Tad Somersby had not been overly thrilled at the prospect of being saddled with a step-daughter, but he had most especially not been thrilled at the prospect of being saddled with a step-daughter who was...special.  Which was why she hadn't been surprised when Tad had burst into her room late one night to announce that she needed to pack her things because she was going on a trip.

Frankly, she couldn't believe it had taken him an entire eighteen months to crack.

During the year and a half that Tad and her mother had been married, her stress level had gone through the roof simply because she hadn't been able to focus on anything other than trying to hide...it...despite knowing full well that was a nearly impossible feat. But, Tad and Heather wanted to pretend their life together was perfect and she really didn't want to ruin that delusion for them.  However, the more she tried to hide...it...the more stressed out she became and the more...it...seemed to want to come out.  Naturally, at all the wrong moments.

For instance, like during one of the many fancy Sunday dinners at her step-grandparents' house.  

At the last dinner she'd been forced to attend, Tad had kept glaring at her, using his beady eyes to dare her to do anything that might cause trouble.  And she really couldn't blame him for expecting her to show herself, as he liked to say.  The week leading up to that dinner had been riddled with problems for her and as a result, poor Tad had reached the end of his rope.  After all, it was exceedingly difficult for him to deal with someone constantly disrupting his life.

So, not wanting to make things worse for either of them, she'd tried to ignore the pompous ass.  But, when that hadn't worked---because his gaze had begun to burn a hole into  the side of her head---she'd tried to get her mother's attention, hoping that Heather would allow her to go and sit in the car until the meal was over.  But, the woman had just sat there, smiling and sipping her white wine, pretending that everything was completely normal and basically being of absolutely no help whatsoever.  As usual.

She had become so flustered and embarrassed, thanks to Tad's mental death rays, that she'd spent most of those two long hours sweating bullets and trying very hard to be invisible.  It had not worked.  And as was inevitable, disaster had struck.

During the dessert course, just when she had started to think she was about to get away free and clear, the person sitting beside her---a snooty man in a really tight suit, who'd doused himself in a frightening amount of cologne, and who looked like he had something large and uncomfortable stuck up his hind-end---had accidentally knocked his water goblet over, startling her.

Well, he'd actually scared the bejesus out her, which wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been so on edge!  But, since she'd been sitting in a pool of her own suffering and perspiration for two solid hours, the clatter of his glass hitting the edge of his China plate had sounded like a bomb going off in the quiet room and that sudden racket...had sent her spilling right over the edge.

The next thing she knew, all the fancy crystal goblets on her side of the table had simultaneously exploded, filling the room with the sharp sound of shattering glass and sending shrapnel and liquid flying out through the air.  The frightened, shrieking guests had all jumped to their feet and scrambled away from the table, their fine clothes splattered with water and wine and bits of the crystal goblets they'd been pelted with.  There had been a few moments of chaos, during which she'd simply remained in her seat, mute and frozen, watching all the shuffling and shoving...and wondering just what sort of retribution she would be facing.

It had taken them a while, but the stunned and dripping wet dinner guests had all eventually calmed down enough to decide that it must have been a minor earthquake that had caused the strange incident, which didn't make sense because an earthquake wouldn't happen on just one side of the table, but she did not point that out.

Of course, Tad had been right there, encouraging the earthquake theory, but he knew the truth of the matter, and judging by the looks he'd given her, she knew she was in some really deep shit.  He and Heather had hurried her out of the Somersby estate house at the first opportunity and she'd spent the next two weeks locked in her room, only allowed out to see to her chores.

And things had pretty much tanked from there.

Over the next couple of months, she had simply fallen apart under the pressure.  As it turned out, the more her stress grew and compounded, the more damage she caused, and consequently each of her episodes, as Tad and Heather called them, only served to push her step-father closer and closer to his breaking point.

She'd wound up splintering the windshield of Tad's precious Mercedes because he'd screamed at her for not sweeping out the garage fast enough.  She'd shattered all the fancy China in the dining room hutch when Tad had threatened her with unspeakable punishment if she did anything to ruin poker night with his friends, which would have been impossible considering she was going to be locked safely away in her room for the entire night.  She'd burst the pipes in the downstairs bathroom while Tad was yelling at her over a present that Heather's dog had left in the hallway, which he'd unfortunately stepped in.  And she'd taken out every glass jar in the refrigerator when Tad had shouted at her for drinking the last of his protein shakes, despite the fact that she had not drank a single swallow of that vile swill.

