A/N: Final chapter here, and then the epilogue. Sorry it took so long - I actually meant to post this earlier, but I always have a little trouble with endings (I probably just don't want to see my first big fanfiction end, haha). And I'm sure this chapter could use some more editing and whatnot, but I really didn't want to put the update off any longer. -CCM

Chapter 26: The Truth

Once her mind managed to clear up a bit, Claire's first thought was, It wasn't me.

She had been so sure that she was the one meant to solve the mystery of Mineral Town in the end, that only she could truly get to the bottom of it. Wasn't that why she moved to Mineral Town in the first place, drawn by her destiny?

She encountered the monster herself, she saw and suffered the emotional aftermath of not one but three different attacks (four, if you counted Elli); she took it upon herself to investigate when nobody else would, questioning Cliff, interviewing Gotz, observing everyone in town, learning about the curse from Mary and her strange book. She wondered and worried nearly all summer long.

And now, it seemed that the entire mystery was being solved on its own, right before her very eyes. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, what insanity was playing out before her. It was as though someone had taken what she thought she knew and flipped it around completely, leaving everyone flailing around in the dirt, fighting to keep their grip on reality. That's what it felt like in her mind, at least.

Though maybe it wasn't so far-fetched after all.

"...Lillia?"

Zack's deep voice - normally so strong, but now wavering - cut through the shocked silence as he lifted one of his legs to take a step forward, but then set it back down uncertainly.

Claire had always figured the man had something of a crush on the woman who now lay unmoving on the street in a pool of her own blood, and cringed at the pain reflected in his eyes as he now looked at Lillia like his heart had been torn in two, his arms shaking as they still held Elli. All thoughts of getting the girl to the clinic as quickly as possible had been momentarily forgotten.

And then, to their surprise, the pink haired woman began to stir, and Popuri let out an audible gasp as she fell back. Claire briefly noticed that Cliff was still holding her hand as his fingers brushed against hers reassuringly, and behind her, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gotz's hand fall to his belt suspiciously.

Karen, meanwhile, stood stock-still, her face completely blank but for raised eyebrows, whereas Ann's expression was one of pure shock.

Rick was still muttering semi-coherently, and he had fallen to his knees beside this woman who had just transformed from a bloodthirsty wolf monster – his mother, Claire reminded herself, though it still didn't fit, none of this made any sense – and hesitantly held a hand out toward her, as though he were afraid to touch her.

"Mom? I-I'm so sorry… This is all my fault, I-I messed everything up…" She turned toward the sound of her son's voice, her eyes fluttering open, and Rick flinched backward as he caught a not-so-pretty glimpse of her injury in the moonlight, the injury that he himself had caused.

"It's not your fault, Rick…" Claire whispered, stepping forward tentatively, though she doubted her words as soon as they left her mouth, and bit her tongue before she could say anything else – how did she know this wasn't his fault? She didn't know anything anymore… But her words were ignored.

"Rick?"

Lillia's voice was as hoarse as though she hadn't used it in a century, but most surprising was the fact that she didn't look particularly angry, or scared, though she gritted her teeth in pain. No, she just looked completely, undeniably sad.

She coughed feebly as the blood bubbled against her chest. Claire had no clue where Rick's silver knife had hit, as the puncture wound couldn't be seen through all the blood. He couldn't have hit something as vital as the heart, but it still didn't look good.

Popuri still looked too terrified to move, much less approach her mother, and Claire didn't think she had ever seen Kai look so disheveled without being purposely so. Zack looked as though he wanted nothing more than to run to Lillia, but instead he didn't move, carefully cradling Elli in his burly arms.

Gotz must have noticed the look of desperation in Zack's eyes, too, as he turned to the other man and gravely took Elli into his own arms. "I'll take her… I'll bring her to the clinic, we need to get the doctor out here."

He left the square quickly with Elli in hand, glancing back once at the scene behind him.

"I'm so sorry, I-I messed it all up… This was never supposed to happen, it wasn't supposed to turn out this way... You'll be okay, though, we can bring you to the clinic along with – along with Elli…" Rick stumbled over his barely legible words. He tore off his dirtied apron and bunched it up, pressing it to his mother's wound as gently as possible, with his hands shaking so violently.

