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Chapter Text

Neil left Max and her mom in the middle of Billy’s funeral. She watched as he stormed out of the church and drove home to pack bags and take all the money in the house that he knew of.

When they arrived back home after the funeral, they stood in the doorway in their black dresses until Max finally had enough of just waiting for something, anything, to happen-as if Neil was going to come out from somewhere just to yell at them like always.

She stormed into his and her mom’s room, slamming the door open. All she saw was her mom’s stuff, none of Neil’s clothes or anything else of his. Her mom trailed behind her as if in shock. She froze when she saw his empty half of the closet and his empty, rummaged through drawers.

Suddenly, her mom moved, checking under a loose floorboard. “No—he can’t have,” she murmured in shock.

“Done what?” Max feared for the answer that she knew would come.

“He—he took all the money.” She said, as if she also feared her answer and what it would bring.

Max froze—she knew that it was coming, but it was different hearing it out loud.

“What are we going to do?” She murmured.

“I don’t know.”

The next thing she knew, she was boarding a flight to California—to Shadyside—to stay with her dad and Cindy until her mom figured out what to do. Max didn’t know how they had the money to send her on a flight, but she guessed it had something to do with the stash of money they found in Billy’s room-also under a loose floorboard. The flight passed in relative peace with her listening on her Walkman to a David Bowie tape.

 Max remembered when she found out that she was going back to Shadyside.

She was sitting outside of her house-well, it wasn’t really her house anymore since they were getting kicked out-taping up her skateboard. Her mom was on the phone, talking quietly with someone.

She didn’t hear much of the conversation, but she did hear one thing, “So, you’ll take her until everything is settled?”

Max didn’t know what to feel about that–she knew her mom was struggling, but she didn’t think that was enough to send her away.

Once her mom finished the call, she came outside and quietly told Max, “You’ll be staying with your dad and Cindy until I figure out what we are going to do.”

After that, everything seemed to happen quickly. She barely had enough time to say goodbye to the party. Max was immediately driven to the airport with all of their stuff in the car—they had just officially gotten kicked out—and as she got out, she turned around when she heard her  mom speak.

“Love you, sweetie. Tell Cindy I said hi.” Her mom whispered as small tears leaked out of her eyes.

“Will do.” Max rolled her eyes and headed into the airport.

Just then, she was jolted from her memory by a flight attendant announcing over the intercom, “The plane is about to begin landing, please fasten your seatbelts and remain seated.”

After she headed off the plane and picked up her luggage, Max spotted them—her dad and Cindy, her sister. Hesitantly, she walked towards them, not knowing what she would say. What do you say to family you haven’t seen in a year after experiencing everything she had?

Her dad spoke before she could figure it out, hugging her and saying, “How are you Ziggy? You’ve grown so much in the past year.”

Ziggy froze and then sunk into the hug, smiling softly. She had missed this-missed him.

Cindy spoke up, “It is good to see you, Ziggy. I missed you.”

Ziggy suddenly turned her gaze towards her sister and stared. “What the fuck happened to you? You look like you’re trying to become one of those Sunnyvale assholes even more than you were when I left.”

“Well, I definitely didn’t miss that.” Cindy responded, rolling her eyes.

“How did Alice not make fun of you wearing that outfit?” She asked sarcastically.

“I haven’t seen her since school ended, and we aren’t friends anymore either way.” Cindy replied, seeming slightly pained about something, Ziggy didn’t know what.

“So, what are we going to be doing while I’m back here?” Ziggy asked, not wanting to deal with Cindy’s relationship problems.

“Well,” her dad replied, “Cindy is working as a counselor at Camp Nightwing so, you will probably be going there as a camper.”

Ziggy froze, turning to her dad, “What do you mean I’m going to Camp Nightwing?”

Cindy jumped in, knowing that Ziggy was probably about to start an argument, “Dad needs to get more hours at work, and he can’t really do that with you around. So, we figured it would be easier for him if you just went to Camp Nightwing with me. And don’t worry, we didn’t have to pay for you.”

“Does mom know about this?” Ziggy asked sullenly.

Their dad nodded and said, “Yes, in fact, she was the one who came up with the idea.”

