Big Bad Me by Aislinn O'Loughlin
15 ½ years ago…
Dr. Sinéad Wilder and her young daughter Katie are woken up at 3am by crashing and banging in the house. It’s not an intruder, just Robert, but he has bad news. Maddie is gone, the front door was smashed open. Leaving Katie with her neighbor, Sinéad grabs her tranquilizer gun and together she and Robert drive off looking for Maddie. It doesn’t take long to find the huge leathery beast with yellow eyes and giant claws, blood covering its snout. Robert tries to placate the monster but is thrown through the air and lands with a loud crack. When Robert looks up, his eyes flash yellow and he changes into a monster. Not-Robert and Not-Maddie clash, claws ripping, teeth biting, and in the middle is Not-Maddie’s swollen belly. Sinéad lifts her gun and fires.
Evie was born in a giant cage in the basement. She knows she’s adopted, but has her bio-mum's red hair, and has been told she has a super-rare-not-on-Google diabetes that also makes her allergic to silver that she maintains with her mom’s home brew medication. Yes, she is aware this is as super shady it all sounds. Anyway, at the moment Evie is a “regular” teen doing homework in a coffee shop when she gets this awful buzzing bee migraine. Not wanting to bother her sister Kate who would drop anything to get her since their mom is away on a research trip, Evie opts to get home herself. In the process she spills her drink, whacks strangers with her backpack and generally embarrasses herself in front of a really hot Lumberhunk.
Evie makes it home to the empty house and to her medication. Having some momentary relief from the buzzing, Evie reaches for a big fat juicy steak when someone starts loudly banging on the front door, making her head start hurting again. Gah! Pulling the door open, Evie finds the Lumberhunk who introduces himself as Rom before forcing his way into the house. Rom starts belittling Evie and saying her “mom” isn’t her mom and “that girl” isn’t her sister and that they’ve turned her into a lab rat, but he can free her because she called to him. Creepy. Rom then grabs her hand and shows that it’s starting to turn into a claw. This can’t be real. Then Rom slices Evie’s arm but whatever he expected to happen doesn’t. Rom panics, slams something on to Evie’s chest as her pain increases. Suddenly Kate is back home and wastes no time shooting Rom with a dart gun before turning it on Evie.
Thinking quickly, Kate wraps her sister, changed back into her not-monster form, in a blanket and deposits her on the sofa. Turning to the boy-monster, Kate starts to drag him down to the basement when cute Zoe King interrupts. Kate left the front door open and now Zoe has seen her with… an art project. Yes, an art project. Declining her invite to a movie, Kate instead drags the boy-monster down the stairs and into Evie’s old hidden playcage built behind a fake wall. Kate injects him with a couple more tranq darts before gathering supplies. She and her sister are hitting the road.
Evie wakes up in the back of Kate’s car surrounded by an assortment of clothes. Her head is splitting and she feels fuzzy. When Kate returns from getting gas, she explains that the stalker-Rom gave Evie a ton of epinephrine and she had a seizure, so for her safety, Kate had to sedate her. Stalker-Rom got away and the police are after him, but Kate didn’t feel safe so now they're on a Wilder sisters road trip! Kate gives Evie a bloody raw steak to eat so she'll feel better and insists they don't need to call the Winchesters for assistance with what was definitely a hallucination and definitely not werewolves.
Kate drives them to Brightside, a place straight out of a horror movie, but it’s the last place Kate was able to track their mom to, so here they are. Their mom had gone to find Evie’s bio-dad Robert who was also looking for a cure to Evie’s not-diabetes. Goldman’s Guesthouse looks inviting so they decide to stop there. Both sisters fail to see the many missing person posters as Kate drives through the sleepy town.
At the check-in desk is Kevin, a cute nerdy boy about Evie’s age, who sniffs the air and tries to throw them out. Kate, being a tough lady-boss, doesn’t accept his instant and rude refusal. They’re loud enough to bring down Chris, a forty-something lady with an excellent sense of humor. Excusing themselves, Kevin and Chris argue. Evie listens in and hears them mention the word “abomination” and assumes it’s Kate they are talking about because of her pride badge. She also hears them mention “Ashton’s guys murder them.” In the end, Chris convinces Kevin to let them stay for one night, and to placate Kevin, they are given Room 2, the one next to his.