"Rick…" Lillia said his name again as sternly as she could muster, and Popuri took a hesitant step forward, her expression still horrified. "Popuri…"

"Don't say anything," Rick whispered, and Claire saw that his eyes were watering over, tears threatening to fall, but the dam hadn't burst yet. "Please… it will only hurt you more. W-We need to get you to the doctor, he… he can fix you. You'll be fine."

Was he trying to convince Lillia of that, or himself?

Lillia gazed at her son, her eyes betraying nothing but that knowing sadness. "Rick, you of all people… must know it is too late."

Popuri clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling what sounded like a sob as Kai pulled her closer to him, while Karen continued to stand still and emotionless as a statue as she looked down at the scene.

"What... What is going on here?" Ann whispered, though all could hear her in the silence. It was the one question running through all their minds, though they had been in too much shock to say it out loud.

Rick opened his mouth to respond without looking up, but his mother interrupted him.

"I-I can explain everything."

Lillia turned her head ever so slightly. "I need… to tell my story. Now. The truth."

Her eyes met Rick's, and he nodded.

oOoOo

"I was... cursed," she began, and everyone – Rick, Popuri, Kai, Zack, Karen, Ann, Cliff, and Claire – took a subconscious step forward to hear her better.

"I was eighteen when it happened. I had lived in Mineral Town all my life, and never realized the danger… not until it was too late." As she continued to speak, her whispered voice grew slightly stronger, though the blood continued flowing out from her wound, and her skin paled in the moonlight until it looked nearly translucent.

Claire fleetingly wondered whether Lillia would last long enough to tell them everything they wanted to know.

"I lived at the Poultry Farm with my parents, and worked hard tending to the chickens every day, feeding them, collecting their eggs… Just as Rick and Popuri do now. I had been out in the forest late at night, taking a bath at the hot spring in the Harvest Goddess's clearing. I always went out at night, after a day of tending to the chickens on the farm, to rest and wash up in the steamy, soothing waters of the spring…"

Lillia stiffly shook her head. "But I didn't realize that that night would be different. I saw the full moon in the night sky, but I never would have guessed what was about to happen next…"

Popuri involuntarily jerked her head as she gazed down at her mother, inching closer with shocked horror in her eyes, Kai right beside her. Zack tentatively joined them on the pavement, while Claire, Cliff, Ann, and Karen hung back in discomfort.

"It was the night of the blood moon," Lillia whispered. "The total lunar eclipse."

The phrase nudged a memory to the forefront of Claire's brain, and she gasped in sudden understanding. She squeezed Cliff's hand, grasped in her own.

"Mary…" she whispered. "Mary mentioned the blood moon. She said-"

She scrunched her eyes in thought, forcing herself to remember. It all seemed so long ago; everything seemed like it had happened to somebody else, in a different lifetime, and she felt as though she had to wade through a deep fog in her mind.

"…And then, under the blood moon – that is, the total lunar eclipse… that's when the curse is passed on."

Repeating what the librarian had said, Claire watched as Lillia nodded in agreement, her breathing steadily growing shakier despite her strengthening voice as she continued her story.

"On my way through the forest, after leaving the hot spring, I was attacked. I heard the snarling and growling, and I got scared and began to run… but they chased after me. They were stronger than me, faster than me. They quickly overpowered me, jumped at me and lashed out with their piercing claws…" She shuddered in horror at the memory, and Zack reached forward to grab her hand without a second thought.

"I felt the teeth pierce through my arm, and I screamed. I didn't know how many of them there were, I could barely see them through the darkness, but I could see their glistening talons, feel their scratchy fur and hot breath against my face… I could see their eyes, blood red, staring me down."

She sighed, though it ended in a cough. "I don't know how I managed to get away… I suppose the Goddess must have pitied me, protected me just enough to help me escape. I ran as fast as I could, despite the pain in my arm and my head, and when I left the forest they didn't follow me…"

Her expression darkened. "But perhaps the Goddess should have just left me in the forest to die. Then maybe none of this would have happened."

"Wh-what were they?" Popuri whimpered. But by now, they all knew the answer.

"Wolves. Werewolves." Lillia lowered her eyes. "…And when I was bit, I became a werewolf, too."

