Disaster had struck Bea and quite hard, it was the night of the Rave'N, well almost, and the severity of the situation had begun to dawn on her.

Wednesday even managed to snag a date, it was Xavier, though she'd mentioned her ulterior motives to Bea and her findings in the shed in the woods. It still made Bea feel poorly, it meant she'd be rotting away with Eugene or something trying to chase a monster and most likely dying in the process. It would be an imaginative way to go out, but hardy noble.

Enid rushed to Bea's side and hugged her tightly, the warm embrace brought a wave of emotions to Bea and now she'd begun to cry. She had held herself for so long but now everything had begun to fall apart.

"You go get ready with the girls, I'll call Tyler." Bea said, she wouldn't dare go to the event in regular clothes, maybe it was her ego, or because she wanted her first Nevermore dance to be absolutely perfect, her concerns were understandable for a teenage girl.

Bea's hand began to shake as she tried to dial the boy, she finally managed to press the button and call him. She held her breath as the device began to hum, and of course Tyler picked up immediately, and the girl could breathe again.

"Hey what's up." Tyler said, he sounded slightly distracted, meaning he must be getting ready.

"Tyler we can't go to the Rave'N." Bea mumbled, she tried to mask her tears, but was failing in doing so.

"What, why, are you okay?" Tyler asked, his voice only brought more tears to her eyes, his kindness and soft voice was just too much, she was failing to pull herself together.

"I couldn't find a dress and now I have nothing to wear and I'm having a mental break down right now." Bea said abruptly, she was gasping for breath from just speaking, and the crying wasn't helping, she had to tone it down before she reached that critical state where she began to hyperventilate.

"Don't worry about a dress, I figured you might not have found one in time." Tyler said, he'd never seen the girl exit the boutique with a dress, and she hadn't ever described it to him once. So he knew exactly where to look.

Tyler headed to the basement, his father was perched on the couch with a beer in hand and eyes glued to the television.

"Where are you going?" Galpin called out, his eyes diverted to his son, who was paused in the entryway to the basement.

"The basement." 

"Don't you have a dance to be getting to." Galpin added, he turned his head in confusion at Tyler's white suit, only now was he noticing the strange colors.

"Bea doesn't have a dress." Tyler said, he continued down the steps to the basement, it was a sort of storage place filled with all sorts of things, including Tyler's mothers dress from when she attended the Rave'N. Sure the dress was a little outdated and didn't match the theme, but it was still lovely.

Tyler returned with the dress in hand, it was covered in a silver Macy's clothes covering, only the hanger was visible at the top.

"Now-, oh what the hell, at least that thing won't be locked away anymore." Galpin said, Tyler was deeply surprised by his fathers change in heart, he was assuming that he'd have to sneak it out of the house, but the sheriff was in a charitable mood and was trying to let his son have a good time.

"Thanks Dad." Tyler said, he put his coat on and headed out the front door with the dress in hand. Galpin had the smallest smirk on his face, he was just glad to see the boy happy for once, even if it was by the likes of an outcast.

Tyler reached the Nevermore gates in under fifteen minutes, and as he approached the rackety looking hunk of metal the music began to play inside the Rave'N. The boy was quick with his actions and rushed through to the school. He'd been given vague instructions by Bea on how to get to Ophelia Hall, but he wound up getting lost somehow. 

He eventually came around and reached the door to Bea's dorm room, he knocked and waited patiently for someone to open it.

The doorframe cracked open and there stood Bea with a face full of tears, she hugged Tyler and buried her face in his chest, wetting his shirt and jacket.

"Woah woah, everything's okay." Tyler said, he held up the dress (masked in the macy's bag), Bea took the item and asked for Tyler to wait patiently outside. 

A few minutes passed and Tyler began to worry, though that quickly melted away when Bea reopened the door and stood before him. Her tears had miraculously disappeared and her hair was styled, and of course there was the dress. 

It was a dark shade with such a lovely design, it fit the girl perfectly, just as it did his mother. If only she were here to see this moment, it would have brought a smile to the woman's face. For now, Tyler just had to be happy in place of his mother, his smile was wider than it had ever been before, causing Bea to blush at just the sight of it.

"Why are you looking at me like that." Bea teased, she covered her face with her hands, which Tyler removed quickly.

