Alice inhaled and exhaled steadily through her nose, forcing herself to control her breathing since her heart was beating so hard inside her chest that she thought she might faint. "Okay," She breathed, walking further into the room and over towards the dining room table. "What about?" She asked, licking her lips briefly as she tried to control her facial expressions and hands, knowing that these people were trained to read body language too, and she didn't want them to see how nervous she was.

"Why don't you take a seat and we can tell you," One of the agents said, motioning to a free seat with her hand, her palm facing upwards. Both of them were dressed in similar suits, navy blue and fitted, with white shirts underneath. The Agent who spoke to Alice directly was dark skinned, with deep, dark brown eyes and a pin straight brunette bob, with half of it tucked behind her ear. The other, with a more lighter brown skin tone, had her hair curly and neatly pinned up into a bun, her green eyes watching Alice carefully also with her palms face down on the table, covering some brown files.

Alice didn't respond verbally, and instead glanced at her father as she made her way over to the free seat and carefully sat down, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ears. Purposefully, she placed her hands on her knees and held them there, ignoring the urge to fiddle with her rings as she wanted to. She looked at each of the agents in the eye, and waited for them to continue... "Would you mind if we had some privacy with your daughter?" the same Agent asked, but her focussed eye contact suggested it wasn't exactly a question.

Sophie and Richard excused themselves with little protest, glancing at each other a little anxiously as they made their way upstairs since the living room and kitchen were connected. Alice continued to breathe carefully, fighting the urge to take short, sharp breaths and forced herself to take deeper ones, more normal ones, so that she could seem calmer than she was. "Right, Alice." The first Agent began, "My name is Agent Tiffany Harris, and this is my colleague Agent Lauren Wood," she continued, motioning to herself, and then her partner. "We're from the CSIS, as your mother told you when you arrived, and there is something we need to discuss with you, urgently."

"Okay," Alice breathed, and cursed herself since the nerves were obvious in her voice. Agent Harris watched her carefully, picking up on her tone instantly, but continued talking.

"We understand-" she began again, picking up the files in front of her and opening one, "-That you were friends with a boy named Jasper Hunt." she continued, "Who went missing a few weeks ago, is that correct?"

"Yes, we were friends." Alice replied calmly, holding the eye contact.

"Okay," Agent Harris murmured, glancing at Agent Wood as she began to write something down on a notepad. "And... were?" she asked, turning to look back at Alice and tilted her head. Alice's heart jumped, but she kept her expression the same.

"We didn't really get along before he went missing. He, I think, was pursuing a relationship with me and I didn't really want that." Alice explained, "So... yeah, were." she continued and Agent Harris nodded, as Agent Wood wrote down what Alice had said.

"Right... and how would you describe his behaviour... before he went missing?" Agent Harris asked, still holding the file and briefly glancing down at it.

"He was rude... um, pushy? The last time I saw him he was drunk, and acted really pissed off with me." Alice replied, furrowing her eyebrows a little and shrugged her shoulders slightly. "My friends Candice and Fei were there, they can-"

"We've already spoken with Candice Eno." Agent Wood spoke up, holding the eye contact with Alice who she had spoken across. There was a momentary pause as Alice's heart began to beat faster again, and she could feel her palms beginning to sweat. She cursed at herself in her head, needing for herself to calm down but her body wasn't listening.

"Oh," Alice murmured, glancing back towards Agent Harris as she wondered if she should continue explaining or be quiet. Agent Harris watched her for a moment before continuing on...

"How well would you say you know Jasper Hunt?" She asked, lowering her chin slightly and looking Alice in the eye with a steady stare... Alice inhaled, licking her lips again as she thought about it, giving her mind a moment to process the question so she wouldn't answer straight away and potentially give something away that she shouldn't.

"...We became friends last summer. But I wouldn't say I knew much about him." Alice replied, "We only really spoke about me." she continued, furrowing her eyebrows again as she realised... they really only ever had spoken about her, and she never made an effort to ask him any personal questions.