“So, there’s no way I’m getting out of this, then.” Ziggy said, glaring at both of them as she got into the car.

“Well, we have a full day before camp starts, so we can do things together until then.” Her dad said, trying to console her.

“Like what.” Ziggy snapped, “Stare at all the places where people got brutally murdered and speculate on who will be next?”

“Ziggy!” Cindy admonished, “We don’t know that it’s going to happen again.”

“What?” Ziggy replied, “We all know that it’s only a matter of time until someone starts murdering people.” This town is cursed, remember?”

“Sarah Fier isn’t real, Ziggy. You know that.” Cindy said, staring at Ziggy as if she couldn’t believe that she thought the town was cursed. “It’s just a legend that people use to scare their kids, ‘Sarah Fier will get you if you don’t do you chores!’”

“Really,” Ziggy replied as she rolled her eyes. She knew that there was nothing natural about how many people went crazy in Shadyside, especially after knowing that possession could really happen. “How do you explain how Shadyside is Killer Capital, U.S.A. while Sunnyvale has had no crime in decades?”

“It’s just the poverty rates, people are desperate, and they snap from the stress.” Cindy answered, sounding as if she was reciting facts from a newspaper.

“And how would you explain the fact that no Sunnyvalers have ever become killers or gotten killed in all the centuries of this happening?” Ziggy questioned, knowing that her sister probably also had a “reasonable explanation” for this.

“It’s just because of how Shadysiders don’t spend time around Sunnyvalers, so it’s less likely for them to get killed.” Cindy responded, still sounding as if she was reciting facts from a newspaper.

“Sure, if you want to believe that, go ahead.” Ziggy muttered, knowing that Cindy wasn’t going to listen to her.

The rest of the drive passed in silence, both her dad and Cindy seemed to realize that she wasn’t going to play the “happy family”-as if their family was anything but unhappy. Her parents have been divorced for years, she hasn’t seen—or really talked to-her dad or Cindy in a year, and her mom’s new husband left them while taking all the money.

When they arrived at the house, Ziggy went straight up into her old room, slamming the door behind her. It looked exactly like it was when she had left it, filled with books and the walls covered in posters. It was weird being back there, back in her childhood room. It hadn’t even been that long since she had been back there, but it felt like it was a lifetime ago. So much had happened since she left, so much about her had changed and she couldn’t even tell them anything about it. All of the NDAs she had signed prevented that, and it wasn’t like Cindy would even believe her. She didn’t even believe that there was a possibility that Shadyside was cursed, despite all the evidence proving that. So, why would she believe that another dimension existed when there was nothing she could show her to prove that. She hadn’t even believed it until she saw the demodogs herself, not even how weird everyone was acting and the fact that Steve was involved made her believe it.

Ziggy threw her bags on the floor, picked up a random book, and lay down on her bed to read. She hadn’t read anything for fun in a while, so it felt nice to be able to. She looked at the book she picked out, Carrie, she hadn’t gotten to read that yet. She didn’t really know why she had left it here, maybe she forgot it or thought she was going to visit often enough that she should leave some books to read here. She pulled her Walkman back out and read until she was called for dinner.

Dinner was exactly as awkward as she thought it would be. Her dad seemed to be unsure of what to say to her, and Cindy still seemed annoyed with her. They ate in silence for a while until her dad suddenly spoke.

“So, how has it been in Hawkins, Ziggy?” he questioned hesitantly.

“Fine.” She responded coldly, she didn’t want to talk about Billy or anything else that happened there. She wanted to act like none of it happened, at least while she was here with nobody who truly had an idea of any of it.

“That’s good,” He replied with a bit less hesitation, “Have you made any friends there?”

She nodded and then went back to eating. Her dad took that as the cue to leave her alone. The rest of the meal passed in silence until Ziggy stood up, put her dishes in the sink, and went back up into her room.

She spent the rest of the day reading and listening to music. When she finally fell asleep, she was immediately woken up by a nightmare, it felt like she had nightmares most nights at this point. She didn’t remember much of it, but she knew it was probably about Billy. Most of her nightmares were about him, whether it was him blaming her over not saving him or him dying, they were all terrible and left her shaking when she woke up.

