School had been so far no different than any other day for Clyde McBride. Classes went on as scheduled, people moved on from Halloween and were talking about Christmas, and there had been no sign or word from Lincoln or Stella. According to Sid, that jerk Blake had attacked the two of them and Ronnie Anne, like a vampire, and somehow Lincoln's mom and sister showed up and kicked his ass before disappearing. Clyde wasn't sure how much of that he believed, but he could believe that Blake did something unlikeable.
All day long, Clyde felt concern for his unaccounted for friends. He had no idea where they were, and when he called their homes no one had any answers. Calling their cellphones hadn't been any better, they had apparently been turned off. He hadn't been able to hear anything regarding Ronnie Anne since he didn't have any numbers related to her. But what really sucked was that all day long, he felt like he was being watched.
'I've been feeling this way ever since that one-eyed woman came by. It's like she never actually left.' He thought. 'Did she really have one eye? I must have seen it wrong, I mean, it's not like she was an actual cyclops. Right?'
Gym class came and he was grateful for the distraction. When younger, Clyde had never really liked or hated gym, it had its good days and bad. But sometime after puberty, he seemingly became a major athlete overnight.
When they did the mile run, he always finished first before anyone else even got to the halfway point.
When they did dodgeball, he avoided every throw. His aim was a little better, but not perfect.
He even had the class record for bench-pressing. Frankly it got to the point where the school had actually demanded a drug test for him. You could imagine their surprise when the only thing he tested positive for was human urine.
Today in class they were doing the mile run again, but this time the coach had him stay out. Saying that Clyde's overperformance only demotivated everyone else, so this time he was in the exercise room keeping himself busy. Meaning he was alone, but he sure didn't feel alone.
Pumping some dumbbells, Clyde kept himself busy. His eyes glanced everywhere, but he made it a point to not look like he knew someone was watching him. His back was to the wall and the door into the room was in sight, there was no way for anyone or anything to sneak up on him.
"Excussse me?"
'It's time.' Clyde thought, a little surprised that his peeper would be trying the direct approach, but not unready for it. He put down the weights and waited.
A girl about his age walked into view. She had pale skin with a slightly copperish tone, like she had just gotten the bare minimum of a tan, and she wore a black hoodie pulled up over her head. Her eyes were covered with shiny red sunglasses and a green pleated skirt with knee high white socks and blue tennis shoes. Overall, she looked like someone who had every right to be in this high school.
But Clyde had a feeling she was not here for school-related business.
"Yes?" He started, trying to avoid sounding suspicious.
She looked around, clearly confirming the absence of others, before looking at him. "I jussst want to sssay, I'm sssorry."
Clyde didn't ask a follow-up, he just tensed up. She reached for her glasses and took them off, and right away a beam of light shot out. Clyde ducked and rolled, just barely avoiding the hit that hit the wall and did nothing. Not even a singe.
'What was that?' Clyde thought, on all fours and feeling the desire to fight back.
"Whoa, you're fassster than you look." The girl said, sounding impressed before looking towards him and firing another optic blast. Clyde jumped, much higher than expected, and avoiding this, landed behind one of the weight machines. She attacked again, and the machine took the hit, turning to stone but giving him the chance to go for the medicine ball and pick it up, holding it in front of him like a shield.
"What kind of Nevermore are you?" The girl asked. From under her hoodie two snake heads poked out, flicking their tongues.
'Is this a Medusa?' Clyde thought, finding it hard to believe but at the moment he couldn't focus on debunking it. He just needed to avoid being hit by her eye beams.
"I don't want to hurt you." She assured him, putting her glasses on.
"Then why are you trying to turn me to stone?" He asked, holding the ball up still.
For a moment, she hesitated, as if wondering if she should answer. But ultimately, she moved her glasses and fired another laser. This hit the medicine ball, turning it to stone like Clyde expected, but what Clyde didn't count on was that the medicine ball was already heavy and now that it was stone it was too heavy for him to hold. So he dropped it on his foot, breaking some bones. He yowled and clutched his foot in pain, and before he knew it he was turned to stone too.
