Thanks for waiting and apologies for the delay! Had some medical stuff flare up that made this simpler page a slog. Hope you enjoy, and see you next week! You can support me and Paranatural on Patreon or with a one-time donation on Ko-fi. Thank you!

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[Transcript]

        Drifting through knee-high grass in the overgrown woods behind the school, Cody parted creeping vines to reveal the Blackened Annex. All around him, summer birdsong and the humming percussion of insects filled the air. It was silence, though, that screamed in Cody’s keen vampire ears: the silence of the spirits that knew better than their naive living neighbors. Every local boogeyman and banshee understood that they’d do well to keep their distance, to keep quiet, to keep out of sight, if they were keen to keep their lives or what was left of them. The Blackened Annex, they could sense, was the den of a ravenous beast, a horrible and hungry apex predator.

        Cody knew this sort of atmosphere quite well, having grown up in the lair of one himself. Here, every shadow served as bodyguard and body double, and every creak and click and rattle was a sensory appendage, a tripwire tentacle recoiling as an echo to its master in the dark. Cody was expected, would be noticed, would be found. The front door’s black grin was the sideways smile of the Witch, widening as he walked in, and its rusty hinges’ shrill whine was the first piercing note of her laughter.

        “Fauxbia.”

        Cody’s voice, as it traveled the halls, was lost and never seen again. With eyes that glimpsed more detail in the dark, the young vampire scanned the ruined mezzanine from the threshold of the Annex.

        “Fauxbia!”

        This time Cody called a little louder. The Witch was somewhere in this burned and crumbling skeleton of a schoolhouse. Cobwebs laced the peeling walls, where chairs were stacked in sagging monuments, and faded posters advertised events to never come. In convergent evolution with the wonders of the deep sea’s darkest vents, mushrooms bloomed and bubbled from damp crevices like the fingers of the dead, reaching up for respite from beneath the rotting floorboards. Off in a corner, an oversized calendar spanning the days of a bake sale had fallen at an angle, turning optimistic tally to a dreary, sun-bleached countdown: three, it read, then two, then one—

        “FAUXBIA—”

        “You only NEED to say it THRICE at midnight in a mirror,” laughed the Fear Witch in collage from just above him. “The name holds MORE weight dropped within my WEB. As impatient as you’ve BEEN, sweet boy, I DID hear you the FIRST TIME...”

        Cody scowled as strands of yarn and tattered fabric descended to surround him from the ceiling like a car wash that befouled whatever vehicle it touched. When he looked up to meet the eyes of a dangling Fauxbia, however, Cody was back to wearing a venomously placid smile.

        “My apologies, Madam Vice President. I overcompensated trying to be mindful of your age. I was worried that my first try fell on deaf ears,” Cody beamed, “or that you’d maybe died in someone’s windowsill.”

        “Dearest Cody,” giggled Fauxbia, “when I die, it will be in my OWN windowsill, surrounded by my FRIENDS and FUTURE VICTIMS.”

        “You’ll be alone, then,” Cody answered, giving her a look of pitiless pity. 

        The Fear Witch grinned a wicked grin.

        “I’m AFRAID not, Cody sweet. I’m soon to claim ONE or the OTHER, you see... though WHICH, my boy, is UP to YOU.”

        Before Cody could so much as cock an eyebrow, Fauxbia had scuttled down the wall to loom beside him in the darkness.

        “I dare NOT guess your choice—you’ve ALREADY surprised me ONCE. I didn’t THINK you’d ACTUALLY come here!”

        “...You’re the one who asked me to,” an increasingly impatient Cody stated with a smile.

        “Yes, but YOU don’t need an invitation, do YOU? Not a SPECIAL little SPECIMEN like you... and there’s NO need to listen when I make demands, NOW is there? I’m not your FATHER, after all! Hyeck-hyeck hehh HEHH heh!” Fauxbia scuttled around Cody, stopping and snapping ahead at irregular speeds. She looked different today, as she always did, but this time she was even uglier than usual—a little more frayed, a little less human. “No, CODY, I’m just surprised that DAVY dearest let you come to SCHOOL at all!”

        Cody smiled at her in silence.

        “He didn’t, DID he? Naughty BOY!” grinned Fauxbia. 

        “...Everything’s scrambled with what you three did to the town,” Cody said, fixing his hair. “Dad’s not used to being a public figure, and most of his minions don’t remember any other home but Bayview.” Cody, too, had to think hard to remember Mayview’s lake and streams and greenery. Some memories were doubled, others simply overwritten. “Half the chain of command is in chaos, and the other half thinks today is just business as usual. It was easy to slip through the cracks.” Cody left out his suspicion that a certain puppet mayor had likely sent the limo he’d escaped in. Fauxbia already seemed to be onto the Hijacks; she could sleuth the final details out herself.

        “Tsk, tsk! You’d think they’d BE more vigilant REGARDLESS. Tonight’s a FULL MOON! All sorts of monsters ARE bound to go BUMP in the NIGHT once the sun sets...” Fauxbia grinned and licked her lips with a raggedy corduroy tongue. “What a PITY that your curfew is a CURSE you can’t defy.”

        The edges of Cody’s forced smile faltered at last. It was true; as soon as school was out, he’d have to head straight home. Those were Cody’s standing orders from the evil dad that sired him. Security, in fact, was normally much more strict on a night like this. Cody’s perfect attendance record had been ruined by how frequently he was forced to miss full moons. His dad always made some new excuse, but Cody had deduced the secret reason on his own. His mom, who’d left her family behind when she’d been bitten by a werewolf, would search for him tonight beneath the moonlight... and he would be indoors, beyond her reach.

        “Did you just call me here to get one last laugh in at my expense?” Cody sighed dismissively. “You’re the one who should dread sundown, Fauxbia. As soon as it’s dark, my father will find you and finish you off.”

        “Oh, I suspect he’ll come MUCH sooner, dear, ONCE he’s discovered that you’ve traipsed into my WEB. Still, there’s NO need to worry for me, CODY—though I’m FLATTERED and famished to hear THAT you’re SCARED for my safety. I’ve prepared certain... CONTINGENCIES, you see.” Fauxbia steepled her countless fingers into a city of rooftops, creeping closer still to Cody. “That DOESN’T mean that we’re not dangling BENEATH a deadly DEADLINE, though, my pet! You’ll have to act FAST while you’re still in SCHOOL... if you plan to uphold YOUR end of our BARGAIN.”

        “What are you talking about?” Cody asked, his furrowed brow failing to match his strained smile.

        “You PROMISED you would HELP me to escape your father’s wrath UNHARMED!” Fauxbia said with a pout, feigning offense. Her eyes flashed purple with stolen power, a reminder of the deal that she’d secured.

        “I already did,” Cody said flatly.

        “Ahh, but I was WOUNDED as I fled,” the Fear Witch hissed. Beneath her tattered masquerade, the bite marks on her body throbbed with virulent vampire venom. She, too, would be a monster by the time the full moon rose... a looming doom that she would never share with Cody. “AND you said yourself he still intends to END me. Your promise remains UNFULFILLED, my dear... which MEANS...”

        The Fear Witch snapped her fingers, and Cody’s smile died at last. His eyes went wide with fear, then sharp with fury... as a silhouetted figure slowly lowered from the rafters like a set piece to the stage.