"The werewolves in the forest were different from me," she quickly explained. "Smaller, more wolf-like, their eyes red instead of golden like mine when I transformed. I don't even know if they could be considered werewolves, as they didn't have any human traits, and they never left the cover of the woods. They lived in the caves, deep within the earth, far from the surface world. But they were cursed creatures, and that night I was attacked, they roamed the forest as vicious, bloodthirsty monsters."

"And from then on, so would I."

She shook her head regretfully. "I don't know why it had to be me… It could have been anyone. I suppose I was just unlucky. But the cursed wolves are still out there to this day, somewhere… Though I now know that the full extent of their curse could only be transmitted to a human host on the total lunar eclipse, not just any full moon."

Everyone listening was too shocked to even dare question a word that came out of Lillia's mouth. Claire's mind darted back to an image of the ancient book found in Mary's library – she had a strong feeling that she now knew exactly what it said. And Lillia had discovered the book, too.

Lillia paused in thought for a brief moment. "I'm sure Gotz might know more about the creatures, though he's always had the common sense to stay indoors when he heard the howling. They don't go out beyond the forest, as though they're attached to it."

"When I got back home, my head was pounding, and I could feel the blood streaming down my arms, hot and sticky. I felt dizzy, I didn't want to look… I screamed for my parents, and they came running… They panicked when they saw what had happened to me, and called the doctor had a different doctor back then, you know, an older man. I told him that I had been attacked by wolves in the forest… he looked confused, but he didn't question it as he treated my wounds."

Shaking, she pushed back her sleeve to reveal the scars on her arm, long, jagged gashes that were now white, almost blending into her pale skin. "I still have the marks to this day."

The scars were similar to Ann's, though slightly smaller and much more numerous. Claire shuddered as she imagined those same scars that must be engraved all over Lillia's body.

The pink haired woman shivered. "After the attack, I started to get sick… My whole body felt so weak, I was always tired but had trouble sleeping, and so the doctor prescribed me with medication to strengthen me and help me sleep better at night… It didn't work. I thought my wounds had become infected, though they were healing all right… But in reality, it was much, much worse."

"By the time the full moon came around again, I could barely leave my bed. But that night, I transformed for the first time..." She stiffened, as though the memory pained her just as much as the wound in her chest. "I grew hair, all over my body, and claws, and fangs, and a tail… The pain was unbearable, and I collapsed on the ground in a pool of my own vomit and passed out."

"When I came to, I felt wide awake, stronger than I ever had in my life, but… I also had a ravenous appetite for… for blood, and meat. I was hungry, so hungry."

"My parents came in my room to see what all the noise was, and screamed when they saw what I had become. They locked themselves up in their room as I roamed the house, struggling against my desire to kill… I broke the door down and escaped into the night, and appeased my hunger by killing animals out in the forest. But I was scared… and so were my parents. When dawn came, I transformed in the forest, went through the same pain… And when I came back home, it was empty."

Lillia's eyes began to water, and she struggled to wipe the tears away. "My parents left me then, without a trace. They didn't want a monster for a daughter. And the next night was the same nightmare… I didn't transform just one day out of the month, but every night for nearly a week. The transformations became stronger as they got closer to the full moon, then faded out."

"Without the help of my parents, the Poultry Farm went downhill… I couldn't manage it all on my own, but I didn't want to ask for help from any of the townsfolk, either… After realizing what I was, I didn't want anyone to get too close, so I kept my distance for the most part. I only went out to go to church occasionally, or to buy my food at the supermarket, and get my medicine from the clinic…"

"Everyone felt sorry for me. 'That poor girl, sickly girl, all on her own,' they said. But it was worse than they could have ever imagined. Every full moon, I went through the same pain of transforming, the same unquenchable desire to kill… Every time, I tried to stay within the confines of the forest, killing only animals for my meals, fighting the urge to attack other humans… It was a cycle, every month… Gradually becoming weaker until the week of the full moon, when I would transform, and then feeling strong and healthy again until it all went back downhill…"

She closed her eyes, turning to speak to her children specifically. "Two years later, on a warm summer evening, I met your father at the Inn. Rod. He paid for my dinner that night. He could tell I was sick… He could see the tiredness in my eyes, the weakness of my movements. He told me to take care of myself before he left… And that's when I realized that I loved him, as silly as that sounds."

Lillia opened her eyes again. "But I couldn't love him, and he couldn't love me. Who could love a monster such as myself?"

