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Dr Cote walked into her office, closing the white wooden door behind her carefully and clearing her throat. It was ten past nine in the morning, however the day was still dark and grey since the storm that had raged above Summerland was still going strong. She could hear the contant pattering of rain against the roof and windows, but seemed to ignore it as she'd almost gotten used to the sound.

Dr Cote walked over to the coat peg and hung up her light beige trench coat that had been covered with rain, since the umbrella that she had left behind the desk downstairs had taken most of the brunt force of the weather...

"You're late." A voice said, causing Dr Cote to gasp suddenly and turn around, only to see Alice Murphy sat in her usual place on the couch with her hands placed in her lap.

"Dear God, Alice." Dr Cote scolded unintentionally, then gathered herself together. "The office doesn't officially open until I get here in the mornings." She continued, unnerved by the perfectly done up sixteen year old who was sat up straight with her light blonde hair falling elegantly over her shoulders. She was dressed in a soft pink, ribbed turtle neck and high waisted light denim jeans, with a bag to match her top. Her make up was subtle but brought out her best features, making her look slightly older than she was. "How did you get in?"

"Your receptionist let me in." Alice replied, watching Dr Cote carefully as she walked over to her desk and turned on her computer to check her schedule. "You don't have an appointment with me this morning, but your receptionist said you can make time for an emergency session whenever needed."

Dr Cote sighed very quietly and made a note in her head to talk with her assistant, not receptionist, about who she lets in unattended. There was no telling what Alice could have done in her office alone, seeing as she didn't entirely trust the sixteen year old to keep her hands to herself in a room filled with important patient files. "What's the emergency, Alice?" She asked, seeing that her previous morning appointment had been mysteriously cancelled without her being notified.

"There's a search party today, for the girl that went missing." Alice said, her bright blue eyes focussed on Dr Cote as she retrieved Alice's file and her notes and sat down in the arm chair opposite. "I know I should go and show support but I can't help but feel like... it might be a waste of time."

"And why is that?" Dr Cote replied, putting on her glasses and opening her notebook to begin writing her thoughts down. It was only then that she noticed the slight crease in the previous page, one that she hadn't seen there before... she was always careful to maintain the high quality of her notebooks and knew she didn't put it there herself. She looked up at Alice carefully without moving her head and saw the sixteen year old watching her with a eerie but polite smile and a steady stare.

"Anyone, if not everyone, that goes missing in this town ends up dead... we should be saying goodbye instead of prolonging the pain." She replied, holding eye contact. "They just haven't found the body, which is why they're dragging half this town out to search the woods that they know no one goes in to,"

"I'm sensing some hostility, Alice." Dr Cote stated, causing Alice to sit up straighter and move her hair behind her shoulders as she cleared her throat quietly.

"I'm not hostile. I'm just confused as to why they want to keep torturing themselves with it," she continued, "All of us are already terrified as it is, and now we have to go and search for a potential dead body to traumatise us more." She shrugged and continued to stare.

"Who was Veronica to you, Alice?" Dr Cote asked, "Why don't you tell me about your relationship with her,"

For the first time Dr Cote saw the hard expression on Alice's face falter, and for a moment she looked like the innocent sixteen year old she was portraying herself to be to the outside world... and for just a second Dr Cote found that expression slightly more unnerving than the previous blank expression. "I didn't know her that well, actually I didn't know her at all." Alice stated and hesitated before she continued as she fiddled with the thin gold rings on her hands, "She was this... massive socialite," Alice began, looking out the window to see the rain drops sliding quickly down the glass just as a rumble of thunder echoed through the sky. "She always threw these big parties and invited all the popular people... no one younger than her was ever invited so it just made it all that more exclusive. It's all anyone would talk about for months leading up and for months after, she was the queen bee from basically day one."

