S1 E19: I Know the Sound of Your Heart

Kenzie Tartaglione:

The content warning for this episode includes blood, physical violence, snake imagery, and death.  

Kenzie (MC):

The night sky over Wildmoore turns as the moon deepens to a blood-red. A pillar of blue light streaks into the clouds from the center of town. An invisible dome, know knitted with veins of fire, flakes and floats gently to the ground like feathers. For those who were sleeping, their dreams shift into nightmares. For those awake, a nauseous, uncertainty taints. At the barrier’s edge stand Guardians, looking up and watching it’s slow destruction with determination. Hundreds of years of struggle and strife. Years of watching and waiting and protecting. Years of preparation of training and stories passed down by word of mouth and now in one night, the other world imposing itself on a beloved home. Shadows flit, faces of ghouls appears, the ground covering old bones and new begins to quake and split. Monsters descend during a moment of decay, taking the weakness to exploit. Creatures always on the periphery, seen just out of the corner of an eye, drawn to a place of deep power and connection, are now given shape and chance.

   

Wyatt, surrounded by a writhing mass of snakes, eyes yellow, glaring at the creatures just beyond the barrier, snarls out,

 

Kenzie (Wyatt):




If I must return to the damned, then I will take all of you with me.

 

Kenzie (MC):




Bast’s eyes go dark as Gabriel’s go wide. He moves to physically restrain his husband in Blackthorn Manor, slitting his wrist open and pressing I to Bast’s lips.

 

Kenzie (Gabriel Duncan):




Drink, mi amour. It’s okay. I will be fine.

 

Kenzie (MC):




Next to the lake, Daniel Moore, hands held over its surface, strings of golden light like spiderwebs whisking down. He watches as the surface begins to glow in dark, the algae glowing bright green, working to overtake the black sludge that has invaded. Ely Hook, with Annabelle on her hip, a bit bleary eyed from wine, rushes up the stairs from the hidden basement and stands poised in the front hall, a bag of ammunition dropped on the ground by her side, a rifle next to it, and a handgun steadily pointed at the front door.

 

Adam Moore, lying dead only moments before, now reanimated by a Shadow Creature, spurned by the lust of power and control, wraps a hand around Ivy’s throat. Ivy Duncan, stepping to the dark side, driving toward the Moore estate. Caleb Moore, giving into a fleeting feeling and trusting his gut, led to a fae spring of bright flowers and sparkling waters. Diving through the breach of waterfall to a brilliantly glowing cavern. And the artifact, the sone of the Heart removed, can be returned. Sawyer Hook, in a strange house, with strange symbols, watches Naia prepare for a strange, unknown ritual, while Kai stares out the window, heart pulled between two places. And Farrow Hook, thrown into a mess they hadn’t expected, standing next to their half-brother, everyone out of their depth but with no other option.

 

Caleb, soaking wet, you emerge, stone in hand, back through the waterfall. In this light, amongst all of the glowing, effervescent things, the shadow form is more than that. The black swirls now amongst light gray smoke and through it, you can almost see a face. It’s fleeting and not quite human but familiar. Familiar enough to understand that it’s your Aunt Sara and she seems trapped.

 

Mads McDonough:

I rub my thumb along the stone that I’ve just grabbed, now in my hands, and I put it into my front pocket and look up at her.

 

Mads (Caleb Moore):</h5


Are you – does it hurt?

 

Kenzie (Sara Moore):




Feels odd.

 

Mads (Caleb):




You’re stuck like that. That’s why we couldn’t find you.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

Yeah, I am.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Do you know how it happened?

 

Kenzie (Sara):

In a general sense, yes. In a specific sense… I was trying to understand.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I think whatever happened to you, I think it’s in Adam now too. It’s messing with everything around here. That black sludge –

 

Kenzie (Sara):

Oh, I know. I’ve been watching.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Wait, so, that’s not –

 

Mads:

And then I like gesture around her.

 

Mads (Caleb):

It’s different?

 

Kenzie (Sara):

In a way. Caleb, I never thought that I would see you again, even in this form. And I know what you thought of me – what you all thought of me. And I can’t say, you’re wrong. ‘Cause I did run, but I came back because I realized I was wrong. Caleb, I thought the Heart was killing us all, so I tried to hide it away, I tried to get rid of it. It is a power that runs deep, so deep in this land that it can’t help but draw things toward it. But it’s not killing us. We’re killing each other. And so, then I returned and when I did, the Shadow Creature, the one I’ve seen following you, trying to gain entry to you – it found me. And it infested the wolf and so now I’m stuck between two worlds. And I tried to reach out to you so many times, but I can’t venture too far past the boundaries of this oasis without losing myself.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And you see the wisps of smoke kind of fluctuate and move as if she’s trying to gesture around the space.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

And I don’t know what would happen if I did – I’m too afraid to find out. Because I was the only one who knew where I hid the stone so I had to stay alive – or whatever I am now – I had to say like this to keep it and protect it and to find somebody to put it back where it belongs.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Well, someone told me when I was younger, not to trust people that tell you to come with them outside your room at like two in the morning… sorry, I didn’t the first time. When I leave now though, when I leave you here, are you going to go away forever this time?

 

Kenzie (Sara):

I don’t blame you for not following you then. But that is what I look like outside of this place. I think that if I stay here, I’ll stay like this but I’m not sure if I want to.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Maybe just for a little bit longer. I know my dad wants to see you really bad. And he wouldn’t blame you for anything – you leaving. He probably just blames himself actually.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

You have a lot of compassion in your heart.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Yeah, it’s a family burden.

 

Kenzie (MC):

The shadow smoke flits over across the pebbled creek bed, closer to you and you feel what should be a solid hand, but is not – it is just a feeling of some sort of weight on your arm as the smoke kind of swirls around.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

Caleb, put it back where it belongs, okay? Because I wasn’t fast enough to do so. None of us should have ever felt like we were necessary. We broke the Heart by taking the stone. We brought all of this upon ourselves because of pride. We thought we were better and more important than we ever were. This hate and violence that has been seeping in, the evil that we’ve known since we moved here… we brought it with us. And it is now our responsibility to fight back when it arises like it is now. But Wildmoore would fight with you if it was whole.

 

Mads (Caleb):

You think if we put it back it will – I mean that place is covered in the stuff Aunt Sara. Will I try and take over? I don’t want it to mess with the stone. Like I want to fix things, I get that. It’s not going to make it worse, is it?

 

Kenzie (Sara):

I haven’t been able to move into the Heart since I came back, I’m so tethered here. But all I know, is that if it were replaced, it would make it easier, what has to be done. One stone will complete the circle of power that Wildmoore used to have.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Okay, I think I can manage that. Just kinda get everyone to believe me in I to… that’s going to be the tough part.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

Your friends have faith in you, Caleb. Even if you don’t.

 

Mads:

He looks down at his pocket where the stone is. Kinda nods to himself and then back up at her.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I need to go. It was good to see you.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

I hope you know that I wanted to be able to teach you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t there.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Did you – did you ever know… I mean anything but specifically this? The family gift? Mom and Dad were so gung-ho about it being Adam, I just kind of believed it too.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

I had a feeling but not a certainty. And your parents were so certain I could question them about it. But I was always drawn to you. You were always my favorite and I don’t take that for granted. I think we were being told something we wouldn’t take as truth.

 

Mads:

I smile a little bit.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

There was also a part of me wanting to save you from this and that was a detriment on my end and yours, I guess. But not your fault. Mine.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Two gay, black sheep of the family do need to stick together, I guess.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

Maybe that’s how the lineage is drawn. So we should look out for from now on.

 

Mads (Caleb):

(laughs) It would make it much easier.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

It would, wouldn’t it?

 

Mads (Caleb):

I’ll be back, okay?

 

Kenzie (Sara):

I can’t help you outside of here but I trust in you and I think that you hold strength you don’t know yet. So, use what you do know.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Well, what I do know, is that I make a really good shield. I think that’ll be enough for now.

 

Kenzie (Sara):

I’ll stick around for as long as I can.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Don’t tire yourself out too much. I can take the weight for now.

 

Kenzie (MC):

The visage of her face kind of recedes back into this unformed figure as you emerge from this spring, you walk through the woods that she led you here through and you come out to see the change in the sky.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Oh shit.

 

Mads:

And I make my way back to Sara’s house.

 

Kenzie (MC):




Ivy, while you feel a flittering of fear from the dark black eyes you can see through the rearview mirror, the hand around your throat, you were never not going this way and so you continue in this fashion, driving toward the Moore property to Caleb’s house. And you pull into the driveway and there are a couple lights on inside of this house specifically.

  April Consalo:


Ivy turns the car off and just kind of slightly inclines her head toward Adam in the backseat.

 

April (Ivy Duncan):


Will you let me go so we can go inside?

 

Kenzie (MC):

The hand removes itself from your neck and says,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Your friends aren’t here.

 

April:

Ivy lets out a bit of a breath when the hand removes itself from her neck and she looks through the windshield at the house, sees the lights on. She rolls down the window just a crack, takes in a deep breath and smells the air, listens.

 

April (Ivy):

Huh. You’re right.

 

April:

She turns around fully and looks at Adam. He’s so pale and his eyes are also fully black and she says,

 

April (Ivy):

Do you know where they are?

 

Kenzie (MC):

The head turns slowly to the right, looking out the passenger window and a hand comes up through the two front seats and points at a house in the distance.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

I think they’re waiting for you.

 

April:

She kind of smiles to herself.

 

April (Ivy):

Yeah, that would make sense.

 

April:




She turns the car back on.

 

April (Ivy):

Shall we find them?

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

I think we should. I’ve been looking for so long.

 

April:




Ivy pulls out of the driveway and heads toward Sara’s house.

