Season 2 - Episode 83: Anything

## Synopsis

Bjorn, Henry, Sammie, and Oliver confront River in the park by the beach. She insists that she can't talk to Henry but agrees to talk to Sammie in private. River begins to tell Sammie about her deal with the Empty Man - she agreed to let the Empty Man 'keep' her for a year. All she had to do was be his 'agent of pain' for a year and she'd get her mom back. She agreed. Numb with grief from her mom's death, she did whatever he asked. Until she met Henry. She didn't expect to like him and eventually decided she couldn't keep doing what the Empty Man said. As River speaks, deep channels of purple energy start to flood River's veins. Her eyes turn purple. She whispers the Empty Man's true name into Sammie's ear, and then she begins to crack apart with blinding purple light and disintegrates into black ash. Bjorn, Henry, and Oliver rush over to Sammie and she tells them everything except the Empty Man's name, keeping that to herself. She can now feel a tether between her and the entity. They flee the beach, now being pursued by a swarm of scarabs that first posses a man and then a shark. As Henry grabs Oliver and Bjorn grabs Sammie to fly to the Fort instead of boat, Sammie realizes she can use the power of knowing the Empty Man's name to stop the scarabs from pursuing them.

## Episode Description

The heroes know who the Empty Man's accomplice is. The question is, what are they going to do about it?

## Key Events

* Henry demands to know what's goin on from River bur River says she's not allowed to talk to him.
* River tells Sammie the truth about her deal with the Empty Man. She tells Sammie the Empty Man's true name. As she breaks her deal with the Empty Man, he takes her life and she disintegrates into black ash.
* Bjorn, Henry, Sammie, and Oliver rush back to the Fort but are pursued by a swarm of scarabs that are able to possess humans and animals.

## Summary

Bjorn, Henry, Sammie, and Oliver try to process the shock of realizing the Empty Man's accomplice is River. River sees them approach and immediately begins to panic. Chief Hanson doesn't notice them there. Henry's face is drained of color and his thoughts have frozen as he tries to process what he's seeing. As his thoughts catch back up to him, he is filled with rage. River drops the book she's reading and starts to walk into a park in a wooded area nearby. The others quickly follow her and it's not long until they catch up to her.

Henry asks her why and River stops in her tracks, she tells Henry that she's sorry but she can't talk to him and bolts away. Henry chases after her. River is running deeper into the park, away from other people and visitors in the park and on the beach. Bjorn, Sammie, and Oliver chase after Henry and River and quickly catch up. Henry grabs a hold of River's arm and spins her toward him. He tells her that she needs to talk to him and River tells him that she can't talk to him as tears start fall down her face. She emphasizes that she can't talk to Henry.

Sammie approaches and tells River they can do this the easy way or the hard way and begs her not to make her do it the hard way. River again just says that she can't talk to Henry. Sammie asks if she'll talk to her and River gets a determined look on her face before agreeing. River asks Henry to let her go, saying she needs to talk to Sammie alone. Henry forcefully lets go of River, almost shoving her away from him. Sammie and River walk over out of earshot of the rest of the crew. Bjorn tries to reassure Henry but Henry won't hear it.

River sits down on a swing and pushes herself back and forth. She doesn't talk for a while before starting to say she didn't expect Henry to be nice, she didn't expect to like him. Sammie asks River to tell her what's going on. River says that she knows who the Empty Man is, that she has since before she met Henry. The Empty Man came to her after her mom died and promised to bring her back. River winces in pain and grabs her stomach, saying she's not supposed to talk about it. Sammie crouches down to eye level with River, putting her hand on her shoulder. Sammie tells River that she can get the information out of her without her having to talk but River refuses, saying it won't make a difference.

Sammie tells her there has to be a way to get her out of this but they need to know what the deal is to do that. River says that the Empty Man made a deal with her, that he'd get to 'keep her' for a year and hurt whoever he wanted and be his "agent of pain" and once that year was up he'd bring her mom back. She admits that it was easy at first, numb with grief, but the more she got to know Henry the more he cared about him. Sammie tries to console her, saying she's being manipulated and controlled by the Empty Man.

River then admits to stealing Stanley's list. She says she didn't know what the Empty Man was planning to do with it and that she never wanted to hurt Stanley or anyone else. Sammie begins to notice dark purple lines crisscrossing and snaking under her skin, she is now doubled over in pain. Sammie tries to get River to stop talking but River keeps going, breathing heavily, and saying she can't continue to help the Empty Man or become a monster herself. River reaches out and grabs Sammie's arm.

River tells Sammie that she knows the Empty Man's true name - that she can't do anything to stop him because she's controlled by him but that if Sammie knew his name, she could do something about it. The lines under River's skin shoot up her neck and her pupils turn dark purple. River says that she wants her mom back but she's not willing to do this anymore. Sammie pleads with River to stop talking, that she's worried the Empty Man is going to kill her if she tells and its not worth her life. Tears of blood begin to roll down River's cheeks. She makes a strangled noise of pain, telling Sammie that the Empty Man will still fight them, even when they know his name. Breathlessly, she tells Sammie not to tell anyone else before leaning in close and whispering his name in Sammie's ear.

