After running a comb through his hair and checking himself in the mirror one last time, Collin rushes out of the bathroom. He crosses the living room, careful to avoid the various dolls and trinkets his younger sisters have strewn about on the floor as he makes his way to the front door. “I’m going to meet a friend, ma, be back later!” he calls out. He neglects to mention the fact that he’s never actually met this ‘friend’ in person before.

“Just get your ass home by lunchtime!” she shouts from the kitchen, not bothering to ask where exactly he’s going.

With that, he heads out the door. Instinctively, he moves toward the corner of their small front yard, before remembering that what he’s looking for won’t be there. Oh right, he thinks. Those assholes took it. The group of three boys who constantly torment him at school had begun to ramp up their efforts to make his life miserable, going as far as to steal his bike the day before. There was no way he could afford a new one, and he didn’t want to report them for fear of retaliation, so he would have to do without. With a heavy sigh, he leaves the yard, hoping he’ll make it in time despite having to travel on foot.

He walks briskly past rows of tightly packed townhomes, anxiously rehearsing what to say in his head. He has so much he wants to tell her. How sorry he is for every awful thing he said. How she managed to make life seem worth living, even when he was ostracized at school and unappreciated at home. How much she inspires him. How much it hurt when she ignored him…

He shakes his head, pushing away that negative thought. That doesn’t matter anymore, he reminds himself. It took a little longer than I’d hoped, but I’m finally going to meet her. After several minutes of walking, he reaches the local park and heads down the Loggerhead trail, having memorized every letter of her instructions. Normally, he’d be concerned about meeting a stranger in such a secluded place. But she isn’t a stranger—she helped him through some of the darkest times in his life. Anna wouldn’t lie to me, he thinks as he takes a right onto a narrow footpath.

***

There’s no way, I thought in despair as I saw the boy enter the clearing. That can’t be him. He was scrawny and only slightly taller than me, with buzzed black hair and light brown skin. He wore round-framed glasses, beige cargo shorts, and a t-shirt depicting a cartoon rocket flying away from the Earth. His face lit up as soon as he saw me, and he began to pick up his pace. “Hey Anna!” he called out with a wave.

He walked up to me, passing the tree where Wally had concealed himself. It seemed Wally was just as shocked as I was because he had missed his cue. “It’s me, WhizKid20,” the boy said. The moment he confirmed his identity, Wally leapt out from his hiding place. He hooked his arms around the boy from behind, holding him in place. Whiz Kid let out a startled yelp before Wally covered the boy’s mouth, preventing him from crying for help. Wally stared at me helplessly, waiting for me to make my move, but I was still trying to process what had just transpired.

In hindsight, Whiz Kid had been a far too willing to meet alone, deep in the woods, at a time and place of our choosing. If he was smart enough to get away with killing Melissa—yet another faulty assumption we had made—then why would he agree to putting himself in such a disadvantageous position. Our plan hadn’t exactly been well thought out, given how hastily we put it together. When Wally dismissed my doubts about moving so quickly, I easily gave in, convinced that his intelligence and expertise about the human world had guided his decision. In reality, his judgement had been clouded by rage, in the same way my thoughts about Lizzie had been.

“We have to stick to the plan,” Wally said desperately as Whiz Kid squirmed feebly in his grip.

As I watched the boy struggle in Wally’s arms, I was forcefully reminded of Anna’s younger brother. Our plan was to restrain Whiz Kid and remove whatever weapons he had brought, but we certainly hadn’t expected this.

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“Wally, he’s just a kid,” I said helplessly. We had assumed the Whiz Kid moniker was just another layer of deception, designed to make his targets think he was a harmless, innocent young fan. When he claimed that he was just starting high school in his messages to Anna, we dismissed it along with the rest of his backstory as a manipulative fabrication. But if that hadn’t been a lie, maybe none of it had been. Maybe he really was just a bullied kid with a tough home life who had lashed out in frustration when someone he looked up to rejected his attempts to reach out.