The next day, Ziggy went to the skatepark after eating breakfast. She had missed it; it seemed like she was the only person in Hawkins who skateboarded. When she got there, it was busy. Young kids who looked like they had just started to learn were wearing helmets and kneepads and older kids, closer to her own age, were doing basic tricks. She went out and skateboarded until around dinnertime, when she finally headed back to the house.

When she went inside, Cindy looked at her and questioned, “Where were you? I thought you were going to at least try to be around?”

“I was at the skatepark, I left a note.” Ziggy responded indignantly. “And I’m going to be stuck around you at camp until Mom picks me up, so what does it matter?”

“Dad was so excited that you were coming back, even under the bad circumstances. Why can’t you even try to spend time with us?” Cindy retorted, still sounding annoyed but there was a hint of sadness in her tone.

“Well, excuse me for not wanting to play the happy family after watching my stepbrother die a week ago.” Ziggy replied sarcastically as she rolled her eyes and stormed off to her room to drop off her skateboard.

Cindy stared at her in horror, “Why are you acting so casual about that?”

“What do you expect me to do? Sob every time that he is mentioned. I may feel bad for him but he was a terrible person.” Ziggy did feel guilty over his death, she had wished that he would die when she was pissed off at him but she didn’t think that it would ever happen. She didn’t want Cindy or her father to know about it though.

Cindy started as if she was going to go after her but stopped herself. She sighed and muttered, “Well, excuse me for wanting to actually spend time with my little sister.”

Ziggy was only in her room for a couple of minutes before she was called down for dinner. Dinner passed in silence since Ziggy refused to talk, Cindy was annoyed with her, and her dad finally seemed to get that she didn’t want to talk.

Once dinner was done, Ziggy went back to her room and finished reading Carrie. After that, she packed her stuff for camp and fell asleep.

The next morning, her father drove her and Cindy to Camp Nightwing. Ziggy had gone there every year she was able because it was a “tradition”, which was bullshit. Her parents hadn’t ever gone, she just went because of Cindy.

When they arrived, Cindy ran off to help with check-in as one of her duties as a counselor and Ziggy waited by the car until her dad forced her to go check in. She stepped into the line and waited for her turn. When she was finally at the front of the line, she went to her sister’s boyfriend, Tommy.

“Hey Ziggy” Tommy said, “How have you been?”

“Fine” She responded. “Can you just check me in?”

“Of course, you’re in Cabin 5, Cindy’s group. I think she picked a bed for you by the window.” He replied cheerfully.

“Ok, bye Tommy.” Ziggy responded as she walked towards her cabin. As she walked past Nick Goode, she saw him look at her. Ziggy looked over her shoulder and glared at him, she didn’t want to deal with Sunnyvale assholes, especially not the future king of Sunnyvale himself.

As she stepped into her cabin, she saw that it was the exact same as last year, down to the bed assignments. Ziggy wasn’t surprised that she was in cabin 5, she was always in Cindy’s cabin after she became a counselor. She just hoped her cabinmates—and Cindy—would leave her alone.

After she dropped her stuff off, she picked up a book that she packed and headed to sit under the hanging tree. She sat there for a few hours until she heard the announcement that it was lunchtime come over the intercom. She stood up, dropped off her book in her cabin, and went to go eat lunch. After lunch, she was forced into some activities but was able to escape until dinner.

She couldn’t escape the first night campfire, so Ziggy sat by the flagpole. The camp flag was close enough to reach it standing up. So, after the campfire when everyone started heading back to their cabins to prepare for bed, she grabbed it and flung it in with the slowly dying embers of the campfire. As she watched the fire blaze back up and consume the flag, Cindy stormed up to her.

“What did you do?!?” She yelled, Tommy trailing behind her.

“What do you think I did?” Ziggy rolled her eyes. Wasn’t it obvious what she had done? She was the only person around and the only one that was by the flagpole.

Cindy glared at her and said, “I am not dealing with you tonight, I’ll tell the others tomorrow and they can help me figure out what to do. But for now, you are going straight to bed.”

As Cindy escorted her back to her cabin, Ziggy glanced at the still burning flag and smiled. She hated this fucking camp and burning their flag really helped to let out some of her frustration and anger.