"But then he surprised me. He stayed at the Inn all summer, much longer than anyone had expected him to… And he visited me every day, brought me lunch, helped me out with work on the farm… He knew I was too weak to take care of it all on my own."

The ghost of a smile crossed her face. "We fell in love, but I never told him what I was… Somehow, I managed to hide it from him, from everyone. I couldn't tell him, I didn't want him to leave me out of fear…"

"But once I got pregnant, I decided could hide the truth no longer. I told him what happened to me each month, why I was so sick all the time… but he didn't leave me. Instead, he vowed to help me, and proposed to me. We were married at the church the next day."

"Months later, we had a baby boy, Rick, and after Rod and I were married a few years we had another child, a girl named Popuri. But as they aged, I became fearful for their safety… They were normal humans like Rod, as far as I could tell, and they too were susceptible to my attacks…"

Her face paled. "Because I had made mistakes before, in the past. I tried not to attack humans, but in my wolf form, I had no sense of right and wrong, no conscience… I attacked Aja and Joanna, I killed Gotz's wife and daughter… And after I had killed Doug's wife, Ann's mother, I decided enough was enough… I didn't want to hurt my own children, or my husband, the only man who could ever love a monster like me."

At this revelation, most of the witnesses in the square gasped, and Lillia nodded solemnly.

"I tried to k-kill myself the next day, the guilt was so overpowering, but Rod stopped me. He told me he had a plan… He asked Rick, who was a young boy at the time, to take care of me, and left to find a rare flower that was supposed to cure me… wolfsbane. He said it didn't grow around these parts, only somewhere far away… He left, and I never saw him again. At first, he wrote letters to the children and me, but eventually, the letters came less and less frequently, until the last one..."

Zack... Claire never thought that anyone could possibly look so distraught. "Lillia... Rod - he isn't the only man who ever loved you..."

At Zack's words, Lillia merely averted her eyes from his dejected gaze, a single tear glistening on her cheek.

"The doctors didn't know what was wrong with me; they figured I had some rare, incurable disease, which is partially true, I suppose." She managed a laugh, though it sounded harsh, bitter. "I'm sure Doctor Trent had never encountered a case of lycanthropy before. Either way, it frustrated them. And the entire town prayed for me to get better… I feel like a traitor."

"...Since Rod left, Rick has been my protector." Rick's eyes widened as Lillia revealed their shared secret, but his mother didn't stop; in fact, her words started to pour out of her mouth even faster. "He discovered me in the middle of a transformation on accident one night, but instead of giving me away, he vowed to help me..."

"Together, we kept my secret from the rest of the town, even somehow managed to keep it a secret from Popuri, my poor, innocent daughter. She heard my howling at night, and was too scared to leave the house at night for fear of wolves… She never realized it was her own mother. And Rick fed her half-lies about the dangerous wolves roaming the town at night, to keep her out of harm's way."

Popuri sat frozen in horrified shock at the reveal, her mouth an almost comical "o" of surprise, while Kai's dark eyes narrowed in anger and disbelief. Rick refused to look at them, reluctant to meet anyone's eyes, though he could feel Karen's unyielding gaze burning at the back of his head. Ann simply stared at them, standing nearby with her arms hanging limply at her sides, her eyes as wide as the moon above. And Zack...

The farmer could understand both sides, though – yes, Lillia had kept a dangerous secret from the entire town, lied to them for years on end; she had even killed her own neighbors in her murderous form... But what else was she to do? Reveal her secret, and let them drive her out of Mineral Town, her one and only home, or worse...?

Lillia struggled to speak, as her voice had grown raspier, more difficult to hear.

"The other villagers heard the noises too, and the mayor warned everyone to stay inside at night. They all knew something was up, after what I'd done, even if they didn't know exactly what, or who, the culprit was. Rick cared for me, locked me up in a spare henhouse when I transformed and fed me, but sometimes, more often than I'd like, I still managed to escape. I killed off livestock when I could, like Barley's cows, and the chickens that Popuri had left unguarded one night, and Claire's cow at the Cow Festival… And as you now know, I had done worse than that, so much worse..."

Popuri was crying silently, her hands grasping at Kai's shirt, though she couldn't look away from her mother. "Why... Why did you hide this from me? Your daughter?"