Alice sighed and licked her lips, thinking back to her freshmen and sophomore year, seeing the sleek black haired teen strutting through the hallways with the invisible crown on her head. "God, she had everything. Rich parents, big houses, cute clothes, loads of friends, the hottest guy, she made it look like she had no problems at all." Alice said, almost in an annoyed dream like voice as she stared at the rug beneath her shoes.

"Were you jealous of her?" Dr Cote asked, causing Alice to suddenly look at her with an eerie sharpness.

"Obviously." She snapped quietly, "Everyone was. She was a complete show off." She continued, "She never let anyone forget that she was better than them." She added before she sat up straight and looked out the window again, wondering if Veronica's body was still rotting in those woods where Magnus and Trey had dumped her or if she'd been burnt into dust. "She paraded him like a prize pony in front of me." She mumbled, speaking out loud as she remembered why she disliked Veronica the most. "She caught me looking at him once in the library, then made it her mission to make me jealous. Hugging him, kissing him, sitting on his lap..."

Alice clenched her jaw as her body replayed the intense jealousy she'd felt... she never let it show to Veronica's face, but she got her own back when she'd take it out on the tires of her range rover whenever she could. Dr Cote watched Alice carefully, wondering who she was talking about in terms of the guy, although she had heard a very different version of this story from another, previous patient.

Alice had slipped into a daze as she stared out the window, feeling a sickening delight knowing exactly where Veronica was now. Her expression didn't change, and stayed vacant and emotionless as she stared at her own reflection, but on the inside, she suddenly felt better. Especially when she felt her, or rather, Magnus's phone vibrate in her pocket, and knew it would be him texting her, letting her know he was ready to pick her up from down the road.

"-Alice." Dr Cote said for the third time, finally catching her attention. "Is there something on your mind that you would specifically like to talk about?" She asked, hearing her instincts whispering to her that there was something wrong with Alice Murphy.

Alice stared at her, gathering her thoughts back together as she wondered why she was really here. "Can you be jealous of someone when there's really nothing to be jealous of?" She asked,

"Well, yes... jealousy is someone's own perception of someone's else's reality. It can develop based off a fantasy instead of factual evidence." Dr Cote explained, furrowing her eyebrows for a split second before she returned to a calm expression. She knew she should be used to the jumbled structure of a therapeutic session, but there was something about Alice Murphy that seemed so purposefully unpredictable.

Alice sat in silence for a few moments as she processed what Dr Cote said. She was aware that she was jealous of Veronica, and she knew that her feelings were unreasonable... and she knew she should feel bad for her and be angry for her but... she couldn't. She couldn't access the emotions even when she tried. It felt like a wall between what she was feeling and what she should be feeling. Dr Cote watched her face carefully, seeing the internal struggle in Alice's eyes as she stared at a picture on the wall. "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about, Alice?" Dr Cote said, her voice gentle.

"No." Alice said suddenly, grasping the handles of her handbag and standing up after reaching for her leather jacket that had been neatly put over the arm of the couch. "Thanks for your time." She muttered, leaving the office swiftly as Dr Cote stood up and watched her leave in a shocked silence.

Outside, Alice put up a large white umbrella and looked up and down the street for Magnus's car. The rain seemed to blur the scenery together, and so far Alice couldn't see any sign of him. Just to make sure, she reached into her pocket to see if it had actually been him to message her, only to see that it had but he wasn't on the main road. Her chest seemed to lighten with excitement as she placed the large, thin iPhone into her bag carefully and made her way towards the coffee shop where he was waiting for her...

She felt strangely nervous and excited as she made her way towards the cafe, wondering if she should feel bad that she was meeting the guy that used to date the girl they were going to search for. But again, she didn't feel the empathy or the guilt she was expecting to, and began to wonder if Dr Cote's notes had been correct... the term sociopath flashed to the front Alice's mind but she pushed it away, not wanting to think about it a second longer...