"I'm sssorry. But it won't be for long." The girl said in an apologetic tone before breaking the stone covering on the exercise machine and the medicine ball, leaving stone shards on the floor but otherwise normal sports equipment. Then she picked up the petrified Clyde like he was a paper weight and carefully removed him from the exercise room and the school, without being seen.
The tour continued with Sibella showing them the rest of the campus. The cafeteria, the gymnasium, the auditorium. Phantasma told them where the music area was, and Sibella also told them where the art section could be found. Lincoln and Stella asked if they had a news room, to which they were the school did have a newspaper but not a televised show or website. Also they had to share it with the yearbook.
"And here we have the dorms." Sibella said, bringing them before two buildings separated by a courtyard. Said courtyard had a statue of what they assumed was the headless horseman and a koi pond. Except the fish in there looked more like piranha.
"Dorms?"
"Oh yes, most Nevermore live scattered around the country. The continent even. My sister and I came here from Transylvania after all. We can't all just take the bus home when school's done."
"That would be a killer commute." Phantasma joked.
'At least she doesn't ask if we get the joke every time.' Lincoln thought.
"So yes, most of us stay here. Boys to the left, girls to the right. Trespass at your own risk."
"What happens if you get caught?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"I'm not sure. There are a lot of rumors. So don't get caught."
Ronnie Anne looked uncomfortable. "We haven't decided if we're going to go here."
"Oh? Then where will you be going?" Sibella asked.
Hearing that made the trio of former humans go quiet. Where would they go? Where can they go? Could they really try and reclaim their former lives and pretend this never happened?
Phantasma looked around and found a clock. "Oh Sibella, it's about ten minutes until break."
Sibella checked and confirmed the time. "You're right. Well, Miss Grimwood won't care if we miss the rest, but we do need to get our stuff back before the next class. Can you all manage from here on?"
Rita nodded. "Yes, thank you both for your help."
"Have a good day. Hope to see you around."
The two monster girls then headed off back to the school, taking their time of course.
"So what do you kids think?" Rita asked.
"It seems a lot more… normal than I was expecting. But still very strange." Lincoln started.
"I think the fact that everything is so normal is what makes it so strange." Ronnie Anne added.
"But at least that means it will be easy to adjust to." Lucy pointed out.
Stella looked away. "I can't do this."
"Stella, I know this is a bad adjustment-" Lincoln started.
"No, you don't get it. I mean I can't do this! Not 'I shouldn't', not 'I won't', I can't!" Stella yelled, turning to face her friend.
"Why?" Lincoln asked.
"You don't understand how my family works."
"Because you don't tell me anything anymore!" Lincoln said, getting in front of his friend. For a moment she actually looked scared of him. "Dammit Stella I've been your friend ever since you came to Royal Woods! I've been there for you every step of the way no questions asked! But somewhere along the line you just stopped caring! I never stopped being your friend, but apparently you stopped being mine!"
Stella gasped. "Lincoln, that's not-"
"But you know what the worst part is?" Lincoln continued, crossing his arms and sighing in defeat. "It doesn't matter if you're not my friend, I'm still yours and that means I have to suffer with you. You want to go back and pretend nothing's changed? You want to spend the next year avoiding the sunlight and eating garbage when no one's looking? You want to risk dying next Halloween because that's better than telling your family that you need to come here? Fine, then that means I have to stay and suffer with you."
Stella's eyes widened, as did everyone else listening in. "Lincoln, you can't!" She objected, as did the others.
"Yes, I can. And I have to. I'm not the kind of person who will knowingly save myself and leave a friend to suffer on her own. I was raised better than that. I don't know what it is that you're so afraid of, but if you'd seriously rather risk dying in a year over telling them that you need something, then it must be bad. And how can I leave you behind to deal with all this on your own?"
Stella began to cry, and before the white-haired boy could say more, she pulled him into a hug, sobbing into his shoulder. Ronnie Anne admittedly felt some jealousy, but she knew this was not the time to be territorial.
A bell could be heard, and within seconds several students were seen heading off to their next class. A few were even flying.
"I'll tell you everything. You deserve to know." Stella confessed, sounding tired but also a little relieved.
