Lena Matthews

"Okasan!" Tiffany shouted over her shoulder. Mrs. Moriyama came to the doorway at Tiffany's call. The two of them looked more like sisters than mother and daughter, most likely because Mrs. Moriyama had stopped aging a while ago.

"We're actually here to talk to you, Tiffany." I explained.

"Oh." said Tiffany, surprised. She waved her mother away and let Jacob and I inside. "Why did you guys want to talk to me?" She asked.

"We're doing a project." I explained before Jacob could say anything. "We're doing a survey on near death experiences." I wanted to hit myself for how dumb I sounded, but there was no going back now.

"Oh." said Tiffany. "Well, it's not very dramatic, but one time I almost got in a car accident. My life certainly flashed before my eyes then." She smiled good-naturedly, but I could tell that she was uncomfortable.

"This is going to sound a little strange, but do you remember where you were on the night of January 18th?" I asked. At this, Tiffany's eyes darkened.

"I know what you're asking, but it wasn't me," said Tiffany. "Actually, I think I might have something. Give me one moment." She quickly left, leaving Jacob and I standing in silence. After what felt like ages, Tiffany came back with an official-looking paper and handed it to me. It was her birth certificate.

According to the document, Tiffany had been born in 1983, which made her the same age as Makaya's profile claimed. In other words, it seemed like Tiffany had been aging for her entire life, and no Forbidden should be able to say the same.

I didn't have any strong feelings that Tiffany was the killer. If I were to find the yuki onna, I felt like I would know instinctively. Something would overwhelm my senses the second I saw her, but that wasn't happening.

"Thank you." I told Tiffany, handing back the certificate. She nodded. At least she wasn't offended about being questioned.

"I do hope you figure it out." She told me meekly before closing the door.

"Okay, let's try the next person." I told Jacob, walking to the car.

"What's going on?" Jacob asked.

"The project, remember?" I answered. I tried to smile off the tension, but it didn't work.

"Seriously. What are we doing here?" Jacob asked.

I froze, unsure of what to say. I didn't have another lie to explain this, and I definitely didn't have enough time to sit through another trial. The whole reason I was drawn to Jacob was because he was outside of the Forbidden chaos.

"If it makes you nervous, then just say the bare minimum. If you don't want to tell me everything, that's fine. I just need a vague idea of what's going on." said Jacob.

I took a shuddering breath. I was an idiot for thinking I could drag Jacob along without any consequences, but Kiara was an idiot for inviting him in the first place. Still, deflecting the blame wasn't going to help.

"I can't tell you how I know, or where I got this list of people from, but everyone we're visiting is a suspect in some specific crimes. We can't get the police involved, because this is all as crazy as it sounds." I said, dancing around the important details. "Does that make sense?"

"Not exactly." Jacob admitted.

"Look, this whole thing is insane, and it's not going to make sense until it's over. In the meantime, you have to trust me. I know that's asking a lot, considering we just met and how weird everything's been, but I'm asking you anyway." I caught my breath for a moment. "So, do you trust me?" I asked.

Jacob paused for a moment, and I could feel my heart thunder in my chest. "Why not?" He asked finally.

"Say it again." I demanded.

Finn sighed, defeated. "Carter's not that bad. He's actually pretty cool. Happy?" He asked.

I clicked a button on my phone, effectively saving Finn's words forever. I was way too happy about this. Just for good measure, I played the recording out loud.

"Carter's not that bad. He's actually pretty cool." Finn's recorded voice stated.

"Really, Lena?" Finn complained.

"What?" I asked. "I'm not right a lot. This is a big moment for me."

"Well, it would have been a bigger moment if we actually figured out who the yuki onna was," said Finn. I huffed at the reminder that our wild goose chase was unsuccessful.

"We haven't ruled out Mrs. Pearce yet." I said optimistically.

"Do you really think it's her?" Finn asked.

"We'll see what the intel says." I said. By intel, I just meant Makaya. In my head, I was starting to doubt myself. Why had I been so sure that this was a yuki onna in the first place? Maybe I had been wrong all along.

"I can't believe we're trying to help these Forbidden." said Finn, mostly to himself.

"I can't believe you got along with Carter." I added smugly.

"Yeah, I guess it helps when you're not trying to start a fight," said Finn.

"Who'd have known." I replied sarcastically.

"I'm serious about the Forbidden thing. I really hope you're right about this, Lena." said Finn.

