Ava Adore/Synopsis

## Ava Adore

The sky over Walker's Point is just beginning to take on the rosy hues of sunset. Fletcher is outside, standing on a second-story deck overlooking the property his parents' house is built on. He holds his cell phone up and seems to be contemplating a plan of action, no doubt unhappy with the way things ended at the stadium. He tries touching base with the other band members, but no one responds to his texting. Determined to make contact, he pulls up the hood of his sweatshirt and heads out, declaring the hard way it is.

The sun has just about set by the time Fletcher makes it to the apartment building Sean lives in within the city of Walker's Point. He gets to Sean's place and immediately notices the damage to the apartment door surrounding the doorknob. He reaches out and knocks on the door, and his rapping knuckles unexpectedly push the unlatched door open. Inside, Corkindale is standing beside Sean's father, the body covered with a bloody sheet, and he orders Fletcher not to scream. Taking the time to shut the door tight and secure, the unruffled teen tells the old man he wasn't going to. Puzzled by Fletcher's response, Corkindale admits he's not an expert on modern teenagers, but that's not what he expected, then murmurs it's not a complaint. Fletcher asks about Sean, and he's told by the old man there's no one present except for what he presumes is Sean's father.

When Corkindale still doesn't get the response he'd expect from a teenager, he complains that it isn't normal. With a profoundly weary expression, Fletcher explains he's always been … subdued, but lately it's been like someone had thrown a blanket on his emotions. He says that might just be the usual teen angst, except everyone is acting weird. He tells Corkindale that Sean is anger kid, Paulo is terrified of everything, and the girls are acting like, well, boys really. Everyone is affected, everyone but Joe.

Corkindale gives that some thought, then tells Fletcher that Sean and Sienna were in the apartment when this happened. Squatting down beside the body, he declares that the White Wolves did this, and they don't take prisoners. Catching the implication, Fletcher asks how they escaped. Head down, Corkindale says they didn't. His voice heavy with self-reproach, he states he should have seen this. There's only one group of people who could play the kids in the group, fight the wolves *and* stay hidden.

With a disgusted look on his face, he announces the devourers are here in Walker's Point.─────────────────────

Sweat dripping from his face, Sean hangs suspended from a chain that's attached to the ceiling and hooked into the ropes that bind him. He's a prisoner somewhere in the basement of the witches' mansion, the green flames in the surrounding braziers casting an eldritch light over the scene. He calls out for Sienna, asking if she can hear him. From inside her very small purpose-built cage lined with chicken wire fencing, Sienna answers him. Another voice announces they can hear him, too. Lifting his head, Sean finally notices the three women standing arrayed before him. Diana, wearing her brown robe, comments that at least he's not screaming. To her right, the similarly clad Cersei throws in not yet. Looking at the third woman, dressed like a school girl in a green sweater and a plaid skirt with tights under the skirt, Sean asks if she's Ellie, from Geometry class, claiming he knows her. Looking up at him with her green eyes lit with a violet fringe, she tells him he doesn't know her, that no one knows her. She's just the background girl, the one no one notices, the one no one sees, until it's too late. Gloating, she tells him it is. Too late.

Staring at her with sullen eyes, he asks her what she is. The three women look at him with violet tinged eyes as Ellie tells him they are the Daughters of Circe, or if you're vulgar, devourers. She explains they're the people who realized that humans are powerless in the face of Nature, and that they're the people who learned how to take that power back. Reaching out to Sean's face, she declares the question is, what is he. His natural rage starts to surface as he answers her question, saying he knows what he is: He's bait. He tells her she can give up now, because Joe isn't coming, and she might as well just kill him. Pulling her hand back, she tells him they may kill Sienna, but probably not him. At least, not yet. Then she tells him he's wrong about Joe, that he's better then Sean thinks. The witches had peeled Sean away from him, but he's still Joe … for now. With a cell phone in her hands, she walks away.─────────────────────

Looking worse for the wear, Joe stands in the kitchen with a plate of Philippine adobo over the rice he just served himself from the rice cooker that sits on the counter. Just then his phone starts sounding off in his pocket. He looks at the phone and makes a questioning sound. A picture message with text ordering Joe to come outside alone finishes loading, and he sees Sean suspended by a chain, obviously a hostage to Joe's compliance. Joe's eyes start going yellow as he recognizes his friend's perilous position. In his haste to get outside Joe drops his food, and he runs for the door. He tells himself he can't let anyone else get hurt as he reaches for the doorknob. With the door pulled open, he starts to say he's there, when he is gobsmacked by who he sees waiting on the front patio.

With a ring of violet glowing in her eyes, Ellie greets Joe at the door with a predatory smile and a hello.