Evelyn was worried about Nick. She had been worried about Nick ever since Walt accused him of toilet papering the park. Every time she didn’t think she had any more room to add to her worry, and yet every week something happened that expounded it. She felt like her worry for Nick was at an all time high, and somehow she knew it could get higher. This was stressing everyone out, but Nick had shut down.

  She peeked down the hall at school Wednesday morning to see Derek and Rafael chatting as Nick sat on the stairs, a hand in his hair, staring at the ground. Derek tried to involve him in the conversation, but Nick didn’t say anything. Didn’t even react to Derek’s nudge. Evelyn saw Derek and Rafael exchange worried glances before they noticed her. Evelyn hated how tears burned her eyes as she moved away. Nick felt nothing. Evelyn felt everything.

  Alejandra refused to be around Nick, so it was up to Evelyn to check on her at the beginning of the day. Their group felt fractured all over again, and Evelyn wasn’t sure what she could do other than keep probing Nick for information. Her brother knew something. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out. Derek reported that Grizzizzik disappeared, and soon after everyone could start seeing the characters. Nick had never seen Grizzizzik, so clearly the rogue did something. Evelyn wanted to blame Grizzizzik, and yet she had no proof. Tyler and Neal were both of the impression that this was something too big for Grizzizzik to do.

  The day went by quickly. It was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. Tonight, she would go with Nick to another fight with their characters. Tyler would be there, too. She was already figuring out how she could try to talk to Nick again. Every time she talked to him, he either ignored her or snapped at her. She needed someone else there. Someone else on her side. Tyler was always on her side.

  Evelyn spent most of the time stewing in her own worries. She drove her mom’s car to the store for some last minute shopping for Thanksgiving, and that was enough to distract her. The stores were packed.

  When she got home, Nick was pulling in from work. Walt walked out to help unload groceries as Nick rolled down the window. “Evelyn, ready to go?” Nick asked.

  “Go where?” Walt asked.

  “CCNC. One last session before Thanksgiving,” Evelyn said.

  Walt crinkled his nose. “Now? Isn’t it late?”

  “You already agreed to this, dad,” Evelyn said.

  Walt studied Nick closely, and Evelyn understood the hesitation. Walt agreed to this before he realized Grizzizzik was apart of their lives.

  “Fine. But you know the rules, Nick,” Walt said.

  Nick hesitated, then his face darkened considerably. Nick put the car in park before turning it off. Evelyn felt her heart pounding, preparing for a blow up. Nick got out, slamming the driver’s door before tossing the keys in Evelyn’s direction. She didn’t expect it, so they clattered to the ground at her feet.

  “Seriously, Nick?” Walt asked.

  “What?” Nick asked as he went around the car.

  “I’m getting sick of your attitude,” Walt said.

  “I didn’t catch it, Dad. That’s all. Don’t get on Nick’s case about it,” Evelyn said.

  “Give it a rest, Evie,” Nick said. “Dad’s already made up his mind about the whole thing, and once again, it’s all my fault.”

  “What did you just say to me?” Walt asked.

  Nick opened the passenger side door, shooting a glare at Walt. “How would you like me to dumb it down for you?”

  “Do you think this is funny?” Walt asked.

  “No, dad, it’s not. It stopped being funny two and a half years ago. I’m glad you’re finally catching up with the rest of us,” Nick said.

  Evelyn quickly moved to the front of Lydia’s car as Walt marched over to Nick. Evelyn scrambled to grab her purse so they could go.

  “Are you seriously mouthing off right before you leave for a game night? Are you really going to press me this hard?” Walt asked.

  “Oh, do it, dad. I’m begging you. Ground me once again. Keep me from CCNC tonight. Let me spend the whole evening here. Let’s start a screaming match that ends up with you banning me from attending CCNC tonight. Please,” Nick said.

  Evelyn grabbed the strap of her purse, wondering not for the first time what had gotten into Nick. If she didn’t know better, Nick actually sounded sincere. He didn’t want to go tonight and stay home with Walt all evening.

  Walt narrowed his eyes. “Give me your phone.”

  Nick sighed, bowing his head. “God, dad.”

  “Do as I say.”

  Nick pulled it out of his pocket and tossed it at Walt. Walt was so startled that it tumbled out of his hands. “Looks like we know where Evelyn got her catching skills,” Nick said.

  “You are going to that session so I can search your room. I assume I’ll find a second phone with a conversation from Gregory Johnson.”

  Evelyn took the opportunity to scoop up the keys and jog to the driver’s seat. Walt kept going. “Believe me, Nick, if I discover you’re doing anything illegal, I will be the first to call the police. Do you hear me?”

  Nick said nothing as Evelyn climbed into the drivers seat. To her horror, she realized Nick didn’t say anything because he was instead going into elaborate detail with his hands before showing Walt an obscene gesture.