"Okay." Agent Harris replied in a brief voice before she put the file down and began to slide out some pieces of paper. "Do you recognise this man?" she asked, sliding two headshots of a man... maybe in his late twenties or early thirties... Alice wasn't sure. He had curly brown hair, brown eyes and similar features to Jasper's. Same nose. Same lip shape. Alice lifted a hand to slide one of the photos closer to her, and peered at it carefully as the image stared back at her with a vacant expression.

"Kind of?" Alice replied, "He looks like Jasper." she continued, sliding the photo away from her as Agent Harris and Agent Wood looked at each other, exchanging glances as if they were having a silent and brief conversion. Alice wanted to ask what the expressions were for, but she held her tongue. Not wanting to seem restless.

"That is Jasper Hunt. Or rather, what should be his Uncle. Jasper was the name of his nephew, who past four years ago after a domestic incident involving his uncle, Andrew... who is this man's name." Agent Harris replied in a careful voice, as Alice furrowed her eyebrows. An eerie chill travelled down her back very slowly, as if it was unsure of the information it was hearing too... but there was a little voice in the back of her mind telling her she was about to find out about what had put her on edge the whole day... "Andrew Hunt was previously an aspiring FBI agent in New York but didn't make the cut due to some significant mental health issues...he vanished after the incident with his Nephew. When he was faced with manslaughter charges, and apparently left the country to avoid serving."

"... What?" Alice whispered, feeling her heart beginning to hesitate with its beats as if it was also unsure of how to react. She could see Agent Harris's lips moving... but didn't seem to process any of the words leaving her mouth.

"According to some leads, he'd been following a cold mafia case that had been closed whilst his brother, Jasper's father who was an FBI agent, had been involved in. He unfortunately passed in an accident involving the case when he'd been working under cover to solve it. According to some testimonies from Jasper's father's colleagues, Andrew had been obsessed with trying to solve it and getting revenge." Agent Harris carried on as Alice swallowed heavily... she looked at each of the agents to see if they were about to start laughing... but both looked back at her with serious, calm expressions for a few seconds. "We have been searching for Andrew Hunt for almost four years, Alice. And it was only until the news of all the missing children came to light, and his picture and the name was shown, that we noticed the similarities..." Agent Harris clarified as Alice sat very quietly as a confused expression washed over her face. If her tone was suggesting what Alice assumed she was suggesting... it would mean...

"But... This man looks older than Jasper." Alice replied, "How could this guy pulled off looking like a teenager." she continued with disbelief, feeling her anxiety filtering away and now being replaced with an eerie curiosity, even though her heart was still beating, and she felt the tingles of discomfort begging to crawl across her skin just at the idea of it all.

"When we searched through the house he was staying at, we found multiple receipts for a cosmetic surgeon in Vancouver." Agent Harris said calmly, sliding over copies of the receipts to show Alice, even though Alice continued to stare at her in silence. Her stomach turned slightly as she looked down of the photos of Andrew Hunt again and shifted in her seat. "We contacted the clinic to confirm and, well." She continued, sliding some more photos of the before and after which almost seemed to make Alice's brain fold in on itself. Little tweaks, all mashed together, had somehow managed to turn Andrew... into Jasper.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" She asked, her voice quiet as her mind replayed all the memories of Jasper, replacing them with the image of this older man. She felt a wave of subtle nausea squirm through her stomach as she looked up at the agents for a response. Her index finger was beginning to tap against her thigh as her anxiety began to filter back, whispering things into her ear as it replayed her memories.

"Alice, considering you are a minor - we will need one of your parents present to continue this conversation." Agent Wood said, as both of them looked back at her calmly. Alice's heart began to beat faster again and she turned her body away slightly and called for her father, since she would rather have him present than her mother, who she could barely stand to look at.

