“If my math is correct,” Sofia starts, but of course her math will be right. “That should be all, so—”

  Sofia is interrupted by the sound of police sirens blasting through the air. The noise gets closer and closer. Four police cars pull up to the backyard. Mr. and Mrs. Norland-Vargas come out to take in the destroyed backyard littered with bodies and the police officers who have begun to swarm.

  A black car pulls up next, and out steps Darius’s mother.

  She takes one look at the gruesome scene, and then her eyes settle on her son.

  “You four need to explain yourselves.”

  Have you ever heard the saying “The truth shall set you free”?

  Yeah. Well, for our zombie-bashing heroes, the truth—the whole truth and nothing but the truth—is getting them a lot of weird looks from the grown-ups. Like, I bet if you went to your parent or guardian right now and told them there were real zombies in town, you’d probably get a weird look or two.

  Go ahead, try it. I’ll wait …

  So, how did it go?

  Yeah, I thought so.

  Anyhoo, all the parents are gathered in the Norland-Vargas household. Outside the police are stationed with a cleanup crew in the backyard dealing with the mess.

  It’s quiet after the four fill the parents in on the curse. Ms. Stein. The clones. The monster. The zombies. Regan’s family history. All of it.

  Now, as you may recall, these parents have already heard some of this, but didn’t believe the kids. But now they can’t really dismiss them when zombies tried to take over a wedding. Where there are witnesses. Where there is video evidence. Where there are rotting corpses that are currently being cleaned up by the authorities.

  As you can imagine, the adults are handling this with nothing but a calm, steady demeanor befitting a grown-up.

  “Great-uncle Mike,” Regan’s dad sobs out.

  Yeah, walking through the backyard wouldn’t be pleasant for anybody, but poor Mr. Charles recognized a few of the bashed-up bodies. Not like there was a lot left of their heads, but still.

  “It’s okay, Dad,” Regan consoles him, even though she thinks she was the one who put a stake through her great-great-uncle Mike.

  Oops.

  But also, what was she supposed to do? Just let her family take over the town?

  Darius’s mother is pacing back and forth in the living room. “Do you have any idea what this would do to the reputation of the town if this got out?”

  “Reputation of the town?” Darius squeaks out. “There’s a curse we’ve been dealing with on our own because none of you would believe us!”

  I mean, Darius is only speaking the truth.

  His mother stops in front of him and takes him by the hand. “I’m truly sorry we didn’t believe you. But it is hard to believe. Even after seeing …” Her gaze goes out to the backyard. The fire department is currently hosing down the chairs that are covered in icky stuff. I could describe it in detail, but I don’t think any of us want me to go there. “But we have to think about the future of this town. Your future. First, do you think anybody is going to believe us if we say there’s a curse, much less actual zombies?”

  “There are witnesses,” Bennett reminds her. “And a few of the guests took videos.”

  Even though we all know that the parents thought the video they took at the cemetery was fake.

  “It’ll probably benefit us that people will assume it was for the Zombie 5K.” Darius’s mother looks thoughtful for a moment. Then she takes in the four, who are drenched in zombie stuff (again, best to be vague at this point, you’re welcome). “I think you kids should get cleaned up. We adults have some things we need to figure out among ourselves.”

  “But, Mom,” Darius begins to protest, but his mother cuts him that look. The don’t-challenge-me-I’m-the-mayor-of-a-cursed-town-and-I-don’t-have-time-for-arguments look. You know the one.

  Darius opens his mouth, but then closes it.

  When you think about it, the kids should be happy, right? They should be breathing an actual sigh of relief. The adults are on it now, finally! They can relax and just be kids and not have to worry about curses and clones and zombies. It’s in the grown-ups’ hands now.

  (I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. We all know how adults can be, am I right?)

  “Upstairs. Now,” Mr. Norland-Vargas says in such a strict tone, different from his usual lighthearted one, that it really gets the kids moving. “And wash your hands!”

  Ah, okay, hand hygiene is important and everything, but these kids are covered head to toe in zombie grossness.

