Ava Cunningham

Ava, a character in the It Lives In The Woods book, is a student at Westchester High. She is one of main character's love interests. She first appears in Chapter 1.

Appearance
Ava has brown eyes and blonde and pink dyed hair. She has numerous hair accessories, including a silver crescent moon and skull. She wears a black mesh shirt under a black vest with a red skull on it. She has black lipstick and a silver Medusa piercing.

Personality
She is very interested in the occult and supposedly studies curses, though she may have just said this to intimidate Cody and Jocelyn as payback for their bullying. Ava is also shown to be sarcastic and a loner at times.

It Lives In The Woods

 * Chapter 1: Old Friends
 * Chapter 2: What Are You Afraid Of?
 * Chapter 3: Sticks and Stones (Determinant)
 * Chapter 4: What's Coming to You
 * Chapter 6: A Bitter Pill to Swallow
 * Chapter 7: Party Favors
 * Chapter 8: Breakdown
 * Chapter 9: Ungrateful
 * Chapter 10: I'm Not Scared
 * Chapter 11: You Again
 * Chapter 12: Homecoming
 * Chapter 13: Fight or Flight
 * Chapter 14: In the Dark
 * Chapter 15: Everyone Plays Together
 * Chapter 16: In Memoriam

It Lives Beneath

 * Chapter 5: Gone Fishing (Determinant)

Main Character
Main Character and Ava were childhood friends. After 10 years of drifting apart, everyone is brought back together to stop Mr. Red. Ava is one of the main character's love interests.

Cora Pritchard
Although they don't know each other very long, Ava seems to take an instant liking to Cora. If Ava survives the final game of Are You Scared, Tom will meet her in the library, where she is going through Cora's notes on the occult. She can claim that Cora would have wanted her to have them, describing them as "kindred spirits, sisters in the dark arts."

Powers
Ava is believed to have acquired the supernatural power of telekinesis from Redfield. She has also studied the occult, but it is unknown if she can cast spells and curses.
 * Witchcraft: Ava has extensive knowledge and understanding of the occult, witchcraft, spells, curses, hexes, the paranormal, etc. However, in the final chapter (if she's still alive), she has the power to make dimes disappear.
 * Telekinesis: Ava had powerful psychokinetic abilities. She could move, lift, and throw objects or people with little to no effort. This power was presumably given to her by Redfield. He later removed her powers when Main Character angered him. If she survived the events of Chapter 15, Chapter 16 reveals that she was able to regain her powers by studying witchcraft, which she uses to move a coin.

Trivia

 * Her middle name is Dolores.
 * The name Dolores is of Spanish origin and means "sorrow" or "pain".
 * She deeply loves cats.
 * Her father is the Sheriff of Westchester. It is mentioned that he likes Main Character and probably sees him/her as a good role model for Ava. In Chapter 6, it is revealed that her father is allergic to cats.
 * In Chapter 4, it is revealed that she has telekinesis, presumably given to her by Redfield.
 * She becomes temporarily possessed in Chapter 4 after reading a passage from an old book about witch trials.
 * She is possessed again in Chapter 8 when Redfield uses her as a vessel to attack Jocelyn in public.
 * The writing for Ava's character were inspired by the song "Season of the Witch" by Scottish singer, Donovan.
 * If she survives Mr. Red's game of Are You Scared, she will appear in Chapter 5 of It Lives Beneath with a new look. It is mentioned that she is writing a book. She also mentions that the entity is most likely a wraith, some kind of vengeful spirit.
 * She shares the same forename as Ava Montjoy from A Very Scandalous Proposal and the default name of Best Friend from My Two First Loves.
 * On February 16, 2020, PB released a character appreciation post featuring her for Black History Month.
 * On May 22, 2020, Pixelberry tweeted their Weekend Choices Vibes, characters who are featured in this post are Imtura Tal Kaelen, Lily Spencer, Damien Nazario, Sawyer Oakley, Ava Cunningham, Becca Davenport, Shreya Mistry, Marc Antony and Maxwell Beaumont.