Shit.

That was the only word that came to Mae's mind as the sounds of approaching police sirens filled the night air. Everything around her—her friends, Steve and Levy, Dudley, even the backyard they were standing in—seemed to drift away It was an unpleasantly familiar feeling, and Mae had to struggle to hold onto anything. As she did so, several questions occurred to her.

Unfortunately, since she could only think of one word, the answers to those questions were all the same.

What should she do? Shit. How far were the police? Shit. Did they have time to run? Shit, shit, shit.

"Shit," Mae whispered.

There was no time to think. Before Mae even knew what she was doing, she had grabbed onto Bea's shoulders. Bea gave a grunt of surprise as Mae started shoving her friend in the direction of the fence's opening, but Mae said nothing in reply. She needed to get her friends out of here.

Bea, Angus and Gregg couldn't be here when the cops came. Mae didn't care if she got caught, but her friends couldn't afford the kind of trouble the police brought. Bea would wind up having more money problems. Gregg and Angus wouldn't be able to move to Bright Harbor. Germ would…

Actually, Mae didn't know if Germ had any real problems in his life. He seemed to have things relatively together.

"Mae, what the eff!" Bea protested.

"Shut out and get up!" Mae ordered. She gave Bea one final push in the fence's direction and stepped back. With this, Beatrice appeared to get the message. She began crawling through the opening in the fence.

Mae turned around to call for Gregg and Angus, but they were already running to the opening in the fence. Once Bea crawled through to the other side, Angus began to follow after her. As Gregg crawled through after his boyfriend, Mae ran over to where she'd dropped the lockbox.

The police sirens were only getting louder. Mae knew she didn't have time to go back for the box. All the same, she couldn't just leave Casey's lockbox behind, no matter how lame its contents had turned out to be.

When Mae kneeled down to pick up the lockbox, though, she caught a glimpse of Dudley out of the corner of her eye. The tattooed drug dealer was staring at her, expressionless. For a moment, Mae thought he was going to try and grab the lockbox from her. Evidently, though, fifteen dollars wasn't a very tempting prospect, and Dudley was soon running off to jump the back fence and run into the woods.

"Mae!" Bea hissed, her attempt at a whisper drowned out by the approaching police car. "Just leave it! Come on!"

Mae ignored her best friend's sensible advice. She stood up and took one last look at the backyard. She was alone in it now; Steve had jumped back over to Levy's side of the fence, and Germ had simply disappeared. Mae tried to swallow the strange loneliness that the backyard inspired in her. Then, clutching the lockbox to her chest, Mae sprinted towards the opening in the fence where her friends were still waiting for her.

She only made it about halfway to the fence before a cop shined their flashlight into the backyard, directly into Mae's face. Mae gradually and reluctantly came to a stop, a groan of frustrated defeat escaping her. She raised her hand to try and shield her eyes from the harsh light of the cop's flashlight and waited for the inevitable.

"Oh, for God's sake, Mae," Aunt Molly said.

Of course. Out of the two or three cops in town, the one who showed up just had to be the one who'd give her the hardest time. Mae squinted her eyes and held up a hand to unenthusiastically wave at the responding officer.

"Hi, Aunt Molly," Mae said.

Aunt Molly sighed before moving her flashlight around the backyard. It didn't take her long to point the beam of light at the part of the fence Mae's friends had all run through. Bea, Gregg, and Angus, either unable or unwilling to leave Mae alone, were still standing on the other side of the fence. Levy and Steve were nowhere to be seen.

Mae silently cursed her friends for not just running off like the others had done. Then she cursed herself for dragging her friends into this. They all looked mortified in the cold light of Aunt Mall Cop's flashlight, and it made Mae wish she'd never insisted on them coming along on her stupid treasure hunt.

"Santello?" Aunt Molly asked, surprised at the faces she was seeing. "Delaney? What are you all doing here? Mae, what's going on?"

"Officer?"

The familiar voice of Casey's stepdad came from the front yard. Mae saw as the stepdad (What was his name? Doug?) came from the front of the house and joined Aunt Molly. He was wearing a bathrobe and slippers, and had a serious case of bedhead. When he saw Mae in his backyard, a bewildered mix of surprise and disbelief appeared on his face.

"Oh, Mae!" Doug said, laughing. "Is that you? God, I thought it was a burglar! What are you doing back there?"

"She's trespassing, for one thing," Aunt Molly muttered, her tone deadpan.

Doug's smile disappeared. He blinked and looked from Mae to Molly to Mae again.

"Officer, I'm sure that Mae and her friends have a reason to be here," he said unconvincingly. "I mean, we don't need to… Make a big deal out of this, do we?"