  “Nick, get in the car,” Evelyn hissed.

  Walt had Nick’s phone in his fist. “What have you been doing with Greogry, Nick?”

  “Get in the car!” Evelyn said louder.

  “Keep threatening me with my social life until I have nothing left. If I have nothing left to lose, you won’t be able to keep me in line.”

  “You really think they’ll like that attitude in juvie?” Walt asked.

  “You’ll be so damned bored when I’m gone in April,” Nick said.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Get in the car, Nick!” Evelyn shouted.

  Nick ignored her. “You’ll have to think of something else to occupy all this energy you’ve wasted ruining my life. And when-”

  Evelyn didn’t know what else to do, so she slammed her hand down on the horn, letting it go long and loud. She let it blast as she closed her eyes, and then when the horn started to annoy her, she kept it going for five seconds more.

  She let her hand drop. It wasn’t perfect silence, as the phantom horn still sounded in her ear, but Walt and Nick had finally stopped talking and looked at her.

  “Get in the car. Please,” Evelyn said, her voice strangled with emotion as she stared ahead. She tried to will the tears away. They blurred her vision for a moment, but she blinked enough times they went away. Nick got into the passenger side and buckled himself in, glaring at the windshield.

  Evelyn backed the car out of the driveway before heading down the street, fighting the strong urge to floor it so they could get there faster. She kept blinking, refusing to believe it was because tears were forming.

  Nick had a hand in his hair, glaring at the windshield. The silence settled over them, and Evelyn hated it. She needed to talk, because it was clear Nick wouldn’t. She needed answers, and she was sick of this.

  “Why are you reverting back to who you were four years ago?” Evelyn asked.

  Nick said nothing. He kept glaring at the windshield.

  “Seriously, Nick. I need to know. Is all this stressing you out this much? Are you reverting back to acting out and yelling at dad? Are you really listening to Grizzizzik? Are you going to kill dad?”

  “No,” Nick grunted.

  “Then why are you doing this?” Evelyn asked.

  “Could you just drive.”

  “No, I can’t just drive,” Evelyn said, her hands tightening over the wheel. “You’re turning into a jerk. You’ve insulted Alejandra and you keep snapping at me. You owe me an explanation.”

  “I’ve already given you an explanation,” Nick said.

  Evelyn shook her head. “Believe me, I think I’d remember if you tried to explain why you’re doing this. It’s been a month, and none of us understand.”

  “It hasn’t been a month,” Nick said.

  “It feels like a month. A lot longer than a month,” Evelyn said.

  “Think, Evelyn. Think really hard about when this first started happening,” Nick said. There was a hint of condescension in his voice that made Evelyn glare at him before focusing back on the road. She tried to push through the anger and think about what Nick said. True, it hadn’t been a month. When did it all start?

  Her birthday. Her sixteenth birthday. That’s when Nick first lashed out at Officer Hendricks. The first time she glimpsed Nick as he was four years ago. Angry. Bitter. A strong desire to be completely unfiltered in his frustration.

  “I knew it,” Evelyn whispered. Nick finally tore his gaze from the windshield to look at her. “It’s… the car. I never should have accepted the car.”

  Nick’s face screwed up in confusion. “What?”

  “That’s where this whole thing is stemming from. Dad and Mom got me a new car, and you got Dad’s used one. You’re… lashing out because it’s finally getting to you. The unequal treatment.” There were tears in her eyes.

  “God, Evie,” Nick muttered. “I already told you I don’t care that you got the car.”

  Evelyn pursed her lips. “Sorry for not believing a lot of the things you tell me, Nick. It makes a lot more sense that this rebellion started with the car.”

  “Well… it didn’t,” Nick said.

  “Is this about Alejandra?” Evelyn asked.

  Nick glared at her. “What? No.”

  “I know she’s been angry at you. And I know how much you care about her.”

  “God, please stop,” Nick said, covering his face.

  “You’re not giving me anything, and quite frankly, I don’t like the tone you’re taking with me. So if you’re so annoyed that I’m just your obnoxious little sister, then spit it out. Tell me. Use your almost eighteen-year-old grown-up words,” Evelyn snapped.

  Nick glared at her. Evelyn couldn’t keep his gaze, mostly because she was driving. For his answer, Nick folded his arms and glared at the world again. Evelyn shook her head, feeling frustrated all over again.

  They pulled into the dirt parking lot near some hiking trails. Tyler was texting on his phone and glanced up, waving as they pulled in. Hraktar, Milo, and Grizzizzik were beside the car. Milo was tinkering with something, and Hraktar was watching Grizzizzik’s every move.

  Evelyn got out of the car, putting her phone in her back pocket. “Hey,” Evelyn said.

