p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="678e6b50e271d328c495e21e491ab4f5"November 3rd 1984./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ddc12a325b265ceb011962a1207236f6""Well, this place looks...depressing." Sidney whistled and flicked her tongue over her silver lip ring, looking out the car window at the dreary streets of this new town, the sky was slate grey with not a lick of sunlight to be seen. Outside, exhausted mums pushing rickety strollers crossed the road in front of them, moody teenagers slumped against walls as they sparked up cigarettes to look cool, young kids screamed as it began to rain and they ran home through the town centre. "Cursed as fuck too -" Riley began, sitting next to Sidney in the back of the car and flipping through his comic book. "Language." Paul chided in from the drivers seat, raising a trimmed eyebrow at his stepson through the mirror, but his lip twitched into a grin. "Fine - it's HECKING cursed. Seriously a LOT of weird shit has happened in this place over the years, I've done my research and-" Riley dropped his comic book onto the middle seat, twisting to look at Sidney right in the eyes. Sidney couldn't help the trickle of laughter bursting through her dark pink lips, "oh god, of course you went full nerd mode and researched a em style="box-sizing: border-box;"town/em." Riley took no notice of her laughing, manically reciting what he had learned about Hawkins. "I'm serious Sid, so like decades ago there was this freak incident where a guy killed his whole family for absolutely no reason, he was a war vet and just fucking flipped one day. Then claims he didn't do it, can't remember a thing, THEN says the house was haunted or possessed by something. The guy clawed his own goddamn eyes out Sid!" Sidney swallowed thickly but never broke eye contact with her younger stepbrother. "Then a few years ago this kid went missing for absolutely ages right, just vanished. Papers said his mum went crazy, talking about conspiracies and coverups after her kid's body was dragged out of the quarry. But get this - a while later this kid turns up alive with no explanation! Papers say he got lost in the woods and had amnesia or something. Turns out his mom was right though, because that body they dragged out the quarry was FAKE - a fake body! and there's literally been no explanation for it, like at all." Paul sighed deeply, flicking his eyes to his wife, Sidney read the look in his eyes and it said, 'is he right?'br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"That's not it, because at the same time another kid went missing, a girl from the high-school we're going to, vanished. Her car disappeared and the papers said she ran away, but then when that missing dead boy came back, the story changed, and she apparently died after being poisoned by some chemical leak from an old lab on the outskirts of town, so the whole thing with her car was a government cover up." Riley was practically rattling as he infodumped on his family. Sidney chewed the insides of her cheek, a strange feeling of familiarity hovering in the back of her mind as she looked past Riley, out of the window and at the sprawling town. "Then last year that same lab was shut down after some freaky super secret activity - people said it was probably to do with nuclear weapons or something - there was an explosion and people died and-" Kiara caught the distant look on Sidney's face through the wingmirror and turned in her seat, her heavy golden earrings clinking against the headrest, "Riley - enough now. You can't trust everything you read in papers or on that stupid computer. How many times have I told you." Riley sunk back into the seat, picking his comic book back up, he didn't say another word./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="93479bf9135b9f910dc9844b2a62cf5b"~br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /November 5th 1984br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Sidney hauled the last crate from the van, resting it on her hip as she waddled into the store, struggling under its weight. The space was huge and still had that 'this place has been vacant for years' smell, even with all the incense Kiara had been burning for the last month she'd been here for. "Thanks hon, just set it down there and we'll start on getting the stock out. Looks great doesn't it?" Sidney's stepmum smiled her radiant smile and flashed her perfect teeth, "I've been so excited for you guys to join me here, I know you and Ry are really disappointed we had to move so far away but, look at this place, it's ours kid!" Sidney set the last crate of rare vinyl records down on the floor and took a second to fully take in the place. Her stepmum - Kiara - was as naturally beautiful as she was eccentric; always wearing stylish boho-chic