"That depends," Molly said with a sigh. "It's your property. They're only trespassing if you say they are."

In the harsh light given off by Molly's flashlight, Mae could see that Doug was uncertain. Given the situation, Mae couldn't blame him. In Doug's eyes, Mae and her friends had been acting like noisy jackasses in his backyard. If they had been complete strangers, or if he'd known about the shady drug dealers who had been with them, Doug might have decided to press charges.

But Mae was relieved to see Doug begin shaking his head, a dismissive frown on his face.

"No, it's fine," he said. "I'm sure they had a reason to be here. Probably just wanted something from Casey's room."

"… Right," Molly said, clearly not too satisfied with that answer. She looked over the fence at Mae and gave her a very tired look. It was a look that Mae was very used to seeing on Aunt Mall Cop's face.

Eventually, though, Aunt Molly's eyes drifted down to the lockbox Mae was holding in her arms.

"What's in the box, Mae?" Molly asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Mae didn't say anything right away. As a cop, Aunt Molly probably knew at least a little about Casey's business with his cousin. On top of that, the fact they were right next door to the home of Levy, local burnout and amateur dealer, probably only made Molly even more suspicious.

Thankfully, though, Doug once again came to the rescue. Apparently mistaking Mae's panicked silence for embarrassment, he quickly spoke up.

"Oh, that's something of Casey's," Doug said, trying to keep his voice low. "He uses those to keep his, er… his magazines in."

"… His magazines?" Molly repeated, clearly not following.

Doug cleared his throat awkwardly.

"His, you know… His magazines."

Molly blinked tiredly. She sighed and closed her eyes, clearly uninterested in trying to decipher whatever the hell Doug was talking about. Mae suspected that Molly wasn't too happy with getting called out to this neighborhood over nothing. Much like Mae, Molly probably just wanted to get this night over.

"Okay," Molly said wearily. "If no one's pressing any charges, I think everyone should go home for tonight. We can get this all sorted out later."

For the first time since Aunt Mall Cop shined her flashlight onto Mae and her friends, Bea spoke up.

"I can drive us all home," Bea said. She sounded relieved, as well as a little embarrassed. Mae had to guess Bea wasn't going to be very happy with her. Mae wasn't very happy with herself, either.

"Thank you, Bea," Molly sighed. With a click, she switched off her flashlight. The dark of night quickly returned to the backyard, reducing everyone to dim silhouettes. Mae blinked away the remaining discomfort in her eyes, grateful to be out of the light.

"Agh," Mae grumbled. She raised her hand to wave at both Doug and Aunt Mall Cop, shifting the weight of the lockbox in her other arm. "Okay, well, it's nice to see you, Aunt Molly. We're gonna—"

"No," Aunt Molly said firmly. "Mae, you're coming with me."

Mae, who had already begun walking towards the opening in the backyard's fence, stopped. She glanced over at her friends. Gregg and Angus both looked very sympathetic. Bea, however, just looked very tired—not at all sorry for her friend.

"… But I'm not under arrest!" Mae exclaimed.

"Doesn't matter," Aunt Molly retorted. "Get in my squad car. I'm driving you home."

Mae didn't say anything. Weren't there, like, rules against cops just randomly ordering people to get into their cop cars? Mae was pretty sure she'd seen a video about this online. Some dorky upper-middle class dude had made a video about what to do if a cop pulled you over. He hadn't said anything about what to do if that cop was your aunt, though.

With a sinking feeling, Mae realized that she really didn't have a choice here. Once again, online tutorials had failed to save her.

"Fine," Mae grumbled reluctantly. Keeping the lockbox to her chest, Mae began trudging to join her aunt.

"Good night, Mae!" Gregg called after her.

Mae wasn't sure how to respond to that. After the night they'd all had, 'Good night' was such a completely normal thing to say that it was almost bizarre. Instead of speaking, Mae just raised a hand and waved Gregg goodbye.

She had a feeling she was in for a very long car ride.

The backseat of Officer Molly's squad car was one of Mae's least favorite places to be in the world. It certainly hadn't gotten any better since the last time Mae had sat in it, which wasn't that long ago. The uncomfortable leather seats and partition between the front and back of the car actually seemed to have become even more cold and unfriendly since then.

In the glow of the car's headlights, Mae watched as Molly went around to the car's driver's side and opened the door. She hefted herself into the seat and closed the door behind her. Much to Mae's displeasure, Molly didn't turn the key in the car's ignition. She allowed the car to sit there while her eyes moved to stare at her niece in the car's rearview mirror.

"Do you have any idea how lucky you are?" Molly asked, a scolding tone to her voice.

