Violet still wasn't sure if her presence would be welcome, but Trevor insisted on it. "If the mac and cheese is shit, I need someone to blame."

Deidra Black welcomed them in to the house, giving Violet a strange look but accepting the casserole dish anyway. "Eric's just getting out of the shower, you boys can go ahead to his room." Violet tried to follow, but Deidra said, "Bush girl. Wait a second."

Violet was marginally betrayed when Trevor, Ian, and Louis obeyed. Deidra was relatively young, but her jet black hair was already showing signs of grey. She was thin as a rail, but her composure argued she'd be hard to break.

"My sons are messes. Their dad was a piece of shit, but I don't want to give him any more power than he deserves, so I'm not going to blame that. I busted my ass raising them."

Violet was taken aback. "No one would say you didn't."

"Quiet. What I'm trying to say is that a mom can only control their kid so much. And you hope they can make good decisions and surround themselves with good people."

She smiled as much as she could. "The boys are good people. And so are you. I wish my other numbskull could find good people to watch out for him." Violet saw tears forming in her eyes, but she wrapped Violet in a quick hug before they could fall. "Thanks." She let go.

Vioet swallowed. "I...I'm glad I could help. But he's still got a long way to go."

"I know. Now go on, I need to take a shower." Violet nodded and trotted upstairs.

She found them huddled around the TV, playing Super Smash Bros. The bruising she saw on Eric's neck made her cringe, but he seemed determined and clear-eyed. And unfollowed by shadows.

Eric hit pause when he heard her enter.

"Hey," Violet said, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. "How are you?"

"Peachy," Eric said. "Except what the fuck was that thing?" He asked pointedly.

She took a deep breath. "When I was in high school, I started having dreams about one of the guys in my class. Nice guy, average student, nothing like super notable about him, we just never really talked. But my dreams about him were just filled with dread. So I got to know him, started talking with him, was a partner on a few projects, and it became clear he wasn't doing well. He just...had no fire in him. No spark, except for swim club. Even when he wouldn't do his homework, he always went to swim practice. He had a few shadows that would follow him off and on - when he was really happy, it was usually because there was a butterfly there. When he was spacey and out-of-touch, it was a swarm of flies. But normally it was some sort of fish. It was weird, I'd never seen a fish like that before, following someone so often.

"When he went to school one day and I couldn't see a shadow on him I got concerned. Now that I think about it, he had some black smoke in his eyes, but I didn't really know what I was seeing. I thought it was the bad hallway lighting. I'd never seen it before. He left school early that day and didn't go to swim club. I went to his parents house, and he was there, but his parents wouldn't let me in. Just said he wasn't feeling well. He wouldn't answer my texts. So I went home and tried to sleep, see if I could get a vision on him. I did later that evening, but all I could get was the feeling of drowning and a chain link fence. So I hauled ass to the public pool, and sure as shit his car was there. The pool was closed, but I could see him splashing in the pool. And then he stopped splashing. The gate around the pool was locked, so I had to climb over the fence.

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"I'm really bad at climbing fences apparently." She hiked her skirt up her right leg to expose a long, thick scar running the length of her thigh. She tried to avoid Ian's reaction, but couldn't help but see him wince. "Anyway I got over the fence and in to the pool. I pulled him out and tried to do CPR, and it was only then I realized I could reach further in and find shadows that have entered. I ripped a piranha out of him and tore it apart, and he coughed himself back to consciousness. I saw my blood in the water and it freaked me out, so I got us in to the pool office. I called him an ambulance and tried to patch myself up." She let her skirt down and smooth the edge.

"The doctors convinced his parents to get him in to therapy on my insistence. I didn't know how to tell him about it - I didn't realize I could show people. He was unconscious when the piranha came out. And I was really scared of people calling my crazy and trying to lock me up, so I really didn't know how to explain...anything to him. But I can tell you. I wasn't able to kill that spider, so you still need to be careful. And you need to talk care of yourself." She finished gravely.

"But," Louis chimed in. "That guys just fine, right? He's alive and living his best life? Ya'll still have brunch on Sundays?"

Violet looked at the ground. "He...he's alive. Seems to be doing well based on his social media - he's even engaged. He manic-pixie-dream-girl-zoned me and it was fucking with his recovery. Made this weird-ass bird keep appearing with him. I even talked with his therapist because the therapist was concerned about how he talked about me. So I...uh...would intentionally piss him off every so often. Try to break any illusions. And when we moved a few months later, I ghosted." She shook her head. "Seriously, I really didn't know what I was doing there, but just know he still made it even when I fucked up."

Trevor snorted. "Well, you're not allowed to ghost until we kill the spider."

"I am not going to ghost!" She said defensively.

Eric got up and held his hand out for Ian's Game Cube controller. Ian surrendered it and Eric in turn offered it to Violet. "Thanks. I'm pretty sure I've got to let you beat me a few times in Smash now."

"You're going to have to do pretty poorly because I am very bad."

He laughed and took his spot on the bed. Ian was perched on the edge of his recliner, still processing what Violet had said, but then he snapped to it and scooted over in his seat to make room for Violet. She squeezed in to the spot, slumping to get comfortable. As Eric got a new game set up, Violet leaned her head cautiously on Ian's shoulder. Ian turned his head and kissed her hair.