 

Kenzie (MC):




Naia is putting the finishing touches on her little, candle circle that she has placed around the bed and she steps back from it and looks at Sawyer and says,

 

Kenzie (Naia Luna):

I just hope you know that I am winging this.

 

Brennan Hershock (Sawyer Hook):

Yeah, I know. We all kind of are. But, we’ll get it figured out!

 

Kenzie (Naia):

Yeah. Farrow? I don’t really know how you ended up being here but is here anything you can do to add to this.

 

Ashley Westover:

Farrow sticks their head out of the armoire they’ve been hunkered down in and they say,

 

Ashley (Farrow Smith):

Well, we don’t really have magic classes at public schools but I have a knife and I got spunk and I do have a strong will to live. So, that’s what I bring to the table.

 

Kenzie (Naia):

Your rat isn’t like some special things.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

He’s a Norwegian purebred and he is at my house.

 

Kenzie (Naia):

Oh, okay.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Yeah, so unless Beauregard is also secretly a big monster or something, which –

 

Ashley:

They think for a second, is that possible? No, I got him in a different city. He’s not from Wildmoore, okay, it’s fine.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

That’s not a thing.

 

Ashley:

And then you see them glance at Sawyer for a second and say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

I’m just going to hide in here.

 

Ashley:

And then they are going to slowly close it back and text Elias really quick giving an update like we’ve got a witch who doesn’t know what she’s doing, we’ve got Sawyer and me who are just people, we’ve got Kai who is a baddie, but I don’t know what she does. Stand by please for the love of god. And I still have him on the phone so he can hear if any screams start happening.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

So, once we get Ivy inside, anybody got an idea? Any ideas. What’s step one? I guess two. We got her inside. Step one. Step two! Actually now, step one was setup. Step two was get her inside. Step three. We’re on step three. This is good progress.

 

Kenzie (MC):

There’s a hand that falls on your shoulder and Kai’s like,

 

Kenzie (Kai):

I don’t think we need steps. I think we came here to get that thing out of her and that’s the goal.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Are you pretty strong?

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Against some like cryptid shadow being, probably no.

 

Ashley:

You hear from the closet,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Weren’t you going to make a soundtrack? What’s her actual favorite song?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

No, I put them in there. It’s in the playlist.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Are we playing the playlist immediately upon entrance? Like what?

 

Ashley (Farrow):

I vote yes.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Yeah? Yes.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Should we just play it on loop in the house as soon as she walks in the door.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Yep, it’s got three songs on it! “The Sound” The 1975. Uh, “I Always Want to Die Sometimes.” Also by The 1975 and then everybody’s favorite, and we will dance again, I swear.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

That’s certainly some people’s favorites but saying it’s everybody’s is a really big generalization.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

If that’s the song that works, everybody here owes me an apology after this. And you all need to spend three hours listening to Wham! and George Michael.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

I’m absolutely not taking that.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

So we got the bed all trapped up, how do we get a really powerful person in one singular spot – do we have like lures?

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Well, I thought the music was going to be the lure but apparently, we’re just gonna play that willy nilly.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Maybe if we all hide under the bed.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

You don’t think she’s going to notice the fact that we’ve got about fifty candles in here lit.

 

Ashley:

Farrow sticks their head out again.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

I mean I would offer like some blood but I’m anemic and I don’t know if that’s like gross to vampires.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

That’s actually a good idea.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Okay, well, we’ve got your super-strong friend Caleb if he ever comes back. I am stronger than – if Ivy wasn’t inhuman, but she’s like pretty strong. But I could try to help.




Brennan (Sawyer):

Well, we also have this plant –

 

Kenzie (Kai):




The wards too.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Yeah, she might be weakened.

 

Kenzie (Naia):

These should at least help stop the creature’s power.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

I have a quick question.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

I have about fifty so go ahead.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Cool. So, if the whole point is making – helping Ivy fight off the thing herself. Shouldn’t we maybe make it more comfy? Are there like throw pillows we can gather? Make like a little nest. ‘Cause I feel like if she comes in here, it might seem a little combative. So maybe we make it more cozy. The candles definitely help. The music might. That might do something. But should we also – I don’t know – make it soft and less –

 

Ashley:

I look around at the fucking blood sigils and like all the other shit carved into the walls.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Maybe less cult-vibes and more like intervention vibes.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

I mean Ivy has about four pillows on her bed and that’s it. She’s pretty minimalist so I don’t know if like –

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

This would also mean you would have to be out of the closet if you wanted to do that. We might want to do that.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Oh no, I’m staying in. I’m staying you guys can get the pillows and stuff. I’m staying in here unless a knife is needed. So, that’s my job. I’m going to just chill. I’ll help if need be though. But I’m just the idea man now I guess, ‘cause it seems like we’re maybe rushing, but that’s kind of important because the sky is on fire.

 

April:




You hear a car pull up outside.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Fuck!

 

Ashley:

The armoire door slams shut.

 

Brennan:




Sawyer runs to the left and stops. Then, runs to the right and stops and then just stops in front of Kai.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Chill out as much as you can.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Okay, should I cut my hand? Should I use blood?

 

Kenzie (Kai):

No, no, no.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Alright.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

You called her here, yeah? Did she say she was going to come? ‘Cause she’s obviously here… or somebody’s out front.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Kinda. Not really.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

I’m just assuming that it’s her.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I’m assuming this is Caleb.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Do you want me to go out there?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

No. No, I don’t.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Okay.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Maybe we should both go out there.

 

Kenzie (MC):




Caleb, as you are walking back to the house, you watch a car start driving across the lawns between your house and Sara’s house and you recognize it. It’s Adam’s car.

 

Mads:




I know that Ivy’s hearing is really good and her sense of smell is pretty good too. I’m going to try and with hopefully the sound of the car and how fucked up my brother’s car is, it’ll take away from whatever noise I’m making – I’m going to try and run. Like book it to the back of my Aunt Sara’s house and get in through the back screen door.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You have a thing right?

 

Mads:

Oh I do. I have Uncontainable.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Yeah, it’s not necessarily that you’re being physically entrapped but I’m going to say the back door is locked so I’d like you to use that to roll to bust through the back door.

 

Mads:

I would love to desecrate my Aunt Sara’s house. It’s a ten.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Everybody inside of the house hears this massive crash. And a splintering of wood. And a banging sound from the first floor right after you hear the car pull up.

 

Mads:

I just set the door back where it was. It’s off the hinges. I just set it back.

 

Kenzie (MC):

It’s kind of splintered. There are wooden pieces on the ground but you put the frame back as much as you can.

 

Brennan:




Sawyer has rushed downstairs as soon as the smash happened.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You’re coming down the stairs as Caleb is running down the hallway trying to turn. You guys almost smack into each other at the base of the stairs.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Caleb!

 

Mads:

I grab you by both the sides of your arms. I look at you and go,

 

Mads (Caleb):

Back door’s locked.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

You could have texted me.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I didn’t – they were outside right now.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Oh shit.

 

Mads (Caleb):

There might be a change of plans here sort of. I found my Aunt.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

What!?

 

Mads (Caleb):

She’s dead.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

What!?

 

Mads (Caleb):

But not dead.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Huh?

 

Mads (Caleb):

But kinda dead. She’s in between.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Who? What?

 

Mads (Caleb):

Like in a limbo kind of situation.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Where?

 

Mads (Caleb):

Out in the woods. In the woods. Tiny waterfall. Secret spot.

 

Mads:




I’m going to reach into my pocket, pull out the rock.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Yeah, so this is the Heart.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

This is the Heart? A rock?

 

Mads:

Use my other hand to tap my nail against it.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

 

Kenzie (MC):

It makes a slight ringing. Not like loud but just a slight like (ringing noise). And that lasts a little bit as you click it.

 

Mads:

And then I hold it up in the air next to my eye and shoot my eyebrows up a couple times and then stuff it back in my pocket.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Wow, that’s really fucking good news. Wait, does that mean if we return it, all this will just go away?

 

Mads (Caleb):

I don’t know if all of it will go away but most of it will. She made it sound like if we can get this thing back to where it’s supposed to be that it will help us get rid of this Shadow Creature.

 

Brennan:

I grab your shirt and pull you in close.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Caleb! We don’t know what the hell we’re doing with this exorcism. Let’s fucking leave! We have no plan. No steps.

 

Mads (Caleb):

They just got here. Ivy’s mad fucked up. I have no idea what kind of condition Adam’s in right now.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Oh shit.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Do we just ditch?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Do we send a runner?

 

Mads (Caleb):

Do we try and figure out what’s going on here or do we go now?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I don’t know. I feel like this is a bad plan. This is a bad plan and I’m slowly starting to realize how bad of a plan this is.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Caleb, Kai appears at the top of the stairs.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

I can take it, ‘cause I can get it.

 

Mads:

First, I brighten up a little bit, ‘cause what a good idea. And then almost immediately Sawyer, I tense in your arms and it’s almost like – it seems like I grow an inch or something but it’s just my fucking posture straightening up.

 

Mads (Caleb):

No, I need to do it.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

So, you go and we distract?

 

Mads (Caleb):

Can you distract, Ivy?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Do you know who you’re talking to?

 

Mads (Caleb):

That’s why I’m asking, babe.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Oh, I thought this was going to go – that was a different response. I’ll do my best.

 

Mads:

I’m going to take his face in both of my hands and hold him there for a second and say,

 

Mads (Caleb):

You’re wonderful. And creative. Spontaneous. And so, so, so weak. I’m sorry, it’s just true.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Yeah.

 

Mads (Caleb):

You’ve got a great personality and a stunning sense of humor but your bench-press is maybe ten pounds.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Yeah, I was thinking more of creatively stalling. I wasn’t actually going to try and hold her back –

 

Mads (Caleb):

Oh! Right!

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I know that my arms are noodles.

 

Mads (Caleb):

No, they really are. It’s like uncooked. They could snap.

