"I knew it!" Kristy proclaimed as Stacey sped toward the Pike's house. "After I found that weird bunker in the Pike's basement, I knew it had something to do with B!"

"This is crazy!" Claudia spoke up from the backseat, where she was eating an ice cream sandwich while sandwiched between Dawn and Mary Anne.

"I know," Mary Anne agreed. "It doesn't make sense. I feel like we're missing something."

"Yeah," Dawn agreed. "Someone was close enough to Mallory to be her confidant, so clearly it was someone she trusted...yet they're shady enough to hide in the Pike's basement and threaten all of us."

"Obviously we're not dealing with a normal, balanced person," Stacey reminded them. "This person has issues."

"Right," Kristy confirmed. "And we have to figure out who they are before things get worse."

"I think they already have," Claudia lamented. "B abducted Abby in broad daylight."

"Why Abby?" Stacey wondered. "B had ample opportunity to take any of us. But he chose Abby."

"Or maybe not," Kristy considered. "Abby was part of the BSC just like the rest of us. But she didn't show up the day B first texted us to meet after Mal's funeral."

"Well, one of B's main threats was exposing the Jessi thing," Stacey recalled, "But Abby quit the BSC months before the Jessi thing. It would've been easy for her to dismiss the threats."

"She didn't take the bait like the rest of us did," Kristy nodded. "Maybe she refused to play by B's rules and that's why she's paying a bigger price."

"Or maybe she didn't wrong Mallory like the rest of us did," Mary Anne suggested.

The group fell silent, absorbing that notion – and the weight of their individual, seemingly small and meaningless actions and indiscretions – as they pulled up to the Pike's house.

If one little thing had thing had been different, Mallory might not have died. While Sam and Janine were the only ones directly responsible for her accidental death, the rest of them played a part in Mallory being where she was at the time she was and in the state of mind she was. And though each girl knew it was impossible to live life assuming every action held life or death consequences, it was hard to ignore that, in hindsight, theirs had.

"The house is dark," Claudia noticed. "Looks like no one's home."

"We don't need to go in the front door," Kristy reminded them. "B doesn't."

She led them around the house to the small ground-level window, hidden behind a rose bush, leading to the basement. The window was still propped open.

One at a time, the girls slid inside and found themselves barricaded by boxes in the far corner of the Pike's basement.

"So B comes here to steal the Pike's wi-fi?" Stacey clarified.

Kristy shrugged, "I guess. Maybe Mallory set it up for him? I mean, if he really was her close friend, maybe she let him stay here?"

"And the rest of the Pikes had no idea." Claudia surmised.

"Ding ding ding! Right answer!" a male voice exclaimed. An familiar – yet unfamiliar - face popped up from behind a box. It looked like a male version of Mallory.

The BSC jumped, startled, and congregated in a frightened huddle against the wall.

"We finally meet face to face! Such a pleasure." the boy feigned enthusiasm, but his eyes were full of contempt.

"Who are you?" Dawn demanded, voice shaking.

"Hello, I'm Mike. But you might know me better as B," he stepped out from behind the box holding a hammer. "B for brother. B for bastard. Take your pick."

The words lingered for a moment. B for brother? B for bastard? What did that mean? Who was Mike?

"Oh my God!" Kristy went pale. "You're Mike Pike?"

"Heard of me?" Mike looked only mildly flattered as he sneered.

"I...I remember," Kristy stammered. "One summer Mallory started talking about an older brother named Mike. Like it was some big secret. I thought it was just an imaginary friend, but...you're real?"

"Am I?" Mike's expression became stony and cold. "Not according to good ol' mom and dad. They didn't want me. They gave me away. Claimed they weren't ready for marriage and kids. They thought I'd be better off with someone else. But they were wrong. I ended up with awful parents. Asshole dad left us when I was two. Selfish bitch of a mom left me with babysitters while she went out and partied every night. When I was twelve, she came home drunk and told me about my real parents. So I tracked them down...only to find out they had not one, not two, but eight kids. Eight freakin' kids. But they couldn't keep me? Do you know how that feels?"

"Oh, wow, Mike...I...we..." Kristy struggled to find words to diffuse Mike's anger.

"It feels like hell," Mike growled. "A living hell."

"One day I met Mallory at the park," Mike continued. "She was kind and accepting. She was more than a sister; she was a true friend. She understood how I felt. She felt ostracized by the family, just like me. So she was willing to keep my secret."

The girls listened nervously, unsure of how loose of a canon Mike actually was as he clutched that hammer in his hands.

"But it wasn't just her family that hurt her," Mike went on. "It was her so-called friends, too. All of you."