The next couple of days passed in mostly the same way, with Ziggy pissing off pretty much every single counselor and camper–especially the Sunnyvalers–and getting in trouble most days. It felt like the only person in the camp who actually liked her was Nurse Lane, which made sense because of the number of times she had to go to her for help.

It seemed like the whole camp would be like this, until everything changed on July 19th, the first day of color war.

Chapter Text

Ziggy ran through the woods cursing. She had just stolen some money from Shiela. She didn’t know why she did it; she was just pissed off at her and wanted to get back at her for being such a bitch towards her and all the other Shadysiders.

This was exactly why she was happy that she had left Shadyside. Hawkins might have had a portal to another dimension, but at least people didn’t look down on you for the town you were born in and act like it was only a matter of time until you started massacring people.

Suddenly, a boy appeared in front of her and swung his arm out. Ziggy couldn’t stop quickly enough; she ran straight into his arm. She fell to the ground, coughing and gasping as her nose started to bleed . As she lay there trying to recover, Sheila and her gang surrounded her.

“You’re gonna hang, witch.” Sheila spat out.

“Before the witch’s final breath, she found a way to cheat her death.” They grabbed Ziggy and started dragging her through the rough grass

Ziggy tried to break free from their hold, but they were holding on hard enough to practically cut off circulation to her hands. As she felt nails dig into her skin harder in response she exclaimed, “Oh God!”

They continued her chant without pause, “By cutting off her wicked hand, she kept her grip upon our land!”

- Ziggy suddenly realized where they were dragging her as the hanging tree loomed in front of her.

How could something that always seemed comforting suddenly feel so terrifying, she wondered. -

“She reached from beyond the grave, to make good men her evil slaves. She’ll take your blood, she’ll take your head, she’ll follow you until you’re dead.”

Ziggy was thrown to the ground as rope was tied around her hands and thrown over a branch of the hanging tree.

“String her up.”

It dawned on her what they were planning on doing to her. “No, stop it! Stop it! Stop!”

As Ziggy was dragged up by the rope, she turned and faced Shiela. “Let me down, you shits! Let me down!”

Sheila walked towards her angrily and dug through her pockets, grabbing the money that Ziggy had stolen from her and holding it up as she smirked. “Well, well. What do we have here?”

“Goddamn thief!” Will Goode chimed in angrily.

“No. No, she’s no thief.” Sheila said, mockingly. “She’s possessed by the witch. The only way to explain her psycho behavior.”

“Fuck you!” Ziggy swung her elbow towards Sheila’s face, hitting her straight in the nose. She smirked as they all gasped in shock and horror. “Guess we’re even now.”

Shiela’s nose started to bleed, although not as bad as her own. “You do know what they did to Sarah Fier, right?” Sheila’s anger was practically visible now. “They hanged her, from this very tree.” Sheila glanced up towards the tree, smirking mockingly again as she stepped closer to Ziggy. “But she’d have died forever if you did what you always do to witches.”

Ziggy could feel the pit in her stomach growing deeper and deeper. 

“You burn them.” Sheila turned towards Will. “Give me your lighter!”

“What?” Will responded in confusion.

“Give it to me!” Sheila demanded, striding quickly towards him and snatching the lighter out of his hands. “Now, hold her legs.”

The other two girls in Sheila’s gang glanced at each other looking slightly concerned. “Seriously, Sheila?”

Oh yeah, now was totally the right time to be concerned. Not when they started tying her to the tree.

“Do it!” Sheila flicked the lighter open and looked at the two girls.

As they started to grab her legs, Ziggy struggled to escape their grasp. “No, no, no! Stop it! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!” No matter how hard Ziggy struggled or how loud she yelled, they wouldn’t let her go.

Sheila started sauntering  towards her. “Shut up, you witch!”

The remaining girl who wasn’t holding on to her legs suddenly spoke up. “Sheila! You made your point.”

Ziggy started begging Sheila,“Don’t! Don’t!” 

“Sheila, it was only ten bucks.” Will responded, looking up at Sheila.

“Are we really gonna do this?” The other girl said, sounding distressed.