Kevin takes the bags to their room with Evie as Kate checks in. Once at Room 2, Evie asks about Ashton and Kevin gets angry and starts talking shit, which Evie thinks is about Kate and which makes her angry and so she lashes out with a claw to Kevin's throat. Seeing her not-hand covered in Kevin’s blood starts freaking Evie out but the claw keeps shifting between her hand and a claw, much to Kevin’s amusement and not shock. He knows something and even calls it when her eyes start to turn yellow. Kevin assumes Evie knows she is different and has awesome control of her abilities, then he starts mocking her when she starts to cry for Kate and her insulin. Kate eventually comes to the room, kicks Kevin out and calms Evie down. Kate acknowledges the claw, admits that it’s real and informs Evie that yeah, she doesn't have diabetes.
Kate tells Evie the truth. When Kate was a baby, her dad would take her monster hunting, well not real monster hunting, but he would drive around trying to get her to sleep and tell her monster stories. One day he fell asleep at the wheel and died but Kate didn’t even get a scratch. Kate’s mom picked up where her dad left off, except she hunted for real monsters with the help of her PhD student Robert who developed a monster tranquilizer. One day they found a monster naked, crying and in a bloody mess but not-Madison had already turned back to human. They took her home, built the monster bedroom in the basement and looked for a cure. One day Robert injected himself with a sample of Madison’s blood and turned himself into a monster, too, which helped them find a formula to stabilize the monster. Robert and Madison grew close and then Evie was conceived. When Madison went into labor, the contractions freaked her out and caused her to change, and then Evie was born by C-section after her parents tried to rip each other apart. Kate shows Evie a video of Robert and Madison placing newborn Evie in two-year-old Kate’s lap and the unconditional love she had the moment she met her little sister. So Evie’s bio-parents are still alive! And she’s a werewolf! But… we don’t say “werewolf.”
Understandably Evie isn’t calm about the situation, but Kate is, so she tries to reassure her little sister. Evie accidentally sends Kate flying across the room which makes her realize that Kate isn’t clumsy like she always thought. She was the cause of all Kate’s accidents because she’s a freaking monster! Kevin bangs on the door demanding admittance for Kate’s safety but she tells him to fetch ice instead. Which he does. Oddly quickly. Meanwhile, Evie has picked up Kate’s fallen tranq gun and shoots herself.
Kevin catches Evie before she lands and puts her on the bed. Kate berates him for scaring her and making her not-Evie self come out before she had a chance to talk to her. Kevin tells Kate she should leave for her own safety but Kate kicks him out the room instead. She needs to start making missing person posters for their mom.
Evie wakes up to Kate asleep at her laptop and her gun close to hand. In true cliché style, Evie tries to run away but is caught by Kevin. Kevin is a little odd and Evie hasn’t worked out why yet (he’s a vampire, derr!) and he convinces Evie not to run away and go cry in the snow but stay so she doesn’t end up as a trophy on Ashton’s wall and her big sister doesn’t run straight into danger too. Feeding her a few raw steaks and a distinctly reddish hot chocolate with all the sugary toppings (Yay! Not diabetic!) to make her feel better, Kevin offers to help Evie learn control.
And nothing happens. Evie can’t turn on her inner Fido. Kevin explains there are only a few very specific ways to kill him and she won’t do that so he’s the perfect training partner. Look, his neck is already healed! Kevin tries a new tactic, pissing Evie off by reminding her of the threat to Kate’s life. This works a treat and she’s able to change her hand into a claw, bring out her fangs and throw a cracking punch. Evie’s control completely amazes Kevin, but she’s still holding back, so he gives her three freebies before he fights back. After their sparring session, Evie falls asleep in the living room with Kevin making sure she doesn’t wolf-out, and this is how Kate finds them after having a mild freak out that Evie and her bag weren’t in their room. Kate is not happy and doesn’t listen to Kevin or realize that there is something different about him, that he can have knowledge of Evie’s other nature and that Evie has amazing control. Kate believes keeping calm, meditation and medication are the solution. Thankfully, Kevin is able to persuade Kate to stay at the guesthouse longer for their safety and to give Evie a chance to heal her other nature.
While Evie rests, Kate heads out to put missing person posters around Brightside for their mom. Dr. Sinéad Wilder was known and liked by a lot of the locals and they’re sad she’s gone missing. There have been a lot of people going missing lately but usually they’re young beefy men, not middle-aged female Irish scientists. Two teens, Cass and Felix, stop to help Kate put up a poster and after talking for a bit, they remember seeing Dr. Wilder with Bruce Wayne on a date. They even have a picture of them together in the background of one of their selfies but Bruce Wayne isn’t clear, though Cass remembers he had nice teeth. Anyway, their server at the restaurant where they took the selfie, Sage, was their friend and they would suggest Kate talk to her about the date but she was killed by a wild animal that same night. Yeah, that’s been happening a lot too. Cass and Felix persuade Kate to tell the police about her mom and come along to provide a witness statement.
