ACT I, CHAPTER TWO
❛ final cold war, final peace. ❜
content: underage drug use (alcohol&acid), ghosts/paranormal, implied child abuse, violence, blood/gore.

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Evie tried to look comfortable despite the tense silence filling the locker room around her. She back her disgust at the humid air that made her fringe stick to her forehead. As much as she would've liked to gather up her things and storm out, the fact all her teammates were still sitting on the benches with worried expressions on their faces kept her rooted to the spot.

She sensed an argument, which she both dreaded and hoped for at the same time. On the one hand, she felt too mentally exhausted from the day's events to fight properly. But, then again, at least if they were arguing, she wouldn't be remembering the sound of Allie's screams . . .

Ever since the hysterical freshman was loaded onto a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance, each of the Yellowjackets shared similar expressions of shock, even the ones that weren't in on Taissa's plan. Evie felt like the odd woman out. She was unnaturally calm compared to her bewildered teammates. Horrific as Allie's injury was, Evie had seen worse. Her childhood had been filled with similar strains of violence. Broken bones and blood stains didn't really phase her anymore. Her dad had made sure of that.

Evie knew she should've felt guilty for going to practice knowing that Taissa would target Allie. But honestly Evie was just glad Allie was out of Nationals. She couldn't drag the Yellowjackets down if she was in the hospital. It was a heartless thing to think, but Evie thought it.

Still, Evie felt bad for her other teammates, who all had the thousand-yard stare. Obviously, none of them had seen a compound fracture like that. Lucky them, Evie thought cynically, rubbing her hand over the jagged scar on her upper arm, hidden by her shirtsleeve. She envied them, but sympathized with them, too.

Beside her, Lottie was staring vacantly at the wall of lockers across from them, running a comb through her hair over and over again. Evie recognized the look on her friend's face, frowned and linked her arm with Lottie's. The comb stilled in the air. Lottie softened at Evie's touch and managed the smallest of smiles. Wordlessly, they laced their fingers together.

Finally, team captain Jackie Taylor seemed to have enough of the silence. She leapt up from the bench and turned to face her teammates. Her big brown eyes were nervous yet determined. "Look, I know we're all really worried about Allie," she said, "but it might not be as bad as it looks . . ."

It really wasn't the right thing to say.

"You could see her fucking bones, Jackie," Nat deadpanned. "I'm pretty sure it's exactly as bad as it looks."

No shit, thought Evie, staying silent. Allie'll be lucky if she ever runs on that leg again. Evie knew that fractures sometimes heal wrong, especially ones as traumatic as Allie's injury. Evie remembered the CRACK! of Allie's shinbones and she tightened her grip on Lottie's hand.

"Oh, God," Van said shakily, looking green in the face, "I think I'm gonna throw up."

Kay Jang held out an empty gym bag for Van to barf into. But, thankfully, Van pressed her fist to her mouth and shook her head no. Kay noisily dropped the bag back on the floor.

"But," Jackie hesitated, trying to find the right words, "we're still a team. And we still have each other."

Evie grimaced. Christ, she's shit at pep talks.

And, of course, Laura Lee just had to say: "And the Lord works in mysterious ways—"

BANG!

Nat had slammed her fist into a locker and now swiftly made for the exit without even looking back. "Nice work, Taissa," she said over her shoulder, then the exit door banged shut, too.

Taissa sighed heavily and leaned forward, running both her hands down her face exasperatedly. Evie thought Taissa was crying until she calmly stood up, her face now expressionless, slung her bag over her shoulder and left. Van, still visibly shaking, left quickly after Taissa, and suddenly, as if a trance had been broken, the other varsity girls were able to move again.

Evie had to untangle her arm from Lottie's to collect her gym bag. Jackie was saying something optimistic about her kegger tonight, but fullback Mari Reyes had turned to Evie and Lottie with one of her sly smiles, and Evie heard Mari say: "No way Jackie's dad didn't pay Principal Berzonsky to make her team captain. That was literally the worst motivational speech ever."

Mari, bold as ever. Evie and Lottie shared a quick glance.

"At least Jackie was trying to bring us all together," Lottie said, facing Mari.

"In her half-assed, terribly-spoken way, of course," Evie added, tugging Lottie toward the exit with a smile. "But it's the thought that counts, right?"

The confused look on Mari's face at the meaningless statement made Evie laugh for some reason. Lottie shushed Evie as they rushed out the locker room together. But Evie saw Lottie forcing back a smile, too.

