Evan is screaming again. He expects to look down and see some ungodly beast hiding in the grass, chomping his feet to bits. He can't feel anything, or is that just the numbness setting it already? The kind Evan imagined one would experience upon losing your limbs to a ravenous monster?

"Gotcha." Lucy snickers.

"Huh?" Evan responds.

His eyes gaze downwards. There's nothing there. Not a monster in sight. His shoes, a pair of red converse sneakers, are still completely intact save for some cemetery dirt that has now tracked on them.

"What the hell?" Evan asks Lucy. She's currently laughing like mad.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. I told you I wanted to scare you, didn't I?"

Evan doesn't know how to respond. Part of him's angry at Lucy. What the hell is wrong with her? Does she think scaring him like that is funny? Apparently so, given her giggling. It's hardly worth even a chuckle, he thinks. Another part of Evan is angry at himself for falling for her stupid joke. It wasn't even believable in the first place. But no, he believed it somehow. He had screamed and now probably looked like a total idiot in front of Lucy, who was no doubt thinking of ways to now get out of their date.

"Well you got me." Evan admits. "Do you do that to everyone or just the people you like?"

"A bit of both, really. I try to scare all of my first dates."

Sheesh, Evan thinks to himself. Those poor dates. Poor him. When he first saw her just hours earlier in the classroom, he could have never expected Lucy was like this.

"Do you have a lot of those?" Evan inquires. Maybe it's a bad question to ask, but he is curious. Lucy doesn't seem too bothered though.

"As the heiress of the Dark family fortune, I have had many suitors, yes. All kinds of monsters have tried to earn the hand of the Dark Princess.. but none have succeeded." Lucy says.

Dark Princess? Evan questions the phrase. It's more than a little vain, but that's not what bothers him most.

"Monsters?" Evan asks. Lucy had said the word so casually. It has to mean something.

"That's what I call them. Unpleasant goblins and gargoyles who frankly give me a headache just thinking about them." Lucy explains.

"Oh," Evan replies. It's not the answer he was hoping for. "Are you sure you didn't scare them off?" He asks in a teasing way.

"Oh I'm sure some I did" Lucy laughs. "But it's mostly my father doing the scaring. If you want to talk about monsters, you should meet him. Anybody who didn't meet his approval.. Well, maybe the less said the better. Don't let that scare you too much, Evan. I'm sure he'll love you. Unless you happen to… disappoint him." Lucy says, a smirk creeping across her face.

He doesn't like how she says that last part, like she knows something he doesn't. And what exactly had happened to those who didn't meet approval? They were probably killed and eaten, Evan thinks with a chill. Will the same thing happen to him, if he does indeed happen to disappoint Larry Dark, whatever the hell that may mean? He pushes the grotesque question out of his head.

"You sure love monsters, don't you?" Evan asks.

Her dark eyes flash for just a minute. "Of course. Who doesn't love a good monster story? I used to get in trouble for telling them all the time. That's all I talked about. Scared the hell out of my brother, Randy with my tales. In fact, I used to prank him with that one I just got you with." Lucy says.

Oh great, Evan thinks. He just fell for a joke meant for a toddler.

"Monsters are kind of kid stuff, aren't they?" Evan asks.

He expects Lucy to be offended, instead she looks amused, as if Evan had just told a funny joke.

"You're never too old for monsters, Evan. Now follow me, I promised to show you around the cemetery." Lucy says.

She starts to walk and Evan follows closely behind. He finds himself having to weave awkwardly between row after row of crooked white gravestones, some larger than others. Evan can't believe just how many there are. If Lucy weren't with him, he'd definitely get lost. Now that would be a nightmare. There's plenty of strange monuments too, likely for people of prominence, Evan thinks. Past the gate, there aren't as many trees, just shrubbery, but the whole cemetery is still cloaked in deep shadow.

"Did you know there are more dead people in Dark Falls than living?" Lucy asks, breaking the silence between the two.

"I'm not surprised." Evan tells her.

And what about undead? Evan wants to ask. His whole body shudders. He imagines the bodies in their crypts could come bursting out of the ground any second now like an army of hungry Graveyard Ghouls. That was a movie Andy showed him once. Evan had nightmares for weeks after that. Now those memories are flooding back. The strange, faint noises all around him do little to help, like someone murmuring far away, yet at the same time right next to him.