Richard Murphy came down the stairs moments after he was called, looking calm but a little worried as he approached the table, "Is... is everything alright?" He asked, taking a seat next to Alice as he glanced between all of them, then down at the images on the table...

"Mr Murphy some of the information we're about to share with Alice could be quite distressing for her, so we were advised to have a parent or guardian present when presenting it." Agent Harris replied, causing Richard to nod and exhale carefully as Alice sat in silence, still trying to wrap her head around what she had just been told but couldn't. "Can we continue?" She then asked, and Richard nodded again, motioning with his hand for her to carry on.

Agent Harris moved the previous file out of the way and slid a new file over to Alice after checking the contents. "These are copies of some images we found on Andrew's computer." Agent Harris informed Alice as she opened the file, expecting to see photos of bodies, murder scenes and blood.... but was instantly taken aback when she saw photos of herself.

Alice stared in silence, as the two agents and her father watched her quietly too, waiting for her reaction. Carefully, Alice moved the top photo, and revealed the ones beneath... all of them the same. All of them were of her, in her old room, either naked or half naked, sitting on her bed or leaving her bathroom in a towel... Moisturising her body or typing on her laptop, which would explain why those were so close up. "We believe he may have hacked your laptop's webcam in order to... watch you... and collect these images." Agent Harris explained quietly as Richard stared in shock.

Alice swallowed heavily, looking through more of the images, until she found a few close ups of her face, which she remembered sitting down to have taken. Even the one she'd asked him to delete was there, staring right back at her... she stared at it for a moment, feeling as if she was staring into the eyes of her own subconscious, the vacant, angered stare seemed to speak to her... she seemed to connect to it and zoned out for a few seconds before she realised how long and how intently she had been staring at the picture. "... why would he do this?" Alice asked quietly, hearing nothing but silence in her mind at the overload of information. She briefly wondered about how someone else would react if they saw these, for in that moment she seemed to feel nothing... and in the few seconds of silence, all they could hear was the howling of wind and rain pattering angrily against the windows.

"You weren't the only one we found, actually. There were several other pictures and videos of girls we found, most of which are... currently missing or dead." Agent Wood replied. And another cold, but excited chill travelled down Alice's spine as the blood drained from Richard's face as he processed what he was hearing. "We believe that he was watching you to learn your behaviour, your schedule..."

"Are you saying my daughter was being watched by... by this freak so that he could take her?" Richard ask as Alice leant back in her chair and stared at a space on the table. She was in shock... because she couldn't ignore the fact that there was physical evidence being presented to her by intelligence agents that she was being watched by Jasper or Andrew, who had surgery to look like his nephew... but it all seemed so... funny. She couldn't describe the emotion she was feeling, because it wasn't amusement, but the reaction she was beginning to have definitely resembled it.

Suddenly she started giggling, the sound quiet but it was heard and stopped Agent Harris from explaining their strategy to protect her to her father. Alice barely realised she'd started laughing, but after a few seconds she covered her mouth to stop herself... and couldn't. Agent Harris and Agent Wood stared at Alice in silent surprise, as her father did too, wondering... after everything she had been told... why on Earth was she laughing?

"I'm sorry-" Alice giggling, trying to control it. "But- is this some kind of joke?" She laughed, glancing from her father to the Agents, the feeling of amusement and quiet whispers of anger and anxiety completely overtaking her as she lifted one of the photos of herself and looked at it again... "This is... insane." She giggled softly, then reached for the before and after's of Andrew's surgery and continued to laugh.

"...Excuse me?" Agent Wood asked, the sound of thunder rumbling outdoors made Agent Wood glance briefly out the window, feeling the energy in the room change slightly as Agent Harris leant back in her chair. A quiet voice in the back of Alice's mind decided to subtly point out how a potential scapegoat had been presented to her. She knew the agents were suggesting this Andrew man was the one responsible for the disappearances, and she knew that he wasn't. But she wasn't about to tell them that... but also it meant that someone out there had been collecting intimate images of her, and that fuelled her silent rage, that was now beginning to wrap its claws round her neck and whisper into her ear.