At some point they'd linked their arms together again, and as they walked out the gym doors into sunlight, Evie turned to Lottie.

"Christ, the sun feels fantastic after that shitshow!" she said, throwing her free hand up to the sky and bowing her head like she was praising God. "All I need's a glass of rum! Cognac might work, too."

"Ha, ha," Lottie said humorlessly. With her free hand she patted Evie's head. "You're in luck, little drunk. My parents are still out of town, which means—"

"An unlocked liquor cabinet and a closetful of stolen dresses to try on for Jackie's party!" Evie took Lottie's hand and spun herself in a circle like a swing dancer.

Lottie's mouth dropped open. "You lower your voice, Evie Caulfield!" she admonished in a whisper. Even though nobody was nearby to eavesdrop. "They're rescued dresses! Not stolen."

Evie couldn't help bursting into laughter. And then Lottie was laughing, too. The sound made Evie's face flush with heat, and she became hyperaware of the feel of her hand in Lottie's, heart beating hummingbird fast in her chest. Evie noticed how much better she felt as they left locker room behind, snickering all the way into the mostly-empty parking lot.

It was only when she spotted a shiny red convertible parked down the row of cars that Evie finally stopped laughing.

"Oh, you drove the M3 to school!" she blurted out, eyes gone wide. "Can I drive it to your house?"

"Not a chance." Lottie shook her head, smirking. "You're not driving Dad's car with Schaefer's shit weed still in your system."

"It was bunk I'm telling you! I'm sober as a nun, Lot, I swear!" Evie pouted, making the shape of the cross over her shoulders all Laura Lee-like.

"Still not happening," Lottie replied in a singsong voice, unlinking her arm from Evie's to fish out the car keys. "I'll drive fast just for you, though."

"Damn it you'd better!"

Lottie found her keys and unlocked the doors. Evie fell through the passenger side door onto the leather seat, burning hot against her skin from sitting in the sun all day. Lottie flicked the keys in the ignition, and the car came alive with a wonderful roar of its engine. Evie placed a hand on the dashboard reverently.

"And let there be horsepower! Lord, you hear that engine purr? Put the top down, put the top down!"

"Like a kid in a candy store," Lottie muttered sardonically, pressing the button to fold back the convertible's roof.

Evie hung out of her open window like a dog until the top was completely down, then she leaned back in her seat, one arm resting on the sill. Lottie turned on the radio, shifted the car into drive, and they cruised out of the parking space. Evie closed her eyes and listened to the ceaseless growl of the accelerating engine, alive as she was, feeling the wind as it ran through her sweaty hair, lifted it off her shoulders. She realized suddenly she was grinning.

Lottie made a sudden noise of contempt which caused Evie to open her eyes. "Look at Jackie, two o'clock," Lottie said.

Evie craned her neck in that direction and caught a glimpse of Jackie talking to a serious-looking Kay Jang outside Shauna's car. Evie's brows raised into her windblown fringe.

"Wow, that conversation looks depressing," she said.

"Shauna isn't happy," observed Lottie. "Jackie must be trying to convince Kay to come to her kegger . . . Again."

"I don't understand why Jackie tries so hard to involve the Dead-Face," Evie muttered, sitting back in her seat as Lottie sped out of the parking lot and onto the street. "Kay's clearly antisocial and clearly doesn't give a shit about anything that isn't soccer."

"Jackie's team captain. It's her job to involve everyone."

"Yeah. Well, she's shit at that 'job', so . . ."

"Now you sound like Mari Reyes."

Evie grimaced. "Please don't compare me to her again. I might have to kill you."

Lottie laughed and the sound made Evie smile again.

The drive to Lottie's house was full of twisting residential roads that they breezed through like a bullet, wind whipping Evie's hair behind her. Lottie was driving fast. Maybe even too fast, but Evie was loving every second. It was hard to see Lottie past her own windblown fringe, but Evie could see Lottie's smile.

Feeling extraordinarily thrilled, Evie laughed and leaned out the window to howl at the sun like a wolf at the moon.

"What the fuck?!" yelled Lottie.

"Step on it, Lotso!—that housewife's putting a curse on me with her stink-eye!"

The woman in question, who was throwing a garbage bag into a trash bin, scowled and shook her head disapprovingly at Evie as the red M3 sped off into the distance.