Mae didn't know how to answer that. She didn't feel like she had any sort of luck whatsoever. Stuff always went wrong, and sometimes it went really wrong. Sometimes Mae got shot by cultists, or wound up involved in some weird drug thing.

Really, Mae was too tired to consider herself lucky.

"No," Mae muttered. "But I'm sure you'll tell me."

Molly narrowed her eyes and glared at Mae.

"I'm serious, Mae," Molly said. "If anyone else had called the police about all of the noise you were making, you and your friends would be in a cell right now. Do you understand that?"

Mae said nothing. She kept the lockbox in her lap and glanced away from her aunt's gaze.

With an air of defeat, Molly started up the car and began pulling away from the curb. The headlights bathed the roads of Possum Springs in cold, white light. There was something eerie about bright lights at night that Mae couldn't quite put her finger on. Maybe she was just too tired to really think about it.

After a while, Molly just sighed again and shook her head.

"I don't know why I'm even trying to lecture you on this," she said irritably. "It's not like you ever listen to me. Honestly, Mae, I don't know what it takes to get through to you."

"Eldritch horrors," Mae grumbled sleepily. "And nearly dying in a mine."

Evidently, Molly didn't hear what Mae said, as she didn't comment on it. Instead, as she drove them around a corner in the street, Molly returned to glaring at Mae through the rearview mirror.

"You don't think about the consequences of anything you do," Molly chastised. "You know consequences exist, but you don't really understand them. Things aren't always going to work out for you, Mae."

Mae closed her eyes but said nothing. She didn't want to argue with her aunt about all of this. Mae already felt bad enough about nearly getting all of her friends thrown in jail. Getting dragged into a shouting match with Aunt Mall Cop would only make Mae feel even worse.

Mae opened her eyes and glanced uninterestedly out the window of her aunt's patrol car. It was too dark to see anything in Possum Springs. Lights occasionally shined from streetlights or windows, looking like hanging phantoms in the air.

At the speed they were going, though, the lights all just looked like shapes to Mae.

"You know where the Hartley kid is, don't you?"

Aunt Molly's question came so suddenly that Mae almost thought she'd imagined it. But when Mae looked towards the front of the car, she saw her aunt was still looking at her through the rearview mirror. Her eyes were focused intently on Mae as they neared the street Mae lived on.

Mae needed a moment to process what she was being asked. Why was Aunt Mall Cop asking about Casey? What did she suspect, and why did she suspect it? Had Mae done or said something to give herself away?

Or did Aunt Molly know where Casey was too?

For the first time in several months, Mae found herself wondering if her aunt had been involved in the conservative death cult that had operated in Possum Springs. Mae couldn't help it; the suspicion had been in the back of her mind ever since learning about the cult's existence. Her aunt had tried awfully hard to convince Mae that the 'ghost' hadn't been anything, after all.

The fact that Aunt Molly was still alive probably should have lessened those fears. But just because Molly hadn't been with the cult when the mine collapsed didn't mean she wasn't involved. Maybe she hadn't gone out to the mine that night. Maybe her cultist uniform needed to be dry-cleaned. Who could say?

Mae soon sensed that her aunt was waiting for an answer. Playing it safe, Mae said the first thing that came to mind.

"He's probably somewhere up north," Mae said quietly. "Casey always talked about going there."

Molly made a noise. It was sort of like a grunt, but with more vowels. It was the sort of sound that said 'Mae, I know you're bullshitting me. My sister has created a lie-child.'

"What?" Mae asked defensively. "That's all I know! Casey didn't, like, email me or anything. Apparently, he just up and left."

It made Mae sick to lie about what had happened to Casey. Lying to a cop, particularly her aunt, made her feel a little bit better, though. Unfortunately, the fact that Aunt Molly clearly didn't believe what Mae was saying only served to make Mae feel sick all over again.

"You know it's illegal to lie to a cop, right?" Molly asked.

Mae frowned. "Is it?"

"Yup." Aunt Molly returned her eyes to the road and nodded. They were nearing Mae's house now.

"Oh." Mae shrugged. "No, I didn't know that."

"I somehow doubt it makes a difference either way." Molly began to pull up to the curb of the street Mae's house sat on. Mae looked out the window at her home and saw warm light from the living room window. Dad was probably watching Garbo and Malloy, or whatever other stuff he watched late at night. Mom was probably asleep. It looked like a pretty typical night for the Borowski household.

"Thanks for the ride, Aunt Molly," Mae said as her aunt parked in front of the house. "Have a good night."

"You're really not going to tell me anything, are you?" Molly asked irritably.