“Sheila!”

Ziggy struggled to get away from her, but she could barely move because she was being held in place by both the rope and the others. “No, no, no!”

“Sheila!”

Ziggy screamed as the flame from the lighter touched her skin. She didn’t know how lighters could get this hot. It felt even hotter than the time she accidentally burned her hand on the stovetop flame.

Suddenly, she heard a loud whistle, which caused Sheila to turn off the lighter and glance toward the sound. Two counselors were heading towards them, Kurt and Nick, both of them were Sunnyvalers, of course.

Sheila panicked as she turned towards them. “Shit! Will, your brother!”

They had caught Sheila red-handed.

Nick started to run towards them. “The hell is this? Let her down!”

Will let go of her and started to head towards him. “Nick, I can explain.”

“Let her down, Will! I swear to God I’ll tell Mom!” Nick replied angrily as he stared at his brother.

Will turned and untied the rope from the tree, letting Ziggy fall to the ground.

Nick bent down to help her untie the rope binding her hands and then helped her up. Ziggy glared as she stood up and stood a few feet away from her captors.

Once she was standing with the others, Kurt looked at Sheila and asked, “What happened?”

Sheila responded, probably glad that they asked for her side first, “I went back to my cabin, the door was open. The next thing I knew, all my money was gone and Ziggy was just sprinting away.”

“Because you were chasing me!” Ziggy snapped.

Kurt stopped walking and turned towards her. “Ziggy! You talk when I tell you to talk.”

Ziggy rolled her eyes; she knew from experience that they wouldn’t take her side.

“Did you see her take it?” Nick replied, trying to be the reasonable one.

“Everyone did.” Will replied.

“Everyone.” The girls chimed.

Ziggy knew that they hadn’t seen her take it, she was the only one by the cabins.

“Alright.” Kurt replied, putting his whistle back around his neck. “Well, that’s it, Berman. Five strikes. You’re out.”

“I’m out? They just tried to murder me!” Ziggy responded angrily, gesturing at Sheila and her gang.

“Yeah. And I’ll deal with them.” Kurt replied angrily.

- Ziggy knew that he wasn’t planning on dealing with them or punishing them in any way.

That’s how it always went with Sunnyvalers, they always took each other’s sides and punished the Shadysider. Even if they weren’t the ones at fault. –

“But first, get back to camp, call Daddy because you’re done at Nightwing.” Kurt said mockingly.

“I didn’t do it.” Ziggy replied.

“Oh, yeah?” Kurt replied, clearly not believing her as he steadily increased in volume. “Just like you didn’t set the camp flag on fire? Or let out the camp rabbits? Or graffiti the outhouse stalls? I warned you—”

“Kurt. It’s not her fault, really.” Sheila turned towards her, starting to smirk. “She’s possessed by Sarah Fier.”

Ziggy turned towards her, ready to fight. “Oh, you…”

Nick suddenly grabbed her to keep her back from Sheila.

“Hey, hey, Hey!” Kurt said, pointing at her.

“Hey, hey.” Nick replied, trying to calm her down.

Nick turned towards Kurt, still holding on to Ziggy as she tried to get away. “Look, we kick her out, somebody’s gonna ask about the burn on her arm. Then who’s in trouble? Huh?”

 Ziggy jolted in surprise; Nick was taking her side. She didn’t think that a Sunnyvaler would ever do that, especially not someone who was practically the king of Sunnyvale.

“Why don’t we just let this one slide? Yeah?”

Kurt glanced to the side, clearly not wanting to let her go but also not wanting to piss off Nick. “Alright. One more strike and you’re out for real. You hear me, Berman? One more.”

Nick let her go. “Being bossed around by a Goode.” Ziggy smirked, glancing between them. “Wow, some things never change.”

She strode off back towards camp, glad to get away.

As Ziggy walked through the woods back towards camp, Nick caught up to her saying, “Hey. Better have Nurse Lane check that burn out.” Nick grabbed her arm, trying to look at it.

Ziggy pulled away from him. “No, I think I’m just gonna let it get infected and die.”

“What, I don't even get a thank you?”