As if she could feel the lips of her own subconscious whispering in her ear, telling her exactly how she should behave to manipulate the adults around her, she continued on... making sure to begin to let her eyes water even though she was smiling. "So you're saying... on April first you decided to come and tell me that a guy, who I went on a date with, who... who kissed me at my birthday party... was actually a twenty or thirty something year old... who had surgery to impersonate his nephew and was watching... watching..." Alice giggled, trailing off from her sentence as her eyes began to water even more as she pretended to let the information sink in...

Agent Harris and Agent Wood began to assume that Alice's laughter had been a defence mechanism... and silently began to forgive her for her strange behaviour. Another short laugh left Alice's lips, although she stared into space, hearing nothing but silence in her mind even though on the outside it looked like she was experiencing an eternal battle.

"Alice." Richard scolded quietly, shocked that she was laughing at such a serious time.

"It's alright Mr Murphy," Agent Harris replied for her, looking towards Alice again and waiting quietly. Alice looked down over the photos of herself again, feeling a darkness crawling through her veins like a mist rolling over hills and valleys as she felt anger settle itself into her mind. She had been watched, taken advantage of... at such vulnerable times. These videos, images, and whatever else had been saved seemed to trigger something as she stared down at them, feeling her eyes narrow very briefly, the moment so subtle that no one noticed. She had kissed and even briefly liked a man who was impersonating his nephew to follow leads of some cold case he was obsessed with, which she assumed had something to do with Magnus. Alice's throat began to close up, and she wanted to scream with anger and rip up the pages, but she stopped herself, and instead forced out the tears... before anyone else knew it, her laughs turned into sobs and tears began to stream heavily from her eyes.

Agent Wood sighed softly seeing Alice break down, her performance being so realistic even Richard's eyes began to water slightly... Agent Wood quietly slid some packet tissues from her pocket over the table... heavy tears slid down Alice's cheeks still as her father reached over to comfortingly rub her back.

Rage coursed through Alice's veins, and the crying somehow helped calm the burning in her chest. Her mind began to whir with thoughts of her mother's affair, her secret ex convict father, reconnecting with her grandparents falling way below what she'd expected... she cried angrily into her hands, hiding her face and almost shrinking in on herself. Agent Harris hated moments like these, knowing there was nothing she could do or say to help make the other feel better. Reality, was reality, no matter how absurd it sounded, or how dramatic, or how out of the ordinary, Alice had been presented with nothing but facts and evidence, and her tears evidently showed she was just starting to process it...

Or so they all assumed. But what she was really trying to process, was how many people around her would continue to disappoint, anger or let her down... and how long she would continue to let them all get away with it.

... At the same time across town on a mainly unused road out where close knit town life filtered into open fields and farm land, a black town car came to a careful stop. Rain cascaded down over the car, clattering against its roof as the wind howled through the trees to the left hand side of the road, creating a grey scene of an evidently shady meeting.

Magnus, stood with his hood up, leant against Charlie's car as Trey stood next to him and Charlie sat in the driver's seat, waiting with the windows up. All of them stood in a calm, confident silence, waiting for the doors to the town car to open. Which they did, only a few seconds later.

Two men dressed in suits with long, beige trench coats and large black umbrellas appeared, and made their way towards Magnus and Trey after closing the door to their car with heavy, muffled thumps... one of them holding a few files tucked under their coat to stay dry.

Thunder rolled menacingly in the clouds above their heads, and as the two men in trench coats got closer, one of them extended the files before greetings were even exchanged, feeling slightly wary as the glanced from one stone faced teen to the next. Trey took them quickly, not wanting to expose them to the elements for too long, and opened them up under the safety of his own umbrella. "Is that everything?" Magnus asked in a monotone voice, glancing between the two men as their CSIS badges made a brief appearance under their coats.