Mae's hand was already on the handle for the car's door. She stopped just short of pushing the door open when she heard her aunt's question. Mae hesitated, unsure of if it would be better to just bolt for the house or not. Running would only wind up making Molly more PO'd, though.

"You wouldn't believe anything I told you," Mae replied. "You already think I'm crazy."

Molly sighed. "I don't think you're crazy, Mae. I think you're a kid. A kid who seriously needs to grow up."

Mae opened her mouth to reply that she was twenty, and therefore not a kid, but thought better of it. Instead, she wordlessly opened up the car door and hopped out onto the street.

"Night, Aunt Molly." Mae said, sticking her head back into the patrol car.

Molly sighed again and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked back at Mae from the rearview mirror.

"Good night, Mae."

In her room, Mae stared into the harsh light of her laptop's screen and at the brief message she'd typed into the messenger software.

HEY BEA. U UP?

Mae had typed the message out a few minutes ago, and had been staring at it ever since. She hadn't contacted Gregg or Angus yet. For the time being, Mae wanted to make apologizing to Bea her first priority.

Mae could still remember the look on Bea's face when Aunt Mall Cop had showed up at Casey's home. It was once again sinking in for Mae just how closely she'd almost come to blowing everything for her friends. It sort of made her hate herself. Mae just hoped that her friends didn't hate her too.

After another few seconds of silence, the messenger's notification sound went off. A message popped up beside Bea's icon in the sidebar.

I AM NOW.

Mae grimaced. She quickly went to work typing up a reply.

OH. SORRY.

Bea didn't reply right away. Mae sighed and typed out another message.

FOR, LIKE, A LOT OF STUFF. MOSTLY ABOUT TONITE. AND ABOUT DRAGGING U ALONG ON MY DUMB TREASURE HUNT.

Mae waited for a few tense seconds to see if Bea would reply. She didn't keep Mae waiting very long, thankfully.

THANKS. I'M MORE TIRED THAN ANGRY THO.

That took Mae by surprise.

YOUR REALLY NOT MAD?

NO. TOO TIRED. I'LL BE ANGRY AT YOU IN THE MORNING.

Mae smiled at that. After how crappy tonight had been, it was nice to have something to cheer her up. Soon, though, another message from Bea popped up.

SORRY CASEY'S THING WASN'T WHAT YOU HOPED.

Mae frowned. All at once, her disappointment about the contents of the box came back. She looked over her shoulder at the spot on the attic floor where the lockbox now sat. With a sigh, Mae went back to typing.

ITS OKAY. TO BE HONEST, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS HOPING FOR. IN THE END ALL I GOT OUT OF THIS WAS I FOUND OUT CASEY WAS DEFINITELY INVOLVED IN DRUGS.

ARE U DISAPPOINTED?

Mae thought about that. The answer seemed obvious, but at the same time Mae was surprised by how she actually felt.

A LITTLE? I DON'T KNOW. I FEEL LIKE CASEY DIDN'T SO MUCH LEAVE THIS BEHIND FOR US AS HE JUST SORTA… BURIED IT AND FORGOT ABOUT IT.

WASN'T HE HIGH WHEN HE BURIED IT?

YEAH. GUESS IT WAS KINDA DUMB THINKING THAT ID GET CLOSURE FROM SOMETHING HE BURIED WHEN HE WAS STONED.

YEAH, A LITTLE.

Mae frowned thoughtfully. The more she thought about it, she'd really been expecting too much from this whole thing. And the more Mae realized how much she'd gotten her hopes up, the more Mae kind of felt like a moron.

After a few more moments of silence, another message from Bea popped up.

IVE GOTTA GO TO BED, MAE. TALK TO YOU TOMORROW?

YEAH. NITE.

Mae's heart wasn't exactly in it when she wished Bea goodnight, though. She was tired, and disappointed, and just a little bit frustrated. It felt like the last few months (Or weeks; Mae wasn't 100% certain how much time had passed) had sort of been for nothing. She'd hoped that the search for Casey's lockbox would have made things feel more… complete. She'd hoped that they'd be able to get some closure, or grant some finality to Casey's death.

But no. Death didn't really work like that, did it? Finding a box wouldn't have magically given Casey's death some sort of meaning. Nothing was going to do that. Death didn't have a meaning.

It was just sort of a thing that happened.

"Oh, wow," Mae muttered. "Way to be a downer, Mae."

With an exhausted sigh, Mae stowed her laptop away and collapsed onto her bed. Then, after realizing she still had her boots on and getting up to take them off, she closed her eyes and tried to quiet her head.

In a matter of seconds, she was out like a light.