Sylvia couldn't say she was too surprised about her discovery. But her heart still dropped - she wasn't sure why. Jealousy? Anger? Perhaps she was upset that they kept this from her, or that Quinn had stolen her best friend.

She pulled herself away from the window and closed her eyes as the end of summer breeze caressed her sticky face. Her heart was racing as she contemplated what to do. She almost wanted to knock on the window and let them know she saw everything, but as she gritted her teeth together and lifted her knuckles to the glass, she found she couldn't do it.

So she walked away.

Her feet dragged her down the road, not too far from Quinn's aunt's house. The sky was dark and the wind was chilly, but the pit in her stomach still made a film of sweat coat her body. She felt sick as she sat herself down on the side of the curb and stared at the empty street in front of her.

She had nowhere to go, and no one to talk to. A lump formed in her throat and it physically hurt to swallow. Hot tears stung her eyes as she forced them to roll down her cheeks, and a gasping breath came out of her mouth as she began to sob into her knees.

She had not sobbed like this in a long time, but she couldn't hold it in anymore. Her cries were loud and hysterical, muffled into the skin of her knees, heat radiating from her hot breath as she cried and cried.

She had no one. What was the point? What else did she have to live for?

"I don't know what to do, please help me, what do I do!" she screamed so loud that her throat was on fire. Her voice echoed through the tranquil neighborhood and she watched as the house in front of her suddenly flicked a light on inside.

She stared as the front door to the house opened, and a woman stepped outside.

"Would you keep your damn voice down? It's late," the woman yelled from her front porch.

Sylvia had no idea what to do. Her mind was scrambled and she felt dead inside.

"Excuse me," Sylvia said as she stood up and walked closer to the woman. As she approached her, the woman stepped back inside her house, staring through her glasses at Sylvia in horror. Sylvia knew she looked absolutely insane. Tears and mascara were streaked across her cheeks and her hair was a greasy, wild disaster. "May I use your phone?"

She had her own cell phone in her pocket, so she didn't really need a phone. What she needed was shelter for the night. She hoped that this woman could find it in her to help her out.

The woman continued to stare at her, peering through a crack in the door at Sylvia who was now standing on her porch.

"If you wait there, I will bring the phone out to you," the woman decided. "Sorry, I have children in the house."

"I won't hurt you," Sylvia choked out, her eyes filled with tears. "I need help. I feel like I'm going to die, I'm not okay."

"I will call you an ambulance," the woman said. "Please just stay where you are."

"Don't leave me here alone," Sylvia said, looking around the dark neighborhood. "Don't leave me."

The woman's small, blue eyes stared deep into Sylvia's. Sylvia could hardly breathe, her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she could feel it in her throat. Sylvia sniffled and wrapped her arms around herself, looking behind her at the road.

"Come on in," the woman said, her voice hardly a whisper.

Sylvia stepped into the woman's house, and the warmth immediately engulfed her. She took a deep breath, her tired eyes staring around at the floral interior of the living room.

"Stay right there, I will bring the phone in to you, okay?" the woman said, as she disappeared into the other room.

Sylvia took a seat on the white couch, sniffling and wiping the tears from her cheeks as she stared at the blue carpeted ground. She could hardly breathe. Her heart was racing and her throat was closing.

"Hello," she heard the woman say in the other room. "Yes, I think that this is her," the woman continued, and Sylvia could tell she was trying to subdue her tone.

Sylvia stood up and gently stepped closer to the other room, where the woman was speaking.

"This is that crazy Sylvia girl that the news is going crazy about trying to find, I got her here right now," the woman spoke. "Yes, my address is 85 Lander Lane. Just send the officers as soon as possible."

Sylvia's heart dropped to her stomach. What was happening? People were trying to find her? She couldn't breathe. Maybe she was crazy, maybe she was absolutely batshit crazy.

Something happened to her - she shifted into autopilot. There was no life behind her eyes as she walked into the kitchen where the woman was talking on the phone, huddled in the corner and trying to be quiet.

The woman's eyes latched onto Sylvia's, and they widened in fear.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm just talking to my friend. I'll give you the phone in a second," the woman spoke, but Sylvia could hear her voice trembling.

Sylvia took a deep breath and walked up to her, a smile wide on her lips. She grabbed the phone from the woman and threw it with all her might across the room, to where it shattered against the ground.

The woman screamed as loud as she possibly could, but Sylvia couldn't even hear. There was a dull roar invading her auditory senses.

"You think I'm crazy? You guys think I'm crazy?" Sylvia laughed. "I must be. I really must be. I'm the reason Billy's mother was killed. I'm the reason nobody speaks to me. I don't know where Helen is. But do you know what that's like? Do you know what it's like to be so hated by everyone in your life?" Sylvia asked the woman. "I have no one."

The woman's eyes were as big as saucers now as she backed into the corner.

Sylvia grabbed a long knife from the cutlet rack beside her and stared at the sharp blade.

"Please don't," the woman begged. "I have children upstairs."

Sylvia had no intention of hurting that woman and never did. However, she held the knife up to her neck and felt the sharp blade pressing against her throat. Her mind dared her to do it.