"You're ridiculous," Lottie said. Evie stuck out her tongue at her.

The further into the suburbs they drove, the bigger and more lavish the houses got, until most of the estates were ostentatious mansions, mostly hidden by big fences and imposing gates plastered with countless no trespassing signs. Evie watched it all blur past her window. At this speed, all she could hear was the car's engine and the wind. It was soothing, meditative in a way.

Evie sighed when they eventually approached the Matthews estate, and Lottie pressed on the brakes.

The Matthews estate was so large it had an electric gate and a code lock. The car slowed impressively fast as they turned into the driveway, where Lottie punched in the code and the gate doors opened like jaws to allow them in. Evie always thought the acre-long drive to the colonial-style mansion was completely ridiculous in its size and grandeur, especially the mansion itself. Were all those marble columns and giant arches really necessary?

The M3 pulled into the carport and Lottie shifted it into park. Evie patted the dashboard, "Thanks for the journey, old friend." Lottie rolled her eyes.

One of Mr. Matthews' servants opened the car door for Lottie, so Evie hopped out hurriedly before he thought to help her, too. Together, Evie and Lottie walked through the unlocked front doors and up the staircase to the bedroom floor. No matter how many times Evie visited, it still felt strange walking up stairs inside a home. She'd never been inside a house with stairs before she met Lottie, and couldn't imagine what the Matthews did with all the extra space.

Whatever the case, Evie skipped down the hall to Lottie's bedroom, and then paused just inside the door.

"Where's the hooch?" She blinked her lashes up at Lottie innocently.

"Dad's office," said Lottie. "Gimme two minutes."

While Evie waited, she set the first record she saw on Lottie's record player. Evie cranked the volume till the Beastie Boys blared through the whole house. She danced all the way to Lottie's walk-in closet, humming discordantly along to the beat.

She was sifting through the new dresses in the back racks, tags still attached, when Lottie showed up with a whole bottle of Captain Morgan. Evie rejoiced with a little jig and the pregaming began.

As they picked out clothes, they drank straight from the bottle and talked about anything but practice. School drama, new music, cute boys. The flow of the conversation was rapid and superficial. It took only ten minutes for Evie to decide that the small talk was too boring.

They had seen a girl break another girl's shinbone today. Lottie might want to beat around the bush, but Evie wasn't that humble. Besides, the liquor had made Evie feel rather fearless by the time she'd finished picking out her outfit.

So, while Lottie tried to decide between a pink or khaki pleated skirt, Evie put words to something that'd been bugging her.

"Hey, Lot," she started casually, "when you said you had a 'bad feeling' about practice earlier, what did you mean?"

Maybe Evie had been too forward. Lottie bristled like Evie had insulted her.

"That? It was nothing," she said stiffly. "A stupid coincidence."

Evie chewed her lip. "Maybe, it's just . . . it was strange that we both had a bad feeling before practice today and . . . and then Allie got hurt so badly . . . It played out like a dream. Like something I'd already seen."

"Yeah," Lottie conceded carefully. Her words were clipped, clearly still uncomfortable, but she added, "Déjà vu."

"Did you . . . dream it?" Evie was breathless.

Lottie frowned and shook her head. "No. Not a dream. Just a feeling."

Evie deflated, but reached out to grab Lottie's hands. "I felt the same when it happened," she said. "I made a joke out of it. But I was . . . really unsettled." She tried not to remember the part of her dream about blood staining her hands.

Lottie withdrew her hands from Evie's. "It was a coincidence," she snapped. Evie's face must've betrayed something, because Lottie softened her tone. "Predicting the future and prophecy . . . Stuff like that isn't real. We were nervous after hearing Taissa's plan, that's why we felt off. That's it."

Evie was still skeptical, but she took the hint and dropped the subject. She changed the topic to something more light-hearted, and Lottie joined in again warmly. Evie searched Lottie's face for any sign of unease, but if Lottie still felt uncomfortable, her face betrayed nothing.

Evie tried to push away her worry, but even as they got dressed and left out the front door at sunset, the shadow of her dream still lingered at the back of her mind.

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The sun had set long ago by the time Kay left Uncle Iseul's. She pedaled her bike past dimly-lit street signs, squinting at the directions she'd scrawled on her palm with a ballpoint pen. She could barely decipher the smudged letters in the faint moonlight. Already, frustration budded in her chest at the thought of tonight.

