𝙄𝙁 𝙄 𝘾𝘼𝙉'𝙏 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐 ◇ 𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗛𝗢𝗖𝗞𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥

𝗗𝗨𝗠𝗕 𝗟𝗨𝗖𝗞 ▪ ONE

Maybe it was all the drinking her mother did while she was pregnant.

Maybe it was the nasty fall she'd had as a child that resulted in a minor change in her demeanor.

Or maybe, it was just dumb luck that Valerie Duke was completely insane.

Valerie had the potential to be a well liked socialite. People rarely used those words to describe her, though. When people thought of her, it was never a positive feeling that filled them.

Usually, it was a disappointed grimace on the elderly neighbor's face when she heard the screams of anguish coming from the girl's room.

It was hushed whispers from her teachers discussing her in the break room after she unsettled another substitute into quitting.

It was the gritted teeth of her own mother when she had to apologize to another angry parent after Valerie threatened to skin the dog of a classmate.

Valerie didn't mind, though. If she was being honest, she didn't really notice the negative reputation she had won for herself. She was more interested in the finer things in life.

How her dad flinched when her mom yelled, the shine in the eyes of the taxidermy deer hanging on the wall in the local diner, the way the rumble of her black truck always made the younger students at school jump.

Everyone knew she wasn't right in the head, not to mention riddled with anger issues, but no one ever knew what she was really capable of.

It was a fateful Wednesday night the first time Valerie heard someone laughing downstairs.

Her mother was at work so she knew it wasn't her. Not only did it not sound like her, she hadn't heard her mother laugh since the brain matter scene in Scarface.

So she walked downstairs as quietly as she could and saw her dad with a young woman. A very young woman.

Valerie wasn't surprised. Her mom worked as a nurse during the week from eight in the evening to seven in the morning. The man undoubtedly got lonely. Besides, her mom wasn't very, giving these days

The very thought made the tall girl grimace. She walked right back upstairs and closed her door.

She contemplated telling her mom. Only because she knew how much the thought of her parents getting divorced scared her dad. After Valerie was born, her dad took time off to look after her.

As she got older, time off turned into unemployment. He looked for work, but not too hard. With his wife's paycheck alone, the family lived pretty comfortably. Once you added the chunk of wealth Valerie's grandfather left his daughter, you had three vehicles and a two story house on West Broadway, a street in Derry's wealthiest neighborhood.

Unfortunately for Valerie's dad, his wife sat him down and damn near held a gun to his head as he signed a prenup. So if her mom found out about Mrs. Home Wrecker, it was bye-bye BMW.

Valerie smiled as she thought of her dad working as a cashier at a burger joint. The thought alone almost made her call her mom right then, but she stopped herself. Wait wait, you can use this, she thought to herself.

The next day in class, she thought of all the things she could do with this new information.

The teacher tapped a long nail on Valerie's desk in the front row to pull her back to the lesson. The girl gave her a smile and chewed on her cuticles.

A squeal rang out from the back of the room. "Ugh!" Valerie glanced back nonchalantly before turning her attention back to the clock. "Mrs. Mullins! Can you get this creep away from me?!" The familiar sound of Louise Wilcox's whiny voice filled the room. Valerie rolled her eyes as the teacher began yelling at the "creep".