to her command. I saw Tito close up behind her, his eyes moving fast over everything she was doing. Quickly, his eyebrows furrowed and he hopped over to the computer beside his sister, told her to hand over the phone and began working on the computer just as fast as she did. She silently handed over the phone and he removed a cable from one of his pockets to connect the phone to the computer. After a few clicks he had Paxton's blurry picture up on the screen and he began working on it, until it was much more legible.

I couldn't even understand much of what they were doing or saying but we all stood silently watching. At some point the clearer picture ended up on Tania's screen and then both screens showed windows with traffic footage on them. I took a step forward as I realized exactly what they were doing. The video images continued changing rapidly on both screens as they scanned footage attempting to find the license plates.

"WAIT," Tito exclaimed. Tania's hands froze over the keyboard before she pushed her chair back and took a step towards her brother to lean over him. She blocked our sight while they both mumbled things to one another that we couldn't make out.

"Earth to nerds, hello?" Millie said, catching their attention.

Tania straightened up and turned to us, "We found them, but this just doesn't make sense." She nodded for us to scoot closer around the computer where a green square kept blink over a location on a map. "The van disappears from camera footage right in front of The Oak Hotel. Tito hacked into the main entrance cameras and... here's what makes no sense."

She nudged her brother to play the video again. We watched a blurry image showing the van from afar entering The Oak H parking lot across the street. Tito paused the video and turned on his chair. "That was too easy. Why would he go exactly to a place that we can easily figure out. Either this guy knows nothing or he wants us to come after him."

I pursed my lips and said, "Well, I guess we will find out." I instantly turned on the balls of my feet towards the exit and back into the warm summer air. My friends went after me asking me to slow down and reconsider, making valid points about my safety and we not truly knowing who this man was or what he wanted. But I didn't listen. I couldn't just stay still, so I kept going until I was standing at the parking lot entrance.

The Oak H was quiet. Some room windows allowed light to shine out, but the parking lot was quiet. I didn't dare take a step inside, instead I just scanned the cars parked until my eyes found what I was looking for. Across the lot was the van parked, too distant to be able to see if anyone was even there. I looked back at my friends. Millie was just crossing the street responding to Paxton something about getting the others.

I took a step towards the inside of the parking lot, steadily but cautiously. When I took one more step towards the van, its lights turned full on forcing me to cover my eyes. Millie yelled at Paxton that something was up, that the van turned on. I heard his voice at a distance responding that he was going to get his car. I cocked my head and squinted my eyes trying to look past the bright light. I couldn't see the person behind the wheel but I could make out his silhouette.

A sharp exhale left my lips before I dared to take another step. The van rumbled as it was being revved up, but it wouldn't move. I took a few more brave steps, but I was still too far away.

"Who are you?!" I yelled. At the same time I heard Millie yell at me from the edge of the entrance, asking me to stay away since it could be dangerous. I looked back at her and nodded, agreeing but not letting go.

"Paxton's coming!" Millie yelled and right in that moment the van revved up harder, but this time it jolted towards me with movement.

My eyes grew in astonishment before I could react. I got out of the van's way but ran as fast as I could alongside it. When I made it outside, Millie was already running towards the other side of the street where she waved at Paxton pulling up. By the time I made it to the car Millie had already slid into the backseat.

"GO, GO, GO!" I was saying as I got inside and Pax obeyed, his car accelerating even before I had my door closed.

The van was actually much faster than we thought. We had it on sight at a considerable distance, but Pax did his best to not lose it.

Behind me, Millie hastily answered her ringing phone, "Hello?! Wha— No! We're trying to follow him right now. What do you mean stop? We can't stop! We'll lose—" Millie got cut off.

She was silent for a few seconds while she listened. I turned around in my seat to attempt to read her expression, but her face was blank.

Suddenly her eyes met mine and she spoke, "Paxton, slow down."

"What?" Paxton and I answered simultaneously.

"Just slow down!" Millie ordered. She fumbled with her phone in her hands until she managed to place it on speaker phone. "You're on."

Tito's voice came from the phone, "Listen to Millie and slow down. We don't want you risking yourselves. Tania and I are tracking him through traffic cameras, we've got a hold on him."

Then Tania interjected, "But also we don't want to be too obvious in our actions and make it known that we're following him. Stop tailing him. Let us do that work from here. Once he stops we'll give you an address."

Paxton kept his eyes focused ahead, not slowing down. For a moment he looked through his rearview mirror over at Millie and then to his side at me. I nodded and he began to slow down.

"We'll take the next street to the right. Let us know when you've got an address," Paxton spoke very seriously.

