The fact that we had been in stand-still traffic for hours managed to cause my anxiety to surface. Of all days there could've been a massive wreck, it had to be today? When we were getting so close to finding my sister? Was I not being tortured enough?!

We had been on the road for two hours when we hit the pile-up. It had been a lot of sitting, and then police cruisers, firetrucks and ambulances arriving, and then more sitting.

And after three-and-a-half hours, we were moving again. But now we were way behind, and wouldn't be getting to our destination until about five in the afternoon.

"What do you think Paige needs to show us?" Melissa wondered.

I shrugged. "Probably more of her screwed up childhood."

Truth be told, I still couldn't see the point in what she was doing. Sure, she wanted me to feel bad or maybe somehow understand why she was doing all of this. But I just didn't.

"Do you think we're getting close to the end?"

I leaned back into the passenger seat. "Maybe."

I wasn't intentionally being short with Melissa, I just didn't have much to say right now. With my dad abandoning the search for Anna and Paige leading us to another destination, I was emotionally drained.

I could still hear the panic in Anna's fragile voice. Her frantic words echoed through my head over and over, begging me to find her. Her life was on the line and I was responsible for it. And if we didn't find her...

I shook the thought. No. We had to. I would not let Paige hurt Anna any more than she already has. Not without a fight.

"Why do you think she's doing all of this?" Melissa broke the silence again. "Why is she bringing you to all of these places?"

I stared out the window with thought.

"I don't know," I whispered.

Melissa wasn't satisfied. "Alexa, you have to have some idea."

I watched trees fly by in a green and brown blur. The reflection of my face blended in with the gray clouds swarming the sky.

"She has issues," I answered. "Like Stanley said. She's just insane."

"Maybe," Melissa agreed. "But even when crazy people do things like this, there's still an ulterior motive."

"If she does have an ulterior motive, then it doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't have to make sense to you." She sighed. "It just has to make sense to her."

I continued to think about her mother's grave and the news-clippings she had left for me to find. Maybe she was punishing me for my past mistakes. It would make sense considering the main reason, or so it seemed, that had set all of this off was me having a hand in getting her father arrested.

"Maybe she's punishing me," I reasoned. "Maybe she wants me to suffer the same way she is. Maybe she wants me to feel lonely like she does."

It was obvious Paige wanted someone to suffer for her father being arrested and for her mother being killed. She might've snapped at the arrest of Stanley, which led to her devising this insane plan. But she needed something to explain her actions of attempting to kill me and kidnapping my sister. And using my history and involvement was the perfect justification, at least in her twisted mind.

"So, you think that she's just attached onto punishing you because of the death of her mother and your involvement in arresting Stanley?" Melissa wondered.

"Yeah." I sighed. "It doesn't make sense to me, but maybe it makes sense to her."

"The worst part about this is that we're not dealing with some amateur," Melissa continued. "She's smart and she knows exactly what she's doing, even if she is crazy."

I couldn't help but silently agree with her. She was right. Paige had been planning this for over a month right under our noses. While I thought we were in the clear, she had been right behind me the entire time, waiting and watching for the perfect opportunity to strike. The thought made me sick to my stomach.

And to top it all off, my own father didn't seem to care enough to stick around and help.

"Have you talked to your dad?" I wondered.

"Yes," she said. "I explained to him what our plans were as soon as he got back to Los Angeles and realized we weren't there."

"Was he upset?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

The thought of ruining Melissa and her dad's relationship made me upset. That was the last thing I wanted to do.

"He was upset that I was putting my life in danger but..." She looked at me. "He understood my reasons why."

I felt my chest burn. "But you were just reunited. Risking that for me was asinine."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes," I repeated. "It was."

"Well, usually I regret bad decisions, but I have yet to regret making this one," she finished.

All I could do was stare at her.

She took a deep breath. "You keep trying to push me away. And that may have worked with others, but it won't work with me." She paused. "I thought that would've been obvious by now."

She was right. Pushing her away seemed nearly impossible.

Then her silver eyes found mine. "Besides, we're too good of a team to be separate."

A flutter in my chest caused my cheeks to heat up. I knew she was trying to distract me from myself, and I was extremely grateful.

"I would've lost my mind without you," I admitted.

For the first time, I seemed to have stolen her words.

"If you would've left..." I sighed. "If I would've had to do this alone, I wouldn't have made it."

"You would've made it," she responded. "I'm just here to help keep your head straight."

At this I couldn't help but smirk at the ironic thought in my mind.

"Well, you're doing a damn fine job."

A few more hours and a pit stop later, Melissa and I arrived in the small town in which Paige had led us to. It was basically another Myrtletown, except this one had multiple stoplights instead of just one. I found myself grateful at the increase of population.

The sun was setting quickly and we were doing our best to keep good time. It seemed as if wherever we were going wasn't in town, but rather on the outskirts.