 

Kenzie (Kai):




You guys do know that your best friend is outside of the house and she has like really good hearing…

 

Kenzie (MC):




You pulled up and you heard, “We have no idea what we’re doing with this exorcism!?” And then pretty much everything else after that but from like underwater almost. You haven’t really been fully in the physical space since you gave into all of this. So, everything is a little bit distorted.

 

April:




Ivy approaches the house with Adam directly behind her and she hears this ridiculous argument about who is going to take the stone.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And behind you, you hear,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

None of them can take it ‘cause we need it.

 

April (Ivy):

Yeah, don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere, babe.

 

April:

And Ivy, very silently, slowly turns the doorknob, walks in, sees there’s a bunch of candles around. She takes a few silent steps up and sees Kai standing at the top of the steps and hear’s voices echoing up. She turns around to Adam and says,

 

April (Ivy):

Why don’t you give me a second?

 

Kenzie (MC):

I’m going to need you to Manipulate an NPC. This is a big ask of this creature.

 

April:




I got a nine.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

You have two minutes and then I’m coming up.

 

April:

She rises up on her tiptoes and kisses his cold cheek and says,

 

April (Ivy):

Don’t worry. I’ll be quick.

 

April:




She silently pads and hear’s Caleb and Sawyer being so fucking cute. And then when Kai says, “You know that your best friend is outside and has really good hearing,” his sharp, high giggle escapes her throat.

 

April (Ivy):

Uh, hey?

 

Kenzie (MC):

Kai spins.

 

April (Ivy):

Not outside. But I did get to hear all that disgusting romance. Hey, what’s up guys?

 

April:

Ivy kind of looks around Kai and does a little wave toward Sawyer and Caleb.

 

Mads:

Frozen, completely. He two of us comically still holding each other.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

You’ve gotten quieter.

 

April (Ivy):

Yeah, when I want to be. So, did you guys come up with a plan to save me or what?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Yes!

 

Mads:

I pull away from Sawyer so that I’m just standing next to him now and cross my arms over my chest.

 

April (Ivy):

Oh. This is so cute honestly. You all really think this is going to work? I mean we have Sawyer, who as you just said, Caleb, is weak. I mean, he could never fight anyone off physically. Not exactly the brightest and always so eager to please that he honestly barely has a personality of his own. And we have Kai, who is so entangled well, with me, that she’s willing to let her grandfather be by himself in danger, just to attempt to save me? And we have Farrow, who is oo scared of me to even come out of the closet.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Fuck!

 

Ashley:

And then the closet slowly creeps open and they peak their head out but they’re still ready to slam it shut.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Hey, Ivy, Always a pleasure.

 

April (Ivy):

Hi, Farrow. What are you even doing here?

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Genuinely I have no idea.

 

April (Ivy):

Yeah, I mean, you’re just desperate to find someplace to belong, right? Some friends. Anyone to care about you. And then we have Caleb, the hero of today. Always eager to be a hero but you don’t really know who you are either, do you? I mean you’re still in the shadow of your brother, well, actually maybe it will be easier for you to get out of his shadow now.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Kai reaches out and grabs your chin and moves your face towards her and she says,

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Where did you go? ‘Cause his isn’t what I meant.

 

April:

Ivy follows her hand and gets so close to her face.

 

April (Ivy):

Is this not what you wanted? You wanted Ivy the vampire at her most powerful and that’s what I am now.

 

Kenzie (Kai):

No, I wanted you to like yourself. And you obviously hate yourself so much you did this.

 

April:

For a second you can see a flash of gray through Ivy’s eyes before they glaze over black again.

 

April (Ivy):

Wow, you must be really, really scared. ‘Cause you know, you kind did this in a way. You all did this actually.

 

April:

And you hear Ivy’s voice drop almost like there’s two voices layered on top of one another. And Ivy and not-Ivy says,

  April (Ivy)/

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

It was obvious she needed help for a long time. But none of you wanted to give it to her.

 

April:

And then Ivy whips her head around.

 

April (Ivy):

Adam?

 

Kenzie (MC):

Next to Ivy, materializes from a shadow, Adam Moore. Pale-faced, black eyes. As he smiles, all of his teeth are points.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Oh, good to see you all again. Caleb, I have been waiting so long.

 

Mads:

Sawyer, you smell just the hint of lingering smoke. Like something that’s trailing off of a campfire that was burning a few hours ago and just the embers of it remain. And then the sound of like, almost like a cracking of wood that has been burned and has become charcoal, starting to break down next to you. And Caleb is hunched forward slightly. His limbs look a little bit distorted. His nails just a little bit too long. His features a little too sharp and his eyes, the pupils narrowed into small points, staring at Adam.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Oh, Adam.

 

Mads:

And there’s this tinny quality to his voice that sounds like it’s very, very distant from his body, like an echo you would hear somewhere deep in the woods. It sounds mournful and scared and small though it does have weight to it. He looks down to you and here’s a firm grit to his jaw and whenever he opens his mouth you can see his teeth are kind of all jagged and look just a little too big for his mouth.

 

Mads (Caleb):

You need to call your bastard of a father, get my dad, Ivy’s dads. We need to go now.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Oh please, bring them all into this space. I want to say hi again.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I wasn’t talking to you!

 

Brennan:

Sawyer grabs Caleb’s arm very gently and positions himself on the side of you and grabs he side of your face and doesn’t force anything, but tries to gently move your eyes toward his.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

We just need to return the Heart and this goes away.

 

April (Ivy):

Well, that’s not exactly true, Sawyer. Somethings won’t change even when you return the Heart. Caleb, it’s good to see you like this actually. I wanted to talk to you a little earlier. If you return the Heart, you won’t be getting your brother back, you know that, right?

 

Mads:

He looks at you and here’s this firm, resolute understanding in one nod of his head but you can still see back behind everything else is a very, very, very small child that’s very, very, very scared. Maybe it’s just enough to tug at a very, very, very small child that’s behind Ivy’s eyes too.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Adam begins to walk and he reaches up his hand and runs it against the wards and the glyphs in the wood, eyes meeting the candles. He walks inside that room, finds the glyphs against the bedframe.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Clever, they’re not bad. But I’ve learned a lot from being here for so long and you think this can hold me?

 

Kenzie (MC):




Farrow, Kai’s eyes meet yours and as they do, she moves and grabs – like tosses her arms around Ivy’s to pull them behind Ivy’s back as if she’s trying to shove her into the room.

 

Ashley:




Farrow is going to step toward Adam to get him to turn his head toward them and say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Just to be clear, you’re like super powerful but if we get the Heart back in the cave or whatever, you’ll still be all-powerful. So, it doesn’t really matter to you, right?

 

Ashley:

They’re just blubbering at this point. They’ve got their hand clenched behind their back, around their butterfly knife and just trying to use any sort of word commit to distract Adam long enough to give Kai that bit to get Ivy in the room.

 

Mads:

As Farrow is doing that, it breaks me enough to be able to grab onto the distraction that is trying to be made here with all these separate little conversations. In this weird in-between, smoke starting to roll off my shoulders, arms elongated, back hunched, bones cracking and snapping, twisted looking monster version of myself, I’m going to lean down just enough to be able to kiss Sawyer on his temple and breathe into his ear,

 

Mads (Caleb):

Please be safe. Please be safe. Please be safe.

 

April:

Kai barely gets to even touch Ivy before Ivy whips around and hits her with a palm to Kai’s solar plexus and knocks her back, flying into the wall.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Roll with your Lash Out.

 

April:

I rolled an eight.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You hit Kai in her solar plexus hard enough that she goes flying backwards and slams into the wall – and is kinda airborne, slams, drops a couple inches back to her feet and you see ink start to crawl up over her neck, and you see these snakes start to wind and wreathe around her neck. She gains a string on you and as these ink snakes start to wind, they come up to her jawline where they stop but they sill are like moving, you can see it all moving. And her eyes turn like a growing, bright, yellow light in this house.

 

April:

Ivy watches this happen with a smirk, just goes,

 

April (Ivy):

Hot.

 

Brennan:

Sawyer leans in and tries to readjust your face to kiss you and will attempt to pull you in and try to reach into your pocket and take the heart.

 

Kenzie (MC):

I think that that could probably be easily done. So, I think you can do that in the guise of kissing him.

 

Mads:

If there is a moment of recognition that that is what you’re doing, Caleb allows it completely.

 

Brennan:

I’ll pull back out.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

If you kill her, it wins.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I couldn’t kill her, even if I wanted to. It’s Ivy Duncan.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

You’re fucking Caleb Moore.

 

Mads (Caleb):

No, that’s you.

 

Brennan:

And I’ll give you another kiss.

 

Kenzie (MC):

The person that you’ve lost sight of that Ivy didn’t notice when she came in, that Adam didn’t notice when he came in, is Naia.

 

Ashley:




Adam is between me and he door –

 

Kenzie (MC):

He has moved over to the bed and is running his fingers along the wards that are on the bed and taking in the entire scene very nonchalantly. I think just your skin in general, you can read people. This thing believes it’s already won.

 

Ashley:

So, whenever Farrow gets their chance – whenever other people are distracted – the first thing they’re going to do, ‘cause they’re very sneaky, they’re good at not being noticed, they’re going to slip out and grab Sawyer’s hand and just quickly get them out of here.

 

April:

With her eyes still trained on Kai, Ivy throws over her shoulder,

 

April (Ivy):

Caleb, I’ve really been wanting to revisit our childhood years. Do you want to wrestle?