Meanwhile, Evie has woken up and Kevin has brought a big tray of bacon and two hot chocolates. Evie invites him to join her, but he asks if the curtains can be closed because of his allergy, and Evie fills her belly. Kevin raises the issue that Kate hates him, which is understandable, but he wants to keep helping Evie and Evie wants that too. Suddenly Evie gets a stabbing pain in her head and refuses to take the fake insulin/placebo she's taken her whole life to cure it. Her eyes do a weird zoom in thing and she ends up in Kevin’s lap, holding his hand, which is very nice. They agree to keep training behind Kate's back which is only fair, after all, Kate's been keeping secrets from Evie her whole life.
In the late afternoon, Kate returns to the guesthouse, is rude to Kevin as he’s doing his job, and gives Evie a stern talking to about associating with the creepy nerd. Evie, not wanting to argue, agrees. Kate tells Evie her medication isn’t a placebo, but is actually used to keep not-Evie at bay, though their mom has had to increase the strength quite a lot lately. It used to be a couple of times a year, but now they need to increase the strength every few days. It seems the silver tranquilizers aren’t very effective anymore, so it’s time to learn meditation to control the monster.
Evie uses the meditation time as an opportunity to think about Kevin, who she is crushing on hard, and feel Fido under her skin. As the session finishes, they hear Kevin stopping Felix and Cass from coming upstairs. Cass, meaning well, wants to drop off some snacks for Kate but accidentally drops them all over the floor and Kevin can’t stop himself from picking them up one-by-one and counting them. Moving to the living room, Cass and Felix share a video from the restaurant that shows Dr. Wilder with Bruce Wayne but actually, Bruce Wayne isn’t there, but he was. Huh?! Evie, who hasn’t been told their mom is missing, was in Brightside, and was on a date with Bruce Wayne, is none too happy with her big sister and claws out. They’re interrupted by Cass screaming.
Evie runs straight out the door followed by Kate while Kevin shouts at them to stay. Evie starts to change as she runs at super speed and turns into a full wolf at Cass’s bloody body. Sniffing the air she can smell Felix and someone else. Kate catches up, sees the gruesome scene, throws up, throws up again and assesses the situation. Not-Evie isn’t charging at her and ripping her to shreds, so that’s good, and with a simple, one bark for yes, two barks for no, she's able to communicate with Not-Evie. This is also good. Sorta.
Suddenly some creep attacks and Evie swipes at him and clamps down at his throat while Kate stakes him through the heart causing him to turn to dust Buffy-vampire style. The dust gets into Not-Evie’s nose and she loses Felix’s scent. Meanwhile Kevin and Chris pull up, haul everyone into the car and head back to the guesthouse shortly before the police arrive and begin questioning. Evie notes the coat Kevin gave her has the same dusty smell the staked vampire had. Kevin is a vampire! (Duh! Finally!)
Once the police are gone, Kate updates Evie on other secrets she’s been keeping, about their mom being in Brightside and going on a not-date with vampire-Batman. They try to have a normal night, but Kate is sick to her stomach with the image of Cass playing through her mind. Kevin finds her curled up and crying and tries to offer her aid and comfort. The sisters end up watching a Disney movie but Evie falls asleep pretty much straight away. As Kate is carrying her up to their room she lays into Kevin when all he’s trying to be is supportive, complementary and helpful to them both. Before Kate falls asleep, she responds to a text from Zoe who says that she misses her and then sends a few messages to Felix hoping he’s okay and still alive. Kate is asleep before she receives his reply asking to talk ASAP.
The next day, Evie wakes to Kate having a hushed conversation in the bathroom, apparently with Zoe. Over breakfast, Chris informs them that everyone thinks Felix is a serial killer because he wears eyeliner, dyes his hair and plays games and had a rebellious phase. Ughhhhhh. While Kate spends the day around town gathering information, Evie stays to research vampires on the internet. It doesn’t go well, but things look up when Kevin comes in with news of cookies and hot chocolate once Chris returns from a blood run. Evie turns into a giggling brain-fried mess as her crush on Kevin ramps up and decides to spar for a few hours which helps with the mushiness. Kate comes back with no new news and she offers to teach Evie some judo moves. After, Kate gives Evie her first full sugar Coke and it tastes weird. It’s not just the sugar content, it’s the sedative Kate added to it. Once Evie is out, she throws Kevin over the reception desk and drives off to meet Felix who she was actually talking to that morning.