clothes with an old school hippie twist, her left arm layered in woven bracelets and her right wrist covered with a heavy golden bangle. It had always been Kiara's dream to open her own music store with live events; Sidney had been all in on the idea since she met Kiara when she was 10 years old, and it had been their shared dream ever since. Now here they were, on the other side of the world so far away from Cambridge where their whole life had been for the last 18 years. "It looks fantastic Kiara. I bet dad's happy to finally be here too." Sidney hopped up on what was going to be the desk where the cash register sat, heavy steel and silver rings that she always wore clinking on the wood, she eyed up the golden drum kit in the corner. Kiara joiner her, swinging her legs and bumping shoulders with her stepdaughter, "I'm so happy the three of you are finally here, I've been really bloody lonely this past month, and that time difference was driving me crazy." Sidney laid her head against Kiara's shoulder, "I'm glad we're together again too - he gets really sad when you're not around y'know." She felt kiara nodding, just as she heard a huge commotion from outside. The store's main window was covered with newspaper to keep the inside a secret for the grand opening tomorrow, but there was a small hole near the centre that was just big enough to see through. Sidney hopped over to it, pressing her eye to the hole, feeling her heart thudding and an awful but unplaceable feeling washed over her. Through the hole she saw a group of teenagers - all boys - huddled right outside. The three youngest were laughing their asses off, the smallest one gripping his bright blue cap with one hand as he doubled over. There were three older boys too, all grinning but trying not to laugh as they scrambled to pick another guy up off the ground. Through the window, Sidney could hear the muffled sound of the guys saying, "goddammit you're so fucking clumsy, how do you fall over your own feet like 20 times a day?" Sidney squinted to see through them, at the one on the ground, but all she could see was leather and denim and...hair. Lots of hair. Finally the clutz stood up, with the help of two friends, headphones askew around his neck and his back to the window. Sidney heard him groan, "Are you fucking kidding me! This thing cost me a bomb, I've had it less than a year and it's fucking broken." The skinniest of the younger boys, standing almost a head taller than the other two, chimed in, "I mean you did just fall up the curb and crush it with your entire body so..." Sidney couldn't see the glare that the clutz gave this kid, but his instant recoil proved to her that the clutz was clearly the head of their group. "What's going on out there?" Kiara called over from the back of the room, stacking Walkmans onto the shelf. Sidney instantly backed away from the window, laughing to herself at the scene, "Some dude just faceplanted the pavement." The back door swept shut just as she spoke, her dad's voice carrying through to them, "sidewalk you mean, c'mon Sidney you have to learn the American lingo if you want to be the coolest cat at school." Paul winked at her then pushed his thin glasses back up his nose with a long finger. "Cool cat? No one speaks like that darling - anywhere." Kiara rolled her eyes and playfully smacked her husband in the stomach, Paul mocked offence before putting himself to work helping the two of them finish setting the place up. /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b31ac43f06cb43605b727cd78fa2b3e6"In the back room, the small space that would serve as the staff room slash extra stock storage area, Sidney got to work tidying up and getting a mild sweat on. Swiping her black hair off her face and behind her ear, Sidney stood with her hand on her hip and patted down her jeans pockets searching for a hair tie, 'tonight this mess is getting cut' she thought. For the last couple years Sidney had been growing her hair out and it was finally almost at her waist, tresses of jet black locks that made all the other 'weird' girls at her old school jealous. Except now it was this long, she hated it. Feeling the cool breeze on the back of her neck from the open window in the back room, Sidney called out to her parents "Hey, where's Riley?" Paul popped his head through the door, sweat glistening on his face after moving huge grand record players across the store, "he's upstairs - walked right past you about ten minutes ago." Sidney frowned to herself, had he? She shook off the weird feeling clinging to her back as she walked through the store to the staircase leading up to Kiara's other shop where she would sell crystals, tarot decks, trinkets and knick knacks, as well as give private palm reading and tarot sessions. "Hey - you feeling okay?" Riley asked as he