Nightmares & Memories || Riley Biers

two

*trigger warning! mentions of murder!*

"Good morning, Malia.", Mrs Biers smiled as the young girl entered the small kitchen of the beach house on the next morning.
However, as the middle-aged woman noticed the packed bag in Malia's hand, her smile faded. "Good morning. I'm really sorry, but my dad is picking me up in about ten minutes.", the dark-haired girl told Riley's parents in a tired voice.

She barely slept at night and knew she wouldn't manage to get her thoughts off the fact that Riley didn't come back if she kept staying around here.
Everything in this small house reminded her of him, and seeing his parents all day didn't make it easier either.

"It's okay. We understand your decision, sweetheart.", Riley's mum replied and pulled her into a warm hug. "But please remember that you can call or come over at any time. We'll keep you updated on every phone call and other pieces of information we get. We'll find him, I'm sure.", she tried to comfort her, and Malia nodded her head, returning the hug. "Thank you. Have a nice weekend here. I'll see you around.", the young girl mumbled in a silent voice and slowly let go of the hug.

The first thirty minutes of the car ride were completely silent until Malia's father, Chris, finally turned on the radio.
"Let's see if there's a good song we can sing to, come on.", the man with short black hair slightly nudged his daughter's arm.
The two of them always sang along to the radio songs together during their car rides, but as Malia got into the car this time, she immediately turned off the music. "Dad..I'm not in the mood..", she mumbled and leaned her head against the car window.

It slightly started to rain, and the 18 year old watched the raindrops running down the pane. "Do it for me, Lia. You know I don't really like driving in complete silence. Plus, I think you need to get your thoughts onto something else for at least a little while.", Chris tried it again, and his daughter sighed, properly sitting up again.

The remaining time of the car ride was filled with singing and even some laughter. Malia's dad's special gift was the ability to cheer his daughter up at any given moment, and he never even failed once.
"Thank you, dad.", the girl smiled lightly as the two of them arrived at home. "Thank you for picking me up, and thank you for cheering me up once again.", she added after getting out of the car. "Anything for you, Princess.", Chris smiled and gently pulled her into his arms.

The weekend passed, and school was calling again. Although Malia begged her parents thousands of times to let her stay home, they wouldn't let her. So she was now making her way through the halls of Forks High School.

"Hey Lia! How excited are you for prom dress shopping in a week, on a scale from 1 to 10?", Cassie asked while approaching her.
She was visibly over excited about it, and Malia just rolled her eyes. "It's still a whole school week until we're going, so I guess the excitement is gonna come at Friday or something.", the dark-haired girl replied, and it was Cassie's turn for an annoyed eye roll. "Yeah, whatever