The Girl Next Door

1

I was riding shotgun in my mum's car while we were moving to a new house in a town called "Murkoff". It's somewhere in Colorado. That's... basically all I know about that town. It's kind of weird how I tried to search a bit about it but ended up getting nothing.

Strange.

Suddenly, a genuine voice called out my name by my side. I looked to see my mum who was looking at the road.

She spoke.

"Ethan, are you alright?"

I replied, doubting my own words.

"Oh, uhm yeah. I'm alright, probably."

"Well, it sure doesn't seem like it. Come on, loosen up a bit! Relax."

She looked at me with a bright smile, then shifted her attention to the road again.

I just smiled back to her while leaning to the side of the car.

'I hope I could.' I thought to myself.

After a while of looking blankly outside the window, a rusted-looking green sign welcomed us.

WELCOME TO MURKOFF!

The words written on the sign were dirty white, almost as if it hasn't been cleaned for years. The poles on both sides that was holding it looked like it was about to break because of how old it appeared.

Although something doesn't feel right. A chill suddenly went down through my spine as soon as we went past over it.

"What the hell was that?" I murmured to myself.

"What was that, sweetie?"

"Oh, it was nothing. Just a random thought."

"Well, you sure do thing aloud."

"Yeah, I guess. Sorry about that."

A moment of silence later and we finally went past the first building. As we drove straight, we now arrived at the town itself.