"I tried to be normal, but the girl wouldn't leave me alone. Helen. Her eyes would bleed and she would scream for me to help but of course I couldn't. My friend needed my help but instead, I got his mother killed. My father can't stand the sight of me. My mother left me. What am I doing here, still? Can you answer that for me?" she asked the woman.

Everything happened so fast and in such a blur. There were sirens and they were getting closer, but Sylvia continued to just stare at the woman, tears leaking from her eyes.

"No, I have something to do first," Sylvia spoke, slowly putting the knife down to her side, but still gripping the black handle as tightly as possible. "I have someone to find."

"The police are on their way, do you hear them?" The woman taunted. "You are going to go to the psych ward, you fucking lunatic."

Sylvia suddenly darted down the hallway to the right of her, the knife still clutched in her hand. She could hear the woman screaming in the kitchen, begging for the police to hurry up as she ran up the stairs to her children. Sylvia didn't want to hurt anyone, she really didn't. She wanted to get the Hell out of there.

When she reached the back room of the house, there was a window looking out into the spacious backyard. She swung her elbow back and slammed it into the window with a strength she didn't even know she had, and the glass shattered loudly along the floor and furniture.

She heard the front door open, and she knew she had to act fast. The police were about to get to her. She stood on the top of the couch beneath the now glassless window and climbed through it, before landing on the ground outside with a thud.

The grass was wet and slippery as she stood up, climbed the wired fence, and ran as fast as she could before she reached backroads.

She could see the red and blue lights reflecting off of the dark sky as she ran.

*

Sylvia you're in big trouble. Meet me at the corner of Drone rd through the woods.

Billy's text made her heart jump as she made her way towards Drone road park. Drone road park was a desolate area, with an abandoned swing set and monkey bars. It had an area of woods behind it that Billy and her explored occasionally because nobody was ever there.

The knife was still clutched in her sweaty hand as she pulled her cellphone out again.

How can I trust you? You're just going to tell them where I am, Sylvia responded to him with shaking fingers.

He replied almost immediately.

I'd never do that to you.

Sylvia tossed her phone into a puddle along the concrete so her phone couldn't be tracked. Then, she began to run again towards Drone road.

*

She saw Billy sitting beneath a tree at the park, a flashlight in his hand focused on the ground. He was alone.

"Billy?" Sylvia spoke, her voice cracking.

Billy jumped and stood up immediately, looking at Sylvia.

"Sylvia, your father has search teams looking for you. He said you're having a schizophrenic attack and now officers are all over the area looking for you," he spoke really fast, she could tell he was nervous. "What happened?"

Sylvia couldn't believe her ears. "Something is wrong with my dad, Billy. He isn't the same. Something is wrong," she told him.

Billy flashed the flashlight towards the knife in her hand. "Where did you get that from?" he whispered.

"Wouldn't you like to fucking know?" Sylvia suddenly snapped. "While you were busy fucking Quinn, I was almost caught and taken into custody."

Sylvia couldn't see Billy's facial features in that moment, but she knew that he turned pale just by how he went silent. "I- I, what? I- I wasn't fucking Quinn."

"Save it, I don't care. You hate me, so why are you even trying to help me? Is this a set up?" Sylvia asked, her heart racing as she looked around the dark area.

"I just told you that I would never do that to you," he told her. She could hear in his voice that he meant it.

"So what changed? Now you just want to help me out of nowhere?" Sylvia asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "I tried to apologize to you and you said you never want to talk to me again. Is it because you have Quinn now?"

"No, not at all-"

"I don't care, because I needed you and you weren't there for me. I'm sorry about your mom, Billy, but you're not the only one going through something-" Sylvia's feelings were pouring out uncontrollably. She wanted to make him feel bad, to make him feel like how he made her feel at the funeral parlor. She wanted him to hurt.

"Sylvia-"

"And then I go to Quinn's and I see exactly why the two of you don't want anything to do with me anymore. You could have just told me, you know that? You could have just told me," she spoke so fast and so much that she was running out of breath.

"There's something that I need to tell you, Sylvia," Billy spoke suddenly, his voice trembling but overpowering Sylvia's.

Sylvia stopped and looked at him, although she couldn't see him very well.

"I need to tell you, I've been quiet for too long," he said.

"I know you're with Quinn, I just told you that," Sylvia finished for him. "And that's the least of my worries right now."

"No, Sylvia, it's not that," Billy said quietly.

"Then what is it?" Sylvia asked, beginning to genuinely worry about how he was acting. "Billy, what is it?"

Sylvia could hear Billy shift uncomfortably. The air was dead silent, aside from the treetops rustling every few minutes from the soft gusts of wind that would blow through.

"Billy, what?" Sylvia wanted to shout at him, but she knew she had to keep quiet.

He exhaled heavily.

"Billy, for fuck's sake, what is it? Say it!"

He cleared his throat and exhaled again, before finally speaking.

"Helen is not a hallucination, she's real," he broke down into a sob, hardly able to catch his breath.

Sylvia's heart practically stopped. The air was taken from her lungs. Her knees wobbled and nearly gave out from beneath her. Her vision span on its axis and she felt a sensation of being lulled to the ground.

"Wh-what?" she spoke, her voice not sounding as if it belonged to her.

"I'm so sorry, Sylvia, I'm so sorry. Helen is real."