Your name is Conrad Achenleck. You are thirteen years old and today you are saying goodbye to the only home you've ever known. Your mother has recently gotten remarried to a douchebag American businessman with a snot-nosed brat of a son, so your mother is relocating you both across the pond to be with them. You rather have your eyeballs plucked out by rabid crows than go with her.
You're standing in the airport, fighting back tears as you hug and kiss your grandparents goodbye. Your grandmother holds you, and in quiet desperation, you beg her not to let your mother take you. She breaks away from you to wipe your tears, "We can't keep you with us love. As much as we tried, she wouldn't let us. I'm sorry." You nod with a lump in your throat, turning to go face your destiny 9 hour away.
Your mother berates you with a low deadly voice, telling you to wipe your nose and to stop your sniveling. You quickly obey, following her quietly through the gate and onto the plane. At least you got a window seat, which you leaned against and ignored your mother for the whole flight.
You must have fallen asleep because the next thing you know you've landed and you go to face Satan and the Anti-Christ, also known as Kevin your "new daddy" and Brad his "amazing son". You arrive at your new "home", although it felt like a prison. Your new room is much smaller than your last one, but it didn't matter because suddenly you're on your bed, sobbing as quietly as you possible can.
The next morning is your first day at your new school. You spend most of the morning in the office getting your schedule sorted out, causing you to be late getting to your second class, which is some bullshit science course you couldn't careless about. The teacher points to a table in the back where a pretty blonde girl was sitting. "Jaclyn, move your books over and make room for your new lab partner." You walk over and sit down beside her, completely eaten up with anxiety. The teacher continues teaching something about molecules. Suddenly you feel a tap on your arm and there's a note in front of you.
"Hi I'm Jaclyn, what's your name? :)"
"Hi, I'm Conrad."
"So where did you move from?"
"I just moved here from Great Britain."
You and Jaclyn keep talking until the bell rings for lunch, which she invites you to meet her friends.
Your name is Conrad Achenleck and suddenly you don't feel so alone.
_
Your name is Conrad Achenleck, you are eighteen years old and you are leaving for college in two weeks. You and Jaclyn have been dating for the past year, you got accepted into that Art School you had your eye on, and you were finally getting away from that dickhead of a stepbrother, who had consistently beat the shit out of you for the past five years. Jaclyn had always said you should defend yourself but you never fought back. You were too scared of your own temper.
You and Jaclyn hadn't made love yet, you both agreed to wait until she turned eighteen, which was just a few days away. Today you decided to surprise her at home with a nice bouquet of daisies, her favorite flower. The door to her house was unlocked, so you just let yourself in, not like her parents minded, they loved you like you were their own.
"Hello anyone home? Jaclyn, I have a surprise for you." You are met with silence, so you just decide to go up to her room to see if she's there. On the way up the stairs, you hear muffled moaning. In your naivety, you think she might have fallen and hurt herself. You open her door to find her naked on the bed…
with your stepbrother Brad.
The next moments are nothing but a red haze, the only thing you can discern is Jaclyn's crying, your screaming and the blood on your fist from beating the everliving fuck out of Brad. Beating the shit out of Brad was something you had only dreamed of before and you're getting immense pleasure from it. The only regret you have is that Jaclyn's betrayal is what spurred you to.
That red haze is still hanging around, and the next thing you know, you're driving high speed back to your house. Your cellphone is ringing, probably Jaclyn sobbing some apology or your mother kicking you out of the house. It didn't matter now. You pull in and race up stairs, grabbing everything she ever bought you and throwing it out of your window. That's all Jaclyn was to you now, just she.
You run back downstairs, grabbing your mother's lighter and cigarettes. If you were going to have a mental breakdown, you might as well do it in style. You kick all the shit into the fire pit, lighting a cigarette and taking a puff. The nicotine and smoke knocks you for a loop, but you're too out of it for it to affect you. The gas can is out in the shed, you grab it and douse the items with gasoline.
You set the can down and pull out your wallet. You throw in your prom picture, her senior photo and movie tickets from your first date into the pile. You pause at the letter she wrote you that you've always kept on you. The one that stated she loved you and would never hurt you like how your mother does.
What a bunch of shit.
You light the end of it, and throw it into the pile, which immediately goes up in flames. You don't cry, you refuse to let yourself cry. No more getting involved anymore, it only leads to heartache. You finish your cigarette and start another one, then another. It dimly hits you that now you are no longer under your mother's control. You start to laugh, quietly at first, then it comes onto in loud hysterics. You keep laughing, for what feels like hours. Everything was funnier when you snap.
Tonight you will crash at a friend's house, officially kicked out of your mother's house, where you will stay until college starts.
Your name is Conrad Achenleck and for the first time in your miserable life you feel free.
_
Your name is Conrad Achenleck, you are twenty-three years old and you are burying your grandmother, the only female in your life who had never hurt you. For the past month you have set by her bedside as the last stages of advanced leukemia took her bit by bit. Her last words were "Don't cry dear, I won't hurt anymore."
Today you sit by her casket as they lower it down to its final resting place, beside your grandfather. You want to cry, you need to cry but the tears just won't come out. You don't know why. Maybe because your mother is sitting beside you and you hadn't seen her since you went off to college at the age of eighteen. Maybe because crying would admit she was finally gone. You didn't know.
Now you, your mother, Kevin, Brad and Jaclyn (Brad and Jaclyn had recently wed. You of course hadn't been invited to the wedding, not like you really had wanted to go in the first place) sat in your grandmother's lawyer's office as he read her will.
You nearly faint when he says that you inherit your grandparent's fortune and your mother gets nothing. Your mother is furious, she leaves in a rage. The lawyer tells you that you don't get full access until you are thirty, and until then you will only get a monthly allowance. That suits you just fine.
Your name is Conrad Achenleck, and you love doing anything to spite your mother.
_
Your name is Conrad Achenleck, and you are twenty-seven years old.
Life has been pretty great. No serious relationships, a nice apartment, an even nicer car, a great career as a graphic designer. You have very few friends, which suits you just fine, living by your mantra of "don't get close to anyone".
You do go to bed at night feeling lonely however.
Today you have just gotten home from the grocery store when you find a weird colored bat hanging from a beam in your apartment You try to coax it down from it place and get the shit scared out of you when it starts talking to you. Well if you call yelling and insulting you talking.
It attacks you in a rage, and you try punching it. Doesn't work since she's flying around. A scuffle breaks out, turning your well-kept apartment into a giant mess.
You scramble outside and lock the door behind you. You google paranormal investigators near you from your iPhone. You come across a weird looking forum that lists one Hanna Cross with an address. You leave to go meet this "Ms. Cross" and see if she can help you.
Your name is Conrad Achenleck and you are about to have your life changed forever.