EXT. SWEETGUM BEACH – EVENING

SOUND CUE: Beach sounds

GEORGIE (V.O.): After I left Vincent Lambert’s house, I wandered aimlessly through Sweetgum, eventually finding myself back at the beach. I sat on the shore, staring out at the murky water washing over the sand. Hungry seagulls picked at litter scattered across the coast. With each crash of a wave on the shore, dozens of thoughts swirled about in my mind. How far would a father go to protect their son’s future? Could Mr. Lambert have killed me over a scholarship for his son? How do you tell the only friend you had when you were alive, that their father is a murderer?

ZABEL: Georgie?

GEORGIE: Huh?

VALENTINA: Georgie Porgie, thank goodness you’re safe!

ZABEL: Ash told us you’d gone back to Sweetgum. Again.

ASH: When you missed brains taco night, they started freaking out so I had to tell them.

HANAKO: I wasn’t freaking out.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Valentina pulled me into a tight hug.

VALENTINA: Georgina Andrea Romero, I was worried sick. I can’t believe you came here all alone. Anything could have happened to you, especially with Lucy’s army running around.

GEORGIE: I know, I know. I’m sorry. I just had to see Vincent and I figured if it was just me, he’d be more likely to talk.

ZABEL: About your murder?

GEORGIE: Yes. (PAUSE) I think I found my killer.

ZABEL: Is this like the last time you “found your killer”?

GEORGIE: No. No, this time there’s a motive. I think Vincent’s dad killed me. So Vincent could get a scholarship.

ZABEL: Scholarship? Is that a boat of academics?

ASH: It’s money to pay for school.

ZABEL: Humans pay for school?

HANAKO: American humans do. It’s just another thing to judge them for.

ASH: But you think Mr. Lambert did it? Hm. No, that tracks. I always got Patrick Bateman vibes from that guy. There was that one time Vincent got the lead in a school play because Mark Gulager broke his leg. Maybe Vincent’s dad secretly smashed his kneecaps.

GEORGIE: What do we do? We can’t tell Vincent his dad is a murderer! Especially since I can’t prove it.

ZABEL: So then you don’t actually know. Georgie, you can’t… (SIGHS) You can’t just point your finger at the nearest dingleberry and say they murdered you!

GEORGIE: He has a motive!

ZABEL: You can’t keep doing this. You’re throwing accusations left and right. Maybe there are no answers, did you ever consider that? Maybe there was no murder. Is it really so hard to accept that it could have been an accident?

GEORGIE: It wasn’t an accident. I can feel it in my bones.

HANAKO: That might be the decomposition.

ASH: Zabel, why don’t we just go around Sweetgum and see if we can find any evidence.…

ZABEL: Can you, please, stop enabling her?

ASH: I’m not enabling her!

ZABEL: You are! You set up the meeting with Vincent, you didn’t tell me about the meeting with Vincent, and now you’re not taking my side!

VALENTINA: (dryly) Oh, so the only reasonable option is to do whatever you say.

ZABEL: And you! You keep giving her those cupcakes. You’re the reason she keeps prancing back into Sweetgum whenever she pleases.

HANAKO: You’re not exactly innocent yourself.

ZABEL: What, you think I enabled her? You enabled… Wait, no you haven’t. Just because I gave her free room and board in my mansion, performed multiple glamour spells on her, participated in a choreographed number in front of the Bogeyman, and went on a date with the most despicable human I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting, doesn’t make me an enabler.

HANAKO: Sounds like you don’t have a leg to stand on there, stumpy.

ZABEL: As the Town Figurehead, it’s my job to make sure that every vampire, ghost, werewolf, ghoul, Bigfoot, frog man, and zombie finds their place in Wormwood.

GEORGIE: I can’t find my place until I know who killed me.

ZABEL: And what if no one killed you? What if it was just an accident?

GEORGIE: Then my death was meaningless.

ZABEL: …What?

BEAT.

GEORGIE: I want to go home.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Zabel didn’t say anything after that. We headed back toward Wormwood in silence. I needed to talk to Mom. She’d know what to do.

EXT. EDGE OF WORMWOOD FOREST – EVENING

GEORGIE (V.O.): We reached the edge of Wormwood Forest. As we walked, Valentina laced her fingers through mine. I gave her hand a squeeze.