"Will do," answered Tito.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

Paxton, Millie and I sat in his car quietly. Pax had done exactly as he mentioned, going down the closest street to the right. The street was surprisingly calm considering we were still close to Gray Oak center. We noticed it was a much less crowded area as it was filled mostly by smaller bed and breakfasts and apartment buildings. Looking as far as my eyes could see, this was just one street that connected to many others, which meant that we were right at the gates of the more residential area of Oak territory.

After what seemed like an eternity, we turned our heads to see Millie reaching for her ringing phone. She quickly answered the call, placing it on speakerphone so we could listen in.

"We've got news," Tania's voice responded. "And it's all very... interesting."

"Did you find the guy?" Paxton asked, eager to get an address, as he jiggled his keys in his hand.

"We have an address and a person," she replied.

My friends and I looked at one another, silently wondering what she meant by those words.

"What do you mean? Did you identify the man?" I asked.

"No, about the guy all we've got is the address where he stopped at. But we did find your dear friend Corina comfortably seated in a room at The Oak H Motel lobby, casually drinking a hot chocolate," Tania answered, audibly intrigued, but acid. The tone of her voice brought back to my memory our conversation where she clearly expressed her concern about the honesty behind Corina.

"What do you mean she's at the motel?!" Millie asked, a little exasperated about the fact.

"You heard me clearly. She's here at the lobby with that old man," Tania said.

"Why would the guy just leave her there? That makes no sense," I asked. "Has she said anything to you guys?"

"She's been quiet, but Mateo just went in to try and talk to her about what happened. Hopefully he'll charm her enough to get something from her," Tania scoffed sarcastically. "Meanwhile, Tito and I are still monitoring the area where the van stopped. It hasn't moved for the last few minutes, so we will text you the address."

I sighed at the whole situation, "Alrighty then. Thank you, guys. We'll keep you posted on what we find," I replied.

"We'll do the same on our side. Don't get too carried away, you three," Tania warned us before wrapping up the call.

And just like that we got back in the car and directed ourselves towards the place that Tania and Tito had gotten for us. On the way we weren't too aware of our surroundings, but we noticed we were definitely in a different part of town. The wider streets with tall buildings turned into narrower streets with smaller buildings and more houses. I figured we were somewhere between North and South Oak, closer south where there was much less tourism. After a while, Paxton parked on a curb at a safe distance from the location and turned off his car. The night was already pitch black and the only light was the faint glow of the moon and the warm haze of the few lights along the street. Most houses had their lights turned off and there was no one outside. We could almost hear our heartbeat in this tranquil street.

The house that we focused our attention on was small, quaint and cute, but there was only so much we could see in this lighting. The white van that we followed earlier was parked in the driveway. There was a faint yellowish glow coming from somewhere behind the van, like a light was turned on, but that was as far as we could see and none of the windows that were visible to us had lights on.

"I'm going to go take a look," I said quietly as I opened the passenger door.

"What!" Millie protested behind me. Paxton just sat quietly beside me observing the place at a distance, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

"You can't just go in there," Millie continued.

"I didn't say I was going to go in, I just said I was going to go take a look, but closer," I explained.

Millie was about to respond to me again when Pax finally spoke up, "Neither of you is leaving the car. I will go take a quick look and then we'll be out of here."

"Pax, you don't have to⎯" I tried to stop him and at the same time Millie also began to say how dangerous this was, but he raised his hand to quiet us down and turned his eyes to us.

"It's not up for voting. I will go," he said, decisively and we quietly nodded.

Paxton quietly got out of the car and cautiously walked in towards the house, hands in his pockets, as he took good advantage of the shadows. Once he was close enough to the van he walked carefully around it and looked inside through its few windows. Then he walked a few steps past the van and began to lean down on the ground, leaning his head to the side, looking at something that was not in our line of sight. The yellow glow faintly hit his face.

Suddenly, we saw him move quicker than he had, but still trying to remain as inconspicuous as he had been. He moved fast towards the side of the van and squatted down, pressing his back to it. In an instant, from behind the van, we saw the silhouette of a man swiftly passing by. A motion sensor light turned on and casted a white line of light around the man, his back entirely towards us.

Millie and I, still out of impulse, slid down on our seats, but the unsuspecting man didn't turn around. He walked confidently up the steps of the porch and inside the front door. Once out of sight I signaled Pax to run towards us and as soon as he was in the car we drove away.

On the way back to the Oak H, he filled us in on the little things he saw. The van seemed to be empty. The light shining through small windows close to the ground, maybe a basement. A cellar door and how everything seemed to be awfully quiet. We felt as if we were so close, but so far from information that could get us to Kimi. None of it was good enough for me.