‘It was just right before your dad and myself got married. I didn’t mean to get pregnant right at that time,’ said Felicity, who finally broke the tension.

‘Mom, why didn’t you tell me that Anna was my half-sister?’ asked Willa, who was once again infuriated with her mother.

            It was at this point where Felicity told her the truth. ‘Anna’s dad forced himself on me on that night, we were both drunk. He got way too frisky and then it snowballed. I couldn’t say no, but I wanted to,’ replied Felicity. ‘Mom, he raped you and made you pregnant with Anna!’ cried Willa. Dominic interjected and asked Felicity ‘What happened after you gave birth to her?’

            Felicity replied to Dominic saying, ‘I couldn’t bear to see her, and I told her dad off for that night that he got me pregnant. Told him I didn’t want to see her until she grew up into an adult who could reason with him about his actions. Anna didn’t find out until she was 18.’

            ‘I have not talked with that man since the day I told him off. He’s most likely carried the guilt of that night ever since like I have,’ said Felicity, who was now near tears. Dominic and Willa walked over to her and comforted her, even though they were still confused by the situation.

            Dominic then took Willa out of the living room, and they went upstairs to Willa’s bedroom and began to talk more. ‘How could we have prevented this conversation?’ asked Willa. Dominic replied, ‘It was only a matter of time before this ever came up. Trust me, like the stuff with Max’s father.’ Willa was still angry with her mother for keeping more secrets but was apologetic for the situation her mom was in at the time of becoming pregnant with Anna.

            Meanwhile, over at the barn, Jennifer and Jonah began to talk about that night’s events. ‘First, Willa just disappears, then Anna kidnaps her and almost kills her in front of us!’ cried Jennifer. ‘And on top of that, we find out that they’re siblings,’ replied Jonah. Jennifer interjected, ‘Half-siblings, Jonah.’ The two were still equally frightened to know that Anna was Z but were now second-guessing if there was still someone outside of Anna and Carston in the role of Z. ‘Jen, what if Melisa faked her death and has been Z since the night, she supposedly died?’ asked Jonah. Jennifer replied, ‘That’s an insane theory, but given that she was dying in my arms when I found her, that’s highly unlikely.’

            Carston, Max, and Noemi were on the other side of the barn chatting about how Anna blackmailed Carston. ‘How did she do it?’ asked Noemi, to which Carston replied, ‘I honestly cannot remember how she did it. It’s still a mystery to me as to why she chose me to be her right-hand man for so long.’ Max then asked, ‘Why did she blackmail you?’ Carston replied again, ‘I think it’s because we were together for so long, and then we broke up so suddenly once I moved to town. She wanted payback for how I broke up with her, so she wanted the power to control the narrative.’

            As Carston posed that statement, Max and Noemi looked at each other with fearful looks. Carston asked, ‘What’s wrong? What did I say that’s got you both like that?’ Noemi replied, ‘That’s why Anna did what she did, she wanted to control the narrative! She was power hungry and wanted a perfect life like what we’ve all supposedly had for so long.’

            ‘No wonder why she completely lost it once we got to the football field. She wanted to start her life anew by taking Willa as collateral damage, whether dead or alive,’ said Max. Both Carston and Noemi agreed with the statement, and Max was right. Anna was taking Willa hostage and was bound to hurt or kill her no matter what the group wanted in return. ‘Thank God she can’t hurt anyone further,’ said Noemi, who added, ‘She was probably the most unstable person we’ve met, and kept it under-wraps for so long until the last possible second.’

            Back at the house, Felicity walked upstairs and knocked on Willa’s door. Dominic opened the door, and Felicity walked in to talk with her daughter, saying, ‘Dom, if we could have a moment alone?’ to which Dominic replied, ‘Of course, I’ll be in my room if you need me.’ Felicity closed the bedroom door and sat down next to Willa on the bed. ‘I am so, so sorry I’ve kept Anna a secret from you like the stuff with Max’s father and your father. It’s been so painful to talk about after all these years, and it never gets better watching Anna frolicking around like nothing happened. That was until tonight when she went maniacal at you and the others,’ said Felicity. Willa then said, ‘Mom, what happened was unforgivable, you being raped. It must’ve been traumatic not being able to say no when you wanted to. Dominic knows all too well about that feeling. But you, Mom, are such a powerhouse woman, that it’s hard to see you with multiple secrets being unraveled just months apart.’