"I've never felt more sure about anything in my entire life." I affirmed.

Finn and I agreed for obvious reasons to lie to Dad about where we'd been. After some debating, we settled on helping Taylor with her dad. It wasn't the best cover, but nowhere near as bad as my "canvassing project".

"Is that-"

"Yep." I interrupted. As the car pulled into the driveway, my eyes settled on Jane-Anne Pearce, who was standing by our front door. "I've got this." I told Finn.

"Good luck." Finn replied. I rolled my eyes at him and got out of the car.

"Jane-Anne? What are you doing here?" I asked. As Jane-Anne turned to face me, Finn managed to slip through the door without catching her attention. At the last moment, he turned to give me a teasing salute.

"I don't know. I just... there's some weird things happening with my brain and I thought you'd know why." Jane-Anne wasn't showing the same signs of distress that she had last time, but her words were still enough to worry me.

"Where's Kiara and Taylor?" I asked.

"They're not here." said Jane-Anne, shrugging.

"Your mom?" I asked.

"Not here either," said Jane-Anne. "I haven't traveled alone in forever, isn't that weird?"

"So weird." I said, my voice starting to waver. "So, why do you think I can help you?"

"I don't know," said Jane-Anne. She shrugged casually, as if she wasn't aware of how strange this situation was.

"Why don't you go inside and make yourself comfortable?" I offered. "I'll be right there, I just need to get something out of the car." I smiled to ease Jane-Anne's nerves. Sure enough, she walked inside the door, her trust faithfully and falsely placed on me.

As soon as Jane-Anne was out of earshot, I called Taylor. "She's at my house." I said immediately. I could hear a breath of relief on the other side of the phone.

"I'm getting her right now. I can't believe she slipped away." Taylor muttered.

"Technically, Mrs. Pearce was supposed to watch her, so it's her fault." I reasoned.

"Well tell that to Mrs. Pearce. She sounded ready to kill both of us if we didn't bring her back right away. I don't know how long she's going to keep this up. She can't shield Jane-Anne from the world forever. It's cruel." said Taylor.

"Are you actually disagreeing with Mrs. Pearce?" I asked Taylor, surprised.

"I am?" Taylor whispered, shocked with herself. "I am!" she repeated, a lot more excited. "I'll be there in five minutes."

Taking a deep breath, I tucked my phone in my pocket and turned around. I nearly walked straight into Jane-Anne, who had been standing in the doorway. "Again?" she asked, heartbroken.

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently.

"You called again. I've been here before." said Jane-Anne. The confusion was pathetically plain on her face.

"You have been here. When I first moved here, remember?" I asked.

"No..." Jane-Anne murmured. "Trilliums take seven years to grow back."

"Um... maybe you should lie down." I suggested.

"Why do I remember things that never happened?" Jane-Anne asked.

"You just need to take a nap." I advised. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"But you were there. In two of them. They wouldn't stop singing." said Jane-Anne. She was looking at me like I had grown two heads.

At that moment, a car pulled into the driveway. Taylor got out of the driver's seat and slammed the door. "Jane-Anne, I need you to get in the car now." Taylor announced firmly.

"But I-"

"Now!" Taylor demanded. Her voice softened for a moment. "Don't make this any harder than it already is. Everyone's worried about you."

"I'm worried about me!" Jane-Anne protested.

"Car." said Taylor calmly, not a hint of humanity present on her face. Jane-Anne bowed her head and obeyed. As soon as she was out of sight, Taylor took a deep breath and massaged her temples. "How bad is it?" She asked me.

"It's really incoherent." I said. "Maybe Mrs. Peace will use a wish. You could be free."

"Free." Taylor mumbled. "Free and kicked out of Atalka. Free without a way to take care of my dad. Cool."

"She'll be okay." I promised. "Everything that's happened to her is just getting to be too much, even if she doesn't even know what happened."

"You're probably right. She's screaming for help, even if she doesn't know why." said Taylor.

"Yeah." I agreed. It was a really inconvenient truth. "Something needs to happen. Is there a way to convince Mrs. Pearce to drop this whole thing? I know that the attack was terrible, but this can't be helping her."

"There's no way I can do that, especially with the yuki onna on the loose." said Taylor. She crossed her arms. "I'm sorry we couldn't find her."

"We will." I promised. "I'm not one to give up."

