Riley always knew that her family had secrets, all families did, but the secrets she would learn could destroy everything she knows.
Riley woke up right on time, it was a long trip from Pensacola, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana, but she hoped that it would be worth it in the end. She got a quick shower in, brushing her hair and putting the short mass of hair into a clip, the summer months were rolling in, and she knew even a little bit of time outside without her air conditioner would guarantee she would sweat. She grabbed the last few things that she was taking in the car, and loaded them into the trunk and backseat. She had feared she would have to wait for the moving truck to arrive, but it pulled in beside her car as she was shutting the trunk.
"Hey lady, are you...Riley Abbott?" asked the tall man as he walked toward here from the passenger side of the truck?
"Yep that is me!" she responded back, maybe a bit too enthusiastically, because the man looked down at her curiously. Another man had gotten out of the truck, and walked around to meet them, lifting the door on the moving truck. Riley signed the order form, and the men pulled on their gloves and started packing her items into the truck.
-Two Hours Later-
The truck was packed, but it had taken longer than Riley anticipated, it was nearly 11 AM and at this rate, she was sure to get stuck in traffic. Sighing in annoyance at the thought of sitting on one of the mile long bridges in traffic, she locked her apartment door one last time, went downstairs to the office, and dropped hers and the spare key she gave her mother into the drop-box. Riley got into her car, the temperature heating the inside up to an extreme temperature already; she cranked her AC, put on her sunglasses, and headed off on her newest adventure.
-Eight Hours Later-
Exhausted, Riley pulled into the parking lot of her new apartment complex, it was close to her work, which she would be starting tomorrow, the company that she worked for was opening a new GameStop location in town, and she was the new district manager, and while she was in direct charge of this store, she was also in charge of maintaining the other two nearby stores if they needed someone. She was in charge of hiring, and she was not looking forward to that, new hires were one of two things, a total moron, or a know-it-all gamer who knew nothing at all about customer service.
Riley parked her 2011 Blue Ford Focus, and picked up her cell phone to call her mother Regina. Her mother’s voice-mail picked up on the second ring, she must be on the other line, Hey momma, just letting you know that I made it here safely, it was a long trip, but not too bad. Going into the manager’s office and picking up my key, and the moving truck should be here in an hour, call me around 10:00 tonight, love lots! It had been just Riley and her mother since before Riley could remember, her father was not in, or had ever been in the picture. He had married her mother, but left when he found out Regina was pregnant. Needless to say, Riley and her mother were extremely close, if her mother had been able to have her way, she would have moved here with Riley, but Riley needed this, she needed the independence. She got out of the car as rain started to sprinkle on the wind-shield.
"Okay, Riley Abbott, you are in apartment 12, it is two-bedroom and one bath, as you probably know, it is at the end of the complex, bottom floor and there is no one above you." the manager spoke as he handed Riley the key to the apartment and the mailbox, Riley heard the rain picking up outside and turned to look out the window, "No worries about the rain dearie, it will only last a few minutes." smiled the manager, showing his clean, yet crooked teeth. Headlights appeared on the wall behind the manager, as the moving truck pulled in next to her car. Riley signed the last of the apartment contract and ran out into the rain to meet them.
"You want us to come back tomorrow?" asked the driver as he rolled his window down just enough to speak through it. Riley might have agreed to that, but the rain started to slack up and she was paying by the hour, and storage was $100 a night. "Nah, my bed is in there, I wouldn't have anything to sleep on. Follow me, you can get close." The driver sighed as he rolled up the window, but did as she asked, pulled up to the apartment. The driver and passenger got out of the car, both of them stretching their muscles and slipping their gloves back on. Riley opened the apartment door, and gasped, the apartment was not only huge, it was clean and beautiful, she could get used to this!
It was sometime around 08:00 when the movers finished, it was then that Riley let Storm out of his kennel, she had hauled him in the car all the way here, and he was eager to get out of the kennel, his large tail wagged hard, thumping against every box as he sniffed around the new apartment, eager to see everything, well smell everything. Riley went back into her new bedroom, and started to put her bed together. The project only took fifteen or twenty minutes, and she lay down on the bed for a moment, which was a huge mistake.
Rebecca Abate, you have been convicted on the use of witchcraft, and therefore the county of Escambia in the state of Florida hereby sentences to you death by hanging. A laugh escapes the throat of the woman who has a noose wrapped around her neck, the laugh doesn't stop either, it only keeps getting louder. Suddenly, the laugh change, from the sinister laugh to a violent scream, another woman in the crowd begins to scream as well, but Rebecca's drowns it out. The crowd covers their ears, as the scream continues to get louder and louder. Finally the executioner crosses his neck, and a man in the mask kicks the block out from underneath the screaming woman. The screams continue for a moment, than they drown out as gasps of air come from the dying woman's throat. However, the screams continue from the other woman, the other woman who is on the ground, crying and screaming, the woman is the daughter of Rebecca, Roseanne Abate.
"I'm only a man with a candle to guide me, I'm taking a stand to escape what's inside me. A monster, a monster, I've turned into a monster, a monster, a monster, and it keeps getting stronger." her phones goes off loudly, waking Riley up from her accidental nap.
Hey baby its your momma, just wanted to give you a call back, glad you made it there so safely, call me in the morning before you head into work, I love you. Riley looked at her phone, realizing that she had picked up right in time to get the voice-mail, but not answer the phone. She drifted back off the sleep, her red nose American Staffordshire Pitbull Storm snuggled up beside her, only one thing running through her head as she drifted off was "A monster, a monster, I've turned into a monster, a monster, a monster, and it keeps getting stronger."