Sammie feels a rush of terrible power fill her as soon as she hears the name. She doubles over in pain and suddenly can tell there is a tether between her and a force indescribably foul. She hears an unholy screeching fill her mind and hatred boil through her veins. The sensation subsides a few moments later. As she's catching her breath, she looks up at River. Glowing purple and black cracks are opening throughout River's skin. Her skin seems to be a lilac color as bloody tears continue to roll down her cheeks. Despite this, she's smiling. She asks Sammie to tell Henry she's sorry, that she really did like him. Then, her body disintegrates into black flakes of ash.

Sammie is shell shocked, turning toward Bjorn, Henry, and Oliver as they run toward her. Her hands and arms are covered in ash. She keeps muttering that she tried to get her to stop, she tried to tell her to stop. Henry falls to his knees in front of River's ashy remains, all his moments with River rushing through his mind. Oliver wraps his arms around Sammie in an attempt to comfort her. Bjorn asks what River said and Sammie says that she can't tell them, just that she told her his name. Henry asks why she would do this and Sammie implies it's because she wanted her mom back. Sammie explains through tears that she thinks the Empty Man killed River because she broke her deal but that River did it willingly, did it for Henry and the rest of them so they could defeat the Empty Man. She also tells Henry that River said she was sorry and she really liked him.

They start to hear Chief Hanson calling for River from the beach nearby. They try to figure out how to gather River's ashes. Sammie can feel the tether in the pit of her stomach strengthening. Oliver asks if she's okay as Sammie looks like she's about to be sick. Sammie says that they know the Empty Man's name now, they have to figure out a way to contain him, maybe with some kind of circle like they used to trap the witches before. Bjorn asks what's stopping them from going straight to the Empty Man and Sammie says what River told her about how the Empty Man will still fight them and they need to use magic against him. Bjorn nods, saying they should go to the Fort. Before they leave, Sammie gathers up all that she can of River's remains in a thermos she has on hand. She carries it close to her chest.

Bjorn, Henry, Sammie, and Oliver begin to run down the beach and back to their boat. Bjorn hears a strange buzzing around them and notices a scarab beetle jump out of the sand by his foot. He then looks around and sees more and more of them, a swarm of around 40 of them attack a nearby man and crawl under his skin - the man becomes a horrible, rippling mass with glowing orange eyes. The scarab-infested man advances toward Sammie. Henry tries to swipe at the man blocking their path with his claws. He rips his throat open and black, sludge-like blood and beetles pour out. The man lunges forward and takes a bite of out Henry's face before crumpling to the ground. The scarabs leave the man's body and search for a new host, heading toward Sammie. Bjorn shouts at everyone to keep running toward the boat.

One of the scarabs rips through Bjorn's suit and bites at his chest. He feels it injecting him with something. He's able to crush and kill the bug under his shirt, but feels a burst of pain. They continue to swat bugs out of the air around them as they jump onto the boat. The bugs seem to be able to tell where they're heading and all join together in a swarm before diving under the water.

They try to get across the water to the Fort as quickly as possible. The scarabs seem to have abandoned the beach, a few people gathered around the dead body of the man they left behind. They are left alone for a few minutes before Henry spots the enormous, rippling mass of a shark advancing toward them. Henry pulls his gun and fires a shot. Henry hits the shark, scarabs pouring out of the wound in the shark's side, but the shark advances and crashes into the side of their boat. They hear a crack as the boat lurches to the side and begins to take on water.

Sammie tries to blast the shark with a fireball, but is thrown off balance as the shark rips a chunk out of the boat. She is knocked into the water with the shark. Bjorn shouts at Henry to grab Oliver and get into the air as he attempts to swoop in and grab Sammie. Sammie manages not to lose her hold on the thermos but feels the shark bite deeply into her thigh before Bjorn is able to grab her and pull her out of the water. They fly low over the water, staying out of reach of the shark, toward the Fort.

As they're flying, Sammie realizes she can feel that tether between her and the Empty Man between her and the scarabs that are chasing them. She holds out her hand toward them and tries to blast them backward with force magic, but it doesn't seem to do anything. She focuses on the tether and says the Empty Man's true name in her mind as she tries to force the scarabs to leave the shark's body. The shark seems to twitch, stop in the water, and then begin to sink below the surface.

## List of Appearances

* Bjorn Olafson
* Henry Marlowe
* Sammie Overbrook
* Oliver Allen Evans
* River Hanson
* Chief Hanson

## Roll Tracker

**Wesley Level Up:** Advanced "Investigate a Mystery" and "Read a Bad Situation"

## Harm Taken

 Andrew/Bjorn
 Hannah/Sammie