 

Mads:

I pull back away from Sawyer and give him one last nod, trying to hold that like, “I turs you so much.” Just communicate it through my eyes and how distorted hey look right now. I pull back and take a look at Ivy and how she’s standing. It’s just a little off because I was right, it’s Ivy Duncan. And Ivy Duncan holds herself to a certain standard. A posture that she keeps no matter what kind of context the situation is. A way that her hair falls effortlessly and her out fits always on point. But his Ivy is, not disheveled, but almost like if Ivy Duncan were set up like a mannequin in a store. There’s something about her posture that seems a little too stiff, her clothing that’s just sort of hanging a not quite the right angle and hair that looks like it was brushed and then just let open to the elements. There’s this moment of, oh how the mighty have fallen, that echoes in the back of his brain, before looking at Ivy again. Hearing those words, when we were children we would wrestle around and how in those moments too it always seemed like I could withstand a lot more of Ivy than even Adam can and why it didn’t make more sense to me at the time or anyone else. There’s a playfulness to it whenever I smile and think about those times and what my Aunt Sara had just said to me previously. Thinking back on my owns words that this is a gift and I can choose what I want to do with it. So I crack a smile, I hunch my shoulders forward, and let the smoke start to overtake my back, my shoulders, my arms, everything elongates, points. Stars and glitter, like constellations flowing all around my face and the last thing that goes is my eyes and my mouth as I say,

 

Mads (Caleb):

You wanna play? Let’s play, Ivy. Just like old times.

 

Mads:

And I’m not my Darkest Self, but I have transformed and with that, I’m going to barrel forward at her.

 

Kenzie (MC):

I need Caleb to roll Lash Out Physically.

 

Mads:

Seven plus two. Nine.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You deal a harm to Ivy. In this state, since she is fighting back, she will deal one harm back to you. In this moment of them tussling on he ground, Farrow you grab Sawyer and dash down the stairs with him.

 

Ashley:

I turn to Sawyer and I say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

We need to get to your Heart.

 

Ashley:

They’re like dragging you out to the car that they drove here in.

 

Brennan:

There came a point where I think Sawyer stopped being dragged and rushed forward past you and jumped into Adam’s car because the windows are down, because they’re always down. And you see him poke his head back out,

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I’ve always wanted to do this!

 

Brennan:

And I’ll go under and I will kick out the bottom and take out my knife and attempt to hotwire the car.

 

Ashley:

I’m like jangling the keys to the car that I have like,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Sawyer! Sawyer! Get your ass over here! We could do this – I could show you a quicker way later my guy.

 

Brennan:

Hotwires. The engine starts.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Fuck!

 

Brennan:

And it’s like an Edgar Wright style of just cutting and the phone gets plugged in and the stereo blasts to one hundred percent, “Careless Whisper.” And the fucking car unlocks.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Get in!

 

Kenzie (MC):

I have one question for you Sawyer, were you leaving a way for the playlist to be played in the house when you left or that was your phone and it came with you?

 

Brennan:

That was my phone.

 

Ashley:

As Farrow jumps in, they’re like,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Just fucking go. Go. Go. Go!

 

Ashley:

And as you drive out, they’re going to take their phone out and they’re going to turn their volume up again and they’re going to say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

We’re headed to their convergence spot. I think it was three or four, remember the one we couldn’t figure out. I need you to make sure we’re not followed. Uh, and if there’s a way you could clear a path, that would be great.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

How am I supposed to do all of that!?

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Not you! Just drive!

 

Kenzie (Elias Mashburn):

We’re already here.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And as you guys are peeling through the Moore property, you see these black vans like just flowing in through the front of the property toward Sara’s house. And as you pass one you can see, you make eye contact with Elias.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Who the fuck is that!? The FBI?

 

Ashley (Farrow):

That’s our homeroom teacher! Just keeping going, I’ll explain later!

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

What!?

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Just go, Sawyer! Fucking drive!

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I never learned how to drive!

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Why the fuck are you behind the wheel!

 

Ashley:

I think that they’re just yelling at each other the whole fucking way.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Sawyer is running on pure adrenaline, he music that’s playing, and nothing else, somehow managing to drive on the road, not in a straight line at all, and just going twenty miles over the speed limit. But what is nice is that the Heart of Wildmoore isn’t that far from the Moore property. It’s quite a bit away from own but it’s not that far from the Moore property.

 

Ashley:

I just want to solidify the image. Siblings yelling at each other, “Careless Whisper” blasting, Farrow just like holding onto the “oh shit” stick for dear fucking life and just ahhhh!

 

Brennan:

Sawyer is tuned in.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Ivy, as you are fighting with Caleb in this house, you hear the voice in your head,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

I’m surprised you even let him hit you, you’re so much better than that. What am I using you for if you’re not going to help?

 

April:

Ivy lets out a growl and kicks at Caleb’s center and just as hard as she can, trying to break ribs.

 

Mads:

Whenever it cracks in, it’s the sound of wood snapping and breaking from being burnt off and it gives off this scent of lingering smoke the envelops.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Caleb as you are shoved backwards, kinda holding where your ribs were kicked, you see the only light in the hallway besides the candles in the room are Kai’s glowing eyes as she stalks behind Ivy as Ivy is slowly standing back up. And this time, as Kai grabs for Ivy, she’s not the only one holding her but you see snakes travel down Kai’s arms and jump where they’re touching Ivy’s skin, onto Ivy’s skin, binding her succinctly to Kai. And in your ear you hear,

 

Kenzie (Kai):

This would’ve been so hot if you were you.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Bodies Ivy into his room and manages to push her through the candle barrier that’s surrounding the bed and looks to Adam and says,

 

Kenzie (Kai):

Here’s the difference. You might be her. But she’s still not you.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And like shoves Ivy onto the bed. And Ivy, you feel – you felt like these binds as the snakes gripped you and as you are tossed, you feel your arms like from where the snake ink hit you, reach out and bind, like invisibly bind somewhere so your arms are out.

 

April:

Ivy feels all the breathe like whoosh out of her as she lands on the bed and her wrists are pulled towards the edges. And when she lands for a second, her eyes go clear and she just goes,

 

April (Ivy):

Kai? What the fuck is going on?

 

Kenzie (MC):

You hear a growl come from Adam as if he’s fighting against something and Ivy’s clear eyes go back to black. And she writhes against the bindings on the bed.

 

April:

Her black eyes look at Kai’s glowing ones. She’s like,

 

April (Ivy):

Babe, this could still be hot. I’m sure he’d take you too.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Looking back at you Kai says,

 

Kenzie (Kai):

I think this means we’re opposite right now and I’m good staying that way.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You guys hear the door into the house bust open. You hear boots. You hear a hiss out of Adam’s mouth and the door to the room slams closed. And then it is just Ivy, Kai, Caleb, and Adam, in his room, when you start hearing a whisper and it seems to be chant of some sort. And the fire, like the flames of the candles grow bigger. They go (whooshing noise). And they glow brighter in the room. And you see blood dripping down the edge of banister of the bed where the wards are.

 

Mads:




From that split second moment of Ivy coming back to herself, in this state, Caleb’s senses are so much more heightened than what they usually are and I’ve always said that the Duncan’s smell like a way about them. They just smell old, not bad, but old. Ivy was always a little bit different. Maybe it was the half human part of her but there was something that was more gentle about it while still smelling very, very old. And I could never explain it in a way until hat moment, just now, where she came back and it was so very obvious hat Ivy smells like entering into an old, forgotten rose garden that has been overgrown ten times over by floral and nature and everything that comes with it. Because it is ancient, it hasn’t seen human life in so long and yet it is so cherished and wonderful. And hat moment where it snapped back right away, that acrid, mildew, disgusting rot scent of this Shadow Creature, my eyes are going to snap toward where Adam is. And I would like to try and use my Heightened Senses. I want to find a weakness to this creature so bad, if I can hone in on it’s scent now and see if I can find anyting to work with.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Roll 2d6 with your dark.

 

Mads:

It’s a seven minus one so it’s a six. Fuck!

 

Kenzie (MC):

This is a creature you have – I use never encountered before loosely because you’ve encountered it since you first ran into it but never before that. It’s not like with the Duncans where you’ve known them since you were a kid and you got so used to what they were that feeling out Gregor was so different. This is beyond your scope of understanding in a sense that it doesn’t seem to have a weakness once it gets in you. As all of this happens, it looks to you and says,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Two down, Caleb. What would it hurt? You just have to say, “Okay.” Do you understand what I could do for you? You’re so afraid of it. You’re so afraid of being back here. I could make that go away.

 

Mads:

Whenever I speak, this elongated smoke like canine face that I have now with all the glitter and stars and little images of eyeballs shattering and flittering about, the mouth doesn’t move. It comes out more like a creaky echo. There’s a warmth to the voice though hat wasn’t there whenever this happened the other time. It laughs and I say,

 

Mads (Caleb):

You really need to get some new material, this is getting so old.

 

Mads:

And I’m going to rush him.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Roll me Lash Out Physically.

 

Mads:

That’s a twelve!  

Kenzie (MC):

Adam is a solid being that you smack into and stumble backwards into the wall. But instead of breaking any part of Adam, you just crash – like the wood paneling of the wall splits open and you hear the low mocking laugh that you heard so long ago as a kid and tha you heard in the cave.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

You think I’m weak enough for hat? Oh, you have so much to learn.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And his hand shoots out and grasps you around the throat. The wind around the house picks up as if you’re becoming in the midst of a tornado whistling. As does the wind around the car as you’re driving down the road. You’re lit by red light from the moon and a piece of the barrier floats down and hits your car. And it is a solid thing when I hits. The fire around the edges kind of fizzles out. There’s a blemish where it’s laying atop the windshield. You pull into the woods that lead you to the meadow where the Heart is and when you get there, there are dozens of people and things in this meadow. You see flitting figures in the air, floating about. You see people on the ground with spears, with swords. You see people holding up hands as if they have protective barriers themselves that they are putting out. You see bony arms dragging themselves across the grassy ground. Bony fingers sticking into the mud and ripping it back as they pull themselves along the floor. It is a flurry of activity. A flurry of some sort of fight happening as he car screeches to a halt just at the tree line.

