Julia groaned loudly, watching as Bonnie and Scott stood around a group of the younger kids. "I want what they have."

"Gross," Evie didn't even look up from where she was applying a blue stripe onto Jamie Barrett's cheeks. Julia didn't pick up on how loaded the statement was.

"Like, I know their lives probably suck and their kids aren't nearly as wonderful as I think they are," she sighed dreamily. "But sometimes I'll be holding Katie on my lap when I'm over at my sister's and I just love her so much." Julia reasoned, holding the makeup palette so Evie could use her other hand to steady the young girl's face gently. "I want a baby."

"Have one with me," Evie suggested.

Julia pretended to really consider it. "If only we could, we'd be the best parents."

Evie lived close enough to Bonnie's parents that she heard the tantrums Madeline threw. Being a parent definitely wasn't easy, and she didn't know if she wanted kids. The good news is that she didn't have to worry about getting pregnant without warning like Bonnie did with her son.

She could tell they loved their kids, and Madeline had been on purpose after they realised they loved being parents, but Evie didn't know if she would be able to handle it.

Her relationship with her sister had been rough enough, she couldn't handle having a child like that too.

"You're all done, Jamie," Evie smiled down at her and Jamie scurried off to join Danny's group. He was giving the kids a pep talk, holding their flag for the first game.

They watched as Cindy approached, placing a hand on Danny's back. He'd been zoning in and out since the altercation with Mary, only a few hours earlier. Evie still didn't think this was a good idea.

"Another couple who are disgustingly cute," Julia said. "You okay?" She nudged Evie with her elbow.

"Why wouldn't I be, Julia?" Evie asked firmly, busying herself with packing up their station.

Julia didn't want to press it. She knew that Evie was her best friend, but she wasn't Evie's best friend. She also knew that Evie and Cindy's friendship was a lot different from her own friendship with Evie. She wasn't going to be cruel about it, though, and make Evie confess it out loud.

"You guys alright?" Tommy came up behind him. He had a mark on his jaw that Julia reached up to wipe off, only to be delighted by the source.

"Is that... lipstick?" She asked him gleefully.

Everyone knew about Tommy's thing for Valerie. It was sweet, Tommy was one of the nicest guys that Evie knew and, as much as she hated to say it, Val was kind of a bitch to most people. Not to Tommy, though, as shown by the red mark on Julia's index finger.

Evie still had her headache.

Bonnie and Scott, Cindy and Danny, now Valerie and Tommy. It felt like maybe she should just marry Julia. Not they'd be allowed.

She felt a twinge of hatred. Maybe Shirley would've liked her more if she did go through with it.

Evie had never felt different. She'd read a few books, scrounging around libraries with her head ducked to avoid anyone she knew. Ohio was a conservative state, they'd done a pretty good job at hiding any books about any sort of people who were different.

Evie never felt it, though. In the things she did manage to find, the people always described having felt different. She was normal. She had friends, boyfriends, even. Hell, her first kiss had been with Tommy. Sure, they were nine, but it counted.

She'd had a date to her senior prom, she'd hooked up with people, and she liked boys. She was sure of that. She was sure she was normal.

But if she was so normal, then what the fuck was wrong with her?

If she was so normal, why was she both elated and dread-filled at the sight of Cindy marching towards her, Danny in tow? Tommy and Julia went over to supervise the kids they'd just left, and Cindy murmured in Evie's ear.

"You have a key to the infirmary, right?"

She wasn't meant to, but Mary had given her one when one of the kids had an allergic reaction so she could run back in and grab an epi-pen, and Mary had never asked for it back. Eventually Evie forgot about it.

"What are we doing here?" Danny looked at Evie. She tried not to feel resentful.

"We're looking for answers," Cindy said resolutely.

Danny sounded exhausted, and Evie wanted to hug him. He really was lovely, wasn't he? "Come on, Cindy. It doesn't matter, alright?"

Cindy frowned. "It matters," she pressed. "There's a reason Mary did what she did and said what she said, and we're going to figure it out."

Danny sighed, rubbing the back of his head where he'd hit it. "Come on, Cindy. Please, I..."

Cindy and Danny both turned to her in sync, hoping she'd break the tie in their favour.

On one hand, Danny sounded miserable, and she wanted to go and force him to lay down while the kids all tired themselves out. On the other hand... Cindy's eyes looked like liquid amber in the soft lamplight.

"Let's just be quick," she said after a second.

Danny sighed, but he didn't look angry.

They started going through Mary's desk, Cindy much more intently than the other two. Danny mostly hung in the doorway. Eventually, Cindy help up an orange bottle triumphantly. "Half empty, no label. Like I said, she was on drugs. We just have to get these to the cops, then they'll tell us what they-"

She was cut off by Danny reaching over her and picking up a discarded notebook off Mary's desk. In amongst newspaper cutouts of her daughter Ruby's murder suicide, there was a journal with a weird looking symbol drawn inside.