"Let's not do it here." Rita advised, and everyone nodded.
In Great Lake City, Sid was rather nervous. It had been one thing to see what looked like a genuine vampire attack on her best friend and others, but since then she had no answers. Ronnie Anne had remained silent ever since Mrs Loud took her and the others away. The Santiagos and Casagrandes had not been happy about it either, having gotten nothing but a notification from Mrs Loud and reassurance that Ronnie Anne would be home healthy and fine in a day or two. But since then, nothing.
That wasn't the worst part though. While there had been no witnesses other than her, people at the party did get to talking. And teenagers love to post about what they hear. So by now, it was well known that whatever happened at the party, Sid Chang had seen it go down and she was not talking. That meant that if vampires were really real, and if they had access to social media, they would be coming for her.
'Oh Ronnie Anne, I need you to get back here and let me know that you're not some bloodsucking monster right now. I need to know that wherever Mrs Loud took you, she got you fixed up. Because then I won't have to be so afraid of what will happen if they come for me.'
At the moment Sid was in one of the restrooms in her high school, taking an excused moment to orient herself. She had been stressing to the point of queasiness, and for a bit she had to actually vomit something up. And now she was looking at herself in the mirror, splashing water in her face, trying to get the worst of her fears out of her head.
The door to the bathroom opened, and normally Sid wouldn't think anything of it. But today her nerves were getting the better of her and so she turned to face whoever came in.
In walked a boy with green hair and oddly blue-tinted skin. He wore a shirt that was black on the left and white on the right, and jeans that had several patches sewn in.
Sid was already uncomfortable, but now even moreso. "Get out! This is the girl's room!"
"I'm non-binary, I can get away with it." He, or rather they, replied, standing by the door thus ensuring that she couldn't escape. They said nothing more, and held out a hand before expelling lightning from it.
Sid couldn't dodge and the bolt hit her in the chest. It hurt, of course, and she fell to the linoleum, twitching but alive. It was like she was stunned more than anything, her body unresponsive but her mind aware of everything.
The person who zapped her picked her up and carried her on their shoulder caveman style, going down the hall. A teacher walked around a corner and saw this.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
The person responded merely by going up to the teacher and tasering them, making them collapse to the floor too. But they left the teacher there to be found by the next person who came down the hall. And soon, they got Sid outside the school and stuffed into an unmarked van.
Back in Royal Woods, Lynn Sr was at his home keeping an eyes out for his wife. He had to take the day off work and also kept his youngest kids out of school.
"Someone attacked your brother and Lucy, and I don't trust them to not try something to you when I'm at work and your mom's not here." He had told them when asked.
Of course he had tried to get his older daughters to come over for some time to help keep watch, but that hadn't worked on such short notice. Lori was now in Great Lake living with Bobby, Leni was in a designer program in New York, Luna was with her band getting a record deal established in Cleveland, Luan was in California interning at a movie studio, and Lynn Jr was in California with Luan attending college on a soccer scholarship. Lori had expressed a desire to be there for her family, but unfortunately couldn't make it until the next day.
So right now Lynn Sr was basically guarding his castle and waiting for the moment when his wife would come back. Since the last encounter, nothing had happened, but he knew that should he or any of his children set foot off the property right now, they'd be open for an unfriendly encounter.
'I just hope we're the only ones these people might be targeting.'
Off campus, they got some ice cream and ended up in a public park in Haven. It didn't look all that different than Timber Pines, except clearly this one was darker and gloomier. It was sort of the kind of place you'd expect to see in a fairy tale, where you were certain you would encounter a big bad wolf or a gingerbread house if you went in deep enough.
The small group found a table and sat down, enjoying their ice cream. Rita and Lucy got blackberry, while Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, and Stella had more unorthodox flavors.
"It bothers me how I'm already getting used to this." Ronnie Anne said, sampling her black licorice ice cream. As a human she hated it, but right now it smelled and tasted better than chocolate.
"Are we sure that Lana isn't part Nevermore?" Lincoln asked, having some anchovy ice cream.
Rita nodded. "I'm sure. I don't know where she gets it from, but she's a true Normal. But I do like to think each of my kids got a little something from me."