  Knowing there’s no arguing with the parents, the four trudge upstairs.

  “Hey, Darius,” Bennett says when they reach the top. “I’ve got some clothes you can wear. We’ll take Mom and Dad’s bathroom, and Regan and my sister can—”

  “I am not,” Sofia begins, but then just sighs.

  In all the craziness of the zombies, we may have forgotten that Bennett and Sofia are now technically stepsiblings. But you know there was no way Bennett was going to forget.

  “Yes, Regan, you can use the bathroom I share with my, my …” (Come on, Sofia, you can do it!) “… brother.”

  Bennett’s entire face lights up as he envelops Sofia in a huge hug. Sofia just lets her arms limply hang to the side.

  “Oh brother,” Sofia replies sarcastically, but then she puts her arm around him. After a few more beats, she pushes him away. “Okay, that’s enough of that. Although the zombie guts have improved your regular stench.”

  And there’s the Sofia we all know and are intimidated by.

  “Let’s go wash up, Regan.” Sofia walks down the hallway.

  Regan follows Sofia and looks down at her destroyed dress, grateful her parents brought her a change of clothes. She doesn’t want a walking reminder of what she did.

  However, a small smile does settle on Regan’s lips, since she did kinda save the day.

  (There’s no kinda about it.)

  After several minutes of washing and changing, Regan settles in Sofia’s bedroom. It’s tidy and organized, with a large bookshelf taking up one wall and a desk with notebooks neatly piled on top. There’s not a lot of personality, but on the desk is a picture of a young Sofia laughing as she sits on the lap of a woman who must be her mother.

  “Ahem.” Sofia clears her throat, which causes Regan to jump back.

  Sofia is back in her uniform of a black T-shirt and jeans.

  “Oh, I am …” Regan begins.

  “Hey.” Darius walks in wearing a Cauldron’s Cove baseball team shirt and sweatpants that are a little too short for him.

  “Let me guess, Bennett is taking his sweet time on his hair.” Sofia rolls her eyes.

  “Ah, yeah …” Darius laughs as he settles down next to Regan on Sofia’s black-and-white polka-dotted bedspread.

  The three are quiet, but they can only hear muffled voices from downstairs.

  “What do you think your mom is going to do?” Regan asks.

  Darius shakes his head. “I don’t know. This isn’t good for anybody, but she’s the mayor of a town taken over by zombies. People will find a way to blame her. They always do.”

  “That’s not fair. It’s my family’s fault.” That nervous feeling is back in Regan’s stomach. If it gets out that Regan’s family is behind the curse, then forget getting teased in the cafeteria, there’s no way anybody would even think of being her friend or stay at the Bed and Boofast. Would her family have to leave Cauldron’s Cove for good?

  “Well, you more than made up for it out there. You had some serious ninja moves, Regan. Who knew?”

  She blushes at the compliment. She didn’t know she had it in her. Maybe it’s a good thing that she has Ann Wilder’s blood pumping through her veins? She can use whatever is inside her to help what may come next—curse or no curse.

  “Yeah, you were amazing, Regan,” Bennett says as he walks in, his hair freshly washed and slicked back.

  Then even though there is an empty chair at Sofia’s desk, he chooses to sit right next to Regan. Like, right next to her.

  “Oh, thanks. You all did most of the work, I just finished it off.” Regan tries to get the attention off her.

  “And, like, you looked really pretty.”

  Bennett begins to blush as his eyes fixate on Regan’s. She’s never had anybody look at her like that. She finds her cheeks start getting warm as well. Is it because of what he saw her do with the zombies, or … ?

  And yeah, I’m also wondering what on earth is going on here. Bennett’s the dude who said nothing when his friends made fun of Regan. Who sometimes won’t look at Regan.

  But now he is. Like, a lot. And his cheeks are fire-engine red.

  Wait just one second. Could it be that Mr. Popular, none other than Bennett Norland, has a crush on Regan?

  I mean, what’s not to crush on? Girl can handle herself around zombies. And we all know she has way better fashion sense than Sofia.