Ziggy turned, glaring at him as he stood there with his hands on his hips clearly expecting her to be grateful for him doing the bare minimum. “Oh! I’m sorry I forgot!” She replied sarcastically. “Thank you, King of Sunnyvale, future Police Chief Nick Goode, for rescuing poor, helpless Shadysider me! How could I ever repay you? Oh, I know. I’ll bat my eyes at you, like all the other dumbass girls.”

Ziggy walked away, flipping Nick off as he stood there, still watching her.

She started walking through camp. Everyone was preparing for Color War, Ziggy didn’t know why they even bothered to be so excited about it, especially the Shadysiders. They  all knew that Sunnyvale was going to win and then gloat about it for the rest of camp, until the cycle repeats next summer.

As she walked past Gary and Joan handing out t-shirts for color war, she heard them talking.

“Hey Color War begins tonight, guys! Line up and grab a shirt!” Gary announced as he waved around a shirt while a girl headed up to him. “Do you have a shirt?”

Joan was being her unnervingly cheerful and optimistic self as usual. “Blue is for beautiful, if you live in Shadyside. Red is for radiance if you live in Sunnyvale.”

Ziggy didn’t know how she could be so happy, she was stuck in Shadyside just like the rest of them—well besides her, but she was stuck in a different hellish town.

“Despite our differences, we’re all perfect!” Joan turned towards her as she tossed a shirt at her. “Even you, Ziggy Berman!”

Ziggy caught it, rolling her eyes as she walked away. She sure as hell wasn’t going to participate in Color War and she especially wasn’t going to wear their stupid shirt. She’ll just toss it in a box with the rest of her Color War shirts.

She continued walking to go see Nurse Lane as she passed the outhouse, she could see Cindy and Tommy kneeling and scrubbing it. She didn’t know why the counselors always cleaned before Color War; it wasn’t like there was anyone to impress. And the outhouse was always dirty and covered in red moss, so why bother.

Ziggy walked into the medicine hall, opening the door as the bell rang; it was empty. There wasn’t even a single camper getting sunscreen or bug spray, which was weird. Usually there was at least one other person in there.

“Nurse Lane! Hello!” Ziggy called, glancing around as she shut the door behind her. “I’m in trouble again. Help.” She put her hands on her hips as she looked around again at the empty, silent room. “Nurse Lane, come on! I could die any minute now!”

Ziggy turned to the right and saw the door to Nurse Lane’s office was ajar. “Nurse Lane?” She said as she walked towards the office, glancing in. “Nurse Lane?”

It was seemingly empty, her chair was pulled back, and her cardigan was left on it. There was an old-looking book lying open on her desk.

Ziggy walked towards the desk, grabbing the book to examine it. There was a newspaper clipping on one page featuring Ruby Lane and a drawing labeled the ‘Witch’s Mark’ on the other.

“What are you doing?” Nurse Lane questioned as she appeared behind her.

Ziggy turned around in shock, she didn’t think that Nurse Lane could sneak up on her with how creaky the floorboards were. “Oh my God! Nurse Lane, you scared the shit out of me.” She took a deep breath; she was jumpier than usual. Nurse Lane looked tired and something was clearly wrong. “Are you ok?”

Nurse Lane let out a small sigh and sniffed like she was sick as she quickly shook her head. “I am. Oh my goodness.”

-Ziggy ran her hands through her hair to pull it back from her face, she didn’t fully buy that Nurse Lane was ok. She was acting off, but maybe she was just sick. She did hear that some kids might have had a cold.

Nurse Lane shifted her weight and stood up straighter. “Ziggy, Ziggy, Ziggy. What did we do now?”

Ziggy glanced at her burn, which was now fully showing after she pulled her hair back.

Nurse Lane led her to the beds as she grabbed some ointment off a shelf, sitting across from her on the next bed and holding the container up. “Ok, so you are going to apply this once a day for three days. Ok?” She opened the container, putting some on her finger to apply as she said, “It’s gonna protect against infection.”

As Nurse Lane started to apply it onto the burn Ziggy said, “It’s gross.”

Nurse Lane scoffed as she smiled softly. “You’ll survive.”

Ziggy glanced back towards her office; she was still wondering about the book. “So, um… what’s the Witch’s Mark?”

