Paul is doing research at the Boston City Hall. He gets a call from Evelyn. She tells him Alva's getting anxious, and asks if everything is okay. He hesitates, then tells her everything is fine, and then hangs up. Evelyn does the same.

Sitting quietly on a bus later, Paul is lost in thought. He takes his time looking over the other passengers. He gets off at his stop, and passes the broadside of the bus. In the window, he sees a young girl with a green balloon, who was not on the bus before Paul got off. She speaks to him, but he can't hear the words. Slowly, the bus pulls away. It gets a few feet down the road, and then explodes in a fury, knocking Paul off his feet and into unconsciousness.


In a hospital room, Paul slowly opens his eyes. The first thing he sees is a hallucination of the girl with the green balloon. What he really sees is the stuffed teddy bear Evelyn has brought to him. She and Alva are in the room with Paul, and checking up on him. Paul asks if anyone knows why the bus exploded. Evelyn tells him that the bus stopped over an underground gas leak, and pulled away with lots of fumes which exploded when ignited. "How many died?" asks Paul.

"Everyone," Alva says.

Paul tells them about the girl he saw, that she couldn't have been more than 7. He says she looked at him as if she knew. Alva tells Paul that it's odd that he was on the number 9 bus, as he's usually on the number 5. Before anyone can say anything, the doctor walks into the room. He's going to keep Paul for observation one more night. Alva and Evelyn leave, and the doctor begins his examination. He checks for head and neck trauma, and tells Paul that he needs rest - no visitors, no TV. The doctor leaves, and Paul closes his eyes to rest.

The TV turns itself on, causing Paul to reopen his eyes out of curiosity. There is a sports reporter on the TV, surrounded by crowds of fans. He is covering the basketball finals, San Antonio vs. Boston. The camera pans across the crowd, past the adoring fans, and Paul sees the same sullen little girl he saw in the bus before it exploded. She seems to be staring right back at him. Once again, she mouths words that Paul cannot hear. He gets a bad headache, and retreats back to sleep.


The next day, Paul is at the coroner's office inquiring about whether there was a little girl who died on the bus. Paul tells him he works for St. Jerome's orphanage, and that they have a girl on her way to Rhode Island, and he wants to make sure it isn't her. The attendant lets him view the girl's body, and it is that of the child he saw. This girl, unfortunately, did not die of burns - she died of blunt force trauma, crushed to death. But Paul doesn't see any of the usual signs of trauma, indicating that she possibly died of other causes, not from the bus accident. The attendant asks Paul if this is the girl he's looking for. Paul says no. He asks what happens if no one claims her body, and the attendant tells him that she will be cremated after 72 hours.

At WKPB News, Paul interviews the man who made the tape he saw on the TV while he was in the hospital. He tells the man that he is looking for someone on the tape, and it could involve the police. The man cues up the tape, and Paul watches the same pan across the crowd of fans. The girl is nowhere to be found, however.

At his home, Paul is ironing while listening to the news on the radio. He hears the reporter bring word of a tragic accident at the basketball game he saw on TV. 39 people died and 100 people were injured when the seating collapsed in the stadium. The newsreader mentions that a young girl was crushed to death in the chaos, but her body has yet to be claimed. Paul immediately phones the airport, and books a flight to San Antonio.

Later, inside SQ, Paul asks Evelyn for $250. He tells her he needs to check something out, and promises to pay her back. She's not worried about that, but is concerned about him. She hands him the money and asks him to wait for Alva, but he doesn't. Instead, he heads straight back out the door.

At the San Antonio Medical Center, a morgue attendant takes a Polaroid of the dead little girl, and brings the picture to Paul. He checks it, and it is the same little girl he's been seeing. He calls the Boston morgue he visited earlier, asking if anyone has claimed the body of the girl. The attendant tells Paul that he's sorry, but the 72 hours have passed and the body was cremated. Paul is shaken, knowing that this is the same girl.

Back in Boston, Paul is briefing Evelyn and Alva about the phenomena. He tells them he's seen her dead body twice, in Boston and in San Antonio the next day. Evelyn thinks it might be a post-traumatic response to his injuries from the explosion. Paul thinks the girl needs his help.

"So much for the voice of reason," Evelyn says.