  “Yeah, um—” Bennett begins, but is interrupted by Mr. Norland-Vargas calling them from downstairs.

  “Time to see what the plan is, I guess,” Darius says, but keeps looking between Regan and Bennett with a smile on his face.

  When the four arrive downstairs, they’re ordered to sit on the couch, facing their parents, who are standing.

  “First, we want to thank you four,” Darius’s mom begins. “What you’ve done for this town and your families is wonderful. We’re so sorry we didn’t believe you. Truly.”

  Regan finds herself sinking with relief into the couch. Everything is going to be okay.

  “But we need you to do something for us, since we need to keep this a secret—”

  “What?” Darius stands up. “You can’t possibly expect us to—”

  “Darius Reginald Washington, you sit down right now,” his mother snaps. “Think about it. If people heard there’s a curse and zombies, no one would come to visit Cauldron’s Cove. We’d be considered too dangerous. There are already four missing tourists who …” She looks out to the backyard. “We’re going to have to find some excuse to explain what happened to them, not to mention Leona, the tour guide. We can’t let anybody know the true story of what went on. Forget my job as mayor and Diego’s at the Visitors Center, as there’d be no visitors, period. And who stays at the Bed and Boofast? Tourists. We’re all tied into Cauldron’s Cove’s reputation as a family-friendly place to visit. If this got out, the town—and our families—would be ruined.”

  “But what about the witnesses?” Bennett reminds them. “And their videos?”

  Mr. Norland-Vargas steps forward. “Yes. We’re going to say it was a promotional stunt to advertise the Zombie 5K and our upcoming Halloween events.”

  “A promotional stunt?” Regan says softly.

  “I’m going to write a fun article for the website and post the videos online. Get ahead of the story. Melony has already called a few of our friends who were at the wedding to tell them, and, well, they all believed her. A few said they knew it, since they expected silly, spooky things from me.” Mr. Norland-Vargas actually looks proud of himself.

  Sofia lets out a cold laugh. “Yeah, I guess it’s an easier story to believe.” But she looks disappointed in her father. “So, nobody will know what we did.”

  “We can tell them,” Bennett says.

  “Bennett, sweetheart,” his mother says with a smile. “We want you kids to be on board, but if you decide to tell people, well, it’s our word against yours.”

  Oh, no she did not.

  Because the parents have a point. Who will the town believe? The adults—including the mayor—who will say it was all a planned promotional event in a town that celebrates witches and things that go bump in the night? Or the kids who will say that zombies took over and they alone defeated them?

  Exactly. Again, it’s sometimes so unfair to be a kid.

  “But, Dad,” Sofia protests.

  “Mija.” He holds up his hand. “Mayor Washington is right. We have to do what’s best for the town and for our future. So I need each of you to listen to me when I say this.”

  He gets down on his knees so he can look each of them in the eye.

  “This was all a stunt. It’s over. We are going to move on and after today we will never talk about it—”

  “Dad—” Sofia tries again.

  “End of story.”

  I hope you’re sitting down, reader. I mean, after everything we’ve been through, I wouldn’t blame you for feeling a little light-headed.

  I’m going to let you in on a little secret adults like to keep from kids. Are you ready?

  Sometimes adults are wrong.

  Horribly, horribly wrong.

  It doesn’t matter what the parents said, this is not the end of the story for Regan, Sofia, Bennett, and Darius.

  Even though the adults did get away with it.

  Stills from the wedding were on the front page of the Cauldron’s Cove Courier. It even made the local TV news. Mayor Washington and Mr. Norland-Vargas were praised for their “original” and “realistic” prank. What’s even more frustrating is that there has not been one mention of the missing tourists or the tour guide, Leona. I don’t even want to think about what the mayor had to do to make that simply disappear.

  What hasn’t disappeared are our four kids, who have to carry around yet another secret.

  And oh yeah, they have to pretty much lie to all their friends.

  “That was so cool,” Darius’s friend Javier says to him on the way to lunch on Monday. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us about it.”