turned from placing giant crystals in the corners of the room. Sidney frowned at him and he continued, "I said hi when I walked in through the back earlier, but you must have been really in the zone because you completely ignored me. Honestly you looked like you weren't even here, y'know, spiritually." Riley turned back to the boxes of quirky ornaments he was furnishing the space with, Sidney huffed loudly enough for him to hear though, "I'm fine, sorry yeah I was just uh, really into the cleaning." See now, Sidney and Kiara's dream store was downstairs, but up here was Riley and Kiara's dream store. Kiara believed she had a 'gift'; that she could see people's auras, astral project, read people's future's from looking at their clammy hands, cure the flu with crystals, and all that hippie crap. It was no surprise that her 16 yearold son believed in it all too. Sidney and her father were the total opposite though; academically minded and strong believers in science rather than science fiction. How the hell her dad and Kiara fell in love with eachother was a total mystery to Sidney, but he never made fun of his wife or told her she was crazy, and Sidney thought that was kinda cute so she tried to not let Kiara or Riley see her roll her eyes anytime either of them said something hippie-dippie. "Could you help me uh.." Riley gestured to the hooks hanging from the top of the ceiling in front of the door frame that led to the tiny room where Kiara would do her private sessions. Riley wasn't short for his age, but Sidney was 5'9 without her chunky boots on, so she could effortlessly reach the hooks to hang the sparkly tiedye drapes. "How are you feeling about all this kiddo?" Sidney rested a hand on his shoulder as they leaned against the wall together. Riley scratched his neck and nervously chewed his lip, "I'm excited about working up here, being around all this stuff makes all my anxiety go away y'know. I'm just...scared about the whole school thing." Sidney squeezed his shoulder supportively, "I get it - i wish we could just skip highschool and work here with your mum. Y'know everything will be okay though, we'll be the new kids together, and you're nowhere near as weird looking as me so, you'll be fine." Riley sighed, "I mean this place is kinda giving me racist vibes so maybe I'll be the one who gets attacked in the school yard this time." Sidney's throat tightened at the memory of the day almost two years ago when during lunch break, the mean girl gang of the school surrounded her and began kicking the shit out of her, calling her the usual names they'd called her since they were in nursery together. "Well, as long as you don't go telling the head bitch that her foundation is three shades warmer than her skin tone and her gucci bag is clearly a fake, in front of the entire cafeteria, then you'll be fine."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4c761f170e016836ff84498202b99827"~/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9de8cf2214f6c875ba28f8e427b0789"Later on November 5th, 1984/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="63c835ea07169561ac86af2c85b4e239""Hey mum, we uh officially moved here a couple days ago, I have a pretty big bedroom now and its a mess but i'm gonna decorate it real nice, put my posters up and hang my guitar on the wall. It's pretty dull here, hasn't stopped raining since we arrived so it kinda feels like home already, but there's just...something about it, something that bothers me, and i don't know what." Sidney whispered into the darkness of her new bedroom, currently filled with boxes and a mattress on the floor to sleep on until her bed frame arrived. Sitting cross legged in the corner of the room next to the window, Sidney held a single large match between her fingers, the flame sputtering light onto her red painted nails. Sitting in the darkness with a single match lit as she spoke to the flame everything she wished she could talk to her dead mum about, was her nightly ritual. "As soon as we crossed the town's border I got this cold feeling in my spine, like icicles digging into my vertebrae. Everywhere I look, I feel this strange fear hit me in the face but it didn't feel like it was mine. Its probably just my nervous system telling me I need to eat less sugar and get more sleep, but you know how anxiety makes me crave sugar and then sugar keeps me up all night." Sidney suddenly stopped, lifting her ear to the window as she thought she heard a noise outside, which turned out to just be a mangy cat. "Jeez look at me, I'm so amped up I'm acting like a crazy person. Kiara would probably tell me it's my aura adjusting to this new place or some shit. You and Dad would tell me it's just my nervousness of being the new kid in school..." The match finally fizzled out, lightly burning Sidney's thumb. "Goodnight mum, love you."