Alva thinks that because she has appeared to Paul before these incidents, that the girl may be some sort of harbinger spirit. Evelyn asks if Alva thinks that the girl is trying to warn Paul of these disasters. Paul breaks off his response mid-sentence, because he can see the silhouette of a little girl holding a green balloon. He runs across the street over to the little girl and startles her. She turns around and screams, but is not the girl Paul was looking for. Paul thinks he's going crazy. Alva examines the Polaroid of the dead girl, and says that Paul may not be crazy after all, because he might know who she is.

Back at SQ, Alva hands Paul an old newspaper clipping. He says the girl is known as Little Miss Lost, and says that she was killed in a circus fire July 6th, 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut. He says that no one knows who the girl is, as her body was never claimed. It was one month after D-Day, and over eight thousand people gathered for the matinee at the circus. A fire broke out and people stampeded to the exits, and people were trampled to death long before the flames reached them. "She's dying over and over again," says Paul.

"Yes, and she has been for the past 59 years," Alva says. He says the girl's body has appeared at the site of various tragedies all over the world. He shows other examples: in India in 1972 after a commuter train plunges into a river; in 1981, a subway train catches fire while still in the tunnel, leaving 300 dead but one body unclaimed; the last reported sighting in the US was at a school shooting in Pittsburgh last year.

Alva says she is something of an urban legend, and she's been seen in over 80 countries, but that until now, no one has ever made contact with the girl before a tragedy. Alva says that it could be that she's coming into our world more strongly and powerfully, which could mean that the "veil is getting thinner." Evelyn thinks it's a sign. Alva asks Paul how the girl looked. Paul replies that she looked "dead."

After a moment of thought, Alva says that the girl isn't a harbinger spirit at all; she's causing the accidents herself. Whether intentional or not, her presence turns the potential into the actual, because "her presence is the presence of death." He tells Paul that the girl knows he can see her, and has gotten his attention. He suspects that she will keep appearing until she gets what she wants, whatever that may be.

Paul says that every time she does, people will die. "Then we'd better figure out what she wants, and fast," says Evelyn. Alva says they are going to where this all started, to Hartford, CT. They are leaving immediately.

Paul is in another morgue. He walks up to identify the girl's body again. He leans in close, and her eyes open wide and she says, "Where's Daddy?"

He wakes up on a train, where Evelyn and Alva are right next to him. He tells them he thinks he knows what the girl wants; that it's the same thing he wants. He tells them why he was on the number 9 bus that morning: because he was coming from city hall, where he was looking for his father. He thinks that the girl is also looking for her parents. If they can find them, then maybe they can prevent any more disasters.

In Hartford, the trio decides their course of action. Alva is going to get the list of survivors, while Paul and Evelyn are going to interview a Delwin Earl, one of the original reporters who covered the fire. At his home, Mr. Earl welcomes Paul and Evelyn. He offers them a drink before he begins his story, telling them that they will need it before discussing the accident.

"One hundred and sixty-eight people dead in 6 minutes. 49 of them kids," he says. He tells them the animals panicked as well, and some of them burned alive in their cages. He says that this fire was worse than World War II. Paul asks about the girl who's never been claimed. "Eight nine five nine," Earl says. Evelyn asks about the girl's father. Earl doesn't know the father, but he knew her mother, Lillian Smith. She was from a rich family two counties over, and was considered quite a lady around time. "Morally unfettered," he says. He tells them that Lillian went overseas to Europe at age 17, and is believed to have had a baby then, likely the same Little Miss Lost. "Eight nine five nine was her daughter," he says. Evelyn asks where they can find Ms. Smith. Earl knows exactly where to find her - the cemetery.

Paul, Alva, and Evelyn are at the grave of Lillian Smith. There is a burial going on in the background. They don't understand why the girl isn't at peace, being as how her mother should be with her. Evelyn thinks maybe they got it wrong. Paul gets a phone call from the Boston City Hall. The woman, Claudia Bloom, tells Paul that she could lose her job for telling him, but a man answered her request for current contact information regarding Paul's search, and is supposed to show up at city hall at the end of the day. This man may well be Paul's father. Paul looks around the gravestones. He sees Little Miss Lost, and runs over to her.

