Amaris was silent the whole way to the station. The two of them had walked back to the main road where Taehyung hailed a cab and called the station to let them know he was coming by with Amaris. She hadn't said a word since they left the alleyway, sitting in the cab with her legs curled up under her as she stared out the window at the scenery flashing by. 

She reminded him of a cat somewhat, the way she sat. She seemed graceful, purposeful, yet stared out at the world as if she could see something everyone else couldn't. And perhaps she could. With what had happened in the alley, Taehyung couldn't hold on to his skepticism for the supernatural. He had to admit that there was something beyond them as humans. To some degree, he had to admit the existence of the Oracle.

"Was that your first time?" Taehyung's question broke the still silence.

"My first time what?" Amaris asked in monotone, not looking away from the window for even a moment.

"Seeing a dead body," he clarified. While watching her, he had noticed how shaken she looked.

"Yeah." She nodded, finally peeling her gaze from the outside to look at Taehyung. "I've seen so many things, but never anything like that. That was terrible."

"I must admit even though I've seen crime scene after crime scene in my career, seeing the murder in real time like I was there was gruesome. It was a little hard for me too," Taehyung said in an effort to comfort her.

"That's why I hate the past the most," Amaris muttered.

"What do you mean?" Taehyung's brow furrowed.

"Of all the things I see, the past is the worst." Amaris shook her head. "It's so finite, so finished. I can't do anything about what I see from the past. Looking to the past only haunts, it hardly gives answers. See, with the future I can only see paths. I see all the different paths that any one circumstance can go down to create a thousand futures. It gives me hope when I see the future. When I see the past, though, it just kills me."

"If that's the case, then why don't we look to the future to solve this case?" Taehyung asked, turning to Amaris excitedly.

"Not that simple." Amaris shook her head again.

"Why not?" Taehyung's features fell in a child-like manner.

"Well..." Amaris looked down and trailed off. "The Oracle is a little strange. Sometimes I see a lot, and sometimes I see a little. All I see when I ask about this future is some strange orb puzzle, an abandoned warehouse, a flash of white light, and a..."

"A what?" Taehyung asked when Amaris turned away and stopped talking.

"Nothing, it's embarrassing." It was then he noticed a deep blush on her cheeks.

"Well, we're here," Taehyung said as the cab pulled up to the station.

Wordlessly, with still crimson cheeks, Amaris climbed out of the car. She walked up to the doors and turned around to face Taehyung who was busy paying the driver.

"Taehyung, I'm scared," she whispered.

"It'll be fine, just in and out as soon as we can gather all the complete files on our victims," Taehyung assured her.

Amaris nodded in response and Taehyung pulled the door open for her. She walked in, shoulders slightly hunched as if she wanted to take up as little space as possible. A few heads looked up to see who had come in, but immediately went back to their work. 

They made their way to Taehyung's desk where he pulled up a second chair for Amaris. Suddenly, Taehyung became oddly aware of how bare his cubicle was. All there was to mark it as his was a silver plaque reading Detective Kim Taehyung. For a place he spent most of his time in, it had never bothered him before. Now, the grey separators and his monochrome belongings looked depressing.

"Taehyung, is this the Oracle?" A coworker poked his head over the divider to peer at Amaris.

"Uhm, yes, this is Amaris." Taehyung nodded slowly.

"Wow." His eyes widened and he came around to stand beside Amaris. "So can you see my future?

 "Question the man with the matchbook," she said absently, staring at Taehyung's computer screen rather than his coworker.

Seemingly satisfied, he walked away. Taehyung hoped for Amaris' sake that that would be the end of it, but watched in mild horror as his coworker went on to tell all the other detectives and secretaries available about the wonderful Oracle sitting not three meters from them.

"Oh, boy," Taehyung sighed as he saw all the curious eyes looking their way.

"It's okay, just hurry with the files so we can get out of here," Amaris urged.

Taehyung nodded, turning to his computer and typing away furiously to pull up everything he could on the victims. As he searched through the database, a line of people began to form asking Amaris about being the Oracle.

"So what is it like?"

"What else can you do?"

"Do you do house visits?"

"My wife is having a baby, can you tell if it's a boy or girl?"

"Will it rain tomorrow?"

The questions came like a torrent, but Amaris answered as many as she could with a smile. She didn't seem bothered, but it irritated Taehyung how none of them asked her name. If they did refer to her by anything but pronouns, they called her Oracle.

"Enough!" Taehyung slammed his hands on his desk.

"Taehyung, it's fine." Amaris placed a gentle hand on his forearm and spoke with a soft voice.

"No, it's not fine, Amaris," he said, making sure to put emphasis on her name. "Don't you guys have any respect? Amaris has a name, she's a person too. You're all treating her like some sort of cheap circus act for entertainment. Have a little decency."

With lowered heads, Taehyung's coworkers returned to their responsibilities and left Amaris sitting there in shock.