It had taken her forever to clean up all that blasted pickle juice.  But, a sticky fridge, some broken dishes, and a flooded bathroom hadn't been the thing that had pushed Tad past his limit.  That final nudge had come a few weeks after summer break had ended and school had started back.

She couldn't say exactly how it had happened, but there had been an incident in her third period class that began with a lot of yelling and name calling and wound up...with her pinning the nasty Head Mistress of the elite prep school she was attending up against the blackboard for a full two minutes.  The evil old lady had deserved that and far more for the way she treated the kid under her charge, but she hadn't meant to hold Mistress Barker there for so long on purpose.  She'd just become so focused she couldn't seem to undo what she was doing.  If one of her classmates hadn't grabbed her shoulder and shaken her out of it, who know how long it would have gone on.  She might actually have crushed the life out of the old harpy, whose choked screams had echoed through the quiet hallways, prompting a lock down of the entire school.

Honestly, those two minutes had been rather satisfying for her, which worried her one some level.  She didn't want to take pleasure in causing another human pain, but reaping a bit of vengeance against an ice cold woman who used her authority to berate, intimidate, and physically accost students...well, it wasn't something she regretted doing.

Needless to say, Tad had been more than a little irate over having to explain to the school board members just how his troubled step-daughter had managed to physically restrain Mistress Barker from several feet away.  And of course the blame had been laid at her feet because, well, there had been a classroom full of witnesses...  There was no believable explanation that Tad could give, though, and the incident was chalked up to some sort of heinous prank.  And since she had refused to divulge just how she'd pulled it off, she had been asked to leave school grounds and never return.

And that was the day she knew that Tad Somersby was through with her.

Having her expelled from school meant that she'd be home all day, every day, and also that her graduation would be delayed because she couldn't be enrolled in a different school in their district for six months due to local schoolboard policy.  That meant that her enrollment in whatever college Tad and Heather wanted her to attend, likely one as far away from Savannah as she could get, would be delayed.  Which ultimately meant that Tad would be stuck with her least another year...and that realization had made Tad less than happy.  And when Tad wasn't happy, no one was happy.  Least of all Heather, who lived in constant fear that her incredibly wealthy, slightly younger husband, might suddenly decide that he no longer wanted to be married to her.

So, it finally boiled down to Tad issuing an ultimatum.  It was either the troubled step-daughter or the marriage.  It was no shock when Heather chose the marriage.

She hadn't known exactly what that meant for her, but she'd sort of assumed Tad and Heather would dump her on the steps of the nearest juvenile group home and just wash their hands of her, if that was even an option anymore.  But, as it turned out, Tad had managed to find a solution that was much better, at least for himself and Heather.  After all, having to turn their daughter over to a group home for wayward teens, or simply waiting a few months and then kicking her out into the street, would besmirch their image, would it not?

Thus, instead of a juvenile detention center or leaving her to fend for herself on the street, Tad had somehow found the town of Wyckhaven, Connecticut, which was nearly a thousand miles away from Savannah.  How he'd found Wykchaven was a complete mystery to her.  Perhaps he'd discovered the place on Facebook or X or had stumbled across some obscure TikTok account for the parents of abnormal teens.  But, whatever the search method, Tad had found a place to dump her and within only a matter of a couple of days, she was sent packing.  Her own mother hadn't even driven her to the airport.  She'd simply been stuffed into an Uber at the crack of dawn and then...forgotten.  And she knew, without Tad and Heather having to say a word to her, that she was never going to see them again.

That plane ride had been riddled with anxiety for her.  She hadn't even been told who, if anyone, would be picking her up from the airport when she landed or even where she might be staying.  The only information she'd been given was that everything had been taken care of.  Sure, everything had been taken care of for Tad!  He was finally rid of the thorn in his side!  His life was going to be officially perfect.  And so was Heather's because she was finally free of the problem child she'd never really wanted in the first place.

As for Bethalie Owens' life...well, she worried she might not even have a life for much longer.  For all she knew, there was a band of axe murderers waiting for her somewhere in the deeps of Connecticut, intending on making her their next victim.  Wouldn't that be a perfect way to get rid of her once and for all?  There's be no chance that she might somehow make her way back to the Somersby household if she was hacked into bits and buried beneath a shack in the woods.