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ddc12a325b265ceb011962a1207236f6""Well, this place looks...depressing." Sidney whistled and flicked her tongue over her silver lip ring, looking out the car window at the dreary streets of this new town, the sky was slate grey with not a lick of sunlight to be seen. Outside, exhausted mums pushing rickety strollers crossed the road in front of them, moody teenagers slumped against walls as they sparked up cigarettes to look cool, young kids screamed as it began to rain and they ran home through the town centre. "Cursed as fuck too -" Riley began, sitting next to Sidney in the back of the car and flipping through his comic book. "Language." Paul chided in from the drivers seat, raising a trimmed eyebrow at his stepson through the mirror, but his lip twitched into a grin. "Fine - it's HECKING cursed. Seriously a LOT of weird shit has happened in this place over the years, I've done my research and-" Riley dropped his comic book onto the middle seat, twisting to look at Sidney right in the eyes. Sidney couldn't help the trickle of laughter bursting through her dark pink lips, "oh god, of course you went full nerd mode and researched a em style="box-sizing: border-box;"town/em." Riley took no notice of her laughing, manically reciting what he had learned about Hawkins. "I'm serious Sid, so like decades ago there was this freak incident where a guy killed his whole family for absolutely no reason, he was a war vet and just fucking flipped one day. Then claims he didn't do it, can't remember a thing, THEN says the house was haunted or possessed by something. The guy clawed his own goddamn eyes out Sid!" Sidney swallowed thickly but never broke eye contact with her younger stepbrother. "Then a few years ago this kid went missing for absolutely ages right, just vanished. Papers said his mum went crazy, talking about conspiracies and coverups after her kid's body was dragged out of the quarry. But get this - a while later this kid turns up alive with no explanation! Papers say he got lost in the woods and had amnesia or something. Turns out his mom was right though, because that body they dragged out the quarry was FAKE - a fake body! and there's literally been no explanation for it, like at all." Paul sighed deeply, flicking his eyes to his wife, Sidney read the look in his eyes and it said, 'is he right?'br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /"That's not it, because at the same time another kid went missing, a girl from the high-school we're going to, vanished. Her car disappeared and the papers said she ran away, but then when that missing dead boy came back, the story changed, and she apparently died after being poisoned by some chemical leak from an old lab on the outskirts of town, so the whole thing with her car was a government cover up." Riley was practically rattling as he infodumped on his family. Sidney chewed the insides of her cheek, a strange feeling of familiarity hovering in the back of her mind as she looked past Riley, out of the window and at the sprawling town. "Then last year that same lab was shut down after some freaky super secret activity - people said it was probably to do with nuclear weapons or something - there was an explosion and people died and-" Kiara caught the distant look on Sidney's face through the wingmirror and turned in her seat, her heavy golden earrings clinking against the headrest, "Riley - enough now. You can't trust everything you read in papers or on that stupid computer. How many times have I told you." Riley sunk back into the seat, picking his comic book back up, he didn't say another word./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="93479bf9135b9f910dc9844b2a62cf5b"~br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /November 5th 1984br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Sidney hauled the last crate from the van, resting it on her hip as she waddled into the store, struggling under its weight. The space was huge and still had that 'this place has been vacant for years' smell, even with all the incense Kiara had been burning for the last month she'd been here for. "Thanks hon, just set it down there and we'll start on getting the stock out. Looks great doesn't it?" Sidney's stepmum smiled her radiant smile and flashed her perfect teeth, "I've been so excited for you guys to join me here, I know you and Ry are really disappointed we had to move so far away but, look at this place, it's ours kid!" Sidney set the last crate of rare vinyl records down on the floor and took a second to fully take in the place. Her stepmum - Kiara - was as naturally beautiful as she was eccentric; always wearing stylish boho-chic clothes with an old school hippie twist, her left arm layered in woven bracelets