"Because you look amazing." Tyler said, he stretched out an arm for the girl to grab a hold of. Bea held on tightly and walked beside the boy, she let out a laugh of joy, she couldn't contain her happiness.

"I'll stand out so much." Bea sighed, she wasn't insulting the dress, just the fact that she would be the only one wearing something dark, that was untrue since Wednesday had already stolen the show with her stunning black dress.

"That's a good thing y'know." Tyler teased. 

The pair had reached the entrance to the Rave'N, and inside you could hear loud music blasting and the usual buzzing sound of chatter. Bea just adored the white decorations inside, it completely transformed the space into something new.

"This is incredible." Tyler said, he was even more awestruck than Bea was, though it was only natural given that he didn't attend Nevermore, his normie dances were far inferior to the ones held at the Rave'N.

"Nevermore doesn't mess around." Bea teased, the two were greeted by Weems and Thornhill, Bea felt like she ought to introduce the boy to her teacher. "Mrs. Thornhill this is Tyler-."

"Galpin." The woman said, Tyler shot the woman a strange look and quickly recovered with his remark about her usual order at the Weathervane.

"Vanilla Latte Decaf?" Tyler pointed to the woman as he said the words (i forgot the drink name lmaoo), Thornhill nodded and smiled, she then placed her attention on Bea.

"It's a small town Beatrix, we all know each other." Thornhill beamed, her smile was certainly uncanny, though in the moment Bea was too stupid to realize.

"Beatrix?" Tyler asked in confusion as the two walked away from the scene.

"Yeah, Bea's my nickname." Bea said, she only ever really heard her full name when she was being disciplined or spoken to by teachers and higher ups like that.

"I like it, it's latin i'm assuming." Tyler said, he was right on.

"Mhm, my parents didn't want me having a boring name like Emily or something." Bea teased (no offense Emily's 😭). Tyler laughed at the girls expression and poured himself a drink in the meantime, as well as one for Bea.

"Lucas is here." Bea noted, she spotted the boy speaking with Enid, she remembered briefly speaking to the girl about her plan to make Ajax jealous and how Lucas had managed to get tangled up into it, but the two surprisingly seemed to be having a good time together.

"Let's just try and forget about him." Tyler said, he sipped on the punch, which he'd expected to be spiked. Weems would never allow such a thing.

"I don't think we have to, he seems very preoccupied." Bea said, she was watching as him and Enid rushed to the dance floor after a very strange conversation between Ajax and his date who happened to be Lucas' ex.

Bea eventually spotted Wednesday on the central floor dancing to Goo Goo Muck by the Cramps. She grabbed a hold of Tyler's hand and rushed to the dance floor.

"C'mon let's go watch Wednesday."

A/N: At this point Wednesday and Tyler have spoken to each other a few times and he's helped her out with things he's not romantically interested in her obviously but like he sees her as a friend and thinks she's cool and also Thornhill has a slight influence over that but they are defo not strangers (also off topic but like i totally believe that tyler liked wednesday and that thornhill had hardly any reason to do with why he liked her imma share my theories later on in an authors note lmaooo)

Tyler and Bea watched in amaze as the girl began parading around the dance floor, occasionally approaching the nervous looking Xavier in the center. The boy just sort of nodded his head and went along with the girls actions (tyler did it better 😭), Wednesday had this sort of strange beauty in the way she danced that was so enticing to watch. Her eyes were focused on her prey, in this case being Xavier, and she prounced around the boy as if she were a shark in water.

Wednesday eventually concluded her little dance when the song changed and everyone began to get into the dance floor. Tyler held out a hand for Bea to grab a hold of, and Bea took it reluctantly, only because she was a terrible dancer.

"I'm sorry in advance." Bea said.

"For what?"

"Stepping on your toes." Bea teased, she sighed and followed Tyler into the big crowd that had begun to gather on the dance floor. The girl looked at others surrounding her and tried to copy their movements, she wasn't half bad, for a discombobulated robot.

"Here, just try and focus on the beat, then move along with it." Tyler said, he was sort of just bopping his head and moving his shoulders, but it looked natural on him.

Bea loosened up a bit and began to break that little feeling of embarrassment that she'd felt originally, she was feeling herself now and moved much better.