Lillia glanced at the girl, the spitting image of herself, and lowered her eyes in shame. "I wanted to protect you... I didn't want you to know, didn't want you to hate me. You were still so innocent, and I loved you so much. I'm so, so sorry."

She sighed heavily, as though it took a lot of effort just to breathe. "I attacked Ann, too..." she admitted, as tears had begun to stream silently down her face. "Rick felt so guilty, but it wasn't his fault. It was mine, all mine. I'm so sorry. I never meant to harm anyone."

"And then tonight…"

Lillia closed her eyes. "Rod… I loved him, but… he isn't coming back. And Zack... I'm sorry it had to end this way. It is too late… My curse has ended… another way."

"There's still time…" Rick started, but he didn't manage to finish that thought.

"No." His mother cut him off abruptly. "The silver in your knife… As you know, in my condition, that metal acts as a deadly poison when exposed to my blood. And there is no way to stop the spread, when I feel it coursing through my veins, beginning to burn from head to toe…"

Her facial expression softened. "But it is not your fault. Never think that, my son. This was meant to happen one day, Rick."

Before anyone could respond, a male voice called out to them, and they looked up to see Doctor Trent and Mayor Thomas enter the square with Gotz just behind them. The mayor's face paled in the moonlight at the sight of Lillia stained in blood on the cobblestones, and the doctor swiftly stepped forward while the other two men hung back.

"What happened here?"

Trent crouched down beside the pink-haired woman, barely brushing against Rick and Popuri, and raised a hand to lift the blood soaked apron acting as a makeshift bandage, intent on examining Lillia's bloodied chest injury. But she weakly raised her own hand to stop him.

"It's too late." She turned to face her children one last time, her eyes shining with tears, though she otherwise looked at peace now. As though all other emotions had been released into the night once the truth was revealed, melting away along with her years of built up stress over her lycanthropy, all her secrets and lies, to be replaced by a sense of relief at not having to hide anymore.

"Rick, Popuri… Please forgive me. I love you. So, so much."

Lilla let out one final shuddering breath, her eyes flickered shut, and then she lay still. Zack gasped, Popuri released a sob, and Rick grabbed his mother by the arm, but it was too late.

Doctor Trent quickly reached forward again, his initially surprised expression falling away to reveal one of grim realization.

"...She's gone."

Rick and Popuri each lifted their heads at the doctor's final words as he checked Lillia's pulse with finality, their eyes glistening with tears, while Zack hesitantly put a gentle hand to the woman's face.

Kai stepped forward and flung his arms over Popuri's shoulders comfortingly as she sobbed into her hands, but Rick was in too much despair to so much as even frown at the tanned young man he used to hate so much. "I-I forgive you... Mom," Popuri wept.

Karen stepped up behind Rick, a flash of bitter anger burning in her eyes, but it fizzled away as she laid a tentative hand to his shoulder. "I-I never knew…" she whispered, unable to finish her thought.

"...She must be in a better place now, at least," Ann added hesitantly in the background, looking up to the sky so that the others couldn't see the tears billowing in her eyes, one hand subconsciously rested against her abdomen where the scars were hidden beneath her shirt. Gotz and Mayor Thomas merely stood in shock; the latter hadn't even noticed that his top hat had fallen off his head when he jerked back in surprise.

Claire felt a lone tear roll down her cheek, and she turned and leaned her head into Cliff's shoulder, pleading with herself not to cry.

The mystery was solved, but it didn't feel like the victory they had all expected.

"We are gathered here today to remember the life of one of our own. A wife, a mother, a neighbor, and a friend."

Pastor Carter stood before the altar at the head of the church, the ethereal stained-glass likeness of the Harvest Goddess emblazoned on the wall behind him, dressed in a flowing white gown, her eyes like emeralds and her long green hair braided and adorned with flowers. It was as though the goddess herself was looking in on the funeral proceedings.

As if in a daze, Claire vaguely remembered the time she came into the church to listen to one of Carter's sermons, and even earlier than that, when the entire town held a welcoming party for her in that very same room. Cliff had warned her that there was something strange about the town.

It all felt so long ago.

"Lillia, as we know, suffered greatly in her life; she was a sickly woman, and her loving husband left us to find her a cure and never returned, leaving her alone to care for the entire farm and their two children, Rick and Popuri. But she was never truly alone in Mineral Town; nobody is. She left behind so many who loved her."

