Cloverfield Magic

Chapter 1 - The Kids Are(n't) Alright

A couple of hours away from the Starlight Cosmetics Testing Facility, a large moving truck pulls into the driveway of an empty house.

It's a rainy night when the Anderson family moves into Cloverfield. The family's new home is a modest two-story house with brown bricks and a slightly cracked driveway nestled away at the end of the residential strip where the concrete pavement turns into a short length of gravel that disappears into the encroaching woods.

Sixteen-year-old Issac Anderson has a secret. He keeps it close to his chest, like the contents of his carefully packaged moving box. The wind blows the hood of Issac's rain jacket away for the umpteenth time that night as he steps out of the back seat of the truck, revealing dull blond hair that was completely soaked through. He has a pair of tired, brown eyes that his mother would say she wished were green like his sister's. Issac used to wish the same, but recently whenever he catches the reflection of his face in the mirror, he's glad that they're brown.

Green would be too painful.

Following his mom and dad through the doorway of their new home, Issac had just set his box down in the foyer when he heard the sound of his parents arguing already from the living room. He wasn't surprised. It was only a matter of time. Everyone was drenched, tired, and in an overall terrible mood - Issac himself even more so after his chronic insomnia had kept him up all night.

"Why did you pack all of this junk? I thought we agreed to throw it out!" His father yelled.

"I agreed to no such thing! If you don't want them, fine! But let me keep these at least!"

"This isn't about what I want. It's not good for him! The whole point of moving was to start fresh, Sarah!"

Issac found it almost funny, the way his parents were locked in a pseudo game of tug-of-war. He couldn't remember a single time his parents didn't fight after spending an extended period of time together. His father eventually yanks the box from his mother's fingers, and she falls forward, crying. Unable to bear the sound of his mother's wailing, his father reluctantly drops the box with a padded thud.

"I'm sorry, honey. Let's not fight tonight. We can keep the boxes in the spare bedroom upstairs if you'd like."

His father calls Issac over from the hall and pulls him and his teary-eyed mother into a group hug. "I want this to be a new start for us. For all of us. How about I pick up some pizza?" his dad offers.

His mother nods as she dries her eyes. Outside, the rain continues to fall.

His father backs the family car out of the driveway, and Issac watches the tail lights of the car cut through the downpour, casting a mottled pattern of light and shadow across the line of trees.

It might have been a trick of the light, but a shadowy figure on the side of the road is momentarily illuminated through the haze of torrential rain as his father ignorantly drives by. Issac leans into the glass to try and get a closer look, but when Issac blinks the shadow is gone, leaving him wondering if he ever saw anything at all.

+

Issac starts his first day of high school smiling, tired, and disinterested. His dad offered to drop him off on his way to his new job on the Cloverfield City Council, but Issac didn't want to be a bother, so he opted to ride his bike instead.

The biting autumn wind helped Issac wake from his lethargy, as he had only gotten a couple of hours of sleep before waking up in a cold sweat. He had spent the rest of the night staring at the dark sky through the branches of the oak tree outside his window, tired mind chasing after elusive shadows through the lines of the forest.