SOUND CUE: Bushes rustling

GOLDIE: Well, well, well, what have we here. A couple of monsters and traitors.

GEORGIE: Goldie?

THORN: (over caffeinated) And Thorn!

GEORGIE (V.O.): Goldie was only five feet tall and probably 100 pounds soaking wet, but the sight of her sent chills up my spine. Thorn looked like she hadn’t slept in days and was running on energy drinks. There were dark circles under her eyes and her index finger kept twitching.

HANAKO: (Sarcastic) Oh no, how shall we ever survive this?

THORN: (threateningly) Don’t worry. You won’t.

SOUND CUE: Running

GEORGIE (V.O.): Thorn rushed at us with a syringe of green liquid in hand. I tried to dodge her attack, but I stumbled over my own weary feet. The needle jammed deep into my arm. I felt a weird twinge run through my shoulder. I wrenched the needle out and jerked away.

THORN: (laughs) I got one! Lucy is going to be so proud of us. This was such a great idea, Goldie!

GOLDIE: (annoyed, sarcastic) Sure. Lucy.

GEORGIE: (confused) Um, what exactly was that?

THORN: (cocky) My sleep serum.

GEORGIE: Oh.

BEAT.

GEORGIE: I don’t feel anything.

BEAT.

THORN: No, no, no… One of you must have swapped out my serum! Or you slipped something into it to ruin it.

HANAKO: When and how would we do that?

THORN: You tell me! I bet you did it. I bet you snuck into our camp and sabotaged it.

HANAKO: Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.

THORN: (enraged) Sleep?!

GOLDIE: Enough of this! You might be immune to sleep serum… but are you immune to knives?

SOUND CUE: Knives being thrown

ZABEL: What kind of question is-Watch out!

GOLDIE: (laughs)

GEORGIE (V.O.): Zabel and Ash ducked behind a large cypress tree as a barrage of knives came at them.

GOLDIE: Bugger. I missed. I guess I’ll have to try again!

SOUND CUE: Valentina tackles Goldie. Goldie and Valentina grunting and fighting

GEORGIE (V.O.): Valentina leapt at Goldie, her muscles bulging as she held the blonde down. My girlfriend was, as always, magnificent to behold. Meanwhile, Thorn stared down at her needles, looking like a lost puppy. It seemed like she didn’t know what to do without them. As Thorn floundered, Zabel reemerged from her hiding spot and ran toward us. Her fist slammed against Thorn’s face, initiating a fight between the two.

SOUND CUE: Punches and hits; Zabel and Thorn making fight noises

THORN: Why don’t you use your magic, witch? Or are you that bad at it?

ZABEL: I am not bad at it! It just has a really steep learning curve!

HANAKO: Come on, Music Man! You wanna go help your girlfriend or not?

ZABEL AND ASH: We’re just friends!

ASH: (Grumbles) Music Man…. (Out loud) I’m coming! I’m coming!

GEORGIE (V.O.): Ash jumped into the fray to help Zabel. A few feet away, Valentina still had her hands full with Goldie, her fangs bared as she struggled to keep the homicidal woman down.

VALENTINA: Maybe I’ll turn you into a vampire? You seem to like blood enough.

GOLDIE: That actually doesn’t sound half bad.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Goldie kicked Valentina in the stomach, eliciting a pained cry.

VALENTINA: (cries out)

GEORGIE: My vision went red. Enraged, I slammed my fist into Goldie’s jaw.

SOUND CUE: Mega-punch

SOUND CUE: Goldie screams in pain

GEORGIE (V.O.): Goldie fell to the ground, unconscious. My rage was immediately replaced with concern for Valentina.

GEORGIE: Are you okay, baby?

VALENTINA: I’m okay. Thank you, darling.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Valentina got to her feet and grabbed hold of my hand. We shared a quick kiss before we were startled by the sound of Ash’s voice.

ASH: Ah! (groggy) Son of a b…

GEORGIE (V.O.): Ash ripped a syringe out of his arm and stumbled backwards as Zabel ran to his side.

THORN: (cackles) It does work! I wasn’t wrong. I was never wrong!

HANAKO: Enough!

GEORGIE (V.O.): Hanako slowly levitated off the ground. Her eyes turned white and her aura changed to a stormy black.