Well, Felix turns out to be a big fat liar. There is a lot of that going around. He has set a trap for Kate in the Brightside graveyard. He claimed he saw Dr. Wilder in the graveyard being held hostage. It’s not until Kate is looking inside a crypt that she starts questioning Felix’s story of escaping the vampires the previous night. Inside a mausoleum three vampires are waiting to capture the werewolf Felix was meant to lure to them. Because no one can trust anyone, the situation escalates quickly. Kate is fighting for her life, Felix allies with Kate and Evie has appeared outside the mausoleum.
The spiked Coke only knocked Evie out for twenty minutes. As soon as she wakes up, Evie is out the door, well, window as Kevin tries to stop her from leaving and sniffing out Kate’s location. Evie finds chaos and blood in the mausoleum, manages to take out the vampires before sending a crying and apologetic Felix away and seeing a bloody and dying Kate on the floor. Dismissing emergency services for taking too long to help, Evie calls Kevin and manages to convince him to leave the guesthouse and come help. Kevin reluctantly attempts to turn Kate, by draining her dry and feeding her his blood, constantly ripping at his wrist to feed her more. It doesn’t work.
Actually, it does. It just takes a few moments. Kevin gives Kate his wrist again now that she’s swallowing on her own and Kate clamps on, nearly draining him dry. Eventually they are able to get back to the guesthouse, covered in blood from a vomiting episode Kate had in the car. Kevin is tired and running on empty and Kate seems drunk. Chris is none too happy that Kevin drank human blood again, but understands that it was to save Kate so she doesn’t say anything. Before Evie can get cleaned up and Chris can have her rosé, they get Kate in the bath and put to bed. Meanwhile, Kevin has refreshed and been refueling. He brings hot chocolate to Evie who notices that pig blood, which is what they've been drinking all this time, isn’t as effective as human blood and tries to offer her own magical blood to Kevin to help heal him, but he refuses. He tells Evie he is more of a monster than she knows, he was Ashton’s proto-psycho.
Many years ago, Ashton had a family and all but one were killed by werewolves. The last, a son, was bitten so Ashton stopped the curse with his axe. After, Ashton traveled the country as a lone werewolf hunter until he met Ava, a vampire, and she turned him. It wasn’t long after he got his vampiric super-powers before Ashton left her. One night, Kevin was walking home from the movies with eight-year-old Chris, his little sister. She ran off to feed some raccoons her leftover popcorn when Ashton attacked her. Kevin fought him off, Chris ran home, and Ashton, who seemed to be missing his family, took Kevin and changed him. What happened next were years of dependency, abuse and murder that Kevin is still fighting and trying to come to terms with, but he sees himself as worthless and a true monster.
It wasn’t until he found a missing person poster with his picture on and called the number that he realized Chris was still looking for him and is now a badass adult. She managed to get him free from Ashton, and in retribution, Ashton murdered every person with their last name in their home town. Kevin kept hunting wolves and about a month ago he went after a camp of wolves in the area. As he was fighting, Ashton came and helped. It was magnificent and felt right. Ashton wants Kevin back, and it’s hard for Kevin to turn him down. Since then, Ashton has been building his jock army and seems ready to take out the town.
Evie sees that Ashton was controlling Kevin and that he has a sense of obligation to him born from the abuse. As they talk, things get a little heated in more than just words and they start physically fighting but then the kissing starts. Chris comes in and tells them to get a room, so off to Kevin’s room they go. Before anything happens, Evie’s brain goes into overdrive and she suddenly realizes that Batman is Ashton, of course he’d want the scientist who knows about werewolf genetics! And Kevin probably knew this already! Yes, he did. He didn’t tell Evie because he knew she would do exactly what she is doing, wolfing out to go run into Ashton’s camp and get herself killed. Talking sense into Evie, she changes back and comes up with a brilliant plan, the Trojan Werewolf. She’ll go to Ashton and in exchange for her mom's safe return, she will go to the werewolf camp and invite Ashton in. It’s a good plan, and Kevin wants to help, but not right now as Kate is waking up and finding out she has super powers.