After their disastrous final practice, Kay had met Jackie Taylor in the parking lot to tell her she wouldn't be going to her kegger. She had said that she needed to find a distraction, that she'd take the night to rest and recover from the whole broken-leg fiasco. Well, Jackie hadn't liked that idea very much.

"The party is a distraction, Kay," Jackie had told Kay like Kay was three years old. "And I'm not asking you to stay for four hours or anything . . . It'd just be nice if you came to support the team for a little while. After all, we're going to Nationals tomorrow, remember?"

Kay hated Jackie's condescending words. She hated how Jackie smiled and winked like they were sharing some stupid secret. And she hated the traitorous, loyal part of herself that had prompted her to go to Jackie's stupid party despite her serious reservations. If it supports the team and keeps my mind occupied, though, I'll swallow my pride and listen to Jackie.

Besides, Kay had thought about it, and she regretted what she'd said to Taissa after Allie's injury. In the heat of the moment, Kay had lost her cool and poured salt into Taissa's already-obvious guilt. This is what you wanted, isn't it? Kay had asked Taissa. She remembered Taissa's expression, like Kay had just confirmed something she already knew. And the way Taissa shrank in on herself instead of fighting back against Nat in the locker room . . . Kay wished she hadn't made that rude remark. A part of her hoped to find Taissa at the kegger and apologize.

Because Taissa was haunted enough without Kay getting involved. Still, Kay's fingers twitched as she remembered the memories she'd stolen from Taissa. The eyeless ghost in the mirror, the pleads of a dying woman . . .

Maybe she'll accept my apology. Or maybe I'm a fool to try. Either way, she'd try.

Scowling at her thoughts, Kay checked her palm for the millionth time. After pausing twice to read street names, Kay finally heard the loud music of a boombox and laughter. The sidewalk sloped down a hill and into a park, firelight glowing bright off the oak trees. Kay found a bush big enough to hide her bike and checked her watch. 9:46 PM. Once her bike was fully hidden, she made for the sound of people through the thick underbrush with her hands shoved in her jacket pocket.

Some of the people at the edge of the party shot Kay curious looks, like she was some woods monster come out of the wilderness to mingle with them. She ignored them all in favor of the keg, which was miraculously sparse of people. She pulled a solo cup from the stack atop the keg and filled it to the brim with beer. It smelled fine, she decided as she walked toward the bonfire, so she took a sip. It was good beer, too—a fruity draft so crisp she could tell Jackie had spent lots of money on it.

More people had taken notice of Kay's presence by then. She sighed at the feeling of judgmental eyes boring holes into her back. Kay hadn't even been there for three minutes and she'd already earned the disapproval of the crowd. For some reason, the stares felt somehow angrier than usual. Like everyone was glaring daggers at her. Kay didn't know what it was, but knowing Wiskayok, she could guess it was some new, fake rumor about her. The general consensus around Wiskayok High was that Kay Jang is a freak of nature, and many people disliked her just for that reason.

Kay didn't acknowledge anyone as she approached the bonfire, frowning. This party was getting old fast. Luckily, only a couple people stood watching the fire, and they didn't seem that interested in Kay at all.

". . . Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds!"

"That is, like, the least efficient way to say that."

Kay glanced up. One of Nat Scatorccio's friends was handing her a baggie filled with little paper squares while Nat's other, lankier friend watched on. Kay looked back at the fire, feeling awkward about having eavesdropped on such an exchange. She took a long drink of beer from her cup to keep from staring. When she came back up for air, the baggie of LSD had disappeared between Nat and her two friends.

Kay focused hard on the fire. How it festered inside the logs, making them glow red from within, then ate away the live wood with a crackling sound like laughter, till the only remnant was an ash-gray husk too dry to burn anymore. It reminded her of similar bonfires from her childhood . Of her father's compound bow, and the smell of meat sizzling on a cookfire. Boundless woods with trees older than a dozen dynasties.

"Kay Jang."

Kay tore her eyes away from the fire at the sound of her voice. Nat Scatorccio, looking amused, stood only a few feet away.

"I didn't expect you to show up," Nat said.

Kay debated even responding. She felt too tired to talk, but for some reason, she shrugged and spoke. "I didn't expect me to show up, either."

"What finally convinced you to?"

"Beer," said Kay, gesturing to her solo cup. "And bonfires." Any sort of distraction, really.