Nurse Lane looked up slowly, letting go of her arm as she closed the container. “You know about my daughter, right? Ruby Lane?”

Ziggy froze, glancing back and forth between Nurse Lane and the wall. “Uh… I don’t—”

Nurse Lane cut her off quickly, dismissing any thought she had of denying to know about Ruby Lane. “Of course you do.” She shook her head, still looking down. “Everybody talks, I know. Tell me, what do they say?”

“Uh, um… They say she, uh…” Ziggy said hesitantly. “She killed people… at a party.”

Nurse Lane looked even worse now, if that was possible. It seemed like she was staring into nothing, lost in memories.

“Seven, seven friends.”

“Eight.” Nurse Lane corrected as she looked back up at her. “She killed herself that night too.” She stared deeply at Ziggy as she slowly spoke. “So eight.” She looked down again, lost in memories long past and forever tarnished by what her daughter did. “Ruby was such a sweet girl.” Nurse Lane closed her eyes as she reminisced about what was lost. “Oh, and she had a sweet voice. She was in choir.” She looked back at Ziggy as she told her about her daughter. “She wanted to be a singer.”

Ziggy felt sorry for her, it must be terrible to lose a daughter and not be able to mourn her because of what she did. It felt similar to how she felt about Billy.

She may have hated him and sometimes wish that he died, but she still mourned him. Even though it seemed that the rest of the party didn’t understand or really care that he died.

“I was so proud of her.” Nurse Lane grabbed a roll of bandages as she talked. “So proud.” She unrolled the bandages and started wrapping them around the burn on Ziggy’s arm. “The doctors say it was a psychotic episode, that she just snapped.” She said the last part venomously, clearly not believing what the doctors had said. “But the kids…” She spoke quietly, gaining more strength as she spoke, wrapping the bandage tighter. “the kids say Sarah Fier made her do it.”

“That’s a little tight.” Ziggy glanced at Nurse Lane nervously.

“What do you think?” She questioned, not stopping as she kept wrapping the bandage tighter and tighter around her arm.

“I don’t—” Ziggy was scared, Nurse Lane had never acted like this.

She kept wrapping the bandage around her arm, not pausing for a second. “Cause I think you don’t go from being a sweet girl with dreams to ripping someone’s insides out with a switchblade.”

“Nurse Lane!” Ziggy looked between Nurse Lane and her arm as she panicked, she needed to get her to stop and get someone to check on Nurse Lane. Something was clearly wrong.

She continued as if she hadn’t heard Ziggy. “People usually kill for a reason, and sometimes that reason is justified. Sometimes killing isn’t murder. Sometimes it’s necessary.”

“Nurse Lane, that’s kinda hurting me.” Ziggy said stiffly, grimacing as the bandage dug into her skin.

“Sometimes it is good.”

“Nurse Lane!” Ziggy turned as she tried to get her attention to get her to stop and snap out of it.

Nurse Lane jolted, snapping out of it as she looked up at Ziggy.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Ziggy, breathing heavily relieved that it was over but still scared and worried, and Nurse Lane looking at her blankly as if the past few minutes hadn’t happened.

Nurse Lane turned and grabbed the medicine as Ziggy slowly put her arm down. “Once a day for three days, ok?”

Suddenly, the door opened, and they both turned as Cindy walked in, smiling, clearly angry but trying to hide it. “Hi, Nurse Lane.”

Ziggy stood up quickly, she needed to tell Cindy what happened. Hopefully she will know what to do with Nurse Lane.

“Hi, Cindy.” Nurse Lane responded, smiling as if everything was fine.

Cindy turned to her, dropping the smile and letting her tone show her anger. “Ziggy.” Her head tilted like it always did when she was about to lecture her. “Come with me.” She gestured at Ziggy, waiting for her to follow her out.

Ziggy left quickly, she knew that Cindy had probably already heard about what happened with Sheila, but hopefully she could get her to stop lecturing her long enough for Ziggy to tell her about what happened with Nurse Lane.

Cindy immediately started to lecture her once they stepped outside. “You realize what happens if you get kicked out, right? How awful that would be for me?”