Kate takes the news as well as is to be expected, though she does immediately try to bite Evie and suck her sweet, sweet blood then try to stake herself with a chair leg. Evie gets her to promise not to harm herself because she already saw her die once and then Kevin tells her she needs to learn focus, so while Evie waits in Kevin’s room munching on Oreos (sugar! yay!) Kevin takes Kate to the kitchen to make pizza and share his backstory. At the end, Kate is of the same opinion as Evie, that Ashton is a psycho controlling monster and Kevin is a better person/vampire than he gives himself credit for. Meanwhile, Evie has made some stakes out of Kevin’s desk and has jumped out of a window to go and take on Ashton and his jock crew by herself.
Evie doesn’t get far before Kate and Kevin catch up because a group of Ashton’s vampires are outside the guesthouse. A fight ensues, Kate gets a badly timed pang of conscience, vampires die, one runs off back to Ashton to tell him everything. Returning to the guesthouse, they eat the pizza and go to sleep. Kate and Kevin are woken to the sounds of Evie attacking Felix downstairs.
Evie’s inner Fido woke her up. It must have sensed Felix arguing with Chris downstairs which spurred her to investigate. She doesn’t beat the snot out of Felix, but she does take a swipe before realizing he has a heartbeat. But he’s a vampire. What? By this time Kevin has ambled downstairs and is watching Evie make Felix literally pee his pants, but at the revelation of the heart beat in a vampire, his mind whirls. There is something about the vampire's head exploding and the vamp dust that triggers some realization. Taking Felix upstairs so he can clean up, Kate is cheerfully waiting to say “hi” with her fangs out. If Felix had any pee left, he would have let it out.
As the traitor cleans up, Kate and Evie talk. Kate points out that Evie hasn’t been taking her meds which means Stalker Rom could find her using the weird werewolf tracking thing she had neglected to tell Evie anything about (more secrets!) but Evie correctly points out that they need her at full strength and that she can control the Wolf if she controls her anger and it’s best she keeps off the silver so it can be effective if needs to be. Damnit, don’t you hate it when little sisters are right?!
Felix has come to give them information about Ashton, specifically the farmhouse he’s using as a base. Together they come up with a plan. Get in with Felix’s invitation for the vampires, knock some heads together, stake Ashton (which will make all the vampires he created human again) then get out with Dr. Wilder and be home for hot chocolate. It’s an excellent and a terrible plan, it’s also the only plan they have and, despite Kate trying to find alternatives to Evie coming, they decide they'll need a monster bodyguard when all the psycho vamps are turned into psycho humans. Felix is worried he’ll be too slow to help as a lowly human until Evie shows him the seed trick which will help keep the vampires busy.
Later after Kate has a vampire transition day crash and Felix passes out exhausted, Evie and Kevin spend some time together, most of it kissing. The next day Evie and Felix go out for supplies for the plan: seeds, holy water, stake materials and pockets. While loading up supplies, they spot a heavily pregnant woman not taking any shit from some ice queen bitch about Felix. It’s Felix’s stepmom and she defends him to the hilt against the bigots of the town he is most likely going to die in order to save. This calls for milkshakes. Meanwhile Kate and Kevin are sparring, all the while Kate has been getting increasingly desperate texts from Zoe. Kevin gives some surprisingly insightful advice and Kate texts her back reassuring her she's just dealing with family stuff and even sends a picture of Kate with her “cousins” Felix and Cass outside a diner. Zoe messages back, Exactly what I needed. Thanks. That's not suspicious at all.
Preparations are underway with Kate and Kevin in a different room from all the poppyseeds falling to the floor. Kate tries to give Kevin the “talk” about the age difference between him and Evie when they hear Felix on the phone giving their plan away. After some death threats, they ask actual questions and find out he’s been leaving voice messages for Cass. He trusts them even if they don’t and he’s okay with that.
Later, after some pizza, they give Chris some sleeping pills so she won’t follow them monster hunting, but unfortunately, as they step out of the guesthouse, the monsters have come to hunt them. Vampires with cans of gasoline are outside, so the fight is on. Kate is reluctant to kill their attackers, Kevin and Evie are reveling in it, Felix is chased by one into the guesthouse but he subdues him by throwing poppyseeds which he is compelled to count even as he cries out in torture from being inside without an invitation. Evie twists his head off.