During that long plane ride, she'd decided if that was Tad's plan, he was going to be sorely disappointed.  She might go all flaky and explode water glasses and pickle jars when she was flustered and nervous, but she could also focus when she needed to, as Head Mistress Barker had found out.  Which meant the inbred pack of toothless, degenerate mountain people harboring thoughts of turning her into some sort of stew, or perhaps breeding stock, were going to get a big surprise.  And so was Tad when he finally figured out that she was still alive and out in the world someplace...and coming back for him.

However, waiting for her at the end of her flight was not a pack of mutated, possibly cannibalistic axe murderers.  Nope.  It was something maybe even a little more frightening.

Instead of bloodthirsty cannibals, she'd found a middle aged couple and their two small children, all of whom were dressed as if they had just stepped out of the same neighborhood as the Stepford Wives or perhaps Leave it to Beaver.  The four of them were perfectly and tidily outfitted, complete with full knee skirts and dainty lace gloves for the mother and daughter, and cardigans, penny loafers, and slicked back hair for the father and son.

They were holding up a hand written sign reading WELCOME HOME BETHALIE, and they had dotted the "I" in her name with a big smiley face, which ironically did not make her want to smile.  The family holding the sign were smiling, though, and those wide grins revealed four sets of perfectly even, perfectly snow white teeth.

That family...with their perfect clothes and their perfect teeth...gave her the heebies.

Deranged mountain men she'd been prepared for.  She could try and defend herself against that sort of problem.  But, what could she do to defend herself against a Stepford family wearing knee skirts, cardigans, and penny loafers?  Nothing!  So, she had no choice but to walk up to them and hope they weren't as flat out creepy as they seemed.

That beaming foursome had embraced her as if she was a long lost relative, hugging and kissing her, telling her how pretty she was and how much they were looking forward to making  her a part of their family.  That had also been fairly creepy.  Then they had whisked her into their station wagon---she hadn't even know people could still buy station wagons---and had driven her two and a half hours away, to the town of Wyckhaven, to start what they had promised was going to be a wonderful new life.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *  

As the days began to pass, the whole starting a wonderful new life thing had remained up in the air, but in spite of that, living in Wyckhaven proved to be surprisingly pleasant.  Earth shaking and mind shattering, but otherwise, pretty pleasant.

During the first couple of weeks with the Cuthberts, she had been shuttled around town to this office or that meeting, sitting through some of the strangest...tests...she'd ever been put through and talking to some of the most...unique...people she'd ever met.

It was all mostly a blur, but she'd had her Tarot Cards read by a woman who looked about as stiff and uptight as a corporate lawyer, and was dressed about the same.  She'd had her aura studied by a man who reminded her of a high school Algebra teacher, complete with thick glasses and pocket protector.  She'd had her past lives screened by a young woman who was so artificially enhanced she must have made the majority of her money dancing around a pole.  And to boot, her name was Cherry Everhart.  No kidding.  She'd had a palmistry session with a middle aged woman who looked like a picture perfect version of a hippie, complete with bare feet, long dress, scads of beads and baubles, and a ring of artificial daisies crowning her dark hair, which hung down to her waist.  And lastly, she'd had a very unsettling "interview" with an elderly lady who looked like...well, an elderly lady...only the woman never spoke a word.  It had been the quietest, most awkward and unnerving half hour of her entire life.  She had never been stared at for so long or with such intensity, and with absolutely no explanation before or after.

At the end of the first two weeks, she was told by Mrs. Cuthbert that the tests were over.  Which was fine with her because she had to question the validity of tests involving Tarot Cards and silent interviews.  However, those tests had apparently decided how she would be placed in her new high school.  She had to admit the tests in Wyckhaven might be weird, but they were preferable to those horrid standardized things she'd had to suffer through back home.  She'd take Tarot Cards and part-time strippers reading her past lives over number two pencils and multiple choice cards any day.  And if the Wyckhaven school board was prone to using new age techniques to school their children, who was she to question?

The day after her battery of testing had been concluded, Mrs. Cuthbert had put her into the station wagon and had taken her into town.  Sitting in the corner booth in a very bright and cheerful diner, her host mother had explained to her that she was among her own kind now, that she didn't have to be afraid of being judged or ridiculed, nor did she had to try and hide who she truly was.  She was free to be herself, just like every other Witch, Warlock, Vampire, Shifter, or Werewolf who lived in Wyckhaven.

That's where the earth shaking, mind shattering part came in.