"Some more than others." Lucy remarked.
Stella was quiet, trying her broccoli ice cream. Of the available flavors, this one actually seemed the least gross to her, and to her surprise it tasted sweet.
'Sweet and broccoli, now there's two words I never thought I'd use in the same sentence.' She thought.
"So tell us Stella, what's wrong at your home? This is a safe space." Rita assured.
A crow's caw could be heard and then they heard what sounded like something big eating it.
"Figuratively speaking, I mean." Rita added.
Stella sighed. "Long ago, my parents fell on hard times financially. My dad was let go from his job unexpectedly, and my mom was the victim of identity fraud. We lost so much, it got to the point where if we paid our rent we'd have nothing left for the rest of the month. Then my mom did the one thing she didn't want to do, she contacted her family for help."
That got Lincoln's attention. Over the years he didn't learn much about Stella's extended family, but all of what he did learn was related to her father's side of it. Stella had always been silent in regards to her mother's side.
"My mom's relatives are… I'll be honest, they're assholes. They're the kind of people who act like you're stealing their oxygen. I heard one time they actually tried to protest the funeral of someone in the LGBTQ; they didn't even know the poor guy, they just didn't like the idea of a non-heterosexual being mourned."
That sure shocked the others.
"Mom cut them off the moment she could, but she was so desperate to keep us from being homeless that she went back to them asking for money. They're terrible people, but they do have cash. We begged her not to, but it was too late. Mom made a deal with them, and then we were stuck."
"Stuck how?" Ronnie Anne asked, remembering the financial struggles that required her family to leave Royal Woods and move to Great Lake.
Stella hesitated for a moment. "My relatives are… even worse when it comes to money. They're the kind of people where if you borrowed one dollar, they'd insist that you owed them ten. And they'd make your life a living hell until you caved in and gave them that ten. Refuse, and they make it their personal mission in life to drive you to suicide. I'm not kidding, I've heard them actually brag about how they were responsible for someone killing themselves."
"Then how are they not in jail?" Lincoln asked.
Stella shrugged. "I guess telling someone to jump off a bridge isn't as illegal as actually pushing them off is."
"Surely some of this must be exaggerated." Rita hoped.
"All I know is what I've seen and been told. But the point is, when they agreed to loan Mom enough to keep us off the streets, she had to promise to pay them back so much more than she got from them in the first place."
"But that's not fair!" Lincoln stated.
"I know, but there was nothing I could do. Mom took the money, got us what we needed before she and Dad got their problems solved, and since then her family has essentially declared all three of us their property. Until Mom pays back what she agreed, as far as my maternal side is concerned, they have final say over everything we do or don't do."
"That can't be legal." Ronnie Anne countered.
"What laws are they actually breaking?" Stella asked. "They were the ones who set me up with Blake, telling me that I was to date him or they'd withdraw every dime we have. They have full access to all our accounts, they could drain us dry at any second if they felt like it. And they will if they ever hear the word 'no'. If they forbade me from showering, and I took one anyway, they would seriously make us flat broke just to teach me a lesson about refusing them. They are seriously that petty and vindictive when it comes to money. I thought if I just played along until I was eighteen, I could then get the hell out of there and save myself."
"What about your parents?" Lincoln asked.
"It was their idea. They told me to save myself, and let them deal with the fallout. That's why I didn't tell you anything before, Lincoln. That's why my dad told you to leave me alone. I couldn't risk my relatives getting any ideas about me cutting them off."
The white-haired boy didn't say a word, but now everything she had done since her father warned him to stay away started to make sense.
"And now, I have to tell my parents that I need to go to another school, in another state, for at least a year, and the reason why is because the boy my family basically whored me out to was actually a vampire all along. Trust me, telling my parents all this is the easy part of the problem. But my other relatives, they'll probably think that I deserve to die."
"Aren't you exaggerating?" Lucy asked.
Stella trembled a little. "I've been thinking all this time. You see, at first I thought what if my relatives didn't know what Blake really was. But now, I'm wondering what if they did? What if they intended on me getting bitten? Maybe they want me to be dying, so that they can have even more control over my parents?"