It was a circle that had sorts of triangles and stars inside. It didn't look good, whatever it was.

"What's that?" Cindy asked, leaning over to look at it.

Danny frowned, reading off the page. "'A deal was made with the devil.'" Both Cindy and Evie's concern was etched deep on their faces. "'Sarah Fier cut off her wicked hand on Satan's stone in exchange for eternal life, scarring the soil beneath with the witch's mark, bringing Darkness upon the land.'"

The symbol in Mary's journal was some sort of Sarah Fier demon thing? But Evie couldn't figure out what that had to do with Danny, or why Mary even had it in the first place.

Cindy scoffed, like, audibly scoffed. She opened her mouth to say something but they were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass.

"Did you hear that?" Danny turned towards the two girls.

She didn't mean to, but Evie let things slip when she was nervous. "It's probably Nurse Lane coming to finish the job."

Danny didn't seem to appreciate that comment, heading slowly towards the source of the noise. Cindy stood as close to Evie as she could, the two of them watching as Danny called out.

It probably wasn't Mary Lane coming to kill them all, but that didn't necessarily mean it was someone cool either.

As Danny entered the sick room, something lunged out and grabbed him. Danny whirled aorund. "Come on, that's not funny."

Alice was cackling like it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.

"What are you doing here?" Cindy asked and Evie could tell they were all bracing for a lecture. Both Alice and her boyfriend Arnie were there, and Evie was just glad it was somebody who wasn't closely related to a murderer.

Alice smirked, pointing at the bottle of pills in Cindy's hand. "Well, it looks like we're both here for the same thing," she said snarkily. "Unless you guys came in here for a threeway." Cindy didn't gasp audibly, but Evie felt something inside the redhead girl turn over. "You guys could've done a lot better than Berman," she said to Evie and Danny.

"Whoa, Berman," Arnie looked like he just understood what they were talking about. "I didn't know you were into that kind of thing." Cindy shoved the pills into her bag.

"I'm giving the pills to the cops," Cindy huffed.

Alice nodded like she didn't believe her. "Oh, the cops? Yeah, right. Of course. No!" She got really close to Cindy. "What are you talking about? What, now you're gonna snitch on Mary too?"

Evie stepped forward. "We're not snitching on anyone, Mary tried to kill Danny, we just want to make sure everything's fine now."

In the distraction, Arnie reached over and snatched the journal from Danny's hand. "Is this for the cops too?"

Danny struggled to get it back. "Come on, dude."

Arnie tossed it to Alice, who caught it, giggling. Danny looked like he had been through far too much shit that day to be dealing with this.

Alice spoke with a gruff voice. "'She emerged by the Meeting House, one hand severed, lost forever. "We hanged the witch, body chained and buried but without her hand, her grip on the land holds firm."' Oooh!" She giggled.

Danny was resting his head against Evie's shoulder. Evie felt so sorry for him that she forgot her misplaced anger from before.

"This is Sarah Fier shit!"

Cindy tried to snatch the journal out of her hand. "Alice, come on."

"'When she is near, blood will fall and the curse will last until body and hand unite.""

Danny's breathing was getting heavier in her ears, his head felt like it was made of lead. Alice smugly turned a few of the pages and showed them to Cindy, once more silencing her protests. "It's not a diary. It's a map. It's of camp, but it looks like she drew all over it."

It was a map of Camp Nightwing, but Mary's handwriting was scrawled all over it in red pen. 'Union 1666' the new heading read.

"That's Shadyside." Cindy said.

"What?"

"I mean, the settlement before it was divided into Shadyside and Sunnyvale," Cindy rambled. She was the only person who ever paid attention in class and it was now paying off for the first time ever basically.

"So the camp is built over the settlement?" Danny's voice was muffled by Evie's shirt.

Arnie pointed eagerly. "Woah, look, look, look! Sarah Fier!"

"You think that's her house?" Alice had a glint in her eyes that scared Evie.

"Wha are all the X's?" Arnie asked. There were dozens of crosses all scattered across the double page spread.

"Places she's looked?" Evie asked nervously.

Alice looked at her, sinisterly sweet smile etched on her face. "There's only one way to find out."

────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note
happy friday besties also happy pride month for tomorrow, this act is 2 weeks away from being offically 2 years old </3 which also means i am 2 weeks away from being a legal adult which really isn't fun what do you mean i started this fic when i was fifteen years old. the hyperfixation has too strong of a grip on me at this point i need to let it go.

i hope you enjoyed, i am always asleep when these are posted, i upload them at 1 am and so i really do love reading all your little comments on these when i wake up in the morning like it's the morning paper <333

this act is definitely gonna be longer than i thought it was and this book is nearly at 60k already??? if my math is right??? roughly 57k words ish, so this act may end up being only slightly shorter than act 1?? i doubt it, though, but either way i don't really care i'm just going with the flow at this point, writing wherever it takes me which is apparently sarah fier's house sofjrojrfr i love u all