Patrick Hockstetter was the kind of kid who didn’t just scare the other kids in Derry—he scared the adults too. His name carried weight in whispers, a name teachers prayed they wouldn’t see on their rosters, a name mothers warned their children about. He was unpredictable, violent, and worse—he enjoyed it. The things he did in the shadows of Derry weren’t the kind of things anyone would ever admit out loud. He carried around a sense of menace that made people cross the street when they saw him coming, like he was more monster than boy. For years, Patrick had been the darkest soul Derry had to offer.

But then she showed up. She wasn’t from Derry, but from far away—[you can pick a state/country here]—and the town wasn’t ready for her. She was gorgeous, with striking (color) hair that caught the light like fire and (color) eyes sharp enough to cut through anyone who dared to meet her gaze. To the Bowers gang, she seemed like just another girl to torment, another pretty face to mock or push around. They didn’t know yet that she was something far worse. Behind that beauty lived the same kind of twisted hunger that burned inside Patrick—maybe even darker.

She had her own collection of cruelties. Animals never stood a chance around her—cats, birds, even stray dogs ended up in places no one would ever find them, their bones buried in shallow graves or their bodies dissected just to see what was inside. She kept jars in her bedroom—jars filled with bugs, organs, and sometimes worse. When she got bored, she liked to smear blood across notebook paper, turning it into patterns that only she understood, little trophies of her obsession with control and decay. She wasn’t reckless about it; she was meticulous, savoring the process as much as the result.

When she walked into Derry High that first morning, a freshman with that too-perfect smile and a folder clutched in her hand, no one suspected the truth. The principal greeted her kindly, handed her a schedule, and sent her on her way. To everyone else, she was just a pretty new girl. But Patrick knew—maybe before anyone else did—that there was something in her eyes that mirrored his own. A reflection of hunger. A reflection of chaos. And from that moment, Derry didn’t just have one monster stalking its streets anymore. It had two.