SOUND CUE: Thorn screams

THORN: (panicked) A-a fairy! She’s a fairy! (Hyperventilating) Oh God… Oh God, Goldie!

SOUND CUE: Scrambling and running over to Goldie

THORN: Goldie, get up! Oh God… did you kill her?

GEORGIE: She’s not dead.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Hanako hovered toward Thorn, grinning. It was clear she took delight in tormenting her.

THORN: Get away from me!

GEORGIE (V.O.): Hanako continued to advance.

THORN: Stay back!

SOUND CUE: Goldie groans

GEORGIE (V.O.): Goldie was coming to her senses. She slowly pushed herself off the ground.

GEORGIE: Hanako, stop. You’re scaring her.

HANAKO: Good! She should be scared.

SOUND CUE: Thorn crying and hyperventilating

GEORGIE: This is going too far!

GOLDIE: Thorn, get a hold of yourself.

THORN: S-she’s a fairy!

GOLDIE: So then kill her! You hate fairies, right?

THORN: I can’t. I can’t!

ZABEL: Perhaps you should take your friend home. I think it’s safe to say you lost.

GEORGIE (V.O.): I recoiled at the anger on Goldie’s face. She glared at Zabel as if she were about to kill her.

GOLDIE: You freaks have not beaten me.

HANAKO: We totally beat you.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Goldie’s face turned red. Her blue eyes were about to pop out of her skull.

GOLDIE: I only failed because of this thing!

GEORGIE (V.O.): She pointed a knife in Thorn’s direction.

ZABEL: Go home, Goldie. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

THORN: We have to go! We have to get out of here.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Thorn desperately clung to Goldie’s arm.

THORN: I want to go home.

GOLDIE: Get away from me!

SOUND CUE: Stab

GEORGIE (V.O.): Goldie angrily plunged her knife into Thorn’s chest.

SOUND CUE: Thorn giving out pained cries

SOUND CUE: Thorn slumps onto the ground

GEORGIE (V.O.): Thorn fell to the ground.

GEORGIE: Oh my God! What did you do?

ZABEL: Georgie, grab Ash. We need to go. Now.

VALENTINA: What about Thorn?

HANAKO: We can’t do anything for her now.

GEORGIE (V.O.): My eyes were glued to Thorn’s body. She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t breathing.

GEORGIE: She’s going to get up, right?

VALENTINA: Come on, Georgie.

GEORGIE: But she’s going to get up. We have to take her back to Wormwood!

GEORGIE (V.O.): Valentina grabbed my arm to pull me away. As we fled, we could hear Goldie screaming into her phone.

GOLDIE: The zombie stole my knife. She stole my knife and stabbed Thorn.

BEAT.

GOLDIE: She’s dead.

INT. HAWTHORNE MANOR – NIGHT

SOUND CUE: The fireplace crackles.

GEORGIE (V.O.): Back at Hawthorne Manor, the murder played over and over again in my head. Mom watched over Ash as he recovered from Thorn’s serum in his bedroom. Jamie and Elliot called us later that night to check in on me. They wanted to see if I had any updates from my visit with Vincent. Clare, who had just returned from bat flying with Elisabeta, sat in on the conversation.

SOUND CUE: Jamie and Elliot are on the video phone.

CLARE: She just, like, murdered her? That’s gross.

GEORGIE: Right in front of us.

ELLIOT: I’m so sorry. That had to be awful.

JAMIE: Those people are sick. Why?

ZABEL: She was angry with Thorn for being scared.

HANAKO: It was my fault.

JAMIE: What do you mean?

HANAKO: Thorn was panicking. Georgie told me to back off and I just kept pushing her. I thought it was funny. Some great sense of humor I have. It got someone killed.

JAMIE: No, it didn’t.

HANAKO: I just watched her die!

JAMIE: You watched someone murder her. You had no control over that. If your teammate was having a panic attack, would you kill them?

HANAKO: No.

JAMIE: Because you’re not evil. Don’t blame yourself for other people’s atrocities. You didn’t make Goldie do anything. I don’t think you could if you tried.

HANAKO: I feel evil.

CLARE: Okay, I’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada and Mean Girls, like, 60 times. If it’s taught me anything, it’s that you are not evil.

