She walked out of her apartment holding her wallet and her phone and walked down the road as she headed toward the nearby grocery store. As she turned right to head into the forest that separated her street from the street of the store, she almost bumped into three boys that felt very familiar. OH! It's Alfie, Tom, and Joseph! Maeve let out a small chuckle as she let the three boys pass by her, but as she went to walk away. One of the boys, Alfie, tried to ask her something but quickly blushed and stammered over his words before quickly giving up and sighing as he followed his friends away from Maeve, who quickly went back on her path. What was he trying to tell her? She might never know. Nor did she truly care... She had never found anything interesting in that kid anyways.

She entered the path of the dense forest... The large trees towered over her as they almost cast out the left part of the moon in the sky, as the right part of it had been separated from it long ago and had drifted away from its other part. This, of course, had made the waters of the world change slightly, but the world had seemed to adapt quite fast when that happened. But that's enough obvious world exposition.

She emerged out of the forest after about twenty minutes of walking; the grocery store came into her view as she did so. A gunshot rang out. Another damn holdup. It happens like twice every week now. That poor cashier. But when two other shots rang out, Maeve froze as she realized that none of the three shots had come from the grocery store... But they were back from where she came from. Well, thank God she had not walked slower, huh?

Maeve quickly walked into the store after making sure that the gunshots definitely did not come from inside of it, which, thank god, they did not. She nodded to the cashier as a way to salute them before walking down the aisle, looking for some snacks to get herself. Chips? Sure, why not? It's been a while since she ate any. What about some sour candies? Hell yeah.

As she kept on walking down the aisles, she kept on noticing new brands of candies but simply ignored them, as she knew she was low on cash and her paycheck was tomorrow for the job she works about twice a week. She works at the local pawn shop on the weekend. However, she was on paid break for the last three weeks because it was the end of the semester and her boss was just that nice.

After gathering everything that she had been looking for, Maeve quickly wandered down the aisle, walking past two older workers who seemed to be enjoying their free time a bit too closely. They were straight up kissing each other on the necks... Jesus, have some decency...huh... Maeve glanced at their nametags...Rowan and Ellis? Whatever, she walked up to the cashier and placed her items down.

As she went to leave the store after paying, she froze at the door as she rethinked about the two men that she had seen kissing in the aisle. Wait... Wasn't Ellis named in the podcast she had watched on the bus earlier today? ... Wasn't he the guy that this Detective Brooks guy was looking for and had failed to find? ... She stumbled back into the grocery store to look at the aisle where the two men were, but...they were gone. Maybe she just hallucinated it? Heh. Sure, why not? Who cares?

She nodded at the cashier again when she left for the second time; the cashier was slightly confused, not that Maeve cared if he was.

Walking back through the forest, she froze as she saw something that was out of place. Out of the corner of her eye in the dense forest, she saw a bloody hand. Three hands, to be exact... Three right hands... So three bodies. She was about to let out a loud yelp of fear, but before she could, she put a hand on her mouth and muttered in her voice in case the killers were still out there. She pushed a branch out of the way to gently approach the bodies... Why was she approaching? Curiosity.

Approaching closer, she realized a horrible truth. She knew the three bodies... She had just passed them earlier... Oh god... She gripped her phone and went to call the cops, but a gloved hand gripped the phone right out of her hand and simply closed it gently before handing it back to her. Glancing up at the man, she noticed he was wearing some kind of potato bag over his head... Wait...was this...The Flame Whisperer?! She let out a small yelp of fear and ran out of the forest, but the man did not follow her. He did not seem to want her harm. It felt like he just wanted to see the bodies of the kids... Was it him who had killed them? Or was he going down the whole vigilante thing again...? Maeve couldn't believe it... Lucian Voss was actually back from the dead... She froze at the edge of the forest and glanced back at the man one last time.

The Flame Whisperer kneeled down over the bodies, letting out a small, ragged sigh as he took off his bag off his head to look at the kids that were dead before him... He let out a small gasp as if he knew them... Maeve picked up on that detail, and...instead of continuing to run away, she gently approached the man once again... His suit was ragged, with two bullet holes in the same arm... The back of it had suffered heavy fire damage... This was really him... Lucian Vo— Maeve froze as she stepped on a stick, which made the man's head snap to her; her eyes widened as the face in front of her was one that was very much familiar... Crossfield...Her history teacher...Nathan Crossfield was the Flame Whisperer... But what about Lucian... Her mind quickly went back to the question that Nathan had asked her in class about what truth really was. She understood the double meaning of it. He was projecting how the world saw him when he asked that... He was a forgotten vigilante... The Whisperer had never been Lucian... It was always Nathan.

Maeve collapsed to her knees next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder... Nathan's eyes were cold for a moment, but they gently went soft as he understood what she was doing. Nathan Crossfield let out a small sigh before telling her something that was obvious. ''Crossfield isn't my real last name. Maeve froze at how sudden that was. It came out of nowhere. Why was he just confessing to her? ''The real name is Ashcroft.'' Maeve still couldn't believe her ears, but before she could stop him to ask what he was talking about, the Whisperer snatched her phone and dialed 911 before walking out of her sight... What the hell just happened?!