The corners of Nat's mouth twitched upward. "Can't argue with that. It's apple beer. Jackie got a keg imported from Michigan."

Kay's eyes went wide. "That's fancy."

"And high in alcohol content."

"Thank fucking God."

At this, Nat actually laughed. Kay fought to keep her face flat. After a moment, Nat asked, "Did the idiots at the keg give you trouble?"

Kay hesitated. The tone of Nat's question felt strange. Like she was hiding something. "Why would they?" Kay replied, brows furrowed.

"Oh, nothing." Nat seemed suddenly uncomfortable. She took a sip from her solo cup. "I mean, some assholes were running their mouths, as usual."

Oh. So Kay's assumption had been right: there was new gossip about her. Kay shifted her weight between her feet. "What's the rumor now?"

For the first time, Nat looked nervous when she spoke. "It's bullshit. And clearly made-up."

"What is it?" Kay said seriously.

Nat scanned Kay's face like she was searching for something. Then, she sighed. "Some girls on the JV team said you approached Taissa just before she broke Allie's leg. They think you said something to Tai, influenced her to hurt Allie somehow."

A moment of silence passed before Kay laughed out loud. She couldn't help it. The rumor was completely ridiculous.

"They're saying I bewitched her?" She scoffed. "How unoriginal. I thought witchcraft allegations went out of style after Salem."

"Come on, Kay," said Nat with a smirk, "I thought you would've figured out by now that Wiskayok's stuck in the dark ages."

Kay allowed another chuckle. For once, she felt glad to have gotten out of the house. Standing there talking with Nat was the perfect distraction from her own thoughts. The apple beer settled warm and comfortable inside her. For once, she wasn't worried nor frustrated. And for once, she wasn't thinking. It felt good.

But all good things must come to an end.

"Oh, God," muttered Nat suddenly.

Kay followed Nat's narrowed eyes to the keg, where a red-faced Shauna was yelling something heated to Taissa. It looked like trouble. Kay sighed hard and glanced at Nat, who met Kay's eyes with a similar expression of displeasure.

"We should break that up before it gets ugly . . ." said Nat. "Well, uglier."

Already, Van, Lottie, and Evie had formed a semi-circle around the unfolding argument. None of them seemed keen on breaking it up. Evie was smiling. Kay frowned as she and Nat grew closer, until they were finally near enough to hear Shauna yell:

". . . And you're a fucking sociopath!"

"Whoa!" Van put a hand on a clearly-inebriated Shauna's shoulder to keep her an arm's distance from Taissa. "Calm down."

Shauna batted away Van's hand. "No, listen, you guys," she slurred through the alcohol, "we don't have to worry about The Allie Problem anymore because Taissa fixed it for us." She jabbed a finger at Taissa, who only rolled her eyes dismissively.

Kay wanted to step in, but she also didn't want to act like Taissa's valiant defender. If Kay knew anything, it was that Taissa didn't need someone to fight for her. It still bruised Kay's ego to stand still and watch the argument like a rubberneck, though.

Laura Lee, who had walked up to join the growing group of bystanders a few seconds ago, asked, "What's Shauna talking about?"

Beside Kay, Nat chimed up. "She's talking about Taissa's little plan."

Taissa overheard this exchange, and she turned on Nat with a sneer. "Oh, please. Since when do you give a shit, anyway? Don't you have a bong to hit or a dick to suck?"

Kay scoffed loudly. Were they in middle school? Taissa turned her glare to Kay, and looked ready to snap at her, too, but Shauna interrupted.

"Don't talk to her that way!" she yelled.

"Oh, fuck off, Shauna," Nat snapped right back. Kay's brows raised. "I don't need you to defend me. Last time I checked you were fine with the whole 'freeze her out' strategy!"

"Ok, seriously," said Laura Lee, sounding very confused, "what are you guys talking about?"

And nearly every one of the Yellowjackets screamed, "Just shut the fuck up, Laura Lee!"

From there, the argument devolved further into chaos by the second. Kay held up her hands vaguely, trying to figure out how to de-escalate. She managed a meager, "That's enough," but the rest of her teammates didn't even seem to hear.

"Someone needs to take her wasted ass home," Taissa pressed further.

"You wanna say that again, bitch?"