After, they head over to Ashton's farmhouse and Felix is able to sneak in, cause further distraction with more poppyseeds and invite Kate and Kevin inside. Straight away they encounter a couple of lecherous vampires who are quickly dispatched despite Kate telling them to not kill anyone. Unfortunately, as they make their way in further, they run into Ashton and his goon squad of idiot-henchmen. Ashton is happy to see his prodigal son Kev return (with gifts!) the wolf expert's daughter (who is now Ashton’s granddaughter) and a pure born werewolf. Tasty. Kev makes Ashton believe he is returning to the fold and crushes his glasses underfoot. It’s not only Ashton who seems to believe this, though. Evie is convinced Kevin is lost to them.
Ashton takes the party down to his “throne room” aka the decked out basement. At the bar, he warms up two glasses of Summer Wilson and toasts Kev’s return. Kev makes a big show of drinking it and demanding to be named Ashton’s partner if he is to return. If a hench-idiot or two dies in the process, so be it. Ashton shows Kev a map and tells him the little red dot is the camp of werewolves, and he would happily have Kev come back as his second to lead the charge. Kev suggests a Trojan Wolf tactic which Ashton loves but the hench-idiots still need some convincing to follow Kev, so Ashton has Evie slash her arm and Kev drinks up her sweet, sweet pure born blood.
Kev drinks deep while Kate screams. As Kev withdraws his fangs he whispers “Wolf on!” and flings Evie at Kate. The fight is back on. Kevin and Ashton try to rip each other to pieces, Evie, who is woozy from blood loss, is still formidable, Felix, who was hiding near the bar, is shooting holy water tranqs into the idiot-henchmen and Kate goes full Thanos. As Felix and Kate are getting Evie out of the basement, Ashton throws Kevin against the wall. Felix takes the opportunity to shoot Ashton with holy water and Evie hands Kevin a stake. He plunges it into Ashton’s neck until his body comes away and he explodes.
Ashton’s reign of terror ends not with a bang but with a bunch of confused ex-vampire idiot-henchmen moaning and groaning and Kevin vomiting up copious amounts of blood and heartbeats. Everyone in the room has a heartbeat except for Kate. She is the only vampire not to be turned by Ashton so doesn’t turn back to human. Kevin tries to hand her a stake but she refuses. Instead Kate grabs one of the idiot-henchmen, threatens him and drags him around the house to look for her mom. As they search, Evie starts to get that buzzing headache again and rubs at her forehead and Kevin copies the move. They search everywhere until finally they are in the last cranny of the attic. A panic attack overcomes Kate and she smashes the asshole henchman into a closet, ready to rip his throat out, but Kevin encourages her away from further murder and sends the henchman on his way. The smash however has created a crack at the back of the closet and Felix sees light shining through from behind the wall. Breaking through, they find a hidden room and Kate and Evie can smell their mom. Inside, Dr. Wilder is tied to a pipe but alive. Together they create a big squishy mega-Wilder hug.
Piling into the car, they head toward the guesthouse and sandwiches and call the police with a tip about suspicious activity at the farm house. Not long into the journey, the buzzing pain in both Evie and Kevin’s heads becomes intense. Oh crap, Kevin’s a werewolf now! Getting out of the car, Evie and Kate send their mom and Felix on because they need to help Kevin focus and not change. As Evie is helping Kevin, Stalker Rom approaches with Zoe tied up. He’d used Zoe’s phone to find Kate and Evie. His excuse is that he’s a pure blood werewolf and he's never met another before until Evie, so he watched her like a creep. Kevin shoots him with silver for his own safety as Evie is pretty close to jumping at him with her claws out. Tying and gagging Stalker Rom, Zoe and Kate reunite and arrange to not-watch a movie together, much to Kevin’s delight because he’s totally been shipping them the entire book. Evie helps distract Kevin and any potential wolfing out by kissing his face off. Unfortunately, they still have Stalker Rom to deal with, but luckily, Zoe has an idea.
Two months later…
Stalker Rom has settled in nicely in Evie’s old basement playroom/cage. He enjoys sketching, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and not being a lone orphan wolf who kills people. Kevin has moved in as well but into Kate’s old room. Kate and Dr. Wilder are fascinated by his weird sorta werewolf sorta vampire blood. Kevin and Evie are seeing each other, as are Kate and Zoe, who are so cute together as predicted. They regularly catch up with Felix, who stayed in Brightside, through video calls. In fact, it’s Friday Pie Day and time for their chat. Felix suggests a Family Day long weekend trip to check out these mysterious murders, animal attacks, and missing brains in Summerville. Road trip! Road trip! Road trip!