Certainly, she hadn't been shaken or shattered at first.  At first, she'd thought it was funny.  Who wouldn't?  Vampires and Werewolves?  It was ridiculously ludicrous.  But, then she'd noticed that Mrs. Cuthbert wasn't laughing at the joke, which quickly shifted her from laughing to wondering if it was safer to hitch hike back to Savannah and turn herself into the nearest juvenile detention center than it was to stay with the crazy lady who seemed to believe in Vampires.

At that point, the waitress had appeared, ready to take their order.  She had glanced at the menu, perusing mundane items such as cheeseburgers and salads, and then moving onto veggie burgers and gluten free brownies.  But, on the flip side of the menu, she found a few items that fell into the eyebrow raising category.  There was something called a Protein Platter, consisting of an 8oz, 10oz, or 12oz steak of choice, served just thawed, with a choice of any two sides.

A 12oz steak served just thawed?  That would be raw, really.  Firstly, yuck!  Secondly, why?  Were there no health codes in Wyckhaven?  Were people not concerned about E. Coli or salmonella?

Then she'd spied the menu item that had sent something cold sweeping through her insides.  On offer was a choice of beef, pork, or fowl blood, by the glass or half-pint, chilled or served at 98.6 degrees.  All natural and organic.

After reading that bit several times over, she'd asked for another menu, thinking the one she'd been given was used as a joke to freak out the newcomers.  The second menu had been exactly the same.  So had the third and fourth, after which she'd stopped asking because the waitress was getting irritated and she didn't want to risk having some sort of disgusting bodily fluid added into her food.

So, it seemed she'd been sent to a town that was inhabited by people who were...on the fringes of society.  Like, on the very fringes.  As in people who believed in such things as Vampires and Werewolves.  Or perhaps the people in Wyckhaven believed they were Vampires and Werewolves, which would explain why the local diner apparently offered just thawed steak and organic beef blood by the glass.  That wasn't such a stretch.  Could she herself not cause damage to plumbing and water goblets, not to mention pinning grown women to the wall, without so much as leaving her seat?

In a vast universe where anything was possible, even probable, surely there existed folks who believed themselves to be otherworldly, supernatural beings?  Right?

But, despite the prospect of an entire town filled with people who ran around drinking blood and scarfing raw meat, Wyckhaven appeared to be a fairly quiet little town.  She hadn't spied any blood drained bodies littering the streets, which meant she probably wouldn't have to sleep with her thickest scarf tied tightly around her neck to protect her jugular vein from roving bands of townsfolks out looking for a snack after the diner had closed down for the night.  And she probably wouldn't need to raid the Cuthbert's fridge in search of enough garlic cloves to transform her bedroom into a space potent enough to repel an entire army of self-proclaimed bloodsuckers.

Was bloodsucker an offensive term?  She'd made a note to try and find out, lest she offend someone.

After their trip to the diner, she had spent the next couple of weeks settling into her new environment.  And as it turned out, those two weeks were the mostly lovely and peaceful weeks she had ever lived.  She was allowed to sleep in late, to eat anything she wanted without being told it would make her thighs fat, to roam about the house whenever she pleased without having anyone scream at her because she had dared to leave her bedroom.

She spent her days with Mrs. Cuthbert, or Florie, as she woman had asked to be called, helping with the chores or the children or tagging along on errands she she could get the lay of the land.  She spent her evenings sitting on the porch and enjoying the cool, early October weather and the view of the colorful mountains that surrounded Wyckhaven.  She didn't think she'd ever get used to seeing those high mountains surrounding her.  In Savannah, the land went on and on, unhindered until it met the sky, but here, she was hemmed in from every direction.  It was an odd sort of feeling, but not altogether a bad one.

During those two weeks, she figured she would get to see some of the Witches, Werewolves, and Vampires that had been spoken of, but she didn't catch so much as a glimpse of anyone or anything out of the ordinary.  She saw only normal, everyday people in the grocery store and the post office and the beauty parlor where Florie had her hair styled.  Everyone she crossed paths with was completely free of fur or fangs or magic wands, which brought her a measure of comfort, but also a slight measure of disappointment.  Though, she was not disappointed enough to forego sleeping with one her scarves tired around her neck, which she'd decided might be wise to do and which she wasn't ashamed of at all.  Better safe than to wake up with a pair of sharp, enamel fangs embedded into the side of her throat.

It was on a Monday morning, just after her little two week holiday, that Florie and Frank Cuthbert had announced that she would be starting school that very day.  Apparently, even in a town reportedly inhabited by monsters, a girl couldn't get away from Calculus, which just figured.

And just like that....her new life began.