Previously…
– After the board of Objection Designs voted to suspend Molly from the company, a pleased Loretta met with her secret co-conspirator: Finn!
– In order to expose Jaq’s plot and get Tempest out of legal trouble, Diane admitted that she had conspired with Jaq to keep Samantha and Tempest apart.
– Dejected after Molly’s suspension also meant cost her her job, Tori surprised Landon by showing up at his door.

The sky has been gray and threatening all morning, rumbling every so often as if issuing warnings. Still, when it finally does open up, it does so suddenly, dumping torrents of rain upon King’s Bay. Trevor Brooks has been bracing for the rainfall all day, but when it happens, it is so abrupt and so forceful that he finds himself pulling his jacket over his head and racing for the nearest cover. In this case, that happens to be the overhang outside the main office at Bayside Cemetery; by the time he takes cover, he is thoroughly drenched. 

As he gets his bearings, he takes his phone from the pocket of his wet jeans and checks it. While doing so, he is surprised to see Finn Campbell also running for cover.

“Finn?” Trevor calls out.

Looking up from beneath the arm that is shielding his head, Finn reacts with astonishment and redirects himself toward where Trevor is standing. Moments later, he arrives there, dripping wet.

“I knew it might rain, but this is something else,” the younger man says as he shakes some of the excess water off himself. He wears a thin black windbreaker over an orange cable-knit sweater.

“It’s crazy,” Trevor says. “Got your Halloween outfit on, I see.”

“I have to keep it festive but fashionable.” Finn grins. “Weird running into you here.”

“I decided to visit my parents’ graves,” Trevor says somberly. “Sometimes I just… I dunno. I feel like I want to talk to them.”

“I get that.” 

Trevor furrows his brow. “What about you? What are you doing here?”

—–

“Sure you don’t want one?” Landon Esco asks from the apartment’s narrow kitchen.

“You and your PopTarts!” Tori Gray replies with a laugh from the couch in Landon’s living room. Outside, the rainstorm rages.

“What about ’em?” Landon says over the counter as he uses two fingers to flip the hot PopTart from the toaster onto a plate. Then, grabbing a paper towel to use as a napkin, he joins Tori in the living room.

“They’re gross,” she says.

“Take that back, or I’m only giving you bad advice.”

Tori laughs and then lets out a heavy sigh. “It’s not totally stupid, is it?”

“You being an Uber driver? Why would that be stupid?”

“I don’t know. I want to work. I need to work or do something.”

“You might get to go back to Objection, right?” Landon asks before taking a bite of his strawberry PopTart.

“I hope so. But with Aunt Molly suspended, who knows how long it’ll take for this to play out?” She stares out the window for a long moment, watching as the rain pelts the glass. “I hate this.”

He finishes chewing before continuing, “Well, since you came all the way here to hear what it’s like to be an Uber driver, I can give you some tips.”

“Thanks. I don’t want to…” She hesitates and keeps looking out the window. “Never mind.”

“What is it?”

She turns toward him, and although her eyes flicker, she simply bites her lip.

“What’s up?” Landon sets down his napkin and PopTart.

After another pause, Tori says, “I don’t want to drag you into it. You don’t need to listen to it.”

“So it’s Zane?”

The way she tenses up gives her away.

“Did he do something?” Landon asks with concern. 

“No.” Before he can even react, she adds, “Seriously. It’s just that I don’t want to be dependent on him. He says he’s happy to support me, but…”

“Being independent is a good thing.”

“Yeah.”

The weight of Landon’s recent beating at Zane’s hands hovers over them like a suffocating blanket. 

“He really is sorry for what happened,” Tori blurts out.

Landon responds with a tight-lipped expression, not sure what he could say.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m such a bitch.”

“What? No, you’re not.”

“I am. Between what Zane did and what–” She pauses to swallow a lump in her throat. “–what you told me at the wedding, I just– I shouldn’t be putting this on you. It isn’t fair.” She quickly stands and picks up her purse.

“Tori. Wait.”

Landon springs up from the chair in which he’s been sitting. 

“You’re my friend,” he says. “First and foremost. If you need help…”

She simply stands there, staring back at him, unsure what else she is supposed to say and consumed by doubt.

“Then I’m gonna help you,” Landon says. “Whatever dumb ideas I got in my dumb head — forget about them. Okay? I’m your friend.” 

“Landon…”

“It’s cool. I promise. Now about I walk you through those tips before I have to go do some driving myself?” he says, affixing a smile onto his face again.

—–

Zane Tanaka peers out the blinds, staring intently out at the street as rain pummels the buildings and pavement. He has been checking periodically for the last 45 minutes, but none of the cars that drive by — let alone the ones that park on the street or pull into the garage beneath the building — belong to Tori. 

He takes a step back and checks the time on his Apple Watch. He can’t wait much longer to leave for his shift at KBAY, but she should have been home by now. 

Zane moves out of the living room and into the bathroom, where he takes stock of his costume. His black hair is slicked back, and white plastic fangs poke out from beneath his lower lip. A bright red rivulet of fake blood streams down from his mouth to his chin, and a silken red cape hangs from his neck. He was actually excited about celebrating Halloween at KBAY today, but he doesn’t know how he is going to enjoy it if he doesn’t get to see Tori before he leaves. 