A car horn sounded through the heavy pattering of rain and Alice looked up from watching the side walk, careful to avoid the puddles that would ruin her shoes completely and saw Magnus's range rover on the other side of the street, waiting to leave a parking lot. Alice smiled and looked either side of the road before crossing and walked over to the passenger side of the door, careful to put her umbrella down before getting in quickly to avoid getting her hair wet. "Hey," she smiled, shutting the car door moments before Magnus began to drive again.

"Is that what you're wearing?" he asked, glancing at her bright pink turtle neck and jeans combo. Alice furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at her outfit, then looked over at Magnus, who was dressed in all black with his large navy blue bomber jacket over the top. He looked effortlessly attractive, but she registered that he was in all dark clothing.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked, smoothing her hands across her thighs.

"Did you not get my text?" Magnus asked, stopping at a red light as he turned to look at her, in his mind, he knew she looked good, he liked how the bright colours complimented her skin and her hair, but wearing such a bright outfit to what was almost a funeral like occasion would cause unnecessary attention.

"What text?" Alice asked, reaching into her bag to get out the phone Magnus had given her a few days earlier and opened up her messages. She grimaced, seeing the message thread from Magnus telling her to wear something low key so that she wouldn't draw attention to herself. "Oh," she mumbled, since she had only looked at the most recent one.

"I'll take you back to your house," Magnus mumbled as the rain clattered down on the roof of his car and thunder rumbled in the sky above. "I got you a coffee," he added, motioning to the two starbucks cups in the holders on the dashboard.

"Is it almond milk?" Alice asked, reaching for the closest one to her as she side glanced Magnus's face, feeling her chest warming at his gesture.

"Yeah," he replied, since he had remembered that she didn't like milk. Alice smiled and thanked him as they drove back to her house. When they arrived back at the Murphy house hold, Magnus waited outside in his car as Alice hurried through the torrential rain back into her house to change. It only took her a few moments to find a pair of black jeans and grabbed the emerald green sweater to cover her bralet underneath before she hurried back downstairs with a pair of rain boots so that her normal sneakers wouldn't be ruined.

The storm continued to rage above Summerland as Alice got back into Magnus's car, her hair now becoming slightly messy from the speed that she'd pulled on the sweater. Magnus didn't wait before he turned the car around and continued on the journey towards the Green's lake house down by the water...

It seemed many people from all over town had decided to join the search party as cars seeped into the Green's drive way from all sides, the sound of tires carefully crackling over wet gravel and distant indistinct chatter filled Alice's ears as she got out the car, the sound of heavy rain seeming to muffle it all as she pulled on her rain coat and pulled the hood up. Alice wasn't sure who would be here out of her friendship group since she wasn't sure asking Candice about going was the right thing to do... So instead she stuck by Magnus's side as he walked ahead without saying much to her, his hood pulled up over his head so he seemed to glide past Veronica's parents without being seen as they stood greeting people at the side gate to the entrance to the back of the property.

Magnus and Alice approached a group of people who had maps gathered in their hands and hot cups of coffee that were being provided by a table of volunteers, the aura of the lake house seemed eerie and false, as if people had shown up to show support, even though most people had the inkling that the Green girl was dead already. "Hey," Trey said first, turning towards Alice and Magnus with his hood up, which almost seemed to shield his appearance so well that Alice didn't recognise him until the last moment. "They were handing out maps earlier," He continued, holding out a laminated map of the woods surrounding the lake house that was sprinkled with rain drops.

"I don't need one," Magnus replied, "I'm not going to stay long." he continued, keeping is hands tucked into his pockets as he looked around himself, drinking in the sights of several groups of hooded people looking at maps and discussing where to go as they drank their rain sodden coffee. His face was blank and void of emotion, but even he could admit to himself that he felt strange taking part in an activity he knew was pointless.

Alice took the map from Trey politely and looked down at it, seeing droplets of water dripping from her hood down onto the waterproof material. "Have they already started?" she asked whomever might've been listening as she looked up, catching the eye of a few of the group who were looking at her with distaste.

