"Yeah, it's not getting bigger. It's changing. Taking off. Metaphor for puberty, I always thought--those kids taking on the evil stepdad." Greg nods.

"Which might tie it back to the Marsden and Neibolt houses," Tara says. "There's that Jerusalem's Lot story, with the rats in the walls. A menace growing out of sight... something woven through everything, like It, or the spreading vampire infection."

"I can buy that," Greg says. "But is it a different trope? It seems different."

"Kind of. But--spreading sickness, versus out of control growth. Either way, we're talking cancer, right?"