 

Ashley:

Is the entrance open?

 

Kenzie (MC):

It is not.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Just like go. Floor it. Just get as close as we can to the fucking rock thing, right? That’s where you guys went last time, right?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Do you believe what it said through Ivy?

 

Ashley:

Farrow pauses for a second because they’re in like, we need to get this done as quickly as possible mode and they pause and they look over at Sawyer and they’re like,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Which part?

 

Brennan:

Sawyer kinda looks over to you, eyes just fully, extremely wide.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

This is going to save them, right?

 

Ashley:

Farrow takes a shaky breath in and then looks out at the fucking battle that’s happening in front of them and they say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Even if I’s not guaranteed to save Adam. I think it’s the best shot there. But it will still save at least others.

 

Ashley:

And they kind of look toward the people who are fighting against these monsters with swords, which are still a thing I guess and magic. They’ll like we’ll deal with this – we’ll process his later, Farrow. It’s already bud. And they turn back to Sawyer and they say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

I think right now we just need to do what we do best and not be noticed.

 

Brennan:

You see just kinda one tear fall from Sawyer before he puts the car into gear and attempts to go through the tree line.

 

Kenzie (MC):

The car revs forward. You do your best to avoid the people around you. You’re not unnoticed in the midst of this by both the monsters and the people fighting them. And as you get closer to the cavern, you can feel the thuds as things are swooping down and hitting the roof of your car.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Oh fuck. Oh fuck.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

It’s fine, just go!

 

Brennan:

I floor it.

 

Ashley:

Once we get close enough, as Sawyer starts to like slow down a little bit, before the car even comes close to stopping, Farrow’s going to like slam the door out and try to hit a skellington or whatever the fuck and then rush around to cover Sawyer to help him get out.

 

Brennan:

Sawyer puts his seatbelt on while all that is happening.

 

Ashley:

Farrow jumps out of a moving vehicle. You skid to a halt next to the cavern that is closed still by the rock face in front of it. Farrow runs around and like opens your door as they are physically holding off this flaming eyeballed skeleton thing.

 

Brennan:

Sawyer tries to get out of the car but the seatbelt yanks him back in. He stops –

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Goddammit, Sawyer!

 

Brennan:

Unbuckles it, pulls out his little knife and like flops onto the ground and just starts crawling.

 

Ashley:

Farrow’s going to do their best to keep everything off of Sawyer and cover for him as he moves toward the entrance. Whether that’s shoving, or they have their knife as well that has the artemisia on it even though that’s probably not going to help if it’s not a vampire. But they’re scrappy, so they’re going to do their best to protect their brother.

 

Brennan:

Can I roll to Hold Steady?

 

Ashley:

Oh, also, you can add a one to that roll because my move, Light the Way. Whenever your friends follow your commands or your lead, they add one to their rolls.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Since we know Ashley’s move now. Farrow is The Chosen skin.

 

Brennan:

Alright, that’s a nine. I will just Keep My Cool then.

 

Kenzie (MC):

So you are able to frantically get your seatbelt off. You get out of the car, you help your half-sibling shove off this skeleton and you run over o the entrance of this cavern that is nothing but a boulder in front of you.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Okay, so like do the thing.

 

Ashley:

And Farrow has their back to the cavern and you and they’re just keeping an eye out. They’re just covering you.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Okay just do the thing. Quick.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Uhh…

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Sawyer?

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I’ll just (grunts) –

 

Brennan:

And Sawyer will just try to walk into the boulder.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You hit solid boulder.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Sawyer, please tell me that on the drive over here, you remembered how to open it right? ‘Cause we’re surrounded by skeletons.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Ah, fuck!

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Fuck!

 

Ashley:

Farrow’s going to turn back ‘cause there are other people fighting the things off. They’ll be casting glances over their shoulder. But they’re going to run up next to Sawyer, next to this big fucking stone.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I wasn’t paying attention!

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Obviously!

 

Ashley:

And they’re going to pat the stone, maybe like triple knock, do different things.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Touch the Heart to it. Maybe that does something. You know, like a key. Is it like a key? Try that.

 

Brennan:

I will do that and then simultaneously attempt to Gaze Into the Abyss.

 

Ashley:

While he’s doing this, I just imagine a little skeleton hand crawling up and then Farrow seeing hat and being like,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Fuck!

 

Ashley:

And then stomping it.

 

Brennan:

That is a ten!

 

Kenzie (MC):

You touch the stone to the rock and your vision clouds over in darkness. Farrow you watch Sawyer do that and still. But you watch as the stone touches it, the rock – no like the las time you saw I – but like disintegrates almost. But Sawyer’s still stuck with his hand out and he rock out.

 

Ashley:

Farrow like hesitates because they don’t know if there’s like weird magic stuff. Like you’re not supposed to wake up someone who’s sleep walking. But they look back and there’s a lot of scary things happening so they try to gently move Sawyer toward the entrance.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Alright, bud. Let’s go now. We can go now. Did a great job. Come on.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Sawyer, it feels like you’re seeing the future. You see, as if looking down on Wildmoore from high above, this moment in time. You see your home overridden by things you only knew about in stories and fairytales. You see people in a house on the Moore property, people you know, people you love in the midst of a fight. And yet you feel hope. This isn’t the last step of the puzzle. You have to get it out of Ivy, that thing. But if you put the stone back in its place. It’s going to lose at least half of its hold if not more on Ivy, on this place, on its existence in general. It is completely wound up with the Heart and has been for a very long time. So you just have to do one thing and then maybe you can breathe easy bout your friends.

 

You unfreeze in this moment and you really unfreeze because Farrow has been trying to shove you into the entrance of this cavern and you kind of like fall forward as hey do so.

 

Ashley:

They’ll catch you a bit as they stumble and they’re like,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Are you good? Is that – can we go?

 

Brennan:

So, in the vision, this thing has intertwined itself into the Heart.

 

Kenzie (MC):

In the sense that it has, since the moment of its conception here, tried to pull power from it. But you see a future in which the Heart is whole and your friends are saved. As in, putting the Heart back together will not banish the creature but it will shove it out a little bit more.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Fuck!

 

Ashley:

Farrow’s sort of just leaning over you, they’re not sure if they need to move you and they’re also casting glances up at the entrance and they’re like nervously looking up at the monsters outside and they’re just waiting because they don’t know what just happened.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

This isn’t going to fully save ‘em, but it’ll – I’ll do my part.

 

Brennan:

I will put the sone up and rush forward into the entrance.

 

Ashley:

Farrow’s going to follow like not even a step behind.

 

Kenzie (MC):

There’s like ah umming hat just gets louder and louder as you go and as you guys are running, you realize that , maybe it’s the stone opening new pathways for you, maybe it’s because you’re running and not walking, maybe it’s the adrenaline coursing through your body but it feels like it takes half the time it took the first time to get into this cavern. And as soon as you cross the threshold of the actual cavern with this stone, it’s like a piercing, shrieking nose hits your ears. And you can see the black sludge start to vibrate, as if it’s alive, as if it’s scared of the presence of this new thing.

 

Ashley:

First of all, Farrow like they cover their ears as best they can with the ringing until it adjusts but how much of the sludge is around?

 

Kenzie (MC):

It’s a lot. Sawyer would specifically notice that it has grown since the last time he was here. But it’s a lot. It’s covering a lot of the surfaces. You can see there is a blue glow trying to come through a lot of places that are just being overtaken by it.

 

Brennan:

Sawyer will clutch the heart and bring it to his chest and hold it with both of his hands and start to trudge his way towards the center point, attempting as best he can to avoid whatever sludge he can, all the while, with every step, thinking back to trying to shove off the bad memories of the last time they were there and overcoming that with the memory of all of them laughing as kids at the river. Not getting the snake away from Ivy ‘cause it was hers now. And another step, flashing to the first time that Sawyer saw Caleb back in school and just thinking how excited he was and another step and thinking about that dance to that stupid “Carless Whisper” song with Ivy. And with every step it’s just another fond memory that this is finally going to help - he’s finally going to help bring his friends back together permanently. And will attempt to get to the center.

 

Kenzie (MC):

It’s like a hopscotch through the sone floor over where the sludge has taken place until you get there. And you know the spot, you saw it before, and it looks like this one would fit perfectly. And you place it in to where it belongs and as you do, it’s like a force brings you hand flat against it. Farrow, what you see, is Farrow’s hand go flat against this well, this spring of sorts and his arm go rigid and his head like be thrown back at the neck until it’s like he’s looking up at the ceiling. And you see as if his entire body is giving off this golden light.

 

Sawyer, you feel like your very DNA is breaking down. As your brain functions on a level that no human beings was meant to function on and you see the entire history of Wildmoore in like a split second. It is painful and wonderful. Everything you thought it would be and horrific at the same time. You see people who look familiar in face, ancestors. You see Bast and Gabriel, looking not anything different than they do now yet in a time period that doesn’t seem to fit them. You see quarrels and you see happiness and smiles. You see parties and celebrations, you see funerals, you see family gatherings. You see the stone passing hands. And through all of that, in every single memory that a Moore existed in, there as a shadow at their back. But all of this happens in a split second and you come back, huffing, out of breath, exhausted, weary eyed, almost falling to your knees against this well.

 

Ashley:

Farrow’s there to catch you as soon as you start wobbling. They didn’t know what the glowing bit was, I think they were about to reach out to see if you were in pain and then it suddenly stopped again and you started to sag and so they caught you before you fell down. And they look around at the room and they look down at you and they just say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Are you okay?

 

Brennan:

Sawyer slowly looks up at you, completely shaken.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

I didn’t fuck this one up.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Congrats!

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

We need to make sure they don’t – let’s go back!

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Like just leave it here?