"I really hope we catch her." said Taylor. "I don't know if I can keep doing this."

I glanced at Jane-Anne, her silhouette in the car window waiting patiently to be escorted home. "I'm sure it's hurting her more than you." I said, not realizing that I was thinking out loud.

Taylor glanced back at the car, defeated. "I'll see you later, I guess."

I nodded, waiting for Taylor to fully drive away before going back to the house. The fact that I didn't find the yuki onna still had me upset, but Jane-Anne was concerning me a bit more. I didn't blame her for her strange spiral, but I also had no idea how I was supposed to help her.

"Did you take care of it?" Finn asked, coming back downstairs.

"I think so." I nodded.

"You think so?" Finn raised his eyebrows. "What does that mean?"

"It-" Before I could flub some stupid lie, my phone rang, saving me from Finn's question.

In a split second, I could see Finn's expression change. Before I could stop him, my phone was in his hand, and he was holding it right above my head, a childish grin on his face.

"Seriously? Real mature Finn!" I shouted, jumping to reach it. Finn was holding my phone just high enough for it to evade my reach.

Finn kept walking with my phone, but made the mistake of wandering into the living room. I leaped onto one of the couches and used the momentum to get high enough for my phone. I jumped a bit too high, and tumbled onto Finn. My phone clattered to the floor, but I swiped it and answered the call in a matter of seconds.

"Hello?" I said casually, trying not to reveal what had just happened. I glared at Finn and stuck my tongue out like a two year old. Finn didn't seem too guilty.

"Made you forget for a second, didn't it?" He asked.

"Go!" I hissed. "I'm trying to have a conversation!"

Finn shrugged before leaving.

"Lena?" Makaya asked. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." I assured Makaya. "What did you find out?"

"Have you ever heard of a kitsune?" Makaya asked.

"That doesn't sound like yuki onna." I pointed out. "And no one on your stupid list panned out."

"Do you know what a kitsune is?" Makaya asked, disregarding my comment.

Kitsune (n): an intelligent shapeshifting fox creature from Japanese folklore, sometimes with the ability to become invisible.

"Yeah, I have a pretty good idea. I had to learn this stuff, you know. Is that what Mrs. Pearce is?" I asked.

"Yes." Makaya confirmed. "Listen, I think that the shapeshifting angle could be important. Maybe it's not really a yuki onna, but someone pretending to be one."

"Looking like a yuki onna is one thing. Actually possessing ice and snow abilities is another." I countered.

"That's true, but it's not enough for me to completely trust Setsuka. I don't think we can reveal what we know to the Court just yet." Makaya explained.

"Fine." I muttered.

"You sound frustrated," said Makaya.

"Of course I'm frustrated!" I snapped. "Nothing is lining up!" I started to pace the room in exasperation.

"No one in this town is registered as a yuki onna, but the killer has to be someone from this town because they knew enough about Mrs. Delaney to target her specific tree." I said, rambling aloud. As I continued to pace, one of the planks squeaked loudly.

"We have a pretty small pool of suspects to look at since Atalka doesn't have many residents, but none of them work. Do you think it's someone outside of the gate who understands the inside really well?" The same plank squeaked loudly again, interrupting my train of thought. I put the phone on speaker and kneeled next to the deviant floorboard.

"If it's someone who knows the town but doesn't live there right now..." Makaya mused.

"Maybe it's someone who used to live here." I finished. I dug my fingernails into the edge of the plank. It came loose easily. Holding my breath, I set the plank aside. Below it was a hidden alcove.

"Makaya, who used to live here?" I asked, digging through its contents. There was some jewelry and a bag full of Yen. At the bottom of the collection was a thin piece of paper.

"It was the Kazamas. Fuyuko and her son, Hayate." Makaya answered.

With bated breath, I unfolded the parchment.

"Makaya, I think I know who the killer is." I whispered, staring at the strange portrait the paper displayed.

It was a woman with long black hair, snow falling all around her.

Fuyuko Kazama was going to pay for what she did.

A/N: And there we have it! As promised, a yuki onna has been revealed! There were a lot of people who got bits and pieces right, and someone even caught on to the significance of some names! I know that these past three chapters have been a little slow, but I promise that we're building to something big! The climax is a couple chapters away, and we have a very important Forbidden meeting first. See you guys soon!

QOTD: So we know who the yuki onna is. Anyone have theories about why she could be doing this?