Carter closed his eyes briefly with a sigh, and when he opened them again, they still held a look of utter disbelief. A look that nearly everyone in Mineral Town shared in the days following the reveal; it took so long for all the villagers to be fully convinced of the truth, but Claire and the other witnesses had done it in the end.

"But for all those years, we did not fully understand the extent to which she truly struggled. She struggled to overcome her curse, to fight against the odds, to hurt others as little as possible in the hopes that the Harvest Goddess may eventually forgive her. That we may forgive her."

Lillia had already been buried, her stone grave placed in the small yard just off to the side of the church, where the grass was vibrant and soft and shaded by the leafy branches of a large oak tree. For now, the green was disrupted by the mound of deep brown overturned earth, but that would soon be replaced by a fresh growth of new grass.

Zack was the one who dug the hole. Only Rick and Popuri were there to help him prepare the burial, with Carter's permission.

"This, however, was not the fault of Lillia. We know that she did nothing to warrant such a terrible curse to be placed upon her, and she did her best to keep the curse at bay, even if her attempts had been unsuccessful. She lived in fear of herself, in despair at what she had done. And we can still find it in our hearts to forgive her."

Speaking of Rick and Popuri, they were sitting at the front row of pews in the church, separated from the rest; only Zack and Kai sat in the row beside them, the latter of whom had his hand rested comfortingly on top of Popuri's own. Claire couldn't see their faces from where she sat in the back row with Cliff, Ann, and Doug, and she was rather relieved at that.

Karen sat in the row directly behind the siblings with her parents, Claire noticed, just about as close to Rick as she could get without touching or being seen by him.

"And as we honor her memory, let us also honor and remember the memories of all others who had suffered and perished during the extent of this terrible, unfortunate ordeal. As we know, it negatively affected not only Lillia, but us all. May we now be blessed by the Harvest Goddess with peace at long last."

The only sounds in the church were the melodious words of Carter's speech, and the occasional muffled sob, nearly drowned out by the pastor's voice. Even Manna was quiet, for once, not even turning to whisper something or other to Duke or Anna seated on either side of her.

In the row opposite, Doctor Trent and Elli exchanged a meaningful glance, the latter's arm wrapped tightly in bandages, and a single tear trailed down Gotz's face. Down the row from Claire, Doug lovingly brushed a hand through his daughter Ann's hair, and in front of them, Mary had taken off her glasses and wiped them on her skirt. Gray sat beside her, but his expression was shadowed by the brim of his cap.

"We pray for our fallen friends, neighbors, and family members, as well as for our beloved animals that were lost."

Claire's mind drifted briefly to the memory of her very first cow, Clementine, and Cliff gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

"We pray for Gotz, we pray for Doug and Ann, we pray for Aja, Joanna, Elli... And we pray for Rick, Popuri, and Lillia. May the Harvest Goddess cleanse her spirit of curse and sin and forgive her, just as we shall try to do ourselves. The Goddess will take care of them all, just as she watches over us now."

Carter smiled solemnly at the crowd gathered before him; this may have been the first time the entire town had ever been brought together inside the church, and while it was in wake of tragedy, the pastor appreciated their newly-strengthened unity all the same.

"Thank you. Together, we can move forward from this dark experience into the light."

A/N: Another Fun Fact: In the chapter where Claire meets Lillia in person for the first time, before they go to the Beach Day festival, I mention Lillia holding an envelope – containing a letter – in her hands and hiding it away in her pocket when Claire enters the house, following a heated conversation Claire barely overhears while waiting outside on the porch. (Go ahead and check back in Chapter 10 if you don't remember it, as I added it in after originally posting that chapter.) That letter was the last letter the family ever received from Rod. However, I didn't really get the chance to fit this exact information within the story itself, so I just thought I'd mention it here as a little bonus. Maybe I'll find a way to fit it in later.

As I most likely won't be publishing the alternate ending (it's just much too similar to this one, I ended up kind of mixing the two), just the Epilogue after this! And then it's all done! I hope this ending wasn't too overly dramatic or depressing or spiritual or anything else, haha; it was the longest chapter yet. This story was a pleasure to write, and even more of a pleasure to finally finish. Thank you so much to anyone reading the whole way through, you're all awesome!

-CCM