Moving had been the absolute last thing that Reagan wanted to do in the midst of her junior year of high school. She had hoped for a chance at normality, but when her godmother Kate got the job offer from her brother in Beacon Hills, there was no staying in Nevada. The two of them were moving to Beacon Hills. End of discussion.
The long car ride there had been nearly unbearable. Reagan spent the majority of it trying to sleep and ignore her carsickness. Typically if Reagan felt carsick, she was able to deal with it, but tonight something was different. Even though Kate had been driving at an easy speed, with no fast turns or jerky stops, wave after wave of nausea hit Reagan over and over again. She figured it was a mixture of nerves and excitement. After all, moving to a completely different town and attending a completely different school in the middle of the year was something she felt justified in being concerned about. Especially when the only other person she would know there was Allison, her godmother's niece, whom she hadn't seen in ten years and they'd both been six years old. Allison, as she remembered, had always been kind and the two of them had gotten along well in their younger days, building forts in the backyard and pretending that they were both princesses that could slay dragons. She smiled at the memory, then grimaced as her stomach clenched tightly. Kate seemed just as uneasy as she felt, glancing over her shoulder constantly and flinching when other cars came around the corner in front of them. Reagan chalked it up to the fact that it was late and Kate was probably just tired, but when she saw the lights from a gas station up ahead, she nearly begged for Kate to let them stop.
"Kate, can we please stop at the gas station up ahead? I feel like I might be sick," she confessed, gripping her seatbelt tight with two hands.
Her godmother glanced over with concern in her brown eyes and clucked her tongue worriedly. "Oh, sweetie, you don't look so good."
Reagan tried for a laugh, but it sounded weak to her ears. "Yeah, and I don't feel so great either, so please, gas station, now."
Kate swerved off the road and into the station's parking lot. The second the car came to a stop, Reagan tore off her seatbelt and went running towards the dingy looking building.
"Do you need me to come in with you?" Kate called.
"No, it's fine," Reagan yelled back as she shoved open the door to the 7/11.
An old woman with white hair sat snoring mouth-opened at the cash register, but otherwise the store was entirely empty. Reagan made her way into the restroom and stopped at the sink to splash cold water on her face and let it run over her hands. The feeling in her stomach was already beginning to drain away and her breathing was able to come much easier. Her dark hair had come out of the braid she had put it in earlier, giving her a wild and disheveled look about herself, so she redid it in a sloppy bun, but it didn't look much better.
As she began reaching for the handle to pull open the bathroom door, the lights flickered. Reagan pulled her hand back sharply, then scoffed at herself for being afraid.
"Pull it together, Reagan," she coached herself, running a hand over her eyes and reaching for the door handle once again.
This time, the lights didn't just flicker. They shut off completely.
Reagan yanked the door open to find the gas station cloaked in complete and utter darkness. She cautiously felt her way past racks of candies and and chips, feeling her way to the front of the store until her eyes began to adjust. She heard the old woman still snoring at the desk and followed the sound until it was directly in front of her.
"Hello?" she whispered loudly to the woman. There was no response.
"Excuse me," Reagan tried again at a normal volume. "Your power's out."