"They can't hurt you," Lucy assures him, as if she's reading all of his frightened thoughts.

"No, of course not." Evan replies, but of course he knows otherwise. Had he not been able to escape, those zombies no doubt would have torn him to bloody pieces.

"You said something about a gas leak?" Evan asks, remembering her brief mention in the hallway.

Lucy nods. "It's a sad story. Dark Falls wasn't always this.. Well, depressing. It was a lively town. A good place for families, but something went wrong. You see, most people made their living in the old Plastic Factory, but it was horribly unsafe, and no one really cared to do anything to fix that. The workers expressed concern that all of the violations could lead to disaster, but those warnings went unheard. Nobody really knows what happened, but there was a leak from that factory. It contaminated everything in its path. Not a single person survived. It took decades to clean up that mess and even longer before anyone wanted anything to do with the town of Dark Falls again." She explains. Her voice is grim.

For a story like this, it has to be, Evan supposes. It lines up with what Andy said about a factory accident, but Lucy's clearly skipping some important details on the aftermath.

"Jesus." Evan says. "And all of those people are buried here now?"

Well, save for the ones he saw walking on the street? Evan adds that part in his head. Why the hell would anyone want to re-open this place, anyway? Any normal person would say no way. Not after such a tragedy. But so many people profit off of tragedy, don't they? Too many. And it all could have been prevented had someone only listened and cared for others instead of themselves. Whoever ran that plastic factory probably survived without a care in the world for the townsfolk they killed. It was horrible. Wrong. Just what kind of man is Larry Dark? That's a question Evan clings onto. What could he possibly gain from Dark Falls, a town that should have just stayed dead, but somehow didn't?

"They take up a lot of it, yes, but some have been buried here long before the accident." Lucy replies. "Look at this. I don't like to stay too long in this section, but you see these low gravestones here? They're for some of the children who died."

Lucy points and Evan sees exactly what she's talking about. He scans a few of the names. They're a little faded from age, but still readable. KAREN SOMERSET 1960-1972. GEORGE CARPENTER 1975-1988. RAY THURSTON 1977-1988.

"Tragic, isn't it? They had so much life ahead of them." Lucy asks.

"Yeah." Evan replies softly, almost a whisper of sadness.

It's a lot for him to take in. Those kids were no older than Evan was that summer he stayed with Aunt Kathryn. Had things not worked, had the Monster Blood consumed him too, he would have died too, buried under a headstone just like the ones in front of them. It was an idea he thought off too often. Now it all feels a little too real.

Lucy seems to acknowledge his discomfort. "Come on. Maybe we should get out of here." she says, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Evan's about to agree before he notices something odd on the outskirts of the cemetery. It appeared to be some kind of amphitheater. A circular row of bench seats descend down, digging deep into the earth. Evan's never seen anything quite like it. Beside it, there's a large fallen tree. A real gnarled-up looking one with limbs like long, slender fingers. They've started retreating into the soil. Evan wonders if a storm knocked it down, or if it fell down naturally. Not that it matters very much. It's another creepy addition to an already very creepy cemetery.

"Hey, what's that?" Evan asks Lucy, gesturing towards the structure.

She looks hesitant to tell him. "A meeting place I think. Like a town hall. Nobody uses it anymore though."

"Weird." Evan replies.

Who builds a meeting hall in a graveyard? Then he answers his own question. Zombies. Of course. Though that raises another question- what do the undead have to discuss? Whose brains to eat?

"I wouldn't get too close. That area of ground is not safe. You could fall right through." Lucy tells him.

Evan can tell she's lying, but he has little time for interrogation as a distant shadowy figure staggers out from behind the amphitheater. It's hard to make out all the details, but Evan can certainly smell him. It reeks of death, just like the stranger from earlier. Then come the eerie groaning noises. It takes a second before Evan notices it's not just coming from one person, but multiple, as two more figures come into view. More of the undead, he can see that plainly, and he knows Lucy can too. Evan takes one step forward before she pulls him back.

"Evan, don't." Lucy says. Her eyes are full of dire warning.

"This isn't another one of your pranks, is it, Lucy?" Evan asks, though he knows the truth already.

She shakes her head. "No. I'm not pranking you this time. This is where they come to gather. They stay in the shadows and hate the light."

