OCTOBER 2019
Evangeline “Eva” Elliot is a high school senior and former child prodigy with a remarkable empathic ability; she is able to assume to emotional viewpoint of others, even those that may frighten or sicken her. Suffering from rapid aging due to an unstable genetic makeup, she is haunted by the unsolved murder of her scientist mother, Cheryl, as well as her near-fatal encounter with serial killer and fellow prodigy Dr. Klaus Krieger. Her psychologist father Holden, while loving, struggles with alcoholism and absenteeism, and feels like he’s failed his daughter. At school, Eva is an outcast for her prematurely wizened appearance and “basket case” status; resident “princess” Lilith Grant pities her, while aspirant journalist Brian Hicks is strangely fascinated by her. Because of all of this, Eva is severely depressed and quite possibly suicidal.
At the same time, another serial killer is on the loose in the city of Los Angeles. The Blood Rose has been targeting attractive teen girls from Eva’s school, ritualistically stabbing them to death and sprinkling their corpses with rose pedals. The killings occur on nights in October, around Halloween, and the LAPD is both baffled and on alert.
Eva and Holden are approached by the Prometheus Corporation, the same company that funded the breeding program which created Eva and Klaus. The Corporation has initiated a new project, Catharsis. It’s a radical form of gene therapy capable of significantly increasing human physical and mental potential. The scientists behind it wish to improve humankind, while the executives wish to profit from its potential police and military applications, and have already confidentially joined the LAPD’s efforts to apprehend the Blood Rose.
The Corporation believes that Eva is an ideal candidate, and the profiler they need. Complicating matters is the fact that Cheryl Elliot was murdered in a very similar fashion to the victims of the Blood Rose. Eva is reluctant, while Holden objects to the idea. She seeks a second opinion from the institutionalized Klaus, much to the chagrin of Klaus’s nemesis, conniving executive Jonathan Jordache. After a tense conversation with Klaus, Eva gives him a copy of her psychological profile. After a couple of days of consideration, Eva accepts and is redesigned, transformed into a healthy girl of her proper chronological age. Holden allows Eva to assist the Corporation and the LAPD, on the condition that she only look at evidence and not get directly involved.
Eva returns to school, earning much attention for her new appearance. Brian’s fascination with Eva grows, while Lilith forms an unusual friendship with her, even introducing her to her father Vincent, a former movie producer. Back at the Prometheus Corporation, Eva reviews evidence and experiences vivid hallucinations as a result of her heightened mental faculties. She realizes these girls were killed specifically because of their beauty, and that the killer had to have known them. She goes to Klaus again for advice in an effort to recover the serial killer mindset and get her profile back. After this visit, Klaus uses his limited Internet privileges to contact The Blood Rose, giving the killer Eva’s address.
Jordache is kidnapped by The Blood Rose, who is revealed to be Lilith Grant. Waking in Lilith greenhouse, he’s shown a slideshow of her previous victims, as well as her next target: Eva. He is forced to give a recorded video message to Eva before being dismembered, his remains placed in a cardboard box and dropped off at the Elliot household.
Eva and Holden take refuge at the Prometheus Corporation. Having grown increasingly inquisitive of Eva’s new appearance and conducting his own little investigation into the Blood Rose killings, Brian manages to sneak in and discover the truth, but is tossed out by security. The FBI steps into the manhunt, and opt to have Klaus transferred to another, less accommodating facility to get him to cooperate. Eva visits Klaus one last time, where she opens up about a recurring nightmare she has involving a butterfly. Having gotten back her psych-profile, Eva leaves as Klaus is escorted on a bus out of Prometheus Corporation’s grounds. However, she notices that the clips holding the paper are gone. Klaus uses them to escape from his cuffs on the bus, killing the guards and the driver.
At the end of her rope, Eva frantically tries to piece together the puzzle. Meanwhile, Lilith’s father Vincent finally decides to take action against his daughter. It is revealed that Lilith was not only a child born of the original program that created Klaus and Eva, but another Catharsis volunteer. Vincent attempts to call the police, but is mortally wounded by his daughter, just as Brian arrives. Brian is knocked out by Lilith, who takes him to the greenhouse.
After going over the evidence and taking Klaus’s advice for granted, Eva realizes that Lilith is the Blood Rose. She escapes from Prometheus, with Holden and the others in pursuit as she heads to the mansion. Arriving on the mansion grounds, Eva discovers a dying Vincent, who tells her to head to the greenhouse before succumbing to his wounds.
Lilith, undergoing a serious mental breakdown, shows Brian her slideshow, asking him what he sees in Eva rather than her. Before she has the opportunity to kill him, Eva bursts into the greenhouse as Holden, the Corporation, and the authorities arrive. Eva and Lilith engage in a savage fight, with Holden telling the cops and federal agents to hold their fire. Eva is slashed across her face and seemingly out of commission. As Lilith realizes she’s surrounded, Eva manages to get her gun and shoots Lilith multiple times in the face. This doesn’t kill her, and Eva proceeds to stomp on her head until it turns into mush, crying as she does it. Her mother’s killer gone for good, Eva embraces both Holden and Brian.
A few days later, a happier Eva checks her mailbox, finding an origami figure in the form of a butterfly, as well as a letter from Klaus congratulating her for “playing the game so well.” Eva smirks before tossing the butterfly and the letter into the ocean behind her house.