"We never meant to hurt her, Mike," Stacey insisted.

"We loved Mallory," Claudia chimed in.

"You didn't love her!" Mike bellowed, his face redder and voice louder with each word. "I loved her. I was the only one who was truly loyal to her. And she was all I had. And now she's gone!"

"It was a terrible accident," Mary Anne said gently.

"An accident at the hands of selfish people," Mike retorted. "You, Ben, Kristy's idiot brother and Claudia's slut sister...I want you all to suffer. I want you to be tortured by the guilt. I want you to fear for your lives!"

"This ends now, Mike," Kristy crossed her arms, tough and defiant. "The police are on their way. It's over."

"Is it?" Mike smirked. "Because Abby's still missing. And if the police take me, no one will ever know where she is."

The girls exchanged glances, unsure of how to react.

"Abby's my friend now," Mike said. "She's not Mallory, but she's an acceptable replacement."

"She doesn't want to be with you!" Dawn exclaimed. "You kidnapped her!"

"No," Mike shook his head emphatically. "She liked me. We talked. She was nice. She will be my friend."

Mike's level of delusion was apparent. The poor boy had been mistreated growing up. He had been abandoned time and time again. He was so desperate to connect with someone that he had crossed the line from desperate to dangerous.

Kristy made a move, trying to dart past B. He stepped swiftly in front of her, wielding his hammer.

"Let us go," Kristy demanded.

"No," Mike answered coldly.

"What are you going to do to us?" Claudia meekly asked.

"I don't know yet," Mike responded.

"Please don't hurt us!" Dawn begged.

"Why not?" Mike narrowed his eyes and hovered over the huddled babysitters. "I've got nothing to lose."

"The police are on their way," Kristy reminded him. "Don't make things worse for you than they already are."

Mike glanced around frantically. He was beyond reason now.

Mary Anne and Claudia began to cry, which seemed to agitate Mike even more. He began pacing, fidgeting manically.

"Turn yourself in," Kristy urged, "We'll help you out of this."

"No," Mike's voice sounded evil. Possessed. Scary. His expression was colder and far darker than before. He raised his hammer and began to lunge toward the girls. His eyes were clouded with hurt and fury as prepared to take his first swing.

And then a shot rang out, coming from the window through which the girls had entered. The window that was just inches above their heads. Someone had come to their rescue!

Mike Pike fell to the ground with a guttural howl, blood flowing from his right shoulder.

"Run, girls! Run!" a voice called from outside the window. They turned to see a familiar face looking back at them. It was Morbidda Destiny. Mrs. Porter. Mary Anne's mother.

Mary Anne stood frozen for a moment, looking at the woman who had given birth to her. All these years, her father had told her that her mom was watching over her. And she was. She really was. Just not in the way Mary Anne had imagined. Her mom wasn't some angel in heaven. Her mom was a real person who had been literally watching over her all her life. And at this moment when she and her friends needed it most, there she was.

"Run, Mary Anne!" Mrs. Porter urged.

The BSC ran by Mike, around the piles of boxes, up the basement stairs, and out the front door. But they didn't stop running. They all knew exactly where to go. They continued on until they reached Dawn's old secret passage -aka B's lair.

It had to be where Mike had taken Abby. It was the only logical place.

Kristy yanked open the hatch, Dawn jumped in, Stacey and Claudia turned on their cellphone flashlight apps.

"Abby!" Mary Anne called out.

There was a faint, muffled reply. Stacey and Claudia turned their lights in the direction of the sound.

And there was Abby, tied up at the end of the passageway with tape over her mouth. Dirt was caked up on her tear stained face. Her wrists and ankles were raw from trying desperately to escape the tape binding them.

She was terrified. But she was okay. They all were.

The paramedics took Abby to the hospital as a precaution. The police escorted Mike Pike to hospital to treat his minor gunshot wound. Upon their return home moments later, the Pike family was stunned, to say the least. They generously declined to press charges against Sam and Janine before hurrying off to reunite with their estranged son in a high security mental health facility, where he would get the counseling he desperately needed.

"It's over," Dawn exhaled.

"Now what?" Claudia asked weakly.

"Now...life goes on," Kristy replied.

"Life will never be the same again," Stacey said.

"Nothing will," Mary Anne added.

B was gone. Abby was safe. Mallory's mysterious death was solved. After living in fear and paranoia for as long as they had, the BSC didn't know how to feel about moving forward. Certainly it was a relief, but there was a sadness. They had lost a good friend they had taken for granted. Their flaws and secrets and poor choices had been exposed. Moving past the trauma would be difficult. But they were strong. They were resilient. They were the Babysitters Club.