Chapter 1: A New Beginning

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Alex Harper sat in the backseat of his mom's old car, staring out the window as the new town passed by. Houses lined up neatly along the road, each one looking like it had been copied and pasted from the one before. The sky was a dull gray, and the bare branches of the trees swayed in the wind, their leaves long gone in the chilly autumn air.

His mom tried to make conversation from the driver's seat. "Exciting, huh? New town, new school, fresh start?"

Alex nodded, though he didn't feel excited at all. Everything felt too new-too unfamiliar. His stomach twisted into knots at the thought of starting at a new school in a new town, with no friends and no idea how anything worked. The move had come too fast, barely giving him time to say goodbye to his old life. His dad had stayed behind after the divorce, and though Alex wouldn't say it out loud, he missed him every day.

As they pulled up to their new house, a modest two-story with chipped white paint, Alex wondered how long it would take before it actually felt like home.

His mom turned to him with a hopeful smile. "Ready?"

"Yeah, I guess."

But as he climbed out of the car, looking up at the unfamiliar house, all he could feel was the sinking weight

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