"There you go." Tyler smirked, he took the girls hands and swayed back and forth to the beat, they were in the center of the stage some eyes diverted to look at the strange sight, some with jealousy, and others with content. 

"You know how to waltz right?" Tyler asked, Bea nodded her head, a waltz was easier thsn trying to dance along to Dua Lipa, it was slower and a lot more uniform, it had a sort of formula to it with the steps.

"They haven't played any slow songs yet." Bea said, she regretted her words because immediately one began to play (i'm listening to How to Disappear by Lana idk it feels perfect but you choose one), and she would have to do a sort of waltz.

"You were saying."

The girl placed her arms around Tyler's neck, the motion felt natural to her, and he had his hands on her hips. She just sort of smiled and looked into the boys eyes, she couldn't explain the bliss that she felt, it was such a simple thing like dancing, and yet she felt like crying out of happiness. Maybe it was the music, maybe the environment, or maybe just Tyler and that damned smile of his.

"Tyler, thank you for everything." Bea beamed, she was in a charitable mood, and she wanted to express her gratitude, she felt like the boy deserved more thank yous and things like that. He was nice to everyone and was dealing with so much.

"No thank you, you're saving me right now." Tyler said, Bea didn't really understand what the boy was trying to convey, it would not be until much later that she truly understood what he meant.

"Without you i'm just some loser who's mad at the shitty hand he's been dealt." Tyler began.

"Well without you i'd be just some outcast with zero bitches and who fucked up at being a normie." Bea said, the two went on like this for a while until realizing that they were both pretty messed up and slightly traumatized, but it didn't matter because they had each other. They had each other to push past the pain and the trauma.

"I mean it Bea, I should be the one who's grateful." Tyler said, the girl kept him distracted from Thornhill and her power over him, and he thought of her sometimes even after entering that controlled state of mind, maybe he could break free some day because of it.

Before Bea could even say another word there was the sound of water moving through pipes. The fire sprinklers from above began dripping a red blood like substance. Some of it had splattered onto Tyler's coat, and some more onto Bea's dress.

"Tyler the dress." Bea said, the boy shrugged his shoulders and sighed, he knew a good dry cleaner, what he was concerned about was the people behind this little trick.

It began to rain 'blood', causing everyone to panic and run away from the dance floor. Bea just looked at Tyler, who was drenched in the substance.

"This look suits you, you'd be an excellent serial killer." Bea teased, she wished it were just a joke, but there was a whole lot of truth in her words that she didn't know about.

"I'm flattered?" Tyler said confusedly, the look suited Bea as well, she resembled Carrie from that old seventies movie, though minus the real blood and fire.

Bea tried to take a step forward but ended up slipping and falling onto Tyler. The two glanced at each other and began bursting out into laughter, the night hadn't gone to ruin just yet, they could still enjoy themselves while the fun lasted.

"C'mon, let's get up." Bea said, but this attempt was seemingly useless as she'd managed to fall once again, Tyler hadn't even bothered attempting to stand.

"Let's crawl over to those chairs and try to use it to help ourselves up." Tyler said, he pointed to a table that was a few feet away from them. The plan was a success but Bea just couldn't help but laugh at everything. 

"Why don't we hang out after this, I could show you around." Bea said, sure it was late, but she knew how to work around the curfew.

"The sheriff wouldn't approve." Tyler said, he liked referring to his father in such a way, he didn't like using the word Dad unless it was to the man's face.

"Right, you can never trust an outcast." Bea said sternly, Tyler just laughed at the girls blatant sarcasm, he had tried thinking of a way to add on to her joke but had failed in doing so. Tyler received a text message and sunk his head.

"Speaking of the devil, I'll see you tomorrow." Tyler said, he kissed the girl on the lips and gave her a big hug before leaving the Rave'N.

Bea returned to the dorms after saying her goodbyes to Tyler, she listened in on the police scanner and was frightened by the most recent broadcast. There had been another attack, and the subject was identified as Eugene Otinger. He was found with slashes on his chest and bruises all over, his cold body rest on the forest floor, covered in his own blood.

The monster was at it again, and it must have been at the Rave'N or nearby enough to have noticed Eugene. The monster was close, closer than Bea could ever have anticipated.