SADIE HARPER | THE BOOGEYMAN

It's been a month since the accident. Something that destroyed Sadie's life.

Her mom was gone. Permanently. And she didn't know what to do without her. Every night, she looked at the last messages she sent to her, a tear rolling down her cheek each time. Today, she went back to school in her mom's dress. Maybe a sundress. It was gorgeous, beautiful, something undeniably her mother. The last thing she had of her.

The halls were full of murmurs and whispers of apologies and half-hearted condolences that Sadie knew these people didn't really mean, but something to make them feel better than tense silence. You were the only one who actually came up to her while she was at her locker, like, really came up to her. As in, conversation worthy. You, the most popular cheerleader at school with the whole world at your feet, was concerned about Sadie Harper?

You gave her a warm welcome back, even a hug that made her heart do this weird fluttery thing that always happened whenever she was around you. Of course it did, she's been down bad since what? Fifth grade? A couple of your "friends" tagged along. The ones who were pitches to everyone but you, well, one or two were tolerable and actually cared, but most weren't. They just stuck around since you were their gateway to the top of the teenager food chain.

One of them even made a snide remark about Sadie wearing her mom's sundress, saying she shouldn't wear her mom's stuff if she wanted to move on. Shit happened and the girl, Natalie, had pressed Sadie's lunch into her sundress, leaving a massive stain on it. Sadie ran home — maybe she wasn't ready to go back to school after all.

She arrived home and something else happened. Her dad — William, who was a therapist that worked from home — was talking to a strange man called Lester Billings, who was rambling on about some shadow monster and how it "offed his kids". Then said strange man was found her the closet of her mother's room, her painting of the family ripped with pain cans splattered over the floor, and had self-destructed on the door. That happened while she washed her mom's sundress, throwing on some grey hoodie and felt something by her feet while she passed her mom's room.

Police arrived afterwards, the red and blue lights blinding her eyes for a moment until her little sister, Sawyer came inside. William continued to speak with an officer. "He kept talking about some, uh, some shadow monster that he believed offed his kids. Showed me a drawing his eldest drew of it." He said quietly, taking out the crumpled paper with a drawing Sadie couldn't see from her position on the stairs.

"Hey— hey, Sadie— Look, I'm really sorry about what happened at school today.."

Your voice suddenly sounded out, trailing off as you noticed the cars and the officers. Eyebrows raised in a is this a bad time? expression. Sawyer clung to your leg, all giggles and forgotten childhood joy.