"Thank you," she said, looking at him with strange eyes.

"What's with that look?" Taehyung asked.

"It's just...no one's treated me like anything other than the Oracle in a very long time." Amaris shrugged shyly. "I didn't expect you to do something like that."

"Hey." Taehyung nudged her lightly with a small smile. "You're still my friend after all, right?"

"Right," Amaris laughed. "So what did you find on the victims?"

"See, that's the crazy thing," Taehyung said, right back to business, "it seems like some sort of virus wiped all of the files. I can see basically anything except for the files on the victims we need."

"Is that even possible in an institution like this?" Amaris asked.

"It shouldn't be." Taehyung shook his head. "But luckily we do have a backup plan."

"And what's that?" Amaris cocked her head to the side.

"The archives downstairs have a paper copy of every file. It'll take ages, but it's all we've got," Taehyung said.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Amaris raised her eyebrows and stood from her seat. "Lead the way."

Taehyung smiled at Amaris' enthusiasm as he stood and led her towards the basement. It had been a long time since he had been down there with the dusty boxes filled with yellowing papers. Nowadays, everything was digitalized, so there was no need to go down into the archives. With a case like the one he had, though, Taehyung should have expected having to go digging in things of the past.

"Can I ask what it's like?" Amaris asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Being a detective?" Taehyung questioned, using his keycard to open the heavy metal door for her.

"No." Amaris shook her head and walked in. "What's it like without your left leg?"

"It was weird at first," Taehyung said as they began to scan the shelves filled with cardboard boxes for the files they needed.

"Where does your leg end?" Amaris' voice asked from behind a shelf.

"About mid-thigh," he replied, flicking his left leg to hear the muffled clink of metal where his flesh ended and his prosthetic began.

"Do you miss it?" Amaris pressed.

"I can't say I enjoy not having a leg," Taehyung laughed bitterly, pulling a box down and taking it back to the table near the entrance before returning to the maze of files, "but I guess I'm used to it now. When I first lost it though, I forgot several times that it was gone. It's like I could have sworn it was still there."

"What do you mean?" Amaris came around the corner, struggling with three boxes.

"One night, I was thirsty and wanted to get out of bed." Taehyung rushed forward to help her, taking two boxes from her load. "See, I usually climb out from the left side. I completely forgot I didn't have a left leg and went to stand up on it. I just fell to the floor on my , it was terrible."

"I'm so sorry for being nosy, by the way," Amaris said, "I was just so curious. The way you walk, you can't even tell."

"I've had a year and half of practice, that's why." Taehyung smiled. "Now, lets read through these files and see what we find."

Amaris nodded and joined him at the table. They sat in silence once more, combing through the old files for anything on the victims that they could piece together.

As he read through the files, Taehyung could only notice one similarity between all of the victims. They were all from different backgrounds with different jobs and social standings, but they were all around the same age and conventionally pretty. Each girl was very beautiful in the way you would see on magazines. They had full lips with flawless skin and gorgeous hair. It was a weak connection at best, but it was all he could find.

"If it makes you feel any better, it still would have happened if you stopped," Amaris said, her voice small as if afraid to break the silence.

"What?" Taehyung looked up at her, puzzled.

"I know you blame yourself." Amaris looked down at the file, refusing to meet his eyes. "You wish you had stopped for a rest when she asked you to, but that wouldn't have changed anything."

"How do you know?" Taehyung asked, his voice just as small as hers. He wanted to stop blaming himself, but he just couldn't bring himself to.

"Like  I said before, the future is made up of paths," Amaris said. "There are millions of paths that you can take. There's no such thing as fate, every choice you make can change the path your future takes. It doesn't even have to be a choice that has anything to do with what will happen. It could be as simple as saying 'hello' instead of 'good morning' to change your life."

"But what does that have to do with it?" Taehyung asked.

"No matter what you did that night, every path led to that crash," Amaris sighed. "It wasn't your fault."

"It's in the past," Taehyung mumbled, trying to push it away. He knew it wasn't his fault, but he still blamed himself for killing her.

"Taehyung, remember I told you the past haunts?" Amaris reached out and grabbed his hand from across the table. "If you keep doing this, you'll end up living in a world with the ghosts of things past. I think that Devil card in the tarot reading was for you. If you keep binding yourself with this accident, then you won't be able to find the truth of this case."

"But I don't want to forget." Taehyung shook his head. "If I forget I feel like it's insulting her. I can't forget because I'm afraid I'll forget her."

"She wouldn't have wanted you to be like this," Amaris comforted, "she would have wanted you to be happy. If you really want to respect her memory, then live a full life. Forgive yourself, fall in love, solve this case, do something to make your surviving worth something."

"...Amaris?" Taehyung looked up from where he had been staring at their hands.

"Yes, Taehyung?" She asked.

"Thank you."