We drove down a long stretch of pavement with multiple twists and turns. The pink, cotton-candy sky made me appreciate the moment regardless of the situation. If the circumstances would've been different, maybe I would've loved sharing it with Melissa.

The map led us off the main road and up to what seemed to be an abandoned house. It was still in decent shape, just empty. I wondered if Paige and Anna had stayed here long.

Melissa made sure to stop in a dark, secluded area in case anyone did live here, but it looked unlikely.

"I'm guessing she wants us to go inside," she said.

"Surely," I agreed as we stepped out the car.

This time, the two guns Willi had gotten for us were slipped into the holsters on our waist. Even though we were alone now didn't mean we would be alone later, and I didn't want another episode like last night.

Melissa and I paced up to the abandoned house. Gravel crunched under our boots as the air stood still around us. All I could wonder as we approached the front door was, what did Paige want us to find here?

Melissa's hand found the knob and twisted, which revealed it was already unlocked. Bumps rose on the back of my neck.

The door squealed when it opened, indicating no one had lived her for a while. The floorboards creaked and the air was dusty and stale. My hand found a light switch, but as predicted, there was no power. Great.

"This is creepy," Melissa said as she switched on the light from her phone.

"Look," I said, spotting a slip of paper on the edge of the staircase.

She picked it up and used her phone's flashlight to read it.

"Looks like the game is almost over. What a shame.

After the death of my mother, everything seemed to spiral out of control. I was heartbroken, as was my father, who decided that immersing himself in his work was his best way of moving on, so he decided to ship me off to my Aunt's to do so."

Melissa and I looked at each other.

"Here's your final test, Alexa. Follow the trail, and it'll lead you to Anna."

I felt a cold shudder in my chest at the sight of Anna's name in Paige's handwriting. Just the thought of Paige saying or writing my sister's name made me furious.

I looked up and noticed the red number 1 painted on the doorframe of the kitchen. Melissa followed behind me.

On the counter, there was another note.

I picked it up and read aloud, "Dad made sure to send checks to cover my expenses, but little did he know Aunt Carol only wanted to spend it on her heroin addiction. Days without food could really screw you up."

I swallowed harshly and searched for the number 2. I didn't care about any of this, but on the other hand, I did.

Melissa spotted and tugged me towards our next clue.

The number 2 was painted on a coat closet.

I opened the doors and a note hung from a string. The sight of names painted above the coat hooks helped with an explanation.

Melissa read, "Cousin Liz embraced me into her shattered home like I was her best friend. She made living here bearable, and tried her best to keep food on the table with her shitty part-time job at the diner down the street. It was like me showing up gave her life purpose again."

We searched for number 3 downstairs but couldn't find it. That's when we mutually decided it had to be upstairs.

We found a giant 3 painted on a door. We went inside.

A bare room stood before us with nothing but a note on the floor. I knelt to pick it up and read it.

"Four years later, Cousin Liz was finishing up her shift at the diner. She worked pretty much every day considering she had student loans to pay off. Her work ethic inspired me to finish high school and pursue college myself.

But when Cousin Liz left work that night, her life was ended for the small sum of money she had made. Tell me, Alexa, have you ever killed someone for money?"

My heart contracted in pain at the last sentence.

I dropped the note on the floor and pressed my hand against my mouth in shock. Things continuously kept coming back around to premature death by murder, and I wasn't capable of dealing. Was she trying to set a pattern? Was this foreshadowing something?

"Alexa..." Melissa said, motioning to the number 4 painted on the closet.

Another note hung in the air for us to read.

Melissa observed it.

"The death of Cousin Liz rocked my already crumbling world. It seemed as if people like you just couldn't stay away from my life and the people I cared about. So, I went to school to stop people like you from hurting innocent people and ruining more lives."

"People like me," I whispered in disbelief.

But she wasn't wrong. I was a thief. And it seemed as if thieves were the main antagonist in her life. People like me had taken the life of her mother and her cousin. Suddenly, I found reason in the way Paige was today.

Melissa and I walked into the hall and spotted another number.

5 was painted on the door of another room. We went inside and spotted another note next to what looked to be a cellphone. It was growing darker by the minute, so seeing was becoming difficult.

I picked up the paper sitting next to the cellphone that sat on the window seal.

"My father was so proud when I graduated in the same field he was working in. He was so excited, that he got me a job at the Global Intelligence Bureau. Little did I know, all it took to gain my father's attention was the desire to fight the bad guys.

But when the people you love turn out to be nothing like you imagined, it's like another death. It's like they were never really who you thought they were.

So, let's end this where it all started, Alexa. You have until sunrise to find me."

The note fell from my hands as I looked up. End this where it had all started? Was she talking about her life or mine? Where exactly were we supposed to head to next? And what would happen if I didn't find her in time?

But before I could get a word out, the sound of the front door slamming caused us to jump through the dark. Melissa's fearful eyes found mine.

We were no longer alone, and I had a bad feeling I knew who had joined us.