Ziggy ignored her, asking instead, “You know, did someone do something to Nurse Lane?” She stopped walking, looking at her sister. “Like make fun of her daughter or something?” She glanced back towards the building.

Cindy looked at her in irritation. “Ziggy, are you listening to me?”

“She was upset.”

“I don’t care! I…”

Cindy paused as she tried to calm down.

“Do you hear what I’m saying to you?” Cindy asked, trying to get her to listen.

Ziggy knew Cindy clearly wasn’t going to listen to her. She sarcastically responded, “Loud and clear, ma’am.”

“Well clearly, you don’t. Considering how many times we have had to have this conversation.”

“Yeah, and again I’m not going to get kicked out. Everyone knows that I’m only here because my stepfather left mom and took everything after my stepbrother died, they wouldn’t kick out a grieving kid with nowhere to go.”

Cindy dismissed her as she always did, especially when she brought up mom or Neil. “That’s not what Kurt thinks.”

“Yeah well, Kurt can suck it.”

“No!” Cindy grabbed her arm, forcing Ziggy to face her. “Ziggy, no! If you get kicked out, I do too.”

Ziggy rolled her eyes, that rule was total bullshit. They wouldn’t do that to any Sunnyvalers, even if they acted worse than her.

“Dad can’t work and take care of you, and Mom can’t take you until she finds a new house.” Cindy responded harshly. “Then how will I pay for college, huh?”

Ziggy scoffed, smirking.Cindy might be the best student in her grade, but she was still poor and from Shadyside. The only reason she had gotten out was because Billy broke a Sunnyvaler’s arm and Neil would rather pick up everything and leave town than deal with the consequences.

 Cindy looked at her incredulously. “Oh, that’s funny to you?”

Ziggy laughed, “Yeah, kinda.”

She knew that this was important to Cindy, but she was so tired of her acting like a totally different person in an effort to be better than the rest of Shadyside so she could get out.

Cindy chuckled like she was going along with Ziggy before going back to her angry tone as she followed her. “Explain to me what’s so funny.”

“How dumb you are?” Ziggy asked without looking back.

She didn’t know how Cindy thought acting perfect would help her get out. Sunnyvalers would still look down on her and everyone knows that she wasn’t always perfect.

“No one gets out of this town without losing something, not even Miss Perfect.” She looked back at Cindy, getting closer to emphasize her point. “Bet on your way out you get run over by a bus.” She remarked sarcastically.

Cindy seemed shocked by her statement. “Once in your life could you just not be so… so mean?”

Ziggy stopped walking and turned to face Cindy. “Could once in your life could you just stop pretending?”

Cindy had always been an overachiever, but after the divorce she had started to get worse, never allowing herself to relax or letting anyone do anything against the rules.

Ziggy grabbed a blue Color War shirt, tossing it at her sister, “You’re Shadyside, in case you forgot.” She turned around and walked away, clearly Cindy wasn’t going to listen to her concerns and was more worried about her getting kicked out.

Ziggy walked back towards the cabin, still worrying about what happened with Nurse Lane. After a while, she heard someone someone say, “The police are here!” and somebody else say “Nurse Lane attacked Counselor Tommy!”

She headed back with the crowd towards the center of camp. Paramedics were wheeling a stretcher into the Mess Hall as Tommy and Cindy were being interviewed by a cop. She wondered if it had something to do with how strange Nurse Lane had been acting that day. 

It seemed like the whole camp was watching as Nurse Lane was wheeled out on a stretcher. Ziggy was watching by a tree with her arms crossed. Suddenly, Sheila and two of her friends came up beside her.

Sheila grabbed her arm, causing Ziggy to face her, as she smirked and sarcastically said, “Hey, witch. So sorry. I know you and Nurse Psycho were close. I guess you can visit her in jail now.”

“Fuck off, Sheila.” Ziggy said, done with Sheila and her bullshit.

Sheila stepped closer, her smirk widening, “By the way, you might want to check your stuff. I think there was an accident in cabin five.”

Ziggy glanced between Sheila and her gang. She knew whatever was in her cabin was no accident. Sheila had done it in revenge.

She rushed off, ignoring Sheila as she called out, “Hurry, witch! Run!”