            The mother and daughter once again made amends about their secrets and promised each other to tell the other about anything that’s on their mind. Outside the window to Willa’s room was the red-hooded figure, giggling to themselves and walking into the darkness away from the streetlights on a cold night in Fairlake. One night that no-one in town would ever forget.

            Now inside their house, Carston and Noemi began to talk more about if they could ever live a normal life after Z. Noemi said, ‘I wonder if life will ever be normal again, especially after the past few months.’ Carston replied, ‘It’s possible, but if something squirrely happens again in the coming weeks, we need to be prepared.’

            As the night came to an end, the duo prepared to go to sleep in their separate bedrooms, but alas, Troy came downstairs to get a late-night snack. When he did, Noemi replied, ‘Troy, what’s up?’ Her brother then replied to her saying, ‘Just came down to get a snack. I’m kinda hungry.’ He had a depressed look on his face, to which Carston then said, ‘Something else is going on. What’s wrong, bud?’ Troy, now ready to cry, said, ‘I wasn’t prepared for tonight’s events. I didn’t want to lose either one of you.’ The trio hugged each other and comforted each other as Troy was now sobbing. The siblings and their housemate finally went to bed after retrieving a snack from the freezer.

            The following morning after getting home from the grocery store, Veronica was opening up her car trunk when she found a note inside saying. ‘THE GAMES ARE AFOOT AGAIN. BEWARE OF US.’ Now terrified, she slipped the note into her jeans pocket and grabbed her groceries. Now heading inside to her apartment, she bumped into Jonah, who was moving back into his apartment after he had found it trashed weeks earlier. Veronica said, ‘Jonah, can you open my door?’ ‘Sure, Vee. I can do that,’ he replied. Upon opening her apartment door, she placed her groceries on her kitchen counter, and then told Jonah, ‘I found a note in my trunk when I was pulling my groceries out.’ She pulled the note out of her pocket and showed it to Jonah. ‘We’re fucked, big time now,’ said Jonah. After seeing the note, he texted the others in a group message saying, ‘We need to be at the barn ASAP. It’s urgent.’

            Upon meeting at the barn behind Noemi’s house, the group was shown the note that Veronica had found in her car trunk. ‘Z strikes again, so we strike back,’ said Max, who was now ready to get payback.’

            Noemi then asked, ‘What do we do now? Is this a prank or is Z really back?’ The group thought about the question that Noemi had posed. After a while, Dominic then said, ‘We need to treat this as if Z is back. This means someone that isn’t Anna is now running the show.’

            The group, now deep in thought, was ready to start playing the game again by any means necessary. Upon looking out the window, Jennifer caught a red-hooded figure over by the streetlight, looking towards the barn. Veronica walked over to the window and saw the same figure that Jennifer was seeing. Upon seeing the figure, Jennifer then said, ‘Guys, whoever this new Z person is, has been spying on us in broad daylight. Vee and I both saw the same person underneath the streetlight, even though it’s not on. 

            The group huddled around and all saw the hooded figure walking away from the streetlight and into the far distances beyond. Jonah remarked, ‘At least we know now that Z’s doing anything to keep us on our toes at all times.’

            As the group was about to break up for the day and go their separate ways, a symphony of phone noises broke out. As each person grabbed their phone and unlocked them to see the message, a sense on fear and trepidation grew in everyone’s minds as they read the message sent to them by Z, reading,

Congratulations on making it to stage 2. It’s going to be deadlier than expected, so don’t overstep the boundaries.

Love, Z.

            The group shuddered and then broke apart for the day as the words from the not reverberated in their minds.

            Later in the day following classes, Carston, Dominic, Jonah, and Willa gathered in the dining hall before heading home. Carston said, ‘Why do you think Z is coming after us again?’ Jonah added, ‘Maybe Anna’s still pulling the strings and wanted someone new to torment us in their silly little game.’ Dominic looked uncomfortable with the statement said by his boyfriend, who then held his hand. Jonah continued, ‘I get that Anna is locked up in the psych ward now, but she can still get visitors wherever she is. She’s probably giggling to herself about how she can figure out how to slowly kill us.’ Willa agreed and said, ‘He’s right. Besides, she’s probably wanting to kill me for what happened the other night.’

            As the foursome began to walk to their cars, Willa looked over to her left and saw a red-hooded figure standing in the distance. She shuddered, and walked to Dominic’s car to head home.