"Why?" she asks him over and over. In the distance, Alva and Evelyn are watching Paul talk to thin air. Evelyn senses that if Paul is talking to the girl right now, then something is about to go down. They look around, and see a group of gang bangers pulling up about to do a drive-by. Alva runs over to Paul to tell the girl to make it stop, but it's too late and the funeral goers are fired upon, with bullets hitting many of them. Evelyn is also hit, and is wounded in the leg. After the chaos, Paul looks over to see the body of Little Miss Lost lying among the wounded…

At the hospital, Alva is trying to convince Paul to go back to Boston to see his father; that it might help things. Paul refuses to abandon the girl the way he was abandoned by his father. They go to see Evelyn, and she has news for them: They have been looking for and hearing the wrong things. The girl isn't asking "why," she's saying "Wye," a name that Evelyn has gotten off the list of survivors - Rosanna Wye, the girl's real mother.

Norwich, Connecticut. Paul is in a rest home interviewing Rosanna Wye. She remembers the details quite clearly, and relays them to Paul and Alva. She says the fire began right after the show started. She heard a scream, then everyone screamed, and the next thing she remembered is running like the rest of the people. She says it's been years since she's been asked these questions. Paul asks her if she was with anyone that day, a daughter perhaps? She says flatly, "I don't have a daughter."

Back at the train station, Alva gives Paul a list of names to check out back in Boston. He is going to check out some leads in New York, and is determined to have Paul go and meet the man who may be his father. Paul asks him why he cares so much. Alva says he has his reasons. His train departs. Paul watches it leave, and sees the same Little Miss Lost in the window as it goes.

Frantically, Paul is chasing the train. He hops the guard fence, and hops aboard. He goes into the first car looking for signs of the girl. He passes through the dining car, and several other cars before warning a Pullman to stop the train. Paul runs into Alva's car, and tells him the girl is on the train. Guards run in and restrain him, but Alva hits the emergency brake, stopping the train.

Handcuffed, Paul and Alva are being escorted from the train by detectives wanting to know why they stopped the train. Paul says it was because people were going to die, but naturally the detective doesn't believe that. A railway worker tells the detective that there was a massive, seven-minute long power outage on the tracks that could have caused the train to crash headfirst into another, had Paul not interfered. "If that train hadn't stopped, it would've plowed head-on into the 367 out of Philly."

"My God," the detective replies. "Any chance these guys were involved?" The worker says there's no way.

"Like it or not, these guys just saved our ass!" the man says.

Three hours later of detainment later, Alva suspects that Paul is disgruntled about missing his train, and his father. He apologizes to Paul, who takes it in stride. They travel back to Rosanna Wye in Norwich. Paul shows her incontrovertible proof that the girl was Rosanna's daughter.

She tells them that her daughter's name was Amelia. She let go of her hand during the fire. She tells them how she was married at 18, and got pregnant right away. She endured cruelties from her husband, and Amelia's birth was the catalyst for her leaving her husband. She struggles with the memories, then continues with her story.

She took Amelia to the circus, to help distract her from asking about her father. When the fire came, Rosanna and Amelia were pulled in opposite directions by the stampede, and she let go of her daughter's hand. She says she never told anyone, and that she died that day. "Why didn't you claim her?" Alva asks.

"I couldn't claim myself," she replies, sadly. Her family thought she was dead, and she wished many times that it was true. She knew there was nothing she could ever do to bring her daughter back. Paul tells her, "You can't bring her back, but, you can let her go."

Inside the Hartford Morgue, Paul walks Rosanna in to view her daughter's body. He turns away as Rosanna says goodbye to her little girl. She holds her hand and asks for forgiveness. Paul listens, and is overcome with emotion.

Outside, Paul hears the voice of Amelia. "'Bye," it says. He looks into a news kiosk and sees the reflection of a green balloon. He looks up and sees the real thing, floating upwards towards the sky. Later, Paul, Evelyn and Alva are at the newly marked gravesite of Amelia Wye. They are there with Mrs. Wye, as she grieves for her daughter.

At the Boston City Hall, Paul finds Claudia, who called him about his father. She was sorry it didn't work out for Paul. He asks her to tell him what the man was like.

"He was in a hurry," she says. "You must take after your mother, because the man who was here, he was nothing like you."

Paul asks if he signed; if he released the records. She says she can't help him any more. The man sealed the records.

Alone again inside his apartment, Paul is working. His door opens all by itself. He looks around and sees the face of Tommy Ferguson, the boy who died to save Paul's life. "What's wrong?" he asks.

"Help us," Tommy says. "It's real."

"What is? The Darkness?" Paul asks.

"It wants."

"What? What does it want?"

"Everything," Tommy says. Paul tries to stop him from leaving, but he turns and vanishes, and Paul's front door closes all by itself, leaving Paul with an awful lot on his mind...