The snowfall carried on all through the night and has left the campus white and chilled. A year ago around this time Riley was shopping for Christmas decorations in the city with college friends, enjoying her normal life. She didn't even visit her family at the house in Long Island during the holidays, instead Carrie came to her. 

But now the December celebrations are the last thing on her mind. As she makes her way from her last class to the parking lot she plans the next step in her investigation. God, please don't let that license plate be a dead end, she wishes. 

As she reaches her car she suddenly feels herself lose her footing on the ice. A split second later she's down. 

'Careful, the weather's traitorous.' The familiar voice floating on the icy breeze towards her is bitter and disinterested. 'Bryn.' 

With difficulty Riley pushes herself up and brushes the snow off her jeans. Bryn doesn't look any more forgiving than she did last night. 

'I've decided something.' She begins, seeming determined as she moves her hand through her mesmerizingly long, blond hair to clear her face. 'I'm really mad at you, I think I will be for a while. But I'm still going to help you find Carrie's kidnapper. For her, not for you.' 

Riley carefully attempts to look her in the eye. 'Are you going to tell Sofia?' 

'For now I'll keep your secret. But out of respect for Carrie I seriously urge you not to start anything with Aaron during this whole ordeal.' 

Before she can answer Bryn's eyes wander past Riley and her bitter looks intensifies. 'Speak of the devil.' 

Riley turns to see Aaron approaching. 'Hey, I traced the license plate. The car belongs to a rental place in Queens.' He hands her a scrap of paper with an address on it. 

'Are you sure you want to keep pursuing this? I mean, with that girl being killed...' Aaron starts, but Riley quickly cuts him off. 'I'm not giving up.' 

Seemingly annoyed, Bryn escapes from the scene and into the car. 'I should go.' Riley says, avoiding the worry in his eyes as she turns her back to him, not letting it reach her. 

Right there she decides she can't tell anyone about the threat she received last night. Aaron will just try to stop her, and she doubts Sofia and Bryn would approve either. That is, if Bryn still cares...

∾

Luck does not appear to be on their side. As Riley parks the car on the empty lot in front of the rental place, the sign saying 'FORECLOSURE' practically screams in their faces. 

'Great, what do we do now?' Bryn's clearly irritable mood is increasing by the minute. Riley gets out of the car and begins to circle the building, checking every door and window. 

'Jesus, this place is run-down.' Bryn scolds. After braving the chilled winter air, she has now taken a stand in the middle of the lot as she throws dirty looks at the building. 

'What are you doing?' Riley begins climbing onto an empty wooden crate on the side of the building as Bryn walks over.

'That window up there, it's cracked. I could get in through there.' Riley suggests.

'And then what? I don't think much is going to be left in there.' Bryn counters.

'Didn't you see the date on the foreclosure sign? It was shut down last week, from what I can see through the windows they haven't cleaned the place out yet.'

As Riley tries to find her balance on the wobbly crate she reaches for the window. 'It's still too high, can you boost me up?' Bryn sighs loudly before stepping onto the crate and holding her hands down for Riley. 'Ouch! Would you just hurry?' 

Riley pushes open the window and pulls herself up, nearly falling as she goes through. A few boxes tip over as she jumps down. 'You okay in there?!' Bryn shouts. 'Yeah!' 

Exiting the storage closet she landed in, Riley walks through the hall, past the front desk and into the back office. As she'd hoped, the file cabinets are still there. She begins skimming through all the files, looking for one marked with the date Carrie disappeared. Once she's found it, she checks all the license plates written down by the cars rented out that day. Nothing, damn it. Maybe he rented it the day before? She grabs another file. 

Yes! There it is, a black Ford SUV. Rented by... John Smith. Good god, people actually do that? No social security number, this is sure beginning to look like the dead end she'd feared. But as she carefully studies the receipt attached to it she notices 'John Smith' included an address with his information. 

With the tricks this guy has pulled so far she doesn't expect this address to lead to anything, but it's better than nothing. She takes a picture of the receipt before hurriedly vacating the place.

As she and Bryn get back on the highway Bryn receives a text. 'It's Sofia, she wants us to meet her at the Neon Wolf.' While keeping one eye on the road Riley tries to hint confusion at her with the other. 'The Neon Wolf?' 'Yeah, it's... eh... this place Alice runs, we all hang out there sometimes. More often these days. Take the next exit.'

∾

As Riley leans over the steering wheel she stares at the building in astonishment. Finally she turns to Bryn. 'A strip club?' 

'No... it's really more like a nightclub... that happens to have strippers.' 

As they get out of the car and approach the entrance she notices the two gigantic, buffed-up bouncers standing on either side of the door. They greet Bryn with a nod, clearly recognizing her. 

Once inside they're immediately colored pink and purple by the radiating neon lights scattered across the place. A huge circular bar, stages on either side, big couches and corner seats, this is quite the operation. Girls in lingerie are carelessly prancing about. 

'I can't believe Alice owns this place. How are her parents okay with this?' Riley wonders aloud.

Bryn waves the comment away. 'Please, she's from California, remember? Besides, you met her dad, I expect he's probably proud of her entrepreneurial skills.' 

They join Sofia on a large, red velour couch in a corner. 'Just one second...' She mutters in distraction while busily typing on her phone. 