"They?" Evan asks.

"The undead." Lucy says. Matter-of-factly. "This cemetery belongs to them."

Evan wants to respond in shock, but nothing comes out. He wonders if the silence gives him away.

"As long as you're close to me, they won't harm us." Lucy explains. She doesn't sound as confident as she probably intends to.

It strikes Evan as strange though. Is Lucy somehow a repellant for zombies? How convenient for her, and very fortunate for Evan.

"What makes you so sure?" He asks.

"I just know." Lucy replies. The expression on her face seems agitated now, like she's silently telling Evan they NEED to get out of here. And quickly.

"I've got to get a picture of this." Evan says.

He pulls his cell-phone out of his pocket. Evan's sure why he does it, but his brain justifies it as something necessary to collect evidence. To show Andy what's going on here. Maybe Ricky will appreciate it too.

"Evan, don't!" Lucy cries out again, but it's too late.

With a flash of light, Evan's phone camera shutters, and the undead figures in the distance notice almost instantly and don't appreciate it. Good, Evan thinks. Come and get me. Maybe it's the adrenaline talking right now. Maybe it's just anger. This is what Evan has been training for, isn't it? A head-on battle with monsters, rather than him just running away? But on the outside, though Evan is shaking. The Dark Falls zombies seem to hear his innermost thoughts and come charging hungrily to fulfill his wish.

"Shit." Evan says. It's all he can say at the moment. It accurately sums up he and Lucy's current situation.

"Run!" Lucy cries. It looks like she wants to go off on Evan. "I told you they hate light!"

She starts to run, and Evan doesn't argue with that decision.

"I thought you said being near you would keep us safe!" Evan says mid-run.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you didn't just piss them off!" Lucy replies.

She's a lot faster than him, but still, Evan's legs are quick. All he has to do is avoid tripping over any of the tombstones, which now seem to cover the ground like some strange labyrinth. Easier said than done. It's not a safe place to run, even without the undead chasing close behind. Evan tries to listen. Sure enough, they're saying, but it's directed at Lucy, not at him.

"LUCY DARK!" A deep voice bellows. "We know it's you! We want to talk to your father!"

Evan wonders if he hears this correctly. What do they want with Larry Dark? He's running too fast now to get a good look at her reaction. Either way, Lucy doesn't respond.

"Yeees, come on, Lucy! Help us!" another voice cries out.

"Come on!" She urges. The front gate is now in view, but still not close enough for them to be safe.

Then all of a sudden, Evan's life flashes before his eyes as he's sent flying over a gravestone he hadn't even noticed and he's sent hurtling towards the ground with enough force it sends a wave of pain through his system. Lucy doesn't seem to notice until he screams.

"Lucy! Help!" Evan yells, causing her to turn.

Is his leg broken? Evan wonders. No. He can still move it, but it still hurts like nothing else. One of the undead- a woman with stringy blonde hair stands over him. Just like the man he bumped into earlier, her gray eyes look back at him with a lifeless stare. There's a dried dark liquid around her lips, like she'd just eaten something but hasn't bothered to clean herself up yet.

"Back off him!" Lucy shouts at the woman. She isn't listening.

"Tell your father we aren't listening anymore!" She rasps in an unimaginably horrible voice. Like nails on a chalkboard.

She crouches down in front of Evan, who's still struggling to get up, both out of fear and out of the pain that he's still experiencing.

"Ah. So you're the one he's looking for." The undead woman says. "I'd recognize that hair anywhere."

"Get the hell away from me!" Evan snaps.

What is she talking about? Who's looking for him? It's too much to think about at once. He needs to escape.

The woman grabs his arm, which feels strangely limp against the cold tombstone he's now backed up against, and inspects it like a piece of meat. Evan cries out in shock and horror as the woman sinks her teeth into his flash. Maybe fangs would be a better word, because it's like he's been pierced by two sharp needles at once. The way the blood is instantly sucked from the open punctures makes Evan feel woozy. He thinks he hears her laugh, or maybe that's just his imagination, but whatever sound she's making Evan knows will now haunt him forever, just as much as the horrible bubbling noises of the Monster Blood.

