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I didn’t know much about their time in the system, but I did know they weren’t happy with where they were. They’d always been a force of nature when Alice would ask me to watch them. When I picked them up, it was a new level of hell.

Jade was watching, and as much as I hated taking my eyes off her, I needed to focus on the girls. “They’re not here, but I know you guys were taken at night. Is that why you don’t sleep alone?”

Both nodded.

“We don’t like the night.” Agnes’s voice was small.

“At home, the lights help.”

I frowned. My apartment in San Francisco had hardly any lights at all. There were a few, but I didn’t even have a night-light.

Jade elbowed me. “The lights on the square.”

It hit me like a pile of bricks. They meant home here.

“Oh.” I’d have to figure out what to do about that later. “Yeah, let’s go home then.”

“I’m really sorry I scared you all,” Jade said. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.”

“Please don’t promise.” Agnes spoke again.

“How about plans? Are those better?” They nodded. “Then I plan on being there tomorrow.”

The next morning, I got up bright and early. Jade hadn’t sleepwalked, and I wondered if that was by design after how I showed up at the spring.

Still, I was changing my habits. I was getting up earlier than usual, which would help in case Agnes and Beatrice found something to get into.

When I came out of my room, I only saw Agnes on the couch.

She was staring at the TV, arms crossed.

It was off.

“Do you have something to ask me?” I asked.

“No.”

“The TV is off.”

“You won’t turn it on.”

“It’s not TV time,” I said with a nod. “So, what are you looking at?”

“I’m imagining stuff is on it.”

Normally, I would walk away, but there was a lingering curiosity I couldn’t shake. It made me sit next to her.

“What are you imagining?”

Agnes blinked. She was quiet for so long that I wondered if she would answer.

“I see Mommy coming home.”

My heart sank. “Oh.”

She was quiet for another long moment before she spoke again. “She’s not, is she?”

“No. I’m sorry.”