and her right wrist covered with a heavy golden bangle. It had always been Kiara's dream to open her own music store with live events; Sidney had been all in on the idea since she met Kiara when she was 10 years old, and it had been their shared dream ever since. Now here they were, on the other side of the world so far away from Cambridge where their whole life had been for the last 18 years. "It looks fantastic Kiara. I bet dad's happy to finally be here too." Sidney hopped up on what was going to be the desk where the cash register sat, heavy steel and silver rings that she always wore clinking on the wood, she eyed up the golden drum kit in the corner. Kiara joiner her, swinging her legs and bumping shoulders with her stepdaughter, "I'm so happy the three of you are finally here, I've been really bloody lonely this past month, and that time difference was driving me crazy." Sidney laid her head against Kiara's shoulder, "I'm glad we're together again too - he gets really sad when you're not around y'know." She felt kiara nodding, just as she heard a huge commotion from outside. The store's main window was covered with newspaper to keep the inside a secret for the grand opening tomorrow, but there was a small hole near the centre that was just big enough to see through. Sidney hopped over to it, pressing her eye to the hole, feeling her heart thudding and an awful but unplaceable feeling washed over her. Through the hole she saw a group of teenagers - all boys - huddled right outside. The three youngest were laughing their asses off, the smallest one gripping his bright blue cap with one hand as he doubled over. There were three older boys too, all grinning but trying not to laugh as they scrambled to pick another guy up off the ground. Through the window, Sidney could hear the muffled sound of the guys saying, "goddammit you're so fucking clumsy, how do you fall over your own feet like 20 times a day?" Sidney squinted to see through them, at the one on the ground, but all she could see was leather and denim and...hair. Lots of hair. Finally the clutz stood up, with the help of two friends, headphones askew around his neck and his back to the window. Sidney heard him groan, "Are you fucking kidding me! This thing cost me a bomb, I've had it less than a year and it's fucking broken." The skinniest of the younger boys, standing almost a head taller than the other two, chimed in, "I mean you did just fall up the curb and crush it with your entire body so..." Sidney couldn't see the glare that the clutz gave this kid, but his instant recoil proved to her that the clutz was clearly the head of their group. "What's going on out there?" Kiara called over from the back of the room, stacking Walkmans onto the shelf. Sidney instantly backed away from the window, laughing to herself at the scene, "Some dude just faceplanted the pavement." The back door swept shut just as she spoke, her dad's voice carrying through to them, "sidewalk you mean, c'mon Sidney you have to learn the American lingo if you want to be the coolest cat at school." Paul winked at her then pushed his thin glasses back up his nose with a long finger. "Cool cat? No one speaks like that darling - anywhere." Kiara rolled her eyes and playfully smacked her husband in the stomach, Paul mocked offence before putting himself to work helping the two of them finish setting the place up. /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b31ac43f06cb43605b727cd78fa2b3e6"In the back room, the small space that would serve as the staff room slash extra stock storage area, Sidney got to work tidying up and getting a mild sweat on. Swiping her black hair off her face and behind her ear, Sidney stood with her hand on her hip and patted down her jeans pockets searching for a hair tie, 'tonight this mess is getting cut' she thought. For the last couple years Sidney had been growing her hair out and it was finally almost at her waist, tresses of jet black locks that made all the other 'weird' girls at her old school jealous. Except now it was this long, she hated it. Feeling the cool breeze on the back of her neck from the open window in the back room, Sidney called out to her parents "Hey, where's Riley?" Paul popped his head through the door, sweat glistening on his face after moving huge grand record players across the store, "he's upstairs - walked right past you about ten minutes ago." Sidney frowned to herself, had he? She shook off the weird feeling clinging to her back as she walked through the store to the staircase leading up to Kiara's other shop where she would sell crystals, tarot decks, trinkets and knick knacks, as well as give private palm reading and tarot sessions. "Hey - you feeling okay?" Riley asked as he turned from placing giant crystals in the corners of the room. Sidney frowned at