 

Ashley:

I look around at the sludge. Is it doing anything?

 

Kenzie (MC):

It’s slow, but from the point that the Heart was put in, has started to recede. You don’t know where it’s going. But it has started to pull back, very slowly.

 

Ashley:

I help Sawyer up to his feet fully, letting him drape an arm around my shoulders to prop him up a bit if need be.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Okay, we head back.

 

Brennan:




Sawyer takes a step forward and immediately falls and winces and grabs his head. There’s like this veins that’s just kinda pulsing, protruding above his temple.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Just take a few deep breaths.

 

Ashley:

And they keep looking over their shoulder at the entrance, like semi-paranoid about things following through.

 

Ashley (Farrow):




Magic takes a toll or there’s always a price, that’s what all the nerd books say. So, just like breathe a little bit, okay? You did what we had to do. So, you can rest for a bit. Give me one second.

 

Ashley:

And then Farrow’s going to take their phone out and try to call Elias to see if there’s any updates over here.

 

Kenzie (MC):




Caleb, you are stuck between the sense of seeing your brother and not as his hand lunges forward and grabs you around the neck in a grip you know is inhuman. And he says,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Thomas Moore made a deal with a devil and thought an ocean could save him. I’m here to collect.

 

Mads:

Again the voice doesn’t really come from me, it comes from around and within me.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Good thing I’m not Thomas.

 

Mads:

And then trying to distract from him grabbing here, I’m going to use my legs to kick out. Try and get him off me.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Actually this would be your Uncontainable.

 

Mads:

Well, that’s a four.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You try to jerk away and kick off of him and he is just way too srong. And he says,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

It doesn’t matter you’re not him. He didn’t make a deal for himself. He made a deal for the wolf. So, all you have to do as I have asked so easily of you, is to say okay. And then the deal is done.

 

Mads:




There’s like the crackle of sparks, fire, lighting around my words as I say.

 

Mads (Caleb):

What is it with you weird old folks and your trouble with consent? No!

 

Kenzie (MC):

And there’s a moment of peace, Ivy, that comes over you. Not in the sense that you’re Ivy again but jus a peace within this space of like, is there another way to break free than physically breaking free.

 

April:

Can I Gaze Into the Abyss and figure that out?

 

Kenzie (MC):

I think that would be a very interesting thing for you to do in this moment so yes, please Gaze Into the Abyss.

 

April:

I got a three!

 

Kenzie (MC):

You are so gone beyond reason at this point because giving into your Darkest Self, as you have done, allowing this Shadow Creature to live within you in some way is different than if this Shadow Creature was fully in control of you like they are Adam. So, you still know who you used to be, you just don’t care anymore. But it’s still there and so in this pause of trying to break from these restrains, to get the upper hand once again. This calm that overtakes you is from the shadow entity that is within you, letting you know that you can do this, you have the power, you’ve always had the power. But that’s the thing, you’ve always had the power.

 

The shadow turns back to you and says,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Just give in to it already.

 

April:




Ivy wrenches up as hard as she can, her back arching up toward the ceiling as she pulls against the restrains on her wrists and she lets out this horrible yell, not quite a scream, just a yell of frustration.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You feel snapping as you do so, but an inch of a movement longer and you feel once again (whooshing noise) pulled back. And you hear Kai say,

 

Kenzie (Kai):

See that’s how I know this isn’t you.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And Caleb you see along Adam’s arms where he’s holding you, the black veins start to move down his arm toward you and the creature says,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

It’s so much easier if you let it in but I will force my way if I have to!

 

Mads:

As Ivy is struggling in her restraints and Kai says this, his bark of laughter almost echoes from Caleb. It’s not condescending though, it sound like laughter you would share with friends over stories and comradery.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Yeah, Ivy are you really going to let a man tell you what to do?

 

Mads:

And then snap my head back to this creature and say,

 

Mads (Caleb):

You can use his body all you want, but I know the secrets.

 

Mads:

And even though he’s gone, I do have a string on Adam. I am going to Lash Out and try to incapacitate him because I know when we were younger, Adam said it would be a great idea to ride down the fucking banister of our house and I told him no to. I said he was going to hurt himself and he said that I was being a spoilsport and I was lame and just to sit back and watch him do it because I always watch him do it. So I sat there at the bottom of the banister with my arms crossed as he flew down, shot past me and smacked into our kitchen table and broke his leg. And I know he has a huge scar along the back of his calf. So, I’m going to wrench my foot out and step on it really hard.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Roll Lash Out Physically with that string so I believe you get to add one to the roll.

 

Mads:

That is a nine plus one for my string. It’s a ten.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You reach out and you kick that spot on Adam’s leg and the physical body reacts to that pain and you hear,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Human bodies are so fragile.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And then there’s a pounding at the door and Adam’s black eyes, you can’t even tell where they’re looking. His head actually move toward the door and then back to you and he’s now a little bit shorter than you because one of his legs has given out so he’s half crouching and he says,

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

So, how about we make a deal then? I kill all of them in an instant or I get you.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And you feel this creature rise back up to full posture in Adam’s body because unfortunately Adam has given this creature so many strings on himself throughout this game that it didn’t last for long, that pain that you gave.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

So many people outside trying to do the same thing you’re doing. Trying to save you. Gone in an instant. Or you finally gaining all of the power that you deserve. Ivy did it so easily without question. It was an offer and she realized what that would mean and she took it. I don’t know why you’re trying to fight her fate. It’s the same as yours. You deserve this. You are better than the rest of them and you know that and you can wield that and yet you choose not to.

 

April:

When Adam got hit and cried out for just a second, Ivy felt that cry reverberate through her body and her head whipped over to look at him. She saw the scar, the same scar that she traced a thousand times with her fingertips, her eyes. She remembers the cast he wore as a kid for so many months. She remembers his voice when he would ask her to carry him or be his human crutch. And then with clarity as if the words are actually entering her brain for the first time instead of just floating in this cloud of confusion and distortion, she hears this darkness say that Caleb is better than her? And she laughs. A real Ivy laugh, half making funny of you, half pure confidence. And with eyes light gray once again, she says,

 

April (Ivy):

Babe, I think I’m the best sacrifice you’re going to get here.

 

Kenzie (MC):

I think that while Ivy is not unpossessed in this moment, I think Ivy comes out of her Darkest Self in this moment. And as that happens and you say those words, Adam turns to you with a sneer and says,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Don’t act like you care now and you didn’t just suck the life out of the boy moments ago.

 

Kenzie (MC):

But you hear ringing in your head. You hear what has brough you back. Your level of confidence isn’t necessarily a show, but you have seen Caleb turn, you have seen what he can do. Being better than you? You being better than him? That’s what got you into this mess in the first place. And so, no matter how much that hurts, there’s enough logic to not revert back again. You can still hear the nagging in your head. It’s still there. It’s still – it’s piercing, it’s annoying, it is constant, this (whisper sounds) of things. You’re not good enough. You are good enough. This is what you need to be. This is what you should be. All of these things constantly, but sometimes making fun of your best friend is the easiest way to break through it.

 

April:

Ivy looks at Adam, looks at Caleb, says,

 

April (Ivy):

Do you know?

 

Kenzie (MC):

This creature looks at Caleb, looks at Ivy, like it can’t read what’s in your head for a moment.

 

Mads:

You watch the weird smokey wolf head turn to you and cock it’s head to the side like it doesn’t understand what you’re asking.

 

April:

Ivy realizes that – maybe not even consciously realizes that she has to do this. Because if Adam tells him first, I might be devastating consequences and she says,

 

April (Ivy):

You can’t save him, Caleb. I said that before and I meant it. It’s my fault. All of it. All of it’s my fault, I think. But if, when it leaves him, there won’t be anything left.

 

Mads:

There’s kind of this low register rumble that comes from Caleb. And it’s not necessarily a growl, it’s not angry. It’s understanding. You feel like if Caleb was standing their in front of you with his arms crossed across his chest like he usually does, he’d probably be biting his lower lip, jutting out his jaw a little bit and giving one firm nod. And then you watch from within – because it is beautiful, mesmerizing in a way the more that this becomes an aspect of Caleb than an aspect of this curse that he bears, this wolf creature that is made of smoke and memories and laughter and community. The way that these little spiral patterns of gold kind of fleck in and out. Some aspect of mystery to it but it’s familial and it’s friendly and it trusts you so much. That echoing reverb of a voice comes from him again.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Ivy, I’m not saving him. I’m saving you.

 

Mads:

And then the wolf head turns back toward that Shadow Creature.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Maybe this is something I need to take to therapy later but if I get to punch my brother’s body a couple times, I’ll take it.

 

Mads:

And I’m going to swing out and I’m going to punch him again.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Okay, roll your Lash out Physically.

 

Mads:

Plus two is an eight.

 

Kenzie (MC):

This entire time there has been pounding on the door, there’s been noises, there’s been shouting, and it looks like if every time there’s a pounding, here’s like this black dark webbing that has clouded over the front of his door on the inside, so like it can’t be opened. And you hear shouting but it’s so far away as if you guys are on a different plane of existence.

 

So, you punch this creature. You watch your brother’s jaws go to the side and just inhumanly crack back around to look at you.

 

April:




This whole time, Ivy has just been staring at Caleb. Her breath is coming fast and she feels like her face is cold all of a sudden and she realizes it’s because it’s just completely wet with tears. And she just says,

 

April (Ivy):

Why?

 

Kenzie (MC):

But before you can answer her, the creature has grabbed you by the top of your head and gripped the sides, the fingers just digging into your skull.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Ahhh. You are all so weak. I never needed permission, I asked it nicely.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And you feel a pulse as if I’s going to literally shoot the black veins inside of you from Adam’s hands but as it moves to do that, a bright glowing blue hole appears in its chest and it is shunted backwards away from you.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Ahhh! What have you done?