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne looked to Rita and Lucy, as if they could confirm or deny this. But they had nothing to say. Just a few more licks of their ice cream.
"Where is he? Where did you take him after you brought us to the hospital?" Stella asked.
"I had the local police round him up. He should be in a cell right now."
Stella finished off her ice cream. "I need to see him."
"Stella-" Lincoln started.
"I need to know if my family gave him the idea to bite me. And I need to tell the jerk off."
Rita looked at the young girl, sizing her up. Then after a bit, she nodded. "Alright, let's do this."
Everyone got up and headed towards the city police station.
"Hello, are you in need of something?" A man in uniform greeted, so far he looked very normal.
"We would like to speak to one of your inmates. A mister Blake Hawthorne." Rita replied.
The cop tilted his head a little. "I'm sorry, that prisoner has already been transported."
Rita did not like the sound of that. "Transported? As in taken to prison to await trial?"
"No, his clan has requested the right to oversee his future, and per-"
"What?! You mean his family got him free?!" Stella all but shouted.
"The law gives vampire clans the right to oversee the punishments of their own without the need for a legal system. We call it the Nosferatu Law." The cop clarified.
Stella felt her blood freeze and her legs weakened, causing her to lose the ability to stand. Fortunately Ronnie Anne caught her from behind.
Lincoln made a fist. "You mean to tell me that some jerkass can go around committing crimes, but as long as he's got fangs then he can get away with it if his parents don't mind?"
The cop simply shrugged. "Certain laws for certain Nevermores kid. That's how it works."
Rita's eyes widened. "Thank you for your time. Let's go kids."
"But Mom-"
"Lincoln, let's go home. I think it's time we head back there."
Lincoln still felt unsatisfied, but he could tell from his mother's eyes that she meant business. It was the same look he saw in all of his sisters many times.
Rita led the four kids outside, coming to a stop on the sidewalk.
"Mrs Loud, is something wrong?" Ronnie Anne asked. Stella remained silent, but at least now she could hold herself up.
"We need to get back home. If the Hawthornes know what happened, they may retaliate."
Lincoln, Lucy, and Stella were now afraid, and said nothing as Rita used another coin to summon a ride back to Michigan.
Stella woke up, feeling like her body was numb from head to toe. As her sense of touch returned to her, she discovered that she was laying on a metal table with leather straps binding down her arms and legs.
'Am I in a James Bond movie?' She asked herself, looking around and finding herself in a sterile room that reeked of death. Against a wall she saw a table with surgical tools on it and what looked like preserved organs.
'Or am I in a Saw movie instead?' She worried, trying to break free of her binds.
"Ah good, you're awake."
Sid couldn't turn her head, but she didn't need to. Two people dressed as surgeons came from behind her to in front of her, as if they wanted to make an entrance. One was a man and the other was a woman, but with the garb and masks she couldn't otherwise identify them.
"Whatever you're planning, don't do it." Sid told them.
"Oh? Well in that case…" The male surgeon said before walking away. For a moment Sid was confused and relieved, but that vanished when after two steps he pivoted back to the table with a scalpel in hand.
"Did you actually think we'd stop just because you told us to?" The female surgeon taunted.
"You'll be fine. We're just going to do some cosmetic surgery. You'll thank us when this is over." The male surgeon added while his partner grabbed one of those masks that administers sleeping gas to patients and strapped it to her face despite her protests.
'Someone… help… me…' She pleaded as she lost consciousness all over again.
The ride didn't take too long, according to Rita these transports worked much faster than human vehicles by taking advantage of what she called 'shortcuts in space-time'. Therefore a trip from Massachusetts to Michigan took about as much time as going from one side of town to the other. It barely took them any time to appear back in front of the Loud house.
"Hold it right there." Someone warned as Rita got outside but before she set foot on the property.
Rita turned and saw the tall woman who had been there at Clyde's house the other day. Not that she knew that, but she could tell that this woman was a Nevermore.
"I'm Polly Spectra, and I've got business with you." She said, removing her glasses and making it undeniable that she was a cyclops.