Oh my god, he thinks, The Monster Blood. It's still in his pocket! He vowed he would never use it, but it might be his last resort, as much as he loathes that idea. When he looks over to Lucy who's still yelling at the creatures to stop, he sees that the other two figures have surrounded her and are probably looking to drain her blood as this one is doing to him. He has no choice. He pulls the plastic egg from his pocket and throws it at the woman's forehead. It surprises her, but does little to pull her fangs from his arm. That's until the plastic egg opens.

Evan's nostrils are instantly filled with a horrible smell. Like a mix of sewage and spoiled food. Then out of the egg comes the Monster Blood, that same shade of awful green as he remembers, and it latches onto the leg of the undead woman, who finally lets go to see just what the hell Evan has done to her. The Monster Blood crawls up her leg like a parasitic spider and Evan knows now it's her turn to be afraid. He's never seen the Monster Blood move so quickly, but then he realizes it's just getting larger. Large enough to completely engulf the woman like a tidal wave. She looks like fruit stuck inside green Jell-O. The gelatinous mass that is the Monster Blood doesn't even let her scream, but Evan can tell she is by the way she's trying desperately to claw her way out of the blob, the form of it jiggling eerily as she opens her mouth in pure horror. Then there's nothing left. Who knows where she goes, but the Monster Blood has consumed her.

The other undead creatures are so caught up in trying to figure out what to do, they've turned their attention away from Lucy, and so the Monster Blood turns its attention on them, treating them with no more mercy than it did the woman. Evan knows it won't hesitate to swallow him next. The Monster Blood doesn't care what it consumes, just as long as it's able to keep feeding. Using the distraction to his advantage, he gets up, still hurting like hell, and he and Lucy resume running, all the way out of the cemetery into the familiar sight of the Dark Falls street corner. Neither of them can say much of anything, but they know they've just survived something horrible. Evan doesn't even bother to turn around and look at the Monster Blood. He knows it will just keep growing, but Andy had said this was a lesser version, right? By that logic, it should disappear soon. And if it doesn't? Well, that's something Evan doesn't want to think about. He'd opened the Monster Blood deliberately and as much as he hates to say, it saved his life tonight. Still, it can't be allowed to happen again.

"Are you okay?" He finally asks Lucy.

"Yeah, I think so. Just a little shaken up. What was that stuff you used?"

"It's a long story. It's called Monster Blood." He explains. He doesn't have time to go into detail.

At this, Lucy's eyes seem to widen. Evan can tell she recognizes the name, but she doesn't say anything else about it. He and Lucy are about to turn a corner when he spots a black convertible pulling up and promptly stops. The window rolls down, revealing a suited man with thick dark hair the same shade as Lucy's. He looks ready to go to war, his face hardened and almost cruel in its expression. He has a broad chest and powerful-looking muscly arms.

"Daddy?" Lucy asks, and then it all clicks together for Evan.

He's looking at Larry Dark. The man has come to him, rather than Evan being the one to do so. It feels convenient, but Evan also feels he's walking into a trap as the man tells the two of them to get in the car. He has the deepest voice Evan has heard in a human. That is, if he is indeed human.

"Come on, it's getting late. You must be Evan." Mr. Dark says, his eyes turning to Evan. His face softens, but his eyes still carry a wild, sinister energy.

"Yes, sir." Evan says. He's left speechless in the man's presence, which feels too large to fit the the walls of his car.

"Polite to his elders. I appreciate that." Mr. Dark says, amused, but he doesn't smile.

As Lucy takes a seat next to her father, Evan is forced to the back. He sees Lucy lean over and whisper something in his ear.

"He has the Monster Blood" she says in a hushed voice, just barely audible for Evan to hear. Maybe she wants him to.

Finally, Mr. Dark smiles. It's a smile that chills Evan's very core.

"Good. Very good." he says, pleased.

Evan doesn't like it in the slightest.

Then Mr. Dark starts driving and Evan knows right away where they're going. It's what he had hoped for, but Evan couldn't have imagined this is the way he gets here, because Mr. Dark is driving right to the Dead House. Evan knows the house must be waiting for him.

Glancing down at his phone, he sees a text from Andy.

"You good?" it says, with an emoji next to it raising a confused eyebrow.

No, Andy, Evan thinks to himself. I don't know if I am okay.

But he just texts back, so as not to worry her too badly, praying it won't be the last text he ever sends.

"Yea, eventful night, but I think I'm about to go to Dead House now. See you on the other side."