"Yeah," Trey replied, seeing as Magnus was busy scanning the scene around him. Trey silently couldn't help but feel shocked that Magnus had brought Alice along to the search party, a part of him felt it might've been inappropriate but also another part of him thought that in some way, he might've needed her to be there.

"Did Candice not want to come?" Alice asked, her voice a little quieter now since some of the others like Juniper and Lucy had decided to walk off whilst talking evidently about her.

"Uh, no," Trey replied, standing next to Alice now as they looked out over the view of the lake, seeing the murky water rippling quickly as rain drops pattered down, blurring the scene into a grey, almost misty, pale mass. "She didn't feel that great this morning," Trey lied, not wanting to tell the truth that Candice had slammed her bedroom door in his face when he'd asked her to go with him last night.

"Oh," Alice replied, sensing the lie but didn't comment on it as she looked down at the map again, seeing the areas that had been circled as last known sightings. An exchanging of words from a conversation Alice wasn't involved in caught her attention, and she looked up out of interest, her gaze landing on Noah Wilson talking to a man in a sheriffs jacket... Alice's heart jumped, and yet she didn't have time to react since Noah's father, who was also the Sheriff of the town, turned around instinctively to leave... His own gaze landed on Alice Murphy stood next to Magnus Johnson... he glanced between them, wondering to himself how it was strange that they were there together.

"Alice," Sheriff Wilson greeted, his eyebrows furrowed, "Nice of you to turn up today to help out," he continued, placing his hands on his hips as he looked at Alice pointedly, she was unsure of what to say and decided to smile politely instead, refusing to look up at Magnus for reassurance like she wanted to. "Magnus," Sheriff Wilson said as a goodbye, and turned away, making his way over to the coffee table to talk with some of the volunteers about the search party...

Someone watched the group from one of the upstairs windows of the lake house converse with the Sheriff... his expression blank as he stared at the smaller figure of the group, his eyes trained on Alice's body as she turned to look at Magnus and said something before looking back down at the map...

Harvey had wondered if she was going to appear, since he had he suspicion that she wouldn't have let Magnus come alone. He stared as his gaze fondly drank in her appearance, although not much was on show, the profile of her face and slither of blonde hair peeking out from underneath her hood was enough for him in that moment... slowly, and reluctantly he looked away and down at Veronica's diary that he was holding in his hands, open at a page that had a yearbook photo of Alice with hard pen scratches across her face and derogatory curse words etched heavily into the paper around the photo...

Magnus looked up towards the lake house, sensing strangely that there had been eyes on him... thunder rolled through the sky loudly as his gaze landed on a dark haired blonde standing in the window, watching him also, he recognised him instantly from the photos Noah had shown him and felt his muscles tense. Harvey and Magnus stared at each other for a moment, and Magnus could feel the hostility radiating from him even from that distance. "I'll be back." Magnus muttered, not caring if Alice had heard him or not and walked away, moving past groups of people before he made his way into the lake house...

He kept his hood up to cover his hair since it was usually a feature most people recognised first, knowing that around here was where he'd left some of his ghosts, including the sour relationship he had with Veronica's parents, who had despised him the moment he'd stepped into their house for the first time sophomore year.

Magnus found his way at the door to the room that he'd ended it all, and pushed it open, knowing that on the other side was a ghost he hadn't known existed until recently... However, he couldn't deny that he was intrigued and in some dark way, excited to meet him.

Harvey was stood by the window still, staring down at Alice who was glancing around herself for Magnus every other moment whilst continuing a forced conversation with two guys Harvey recognised to be Trey Eno and Noah Wilson. He'd read about them in Veronica's diary. She'd changed since he'd last seen her, her hair was a little longer, her skin clearer and she seemed to glow in the grey tones of the day, even though Harvey wondered if that was because he was paying attention to her the most.