Shauna closed the space between her and Taissa in an instant. Kay's arm jutted out to keep Shauna back, and Van offered up her own arm to help. Everyone was yelling overtop of each other, Shauna was pushing against Kay's hand to get closer to Taissa, and Kay was starting to consider the best way to kick Shauna's legs out from under her so she'd stop fighting. Just when Kay was about to take action, Jackie Taylor's unmistakably shrill yell broke through the screaming match.

"That's it! Enough!"

Somehow everyone fell silent at Jackie's words. Kay became suddenly very aware of the crowd of onlookers that had gathered around the keg, looking on eagerly at the drama. Every person at the party was staring. The realization dawned on the other girls' faces, too, and Kay saw a newly-somber Shauna frown to herself.

Jackie, looking very much like a disappointed teacher, clapped her hands together. "Yellowjackets, with me!" She waved them away from the keg and the crowd, toward a patch of bushes down a small hill. "Now!" she yelled again, just to make sure they knew she meant business.

Kay rubbed a hand down her face and lifted her cup to her lips, only to find it empty. With a dejected sigh, she tossed the cup into a trash can as she followed after her team.

━━━

Wind gusts in from the north, carrying with it the distinct, icy smell of winter. It was a frigid cold unusual on a warm night in late spring.

It whispered through the freshly-bloomed leaves on the trees, scraping the branches together with a sound like gnashing teeth, then swooped down upon a group of partygoers to take scarfs and hats into its cold fingers, snapping coats and pantlegs as it passed through the crowd of people in a single concentrated direction. The wind had razed down many a meaningless man, so it moved without regard for the others. It only had interest in the girls gathered down the hill, where the fire's heat burned too far away to reach them.

The Yellowjackets stiffened against the front of cold wind. It tangled through Evie's long hair, made Kay burrow further into her jacket. The girls were oblivious as the wind clung to their clothes, their skin, their breath, and even their teeth behind their unsplit lips. It listened with bated breath, and the air grew suddenly still around the girls. Without the slightest idea they were not alone, the conversation continued.

"I don't know what the fuck that was," the false leader was saying. "But I do know that it's over. We're about to go to Nationals. And based on what I'm looking at right now, we might as well not even bother getting on that plane . . ."

If the wind had a mouth, it would laugh.

"All right. Everybody line up." None of the girls made a move at the command. "No, I'm fucking serious. Line up!"

Like good little soldiers, each of the team lined up shoulder-to-shoulder and faced their captain. False leader, damned and doe-eyed, takes center stage.

"Here's what we're gonna do," she says as if she were in charge. "I want each of you to go down this line and say one nice, true thing about every other girl on this team."

"What is this, fucking girl scout camp?" scoffs the familiar girl, Taissa.

But, here, the law of people still held reign. Here, everyone still listened to the false leader, despite their true, traitorous feelings. The wind heard the Yellowjackets take turns complimenting each other, it heard laughter being shared amongst them, melting the ice that had formed between them during the argument.

The wind watched as Evie grudged smiles at Mari and Laura Lee, as Kay apologized to Taissa for her cruel words and shared a laugh with one another.

The wind wasn't daunted. It knew that soon, the girls would meet it again. And then, they won't be able to shake the cold off so easily.

As they broke apart into their own factions, it watched on with fading curiosity. And finally, when the last of the Yellowjackets staggered from the party toward their temporary houses with their impermanent families, the wind pulled away its grip on them. Restless as it was, it gusted back north. It knew in its ageless wisdom, that the blood relatives sat across from the Yellowjackets were not true family.

True family waits for them in the wilderness.

And that's where the icy wind blew. Rattling the shutters of residential houses and the loose shingles of farmhouses, howling with the dogs chained in passing backyards. Past lakes and great cities, then weaving through the leafy canopies of countless trees. To endless woods, to a long sigh clouding in the mountain-cold air, to the sound of a cabin door creaking open.

Ever-so-patiently, the wind waits in the promise of worship. It beats against the moss-covered windows just to hear its own rasping voice. One day. One day they will listen.

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a/n . . . RAHHHHH SCARY ENDING i loved writing in The Wilderness's POV™ via the wind YELLOWJACKETS LORE IS SO FUN TO WRITE IN ... me 🤝 cannibal allegory & metaphors

&& sorry this chapter took so long to get out, finals and writer's block were soul-crushing but i'm back for a little while w some content!!! thanks for all the love on this book while i've been away, & i hope you enjoyed this last chapter of "normal life" for evie & kay :D (++they have chemistry with everyone i'm cackling behind my screen as i hit publish)

word count . . . 5012