Riley glances around, expecting to spot Alice somewhere. Instead she notices Aaron, Milo and Noah standing by the bar. Milo is obviously completely out of it, she notes, as she watches him do shots with a few girls. 'Typical, they always flock around him like that. They know who he is, and that he's rich.' Bryn states. 

For a moment Riley believes to be detecting some jealousy in Bryn as she glares in Milo's direction. But she brushes it off as Bryn simply being in a bad mood. 

While Riley catches Sofia up on the investigation, Bryn disappears down a hallway. Soon after she reappears, joined by Alice. In a short black dress, with her voluminous, strawberry blond hair tied back in a high ponytail, her high heels lead her on a straight path to the guys. Her big, golden amber eyes look up at Aaron as she lays what appears to be a small plastic bag in his hand. They exchange a few words and then the group simultaneously moves to a table in a dark corner. 

A bad feeling begins to arise in Riley as she watches it unfold. 'Shall we join them?' Sofia raises her hand, pointing in the group's direction. As Riley hesitantly follows her she realizes this is beginning to look more and more like a situation she doesn't want to be in. 

She gets closer to see Aaron take a pill from the little bag, place it on the table, and begin to crush it with the dull end of his pocket knife. Bryn's words echo through her head. She said Aaron was spiraling, but Riley hadn't realized what that meant until now. On the tip of the knife's blade small doses of white powder are divided amongst the group. 

Sofia has already joined, yet Riley can't bring herself any closer. Nailed to the ground she watches it happen. Until Aaron bends down, directs the white substance into his nose, throws his head back, inhales deeply, opens his eyes and looks directly at her. In that moment, looking into the eyes of someone she doesn't recognize, her only instinct is to run.

The snow that has been falling since last night has now escalated into a near blizzard. She can barely see where she's going as she storms through the parking lot. She knew things were bad, and she was prepared to find the people she knew two years ago had changed. But despite Carrie's stories about the party scene they had landed in, Riley did not expect this. Maybe from Milo, maybe even from Sofia or Bryn. But not Aaron, never Aaron. Back when they were at Carlton Prep together, when everyone was getting drunk and doing stupid shit, Aaron was the only one besides her who remained mostly untainted. She thought he knew better.

She pauses when she reaches the back of her car, looking over her shoulder at the Neon Wolf. Her next thought makes her heart ache so badly the sensation of vomiting arises in her stomach. Is it her fault? Did she break him? After spending her entire teenage life thinking she was the bigger person, determined that she was going to be better than her parents, do better... One mistake, and it has been haunting her ever since. Made her lose faith in herself. She's no better than the people she judges so harshly.

Completely caught up in everything, she didn't notice until now that she's practically freezing to death. She decides she wants to leave, but as she takes a few steps towards the front of her car her foot suddenly hits something in the snow. 

She feels her body give way as she falls face first into the powder. 'Damn it, how many times am I going to fall today?!' She flips onto her back as she rubs her sore leg. Then she halts instantly, staring in shock at the partially uncovered snow in front of her, seeing now what made her trip. 

Gasping as she kicks into the ground, she quickly shuffles her body backwards. 'Riley!' She hears in the distance. 'Sofia!' As Sofia runs over she breaks swiftly when she spots it. 'Oh my god...' While helping Riley up off the ground neither one of them can tear their eyes away from it.

'Ri?'

'Yeah?'

'The... the glowing eyes.'

'I see it.'

∾

'Miss Clemens, you have to understand the seriousness of the situation. This is the second time we find you within close proximity of a murder victim. You must realize how this looks.' 

Still shaking, Riley has been placed in an interrogation room at the police station, a blanket thrown around her numbed body. 

'What are you implying exactly?' Sofia is next to her, responding to the questions directed at Riley. Riley hasn't managed to move or do much since they brought her here. 'What the hell is wrong with you people?!' 

Afraid of the consequences if Sofia assaults a police officer, Riley tries to reach for her to signal her to ease up. 'Sof...' 

'No! This is outrageous!' Sofia quite literally jumps out of her chair as she slams her hand on the table. 'Riley has had to deal with finding not one but two dead bodies in the last week! And now you're accusing her of being the killer?! You're in here wasting time while there is a psychopath out there who is clearly ready to make Riley his next victim!' 

Riley detects both unease and confusion in the cop's face. 'Don't you see?' Sofia continues. 'These bodies keep popping up around her, obviously the killer is following her every move. He probably knows we're looking for him, unlike you guys, and he's trying to scare us off!' 

She's right about that. Remembering the threat Riley received last night, she contemplates telling the police. They certainly don't seem like they'd care, not to mention she has no way to prove it. The message disappeared from her laptop screen, leaving no evidence of the hack, or that anything ever happened at all. 

'Who was it?' Riley asks, once Sofia has cooled down enough and has reseated herself. 

'A Penburg ID was found on the body, belonging to a David Bryant.' 

The look on Sofia's face as she whispers 'Davy' tells Riley she knew him. Her tough and tenacious exterior seems briefly affected, but is quickly back intact. 

'You better tell your captain that if you guys don't start taking this case seriously it will take me exactly two seconds to get the entire Chicago PD barreling down on your asses.' Sofia grabs her jacket and veers up towards the door. 'Let's go, Riley.'