unheavenly creatures

Prologue

It's quiet here in Greendale; not just the environment, but the people. Everyone in Greendale is respectful of your privacy, and they don't ask stupid questions. I'm surprised I didn't come here sooner, considering that it's close to Riverdale. Yet again, I would rather be anywhere in the world that set foot back in that town.

It's easy for me to disappear. I've been doing it since I was 17 years old. I never graduated from high school, but I did get a degree in the art of disguise. Hiding when necessary. I've been called a lot of things over the years. The bakery lady. Miss Alice from the bakery downtown, or just Miss Alice. Aunt Ali, even. I'm fortunate that no one has called me by my real name. Alice Susanna Smith is a dead name. I haven't allowed anyone, or myself, to mutter it for the past 25 years. I buried it along with my past in Riverdale.

It's a tale I don't wish to tell, but it has to be told one way or another. You see, 25 years ago, when I still was Alice Smith, I had my dance with the Devil. Or someone.....something, that worked in the ways of the Devil. There are these things called familiars: goblins that take form into what their master desires in a pet. Familiars are more known to take forms of animals when a witch is about to have their Dark Baptism. Funny thing is, I had no idea what a Dark Baptism was when I was 16, nor did I have any knowledge about the Church of Night in Greendale, not until my older years. I've come to know all the local haunts in that town since I moved there, but those places are nothing compared to what I know. What I've seen.

There is a house on Fox Lane, or there was when I still lived in Riverdale. A family used to live there, the Conways, years before I was born and was brutally massacred in the 60s. Rumors spread that a demon resided in that place. Everyone started calling it the Devil's House. Knowing my skeptical attitude, I thought it was all smoke and mirrors. Yet again, I was still developing my powers without any wise old witch to train me for my Dark Baptism. And I never really had any friends in Riverdale, except for FP Jones. I think about FP every once in a while, but I try not to dwell too much on the past. I want to forget my life in Riverdale as much as I can. Everyone thought I was a Southside slut, a bastard even. I was a pariah wanting to just be noticed for once. I never should have summoned him that night I went to the Conway house on a dare. All because I wanted to prove them all wrong.

But this tale is not so much about me. This tale is about my familiar. To witches who know their history on medieval witchcraft, he was known as the Black Hood. But to me, he was Hal Cooper. Of course it wasn't his actual form; it was what he created for me. A boy that I could befriend, one I could love, give my heart and soul to. And I was so blinded back then that I didn't know what he could do until the blood had dried on my hands. Sometimes I still find myself scrubbing imaginary blood off at the end of the work day. I did what I had to in order to stop him, to save myself from him. But it was all too late.

I try not to dwell on my past life in Riverdale. I want to leave Alice Smith in that house with him, to erase my memory along with the rest of the town. I like my life here in Greendale. But you know what they say - you can't take good things for granted. The past will always catch up to you.

Guess I should start taking that advice. Now more than ever.

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UNHEAVENLY CREATURES