 

Mads:

I look at Ivy again.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I didn’t do that.

 

April (Ivy):

Me neither.

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Your little friends. You think you’re so smart. Sneaking around.

 

Kenzie (MC):

In the corner of the room, the air flickers and Naia appears. And she says,

 

Kenzie (Naia):

I think he’s weak enough now.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And speaks in this just slightly not Spanish, Spanish, as you’ve heard her speak in before when she does a spell. And you see the wards on the bed begins to the glow, you see the wards on the door, the wards on the window. Ivy you are pulled back once again against your will, towards the bed. And you feel his burning heat through the center of your body. And you hear, Caleb, Naia speaking to you,

 

Kenzie (Naia):

I don’t know if I can get rid of him. But I think I can get it out of her.

 

April:

As the heat shoots up through Ivy’s body, she lets out a scream. Just blood-curdling scream from deep inside her. It feels like this giant pressure pushing against her muscles and out of her bones. And her head hurts. But she can hear Naia say that and through pants of pain she says,

 

April (Ivy):

Then, just do it!

 

Kenzie (MC):

At this point Ivy blacks out and goes limp on the bed. Now this creature is holy. Like literally. As in that there are blue gashes of light through different parts of Adam’s body and it’s just saying,

 

Kenzie (Shadow Creature):

Why do you fight against such power that you could hold?

 

Mads:

Trying to focus in on all these little beads of light with my little funky wolf eyes. They’re going to dart around their torso and make their way up to his face and it’s almost like I can see like the tendrils of that dark muck, sludgy, grossness, seeping out of the words that he’s saying through my brothers broken face. I’m going to take a really deep breath in and I’m going to Gaze Into the Abyss and I’m going to see if I can find his weakness.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Instead of Gaze Into the Abyss, I want you to use Heightened Senses but I want you to use it with your volatile.

 

Mads:

My eyes track around to all those little bits and watch that smoke sap like substance start to leak out from him. It’s like it’s hanging in the air in front of me. the smell is so thick and heavy. It smells like mold and mildew and something that should have died centuries ago. Should have been laid to rest. And I don’t know much about history, I am fifteen years old, but what I do know is that I hate it when anyone in authority tells me what to do. And for my roll, I got a fourteen.

 

Kenzie (MC):

I need you to ask me three questions. They do not need to be the ones on this list. They can be any three questions you wish about this creature, this situation.

 

Mads:

My dad always told me that names hold so much power so I want to know what it’s real name is. That’s my first one. My second one is can I kill it? Or can it be killed? And the third, the follow-up to the second, if it can’t be killed, how do I contain it.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You have been given a couple previous hints that this thing’s natural habitat may not be this land. Somebody else has said that to you before. It said it to you today that if followed an ancestor here. Truthfully, it’s true name is lost even to it. That is how old his creature is, but you don’t think it’s true name is hooked on it’s destruction in this case because in lieu of it’s true name and having that, it in a way exchanged it for being tied to Wildmoore. And so you feel a sense of confusion in the face of can you kill it or not because of how old it is, but can you get rid of it for a very, very, very long time and maybe kill it? Yes. But I don’t think you’re ever going to for certain know if you killed it. And you recognize this blue light as being the same blue light you saw in the Heart of Wildmoore cave when you were there, so you can make an easy supposition that Sawyer succeeded.

 

Mads:

That’s my boyfriend! That’s my boyfriend!

 

Kenzie (MC):

And that’s helped by the fact that outside of the pounding on the door and the yelling from these people whom you do not know, but who showed up at this house, the whistling of the wind and the screaming, terrifying sounds from creatures that were infesting your home, start to rescind a little bit as you stand in this room.

 

The power that this creature holds is, number one from Wildmoore which is breaking down before your eyes. Number two, from powerful people it gets it’s grip into. You don’t think Adam can give it any more power anymore seeing that he is obviously dead. So, the only thing it’s holding onto now, for dear life, is Ivy. Who is actively trying to be purged from it. But the only thing that can truly break through a shadow is light. And the last time that you tried to break it’s connection with somebody, while it didn’t work entirely, it took all of you being there.

 

Kai and Naia are hovered over Ivy and the only person focused on you is the visage of what used to be your brother, who is, quite obviously from the moment he stepped foot in this house, was never your brother. And you see through the blue light streaks and holes in his body, this black smoke.

 

Mads:

I look over to the disfigured, holey version of my brother and I know that he’s gone and I’ll have to deal with that later. I’s very compartmentalized right now from the heat of the moment, everything high stake that’s happening. And I rush over to the bed where Ivy is. And you know, he was onto something. Music does help people a lot of the time. He was really, really close. He does try so hard and that’s why I like him a lot. It wasn’t quite right though. And in this form, I don’t have the ability to be able to like grab a frickin’ boombox, or honestly even try to serenade her right now, but I do know that Ivy’s favorite song is The Sound by The 1975 because Caleb is the type of person that is overly obsessed with music and takes stock in what other people say are their favorites. So, he’s going to lean down close to Ivy and that sound again, that doesn’t quite come from him when he speaks but kind of all around him, it’s just this low tone, rumble, humming of that song. Trying to get as close to ivy’s ears as he can, hoping that will do something to be able to help her.

 

Kenzie (MC):

You start humming this and the web that the Shadow Creature put up on the door starts to disintegrate and in a couple pour pounds the door bursts open and literal black ops agents with guns pointed, fall into this room, quickly followed by your literal homeroom teacher who is dressed as he usually is dressed with his little bowties and his plaid shirts but with a bulletproof vest on.

 

And through this open a door and through the open door downstairs, you hear with your humming, you hear soft and getting louder, through Adam’s fucked up car stereo speakers, “The Sound.” Just like a bad bass coming through as you hear the car, revving, going as fast as it can, through the yards, up past your house, staying on idling, with “The Sound” blasting through the speakers. Farrow and Sawyer, you thrust open both of the doors. You see all these vans pulled up to the front door. You see all of these agents out and around the house. You see Agent Drummond back by a van, talking orders into a walkie-talkie.

 

Brennan:

I look a Farrow.

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Well, hmmm, listen.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

We’ll talk about this later!

 

Ashley (Farrow):




Yeah, yeah. We’ll talk about this – I’ll give you the full breakdown. It’s okay.

 

Brennan:

Sawyer tries to push his way into the house.

 

Ashley:

Once I see Sawyer try to go through these people I’m going to just take the charge and tell them to get the fuck out of the way. And have Sawyer follow in.

 

Kenzie (MC):

There’s a moment in which that they don’t really take your order. You hear gargled, bad audio through the walkie-talkie,

 

Kenzie (Agent Drummond):

Let ‘em through.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Yeah that’s right, let us through!

 

Ashley:

I give a thumbs up to Drummond.

 

Brennan:

I’m skipping steps, bursting through towards Caleb and Ivy.

 

Kenzie (MC):

The first thing you see coming into this room are these agents with guns pointed at Adam who is now crouched on the ground in the corner of the room, holes through his body, this blue light, mixed with this black shadow that is slowly leaking from his body, and swirling on the ground in front of him. You see Kai bent over the bed which Ivy’s laying flat on, passed out. You see Naia, eyes shut, chanting words over and over and over again. Sweat starting to drip down her face. Brow furrowed and creased as if this is taking a lot of energy. You see Caleb, sitting on he bed next to Ivy – sitting is a hard – it’s a swirling mist form of a wolf. So, like it’s not sitting necessarily but over the bed that Ivy is on. And you hear this snarling mumbling, humming sound that sounds like the song playing outside.

 

Ivy in the blackness that you reached into, you remember something else, something a while ago.

 

April:

When Ivy loses consciousness, she gets pushed into not blankness but pure darkness as if she’s fully present in a nightmare. She still hears this voice urging her towards every terrible, shitty, rude thought she’s ever had. Every superiority complex, every lashing out, every time she’s ignored the people she loved because she felt she didn’t deserve it, didn’t deserve their love. She feels almost as if she had a body in his space, she would have been dropping to her knees. Just screaming, screaming at a sky but all of it is just the dark of her own mind. And through this she hears a very familiar melody and all of a sudden instead of being in this endless darkness, she’s a pre-teen, she has stolen her dad’s car for the first time and Sawyer’s in the passenger seat.

 

They are driving on he backroads because Ivy knows she can’t get away with it for that long but she puts on this song that she just found on Tumblr and they’re both rocking out. Sawyer doesn’t know any of the words, it’s the first time he’s heard it but he’s dancing just as hard as she is in their seats and the wind is whipping through their hair and they’re grinning so wide. And as the second chorus comes around, Sawyer, she remembers, turned down the volume and she was like,

 

April (Ivy):

What the fuck, dude?

 

April:

And she remembers him looking at her strangely and saying,

 

Can you hear – can you hear the sound of my heart for real?

 

April:

And Ivy kind winks at him and she’s like,

 

April (Ivy):

Yeah, sometimes.

 

April:

And before he turns the music back up, he says,

 

Would you know it?

 

April:

And she says,

 

April (Ivy):

Of course, yeah. You’re my best friend.

 

April:




She definitely made fun of him for being so sentimenal later but every time she hears his song, hat’s what she thinks of. Her best friend and how well she knows him and how well he knows her, even by the sound of his heartbeat. And as that memory of them speeding off down the road ends, Ivy feels herself being pulled down, down back into the real world, into consciousness, into light and sound and everything is so disorienting and she wakes with this huge gasp.

 

April (Ivy):

(gasps)

 

April:

And she sees Caleb in his swirling wolf form and she sees Sawyer, so worried as usual. And she sees her news friends, Kai and Naia, protecting her. They are all protecting her and she feels this sink in her stomach, this roiling self-loathing as she looks and sees Adam splitting apar or what’s left of him. And she looks back at Caleb and she says,

 

April (Ivy):

You never answered me. Why are you trying to save me if I’m hopeless?