  “Yeah,” Keenan seconds. “We love zombies. That would’ve been hilarious.”

  “My mom swore me to secrecy,” Darius replies, which technically is the truth.

  He sits down at their usual table and tries to concentrate as his friends talk about zombies and how fun and cool they are. Darius simply nods along because he can’t do anything else.

  Regan walks into the cafeteria a couple minutes later. She sees Zoey sitting with her band friends. Then spots Sofia in a corner by herself.

  Regan has faced down zombies. She figures she can handle Sofia.

  She walks over and puts her bag down.

  Sofia looks up in surprise.

  “I’ve decided not to be afraid of you anymore,” Regan announces.

  “Okay.” Sofia gestures at Regan to sit down. “Why were you scared of me?”

  Regan raises her eyebrows.

  Sofia lets out a small laugh. Like, a genuine laugh. “Fair enough.”

  They settle into silence for a bit before Sofia speaks. “I know it took you some time, but when you finally got into battle, it was really impressive what you did. And I know your family history makes you uncomfortable, but you never know, it could come in handy next time.”

  Regan drops her apple. “Next time?”

  Sofia shrugs. “I don’t know. I thought we were done after Ms. Stein. I guess there’s no counting out Ann Wilder’s power. First she went after the person who lived where her old home was located. We defeated that. Next she brought back her family from the dead. We all know how that ended. I honestly don’t really know what else she could do.”

  Regan couldn’t imagine anything worse than zombies.

  Regan looks over at Darius’s table. He catches her eye and raises his milk carton. Regan lifts hers in return. She glances over at Bennett’s table and notices Bennett staring at her. When he sees he’s been caught, he quickly looks away. She then smiles at Sofia, who has become her friend. A real friend.

  Curse or no curse, Regan is sure that she has these friends for life. She doesn’t need a curse to sit with Sofia or talk to Darius. And, well, who knows where things stand with Bennett, since his friends are, well, not awesome.

  “Yeah.” Regan bites into her apple. “There’s not much else she can do to us.”

  Sofia lifts her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t be too sure.”

  Gulp.

  Regan sits up in her seat, hoping it’ll make her feel more confident. “You know what, I’m going to be positive. The curse has to be over now.”

  “Maybe.”

  Yeah, maybe …

  Dear extremely brave, made-it-to-the-end-of-the-book reader. What do you think? Is Ann Wilder’s curse really over?

  Yeah, I agree with you.

  A few nights later, something is flying high above Cauldron’s Cove in the dead of night.

  It’s not a bird or a plane or Superman.

  It’s a bat. It flaps its wings as it circles the town. It finally lands in a large tree near the town square and hangs upside down. It closes its eyes. Its fangs peek out as it smiles.

  Then the bat starts growing.

  And growing.

  It turns into a person.

  No, it’s not a person.

  It’s a vampire.

  As I said before (like on page 4), some people never learn.

  Dear reader, we did it! We made it through another story. Now, it’s important for you to know that I did not act alone. No, I had many accomplices, I mean friends and colleagues, who have made this book the oh-so-joyous-yet-frightening-but-also-hilarious read that it was.

  First, to Maya Marlette, my brave editor, who is not only wonderfully supportive but also has the tough job of questioning my mental stability and asks the important questions like “Why, Elizabeth? Just WHY?” and “What’s wrong with you?” Thank you for cheering on the Cauldron’s Cove crew. I hope you’re ready for the next horrific adventure. (I’m just going to apologize now since I never learn my lessons.)

  To the frightfully fantastic crew at Scholastic for their continued support in this series and keeping the lawyers on standby when I [redact for a few words]. I’d smash a zombie with a bat to protect you all, especially Jackie Dever (your comments always brighten me up!), Lori Lewis, Jessica Hickman-Beard, Priscilla Eakeley, Maddy Newquist, Mary Kate Garmire, Stephanie Yang, and David Levithan. And to Eloise Szaruga-Bolt for once again bringing these characters to life with your fabulous illustrations.