  “Hey,” Tyler said. “How are you two?”

  Nick folded his arms and said nothing. Evelyn was expecting him to glare, but instead his face was devoid of emotion.

  “Good. We’re… good,” Evelyn said.

  Tyler had a slight frown as he ran his gaze over her face, then studied Nick. “Right.”

  “So you wanted to meet us here?” Nick asked, his arms folded.

  “Yeah. Calawit says there’s a chimera getting too close to town. Also, have you seen these?” Tyler turned his phone around, and Evelyn walked closer. Nick kept his arms folded. She watched as Tyler scrolled through news stories about strange things happening across the country. Thin scratch marks on buildings. People hearing mythical noises in forests. She saw one where someone claimed to see fresh dinosaur footprints on the beach. Evelyn saw them, but other people said they were strange markings that sort of resembled dinosaur tracks.

  “And there’s this,” Tyler said. He tapped on a video, and Evelyn watched a copper-colored creature ramming itself against a tree as onlookers shrieked. The tree didn’t shake nearly as much as Evelyn expected with how hard that creature was ramming against it, but there was a crowd of people shrieking every time the tree moved the smallest amount.

  “How is it moving!” someone in the crowd shouted.

  Tyler sighed. “This particular video is being analyzed by everyone with internet access. Some call it a hoax. Some are certain they see something. It looks like no one can see the monsters yet, though people can see our characters. Akshi might be invisible to the world for a few more months, too.” He sighed again, putting away his phone as they heard the thundering of hooves.

  “Does any of the other groups know how this happened?” Evelyn asked.

  “None. Neal’s working on figuring it out, though. We all think something happened to shorten our deadline a couple months. The other group might have stumbled on a monster that messes with memory. We’re looking more into it,” Tyler said.

  “We’ve got to figure out how that happened, so it doesn’t happen again,” Evelyn said.

  “Agreed,” Tyler said. “The one silver lining in all this is that we now have a collection of monsters that the internet is supplying us with. Instead of traveling around the country guessing where creatures might be, we now have things like this.” He jiggled his phone with the video of the copper creature. “Neal’s collecting all the rumors and making a list of where they are. The other groups will be a lot more successful finding and killing the monsters outside Arizona.”

  Tyler glanced up, squinting at something in the distance. Evelyn realized she was staring at his face and it was probably normal for her to follow his gaze to see what he was looking at.

  Clarissa the war horse was approaching with Ezekiel on her back. Evelyn realized there probably wasn’t enough room for everyone in Tyler’s car. It wasn’t Derek’s minivan, after all.

  “Ezekiel was kind enough to go with her. Wanted to keep her company,” Tyler said.

  “That’s sweet,” Evelyn said.

  Clarissa trotted up to them and stopped before Ezekiel climbed off. The horse shuddered before it became Clarissa again. She brushed her hands over her blue dress.

  “Didn’t you want to stay in your war horse form?” Ezekiel asked.

  “Not for this battle. If Tyler is correct and it is a chimera, I will need my spells, not my forms,” Clarissa said.

  “Well, thanks for getting us here safely,” Ezekiel said.

  Clarissa smiled before giving Ezekiel a kiss. Evelyn honestly did not know why her cheeks grew warm. Tyler had turned his head to give them privacy, his eyes glancing over the other three characters before checking on Nick. Nick wouldn’t even look at Tyler.

  “I believe everything is set for the characters to go to Derek’s house for Thanksgiving and Friday,” Tyler said. “Did your dad call the police at all on Grizzizzik?”

  Evelyn sighed. “Not that I know of, but he probably did.” Her eyes landed on the rogue, and her gaze darkened considerably. Grizzizzik had a constant brooding look on his face, and she didn’t find it frightening this time. “You better behave yourself at their home, or you’ll end up paying a fine with money you don’t have,” she said.

  Grizzizzik shrugged. “If they catch me.”

  “‘If they catch you’? That’s your reply? Not ‘Don’t worry, I’ll not do anything this one day.’”

  “I don’t make promises like that,” Grizzizzik said.

  Tyler rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Goddamn rogues.”

  “Don’t worry, Evelyn,” Hraktar said, still staring at Grizzizzik. “He will behave himself.”

  Grizzizzik shot him a glare.

  “You might want to keep his rapier, just in case,” Tyler said.

  “No one touches my sword,” Grizzizzik said.

  “Then stop waving it around at people,” Milo said.

  Nick snorted, the only reaction he’d made for a while, and Evelyn was pretty sure it was because Nick’s mind went into the gutter for a second there. Evelyn rolled her eyes as Ezekiel and Clarissa broke away, holding hands.

  “Come on, everyone.” Tyler tapped on his phone to turn on his flashlight. “We’ll take a walk to find the chimera.”