“Anna, please just search him,” Wally pleaded. “We have to be sure.”

He didn’t elaborate, but I knew what he was implying. As absurd as it was to suspect Whiz Kid now, we couldn’t just give up on our lead after coming so far. It was too painful to admit that, in reality, we were no closer to finding Anna’s killer than when we started. And with each day we’d wasted investigating red herrings and chasing false leads, the real murderer slipped further and further from our grasp.

Finally, I took a few steps forward. Whiz Kid’s terrified eyes darted to me as I approached and checked clothes for weapons. All I could find was a cell phone and some loose change in the pockets of his shorts.

“There’s nothing,” I reported, crestfallen. Once again, we had been too quick to assume guilt.

“Shit,” Wally hissed. He released the boy, then turned and stomped away towards the edge of the clearing, clenching and unclenching his fists.

“What was that for?!” Whiz Kid cried, understandably shaken.

“Oh, um… sorry about that,” I said, frantically trying to come up with an excuse for why Wally had accosted him. “My uh… bodyguard here is a bit paranoid. He wanted to make sure you didn’t have anything you could hurt me with.”

To my relief, his panic faded as a look of understanding dawned on Whiz Kid’s face. “Ah, yeah… after the messages I sent, you must’ve thought I was a lowlife creep, huh? I can’t blame you…” His eyes fell to the ground, too ashamed to meet mine. “I… I said some horrible things that I really regret. I’m so sorry, Anna…” He began to choke up over those last few words. Based on the tears welling up in his eyes, it seemed like a genuine apology. I almost wanted to console him, to tell him that he was forgiven. But Anna’s forgiveness wasn’t mine to give.

“Well… um… it was brave of you to come and apologize in person, Whiz Kid,” I said.

When he heard me use his alias, Whiz Kid looked back up at me, wide-eyed and flustered. “Oh sh-uh… shoot, I didn’t even introduce myself. My real name’s Collin and I’ve actually been a fan of yours for a while… your videos really helped me get through some hard times, and honestly, I don’t know if I would’ve survived this far into my freshman year if it weren’t for you…” He spoke rapidly, without even pausing to take a breath.

Wally, whose arms were crossed and whose face was creased in a deep frown, finally decided to interject. “Well, Collin, if you were such a big fan, why did you send those messages in the first place? Anna went through a lot of hardship because of you.”

“I know… I understand if you never forgive me,” he said softly. “I just… I was so frustrated with the world. I felt like your videos were the only good thing in my life. And when I realized you lived in my area, I became obsessed with meeting you. But when you denied me I… I thought you were just like everyone else, looking down on me and pushing me away…”

“So you decided to make her just as miserable as you were,” Wally interrupted, clearly uninterested in Collin’s excuses.

“I’m so sorry, Anna,” he said, mortified. “I really am. After I had a few days to cool down, I realized how terrible I’d been. I tried to apologize, but you had already blocked me. You even stopped posting videos. That was because of me, wasn’t it…”

I couldn’t help but pity Collin. While he certainly was to blame for making life harder for Anna, he wasn’t the reason Anna would never post another video again. But there was no way I could tell him that, so I simply nodded. I felt a pang of guilt as a look of anguish crossed his face.

“I knew it…” Collin began to sob as the tears he had struggled to hold back began streaming down his face. “Oh God, Anna, I… you helped me through so much, and yet I…” He took a deep breath and tried to compose himself. “Please don’t stop because of an asshole like me… I’m sure there are so many others who need you, just like I did…”

I felt a tightness in my chest, reminded of just how many lives Anna had touched. How many people would have to mourn her if they ever found out about her death. It wasn’t just Wally. Her mother, her brother, Nessa, Josh, Collin and many of her other fans—to some degree, they would all feel the void she left behind.

I placed a gentle hand on Collin’s shoulder. “You don’t have to worry anymore,” I reassured him. “I won’t let them down.”

He wiped his eyes and cracked a small smile. “Thank you,” he whispered. And with that, we parted ways.