Questions for Answers

Chapter One

River's POV

10 years later...

"Hello?? Earth to River! Where are you right now?" Kat asked as she poked me with a plastic fork.

"What? I'm here, getting stabbed with a fork," I joked, rubbing the spot she'd poked.

She laughed, "Sorry, but are you okay though? You seem like you're in another world right now."

I thought about her question. Was I okay? Not really.

"The nightmares came back out of nowhere, and it's messing with me more than I expected. I thought I was past all of this."

Kat shook her head softly. "I mean, you were just a kid. You never even really got the chance to experience them; your parents. And now there's nothing left of them but those cursed nightmares. I can't believe the police wouldn't let you take anything. Not everything in that house was evidence! Maybe you'd have some closure if they told you what was going on or let you go back."

"Go back?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Yeah. Have you never thought about going back to your old house to see if anything was left behind? It's a long shot, but maybe you could find something there. I know the house was closed off after... that happened, so it's probably abandoned, right?"

Of course, I had thought about that house, my house, but honestly, I was trying to forget it all. It'd been so long that my memories of the place and my parents were already fading. I only lived there until I was six, after all. I shook myself from the thoughts and said, "I guess I can try to find out if anyone lives there now, but it's probably best to look it up online before just showing up unannounced."

I pulled out my phone and searched for my old address. A few results popped up, including a news article from a couple of years ago titled New Family Moves Into Murder House & Wants To Know If It's Haunted. I rolled my eyes. "Seriously? They're calling it a murder house and pretending it's haunted now because of what happened?"

Kat frowned. "People shouldn't write stuff like that, especially when the police never really explained what happened. But at least we know someone lives there now, so maybe they'll let you look around if you explain who you are."

I shrugged. "Maybe. Or they might just think I'm some freak trying to get the latest scoop. Whatever. I can't think about that right now. I've got something even scarier to face—Physics!"

Technically, I didn't have physics until the end of the day, but it was still the class I dreaded most. I had a free period after lunch and before history, so I usually chilled or caught up on homework. One time I even pretended I was supposed to be in Kat's math class, but her teacher kicked me out.

Kat pretended to be scared and we laughed. I said goodbye and headed to class. She and I only shared two classes: history and PE. Aside from her, I didn't have any close friends. Just classmates.

School was alright, mostly. After what happened to my parents, I had to find a new place to live and go to a new school. Brenda was the closest thing I had to family since my parents had no siblings, and all but one grandparent had passed. Brenda was 62 though, so she couldn't take care of me.

The police nearly sent me to an orphanage in another state, but Brenda advocated for me to go into foster care here. Thankfully, I was only in one group home before a young couple adopted me when I was seven. My new house wasn't far from my old one.

With new parents came siblings... something I'd never had before. I had two sisters and a brother, all older. I'd been at this school since second grade.