Locke & Key, vol 2: Headgames

Hill, Joe and Gabriel Rodriguez. Locke & Key, vol 2: Headgames. 2010. 978-1600107610.

Zack Wells has infiltrated the life of the Locke children in Locke & Key, vol. 1, and despite Bode's insistence that he easily would identify the girl in the well, Zack continues his search for the missing keys. Recognized by a teacher he once had twenty years ago, Zack engineers his death, but instead of being a suicide like he planned, Zack is forced to kill the man, creating emotional upheavals in the Locke household even though they barely knew that teacher. 

Bode finds a key that allows him to open his head and add or remove memories at will. Tyler and Kinsey are both repulsed and intrigued by this newfound ability to take away unwanted memories and add whole books worth of information. Using the head key, Kinsey removes her lack of self-confidence and her fear from her head, and imprisons them in a bottle.  Ty uses it to cram for an exam he didn't study.

Their uncle Duncan, meanwhile, also remembers Zack from a previous encounter. Hanging out with his lover at a bar, both men are assaulted by two enraged women who bemoan the loss of the town to gays. They return home, where they are followed by the women who are bent on inflicting harm, but Zack beats them to it by forcing Duncan's boyfriend out, where he is accidentally hit by the women's car. Zack then removes Duncan's memory of him, and returns home to Ellie and her son, who remains impervious to Zack's charm and powers.