History
Derrick Hilch, or sometimes Derek, didn't go to college. He wound up a stay-at-home father to help raise his son Cooper Cypress.[1] Since he was out of work for a while, he started renting his shed out to people to help pay rent on his house.[2]
The Checks[]
One day, he returned home from work and couldn't find Cooper or his stripper-girlfriend Nikki Jensen. He was escorted into the shed by his tenant Anthony Check and was taken hostage along with Cooper and Nikki.
Soon, Em Cypress was stopping by and heard a noise from the shed. She discovered the Check brothers had Derrick, Cooper, and Nikki held hostage. The Checks were involved in a body part shipping business and Derrick and company were about to become their next victims. Em killed the Check brothers and saved them but was stabbed and came back to life in the process revealing her secret that she was a Reviver to Derrick. The group secretly hid the bodies of the Checks and kept the murder a secret from the police.[3]
Investigating Weimar[]
Later, Dana Cypress, the mother of his child, continued to dig into the case of who killed Em. She called Derrick over since he knew her secret as well. Dana tells Derrick the last time she saw Martha before she died was on Christmas Day. She recalls Em had spent a long period of time texting Aaron Weimar, her secret boyfriend and teacher at the time. Dana tells him the next thing Em remembered was reviving in a river and the only clue she had was a scar on her forehead. Dana suspects Aaron killed her as a married man having an affair with a 19 year-old-girl. Dana asked Derrick to stay late after his next art class, and break into Weimar's office to look for evidence against him.[4]
Late at night, Derrick was about to sneak into Aaron's office when he ran into another masked man who was already in the office. The masked man poured gasoline all over the office and set it on fire. Derrick ran away screaming for Dana to abort over the phone as he was attacked by the man. Dana quickly reacted and shot out the glass door to save him. The man pushed Derrick into Dana and escaped while they tripped down the stairs. Dana fell on the glass and had shards impaled into her back. The two take off to pull the pieces out bit by bit so as to avoid heading to the hospital and getting caught.[5] Derrick dropped Dana off at Wal-Mart so she could get some supplies. She told him she's going back after the psycho and needed him to return home to watch over Cooper.[6]