A low-grade panic thrums within him as he wonders where she could be. Finally, he goes back to the living room and grabs his phone off the arm of the scratched black leather sofa. He has been trying his hardest to avoid doing this, but maybe something happened to her…

He navigates to the tracker app to see where her car is. His blood boils when he sees that it is nowhere near Billy’s school.

“Dammit,” he mutters, tightening his grip on the phone as he realizes exactly where the pin on the  map is sitting.

“It’s kind of spooky being here,” Diane Bishop says.

“It’s always a little weird having you here,” Tim Fisher responds as he moves behind the desk. “I feel like I should let you have the desk.”

Diane chuckles as she looks around the corner office inside the headquarters of Vision Publishing. 

“You can keep it,” she says. “I’ve moved on. Although if you had told me back in the day that I’d be visiting you in your corner office here to talk about our daughter…”

“Crazy,” Tim agrees. “But I promise: Sam is fine. She just needs time.”

“I know.” Diane strides over to the large window. “I know. I don’t mean to shock you, but I’m an impatient woman.”

“You don’t say.”

She turns around with a wry grin, but it soon fades into a frown. “Thanks for even being willing to talk about this. Samantha has every right to cut me out, after what I did. I know that.”

“And the fact that you know that speaks volumes,” Tim says as he picks up a blue foam stress ball from the desk. “You still shouldn’t have done it.”

“I’m aware! But I got Tempest out of jail. I bailed her out myself. I let her know what Jaq was doing — even though I knew it would bite me in the ass. That has to count for something.”

“It does count for something. You just can’t expect your daughter to be okay with it.”

“I don’t expect that.”

Tim tosses the ball up in the air and catches it in his palm, then repeats the motion while he thinks.

“I just want to know that she’s okay,” Diane says. “You feel like she’s okay?”

“She’s okay. Truly. She hasn’t had any contact with Jaq, I know that much.”

Diane hesitates before asking, “And with Tempest?”

“I’m not sure.”

She turns back toward the window and takes in the sight of the rain battering downtown King’s Bay. 

“I guess all I can do is hope that she comes around at some point,” she says at last. “But I know I have no control over that.”

“Do you really?”

“I swear. I know the only thing I can do is sit tight. And if, after all the crap I’ve pulled, Samantha decides she can’t deal with me… then I know that’s the price I have to pay.”

—–

Finn pushes a damp lock of hair away from his forehead.

“My grandparents are buried here,” he tells Trevor.

“Really?” Trevor replies with a certain amount of surprise. “I didn’t think you grew up in King’s Bay.”

“Oh. I mean, I didn’t,” Finn says, looking out as the rain assaults the expanse of lawn dotted with trees and tombstones. “My parents did. Adoptive parents. I guess that’s part of why I was drawn here.”

Trevor nods as he takes this in. 

“Kinda weird that we both wound up in a cemetery on Halloween, isn’t it?” Finn says.

“Yeah. Freaky.”

Finn smirks. “And not in the good way.”

After a sigh, Trevor says, “I guess we should get to the office.”

“I was going to pick up a pumpkin spice latte on the way. Want one?”

“I’m not the biggest pumpkin guy…”

“Come on. It’s Halloween. And I’m buying.”

“Fine, fine. Thanks, Finn.”

“I’m gonna make you be festive,” Finn says. “Now do we make a break for the parking lot?”

Trevor looks out at the pouring rain. “On the count of three.”

“One… two… three!” they shout before dashing out into the downpour.

—–

When his frustration is about to boil over, Zane grabs his backpack and keys. He yanks open the apartment door — and is surprised to see Tori standing there, ready to unlock it herself.

“There you are,” he says with a strange mix of relief and anger.

She reacts with confusion as she steps around him to enter the apartment.

“I decided to take care of a few things,” Tori says. “Don’t you have work?”

“I was just leaving. I’m running late.” He stands in the doorway, studying her. “Everything okay? You were gone a long time.”

“Yeah. I was taking care of some stuff. I’m good. Why?”

“No reason.” Zane’s mind races; as much as he wants to shout that he knows where she was, and that he hates when she lies to him, he is very aware that he needs to be cautious here. He managed to work his way out of that debacle after he found Landon creeping around their apartment door, and he can’t blow that goodwill with her now.

“All good,” he says, stooping down to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you after work. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Tori says before Zane lets himself out of the apartment. 

He pulls the door closed but remains stationery in the hallway for a moment, seething. 

“You’d better stay away from her, Landon,” he grumbles under his breath, “or there’s gonna be hell to pay.”

Inside the apartment, Tori feels a chill run through her body, although she isn’t quite sure why. She finds herself reaching out and locking the door.

Outside, a crash of thunder booms over King’s Bay, as a furious strike of lightning illuminates the sky.

END OF EPISODE 1102

Are Tori and Landon in danger thanks to Zane?
Was Finn’s presence at the cemetery strange?
Will Samantha find a way to forgive Diane?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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