 

Brennan:

In this moment as well, Sawyer is creeping forward, just kind of dragging his feet, trying to hover over Ivy.

 

Mads:

The swirling eyes meet Sawyer’s and you feel like though it’s hard to tell in this weird in-between form of his, if he could be, the sides of his eyes would be crinkling up just a little bit that Sawyer made it here. And then back to Ivy, that rumble again. It’s weird, because it’s all around the room and it’s like an echo you would hear, a shout in the middle of the woods, friends chasing each other and playing tag and ducking behind trees and bushes. Sitting around a campfire laughing with your whole body and your whole soul, telling stories until you start to see the dawn crack out from the skyline. Those eyes that are incorporeal and floating around in this spectral smoke form, some of them seem to dart and watch as Sawyer approaches and it looks like all of them crinkle at the sides like they’re very happy to see him. And whenever he speaks it’s out loud to the room but it feels like it’s for Ivy.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I think that’s just what it feels like to be a teenager. A little hopeless. A lot of messed up and id think that’s why we need to stay together. I can’t fight all of your battles for you but I can help.

 

Mads:

I look over at Sawyer again.

 

Mads (Caleb):

We can help.

 

April:




Ivy’s like whole body is just damp with sweat and tears and her baby hairs are sticking to her forehead and her cheeks and her dark circles under her eyes are so deep but when she looks at you, it’s the same Ivy and she just says,

 

April (Ivy):

Caleb, please, I was fighting your battles for you before you even knew who you were. Thanks for sticking around.

 

April:




And she with ease, reaches her arms out as if there was nothing ever holding her wrists back. And she reaches one hand out to Sawyer and one hand towards Caleb.

 

Kenzie (MC):




You watch as she reaches out to you and the ink on her arms starts to flow into the air and it flows in like a chain back to Kai’s skin where it goes up and disappears under her clothes.

 

April:




She lets out a shuddering breath and she says,

 

April (Ivy):

I’m not gonna lie though. I might need your help on this one. I’m really trying but there’s a lot – it’s a lot. It’s saying a lot to me and I - are you guys sure I’m worth it?

 

Brennan:

Sawyer will grab your hand and move in and kinda just flop next to ya. Kinda cuddle into your under your shoulder, look at you.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Ivy, I love you. No bud included.

 

April:

Ivy immediately starts crying but also laughs and she takes the hand that’s still interlaced with Sawyer’s to wipe some tears and sweat off of her cheek.

 

April (Ivy):

(breathes out) Wow, Sawyer, pretty proud of you for that one, bud.

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Oh now you’re saying bud.

 

April (Ivy):

Yeah, I gotta get you back (laughs).

 

Brennan (Sawyer):

Hey, you know? We still gotta get tattoos.

 

April (Ivy):

Yeah.

 

April:




The tears are still streaming down her face. Suddenly this pain twists in her gut and she lets out his cry and squeezes both of their hands as tightly as she can.

 

April (Ivy):

Guys, he doesn’t really wanna let me go. I don’t think it’s going to let me go.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Naia says,

 

Kenzie (Naia):

I can’t really hold these up anymore.

 

Kenzie (MC):

And you see her eyes starting to droop,

 

Kenzie (Naia):

It’s almost gone.

 

Mads:

Caleb’s hand in Ivy’s grips a little bit harder. Like she could feel his hand underneath everything else ha was here. It looked a little weird and distorted though because he hand itself was encompassed in that roiling, smokey mist. Whenever it grips though, a little bit tighter, the smoke starts to drift off and his hand is there again. Just Caleb. And through the interaction of Sawyer and Ivy going back and forh, he just started to laugh under his breath. Something teasing, something to make fun of them with and also something so fond and compassionate. The smoke leaves his body, he’s no longer transformed. His eyes refocus, drift back, look normal again. He looks over to Naia, nods a little bit. There is still a seriousness about this situation. And then to Kai and back to Ivy.

 

Mads (Caleb):

Again, Ivy, are you really going to let someone else tell you what to do? You’re Ivy fucking Duncan, get a grip.

 

Brennan:

Sawyer just lets out a sharp exhale of a laugh.

 

April:

Even through his sharp pain pulling her, Ivy manages to roll her eyes at Caleb. She’s like,

 

April (Ivy):

You know I won’t. You’d have to kill me first. He might still do that by the way. Uh, I really love you guys. And Caleb, I promise I love Adam too.

 

Mads (Caleb):

I know. I know.

 

Kenzie (MC):

As you say this and this grief that you haven’t been able to feel floods through your body at what you did and at what seems to have been forgiven when you don’t feel that you’ve earned it. That ball of heat and fire and pain courses through your entire body until you feel like you’re going to explode and then you feel this liquid start leaking from your eyes, thicker than tears. And you all watch as Ivy starts to bleed black from the corners of her eyes. And as that happen you feel it move and you feel it move up and out as if it can’t sustain with all of this emotion, until you blink and the black kind of covers your eyes – not as it did before but the literal black liquid kind of smudges your vision and you blink it away and you wipe away at your face, black coming off on your fingers tips. He’s not there anymore. The shadow that was telling you how you weren’t good enough, how you could be so good, how you needed to strive for more, how you held power at bay, how you were so powerful. All of the conflicting things it has been whispering in your ear, gone in an instant from your mind.

 

April:

All of the breath in Ivy’s body just leaves her and as she takes in her next breath, it’s like a window opened. It’s like oxygen is getting into her brain and her blood for the first time in what seems like she can’t remember how long since she first saw the shadow in Adam all those months ago. And she looks around at her friends, her best friends and she just goes to say something snarky, goes to make fun of how serious they’re all looking at her, but she kinda can’t. She just keeps crying and pulls them into her saying,

 

April (Ivy):

I love you. I love you. I’m sorry. I love you. It’s gone now.

 

Brennan:

Sawyer tilts your head and puts your ear against his chest and then looks over a Caleb and kinda just purses a smile, just looks at you in the eyes and not crying but on the verge just gives you this look of, “I’m glad that we succeeded.

 

Mads:

Caleb does that thing where he bites his lip, sort of juts his jaw forward a little bit and gives one nod but there’s a softness in his eyes. And now that everything seems to be starting to pass, the conflict is starting to end… you would notice because you know Caleb well enough that the reason this time he’s biting his lip – usually i’s because he’s holding back a smile and he doesn’t want to look to excited about anything, kind messes with the image – this time it’s because it’s holding back something else. His eyes look a little bit misty like the repercussions of everything that just happened in the last twenty-four hours is just starting to catch up with him.

 

Brennan:

You feel Sawyer’s hand run through the back of your hair and pull your head in close under his chin and Sawyer holds both of you and just kind of smiles because he doesn’t know what else to do. And when he smiles, his cheeks raise up to his eyes and a couple of tears fall.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Elias has, during all of this time, quietly ushered these agents out of the room in a very whispered manner and has kind of cornered Farrow by the door and is just like,

 

Kenzie (Elias):

Are you okay?

 

Ashley:

I look over at Elias and I say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

I fought a giant, flaming skeleton so that’s gonna be a very unique therapy bill I’m assuming y’all are going to cover. But in regards to all of this, to be decided I guess. I think right now we just need to make sure it gets cleaned up and they’re okay ‘cause I may have been here the whole time but I’m not nearly as close, I don’t know – I can’t imagine how they’re feeling right now, I just… we just need to help clean up the mess.

 

Kenzie (MC):

He reads the deflection of his question to you and he says,

 

Kenzie (Elias):

I believe in dealing with these sort of situations in a humane and slow as needed to be manner. So, why don’t you stay for a second and I will go downstairs and deal with Agent Drummond.

 

Ashley:

Farrow nods and then says,

 

Ashley (Farrow):




Before you go, do you think there’s a way we could get a coroner or someone to –

 

Ashley:

And I just nod at Adam’s body and I say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

I don’t think that’s going to be conducive to the whole calming down the moment.

 

Kenzie (Elias):

To be the perfectly honest, Farrow, i think they all need to see it because they will one way or another.

 

Ashley:

Farrow just shakes their head and goes,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Alright, you’re covering their therapy as well then.

 

Kenzie (Elias):

I know we put you through a lot, more than we should have but you’ve done good. Even if you hated doing it.

 

Ashley:

They do that thing where they try to bite their lip to keep from smiling but they do blush a little bit because they are very proud of themselves and also like, they didn’t die, so hell yeah, that’s a perk! But they just kind of nod and they say,

 

Ashley (Farrow):

Hey, what’s family for?

 

Kenzie (MC):

He puts a hand on your shoulder and squeezes.

 

Kenzie (Elias):

I’ll be right downstairs when you’re ready.

 

Ashley:

Farrow nods and watches him head and down and they just sort of – not post up next to the door, they do that thing where they just sort of fade into the background a little bit. Just sort of waiting for the three of you to look like you need something or if another flaming skeleton or something pops up. They’re not quite sure at this point in their life but their just sort of waiting to see when they’ll be needed next.

 

Kenzie (MC):

Naia has collapsed with exhaustion on the other side of the bed. Kai is kind of joining you in that visage of trying to disappear a little bit as she sees that these three friends are commiserating together. And as Adam’s body lies lumped in the corner of this room and Ivy, Caleb, and Sawyer, huddle hugging one another in grief in solidarity on the bed, despite, Farrow’s want to disappear, they are noticed. And it’s not a replacement in anyway, but there’s some sort of peace and calmness brought by the fact that four people are together again. Even if one is lost, one new one is found. And with that, I think there is a hard path and understanding amongst these house children of things that they learned and things that they saw, that a lot needs to be changed and worked on and grown differently than how it’s been. And it lays on their shoulders now. Another weight to add to the one that was just lost.