Lincoln, Lucy, Ronnie Anne, and Stella got out and moved behind Rita, making their way to the property. Rita had of course told them to get on the grass as fast as possible, that way no Nevermore could take them if any were there to ambush them.
"The Hawthornes want a word with you. All of you. Make this easy and come with me."
"Or else what?" Stella asked.
Polly took out her phone and pulled up something before handing it over to Rita, who took it and looked. Her eyes went wide.
"What is it?" Lucy asked.
"I've got more if you're not convinced." Polly said, taking her phone back. Before Rita could protest, the cyclops pulled up something else and showed that too. If anything, Rita looked more bothered by this image than she had the first.
"Alright, we'll go. But do anything funny and I'll personally blind you."
"Thank you." Polly said, stepping up to a black car that looked somewhat like a hearse but wasn't. She unlocked the doors and opened it, but she did not get in.
"Mom you can't be serious!" Lincoln objected.
Rita grimaced. "They have your friends."
Lincoln, Stella, and Ronnie Anne's jaws dropped.
"I don't like it anymore than you do, but if we don't, two innocent kids might end up as something much worse off than a dhampir."
"Rita?" Lynn Sr asked, coming out of the house, with Lana and Lola following.
"What's going on?" Lola asked.
"Oh, is this going to be a family trip?" Polly asked.
"Leave them out of this!" Rita warned.
"Oh don't be such a spoilsport. Bring them all along, let them see what their family is capable of." Polly suggested, mockingly.
Rita paused for a moment before giving her twins her no-nonsense expression. "Lana, Lola, get inside. We'll be home later. Mommy has to go teach someone some manners."
Lola and Lana stood there staring, not sure what to do, but Lynn Sr put his hands on their shoulders and guided them back into the house.
"Dad, what's going on?" Lana asked.
"It'll be alright, your mom knows what she's doing." He said before getting them in and closing the door.
Taking a deep breath, Rita looked back at the smiling cyclops, before ushering the four kids with her to follow her. They got into the car, and soon they drove off.
Apparently this car used the same traveling trick the other transports used, because wherever they were going, they got there quickly. To Lincoln, they got here in about the same time it took Vanzilla to get to the grocery store, but they only made one turn the entire time. The windows were tinted so they could see outside, but if this was a normal car, they would at best just be outside the suburbs. And yet he was certain they weren't in Royal Woods anymore when the car came to a stop.
"We're here." Polly said, opening the door. "Guests first."
Rita went first. "It's safe kids, but brace yourself."
Lincoln and the others followed, seeing they were just before a big mansion. The kind you knew were the toilets cost more than most people make in a year. All the curtains were dark and pulled, ensuring that no sunlight got inside. Standing outside were two people waiting, one of which had snakes for hair and the other looked like they were just pigmented enough to avoid being legally declared an albino.
"Did you get them?" Polly asked when she emerged from the car.
Both guards nodded. "Indeed. The boy is right inside, the girl is under process right now."
Polly smiled. "Excellent. Let's show our guests, shall we?"
"If you did anything that can't be undone, I swear I'll burn this place to the ground with all you inside it." Rita warned, with Lucy nodding.
"Oh don't get your panties in a wad. We're not monsters." Polly assured the mother, leading her inside.
They went inside and right away Lincoln and Stella gasped. There in the middle of the room was a statue. A statue that bore a striking resemblance to Clyde McBride. And there was a gorgon in the room that moved to stand beside it.
"You-!"
Before they could finish, the gorgon hit the statue and it crumbled. For a second, they felt their hearts stop, but that faded when they saw that Clyde hadn't been turned to stone, merely encased in it. Once freed, he fell to the ground gasping.
"Clyde?" Lincoln and Stella asked.
"I feel so cold." Clyde remarked, shivering a little and thus unable to get back up quickly.
"Hello everyone." A woman said, walking into the room. She wore a white long-sleeved shirt with black pants, had wavy black hair that hung to her waist, and a gold necklace. She looked to be about Rita's age. "Ah, Stella, it's been a while."
"Mrs Hawthorne." Stella replied, sounding unfriendly.
"Now that you're all here, let's talk about what happened to my son."