HANAKO: …Thanks?

CLARE: You’re, like, okay. You know how Cady Heron—

HANAKO: No.

CLARE: Okay, so… um, you know how Anne Bolyn had a totally bad rap, but she was actually totally cool?

HANAKO: Please get to the meat of this.

CLARE: That’s kinda like you. You get a bad rap for being so prickly, and sarcastic, and having an outdated fashion sense, but you’re, like, a good person.

HANAKO: You barely know me.

CLARE: Okay, but I know enough about you to know you’re not even, like, half as bad as you want people to think you are.

HANAKO: …Thanks, Clare.

JAMIE: I hate to say this, but Clare’s right. You’re not evil. Goldie is.

CLARE: HUGS!

GEORGIE (V.O.): Clare tried to hug Hanako, but phased right through her, hitting the floor.

SOUND CUE: Thud

HANAKO: No thanks, I’m good.

CLARE: Ow.

ELLIOT: I don’t like to suggest this, but should we call the police?

GEORGIE, VALENTINA, ZABEL, HANAKO, JAMIE: No.

ELLIOT: Yeah, that was a bad suggestion.

ZABEL: I know I swore to kill Lucy and her gang if they ever came here again, but after today I don’t know if I could live with their blood on my hands.

GEORGIE: I’m going to go talk to Mom.

SOUND CUE: Footsteps

INT. ASH’S ROOM – NIGHT

GEORGIE (V.O.): I entered Ash’s room. He had taken over the space with musical instruments and posters of horror movies. Books were strewn across every surface. Ash was still asleep in his bed. Mom sat beside him, reading. As soon as I laid eyes on her, I ran into her arms. She dropped her book on the floor to wrap her arms around me.

GEORGIE: (teary) Mom.

BARBARA: Georgie, what’s wrong?

GEORGIE: I saw… Someone died today and they didn’t come back.

BARBARA: Oh honey. Was it…?

GEORGIE: No. It wasn’t one of my friends.

BARBARA: Do you want to talk about it?

GEORGIE: I don’t know.

BARBARA: It’s okay to not know. Whatever you’re feeling right now is real. Do you want to do something? Or do you just need to sit?

GEORGIE: I need to sit. With you.

BARBARA: Okay. Come here.

GEORGIE (V.O.): I crawled into my mother’s lap, taking a few moments to find a comfortable position. I closed my eyes and willed myself to remember the feeling of being in my mother’s arms, hoping something, anything, from my childhood would come back to me. When it didn’t, I held onto her tighter. I let my head rest on her shoulder while she cradled me and eventually fell asleep.

INT. ROHESIA’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

GEORGIE (V.O.): While I slept in my mother’s arms, Zabel was elsewhere in the house.…

SOUND CUE: Door opening and closing

ZABEL: (Exhale) Okay, mom’s bedroom. Haven’t been in here since I was eleven. It’s probably full of spiders…. (To Rohesia) Mom, I have no idea what to do.

SOUND CUE: Zabel digging through the closet

ZABEL: Do you have any kind of spell or… relic that could help?

BEAT.

ZABEL: What is that? Why is there a symbol in the back of the closet…?

SOUND CUE: Click and a door creaks open

SOUND CUE: Zabel gasps

ZABEL: Okay. It’s a secret room… shrouded in darkness. It’s fine. Mom probably just put all of our old Yule decorations in here.

SOUND CUE: Zabel steps inside and turns on a light switch.

ZABEL: (EXCITED GASP) It is our old Yule decorations! …And a coffin? Why would she have this? Oh hey, there’s her old record player. I wondered where that went!

SOUND CUE: Walks over to record player.

ZABEL: All of her old records are here! I wonder what this one is?

SOUND CUE: Zabel puts the record on. Rohesia’s Lullaby begins to play.

By the ground beneath my feet

And the roots that burrow deep

Seek and find,

Uncloud the mind

And wake their haunted sleep

By the tides upon the sea

And the sand upon its floor

Take this key to set them free

And walk the earth once more

SOUND CUE: Lullaby ends. Coffin lid opens and then a crash.

SOUND CUE: JUDE moans.

ZABEL: Unholy smokes! A… a zombie?!

JUDE: Where am I?