him and he continued, "I said hi when I walked in through the back earlier, but you must have been really in the zone because you completely ignored me. Honestly you looked like you weren't even here, y'know, spiritually." Riley turned back to the boxes of quirky ornaments he was furnishing the space with, Sidney huffed loudly enough for him to hear though, "I'm fine, sorry yeah I was just uh, really into the cleaning." See now, Sidney and Kiara's dream store was downstairs, but up here was Riley and Kiara's dream store. Kiara believed she had a 'gift'; that she could see people's auras, astral project, read people's future's from looking at their clammy hands, cure the flu with crystals, and all that hippie crap. It was no surprise that her 16 yearold son believed in it all too. Sidney and her father were the total opposite though; academically minded and strong believers in science rather than science fiction. How the hell her dad and Kiara fell in love with eachother was a total mystery to Sidney, but he never made fun of his wife or told her she was crazy, and Sidney thought that was kinda cute so she tried to not let Kiara or Riley see her roll her eyes anytime either of them said something hippie-dippie. "Could you help me uh.." Riley gestured to the hooks hanging from the top of the ceiling in front of the door frame that led to the tiny room where Kiara would do her private sessions. Riley wasn't short for his age, but Sidney was 5'9 without her chunky boots on, so she could effortlessly reach the hooks to hang the sparkly tiedye drapes. "How are you feeling about all this kiddo?" Sidney rested a hand on his shoulder as they leaned against the wall together. Riley scratched his neck and nervously chewed his lip, "I'm excited about working up here, being around all this stuff makes all my anxiety go away y'know. I'm just...scared about the whole school thing." Sidney squeezed his shoulder supportively, "I get it - i wish we could just skip highschool and work here with your mum. Y'know everything will be okay though, we'll be the new kids together, and you're nowhere near as weird looking as me so, you'll be fine." Riley sighed, "I mean this place is kinda giving me racist vibes so maybe I'll be the one who gets attacked in the school yard this time." Sidney's throat tightened at the memory of the day almost two years ago when during lunch break, the mean girl gang of the school surrounded her and began kicking the shit out of her, calling her the usual names they'd called her since they were in nursery together. "Well, as long as you don't go telling the head bitch that her foundation is three shades warmer than her skin tone and her gucci bag is clearly a fake, in front of the entire cafeteria, then you'll be fine."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4c761f170e016836ff84498202b99827"~/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9de8cf2214f6c875ba28f8e427b0789"Later on November 5th, 1984/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="63c835ea07169561ac86af2c85b4e239""Hey mum, we uh officially moved here a couple days ago, I have a pretty big bedroom now and its a mess but i'm gonna decorate it real nice, put my posters up and hang my guitar on the wall. It's pretty dull here, hasn't stopped raining since we arrived so it kinda feels like home already, but there's just...something about it, something that bothers me, and i don't know what." Sidney whispered into the darkness of her new bedroom, currently filled with boxes and a mattress on the floor to sleep on until her bed frame arrived. Sitting cross legged in the corner of the room next to the window, Sidney held a single large match between her fingers, the flame sputtering light onto her red painted nails. Sitting in the darkness with a single match lit as she spoke to the flame everything she wished she could talk to her dead mum about, was her nightly ritual. "As soon as we crossed the town's border I got this cold feeling in my spine, like icicles digging into my vertebrae. Everywhere I look, I feel this strange fear hit me in the face but it didn't feel like it was mine. Its probably just my nervous system telling me I need to eat less sugar and get more sleep, but you know how anxiety makes me crave sugar and then sugar keeps me up all night." Sidney suddenly stopped, lifting her ear to the window as she thought she heard a noise outside, which turned out to just be a mangy cat. "Jeez look at me, I'm so amped up I'm acting like a crazy person. Kiara would probably tell me it's my aura adjusting to this new place or some shit. You and Dad would tell me it's just my nervousness of being the new kid in school..." The match finally fizzled out, lightly burning Sidney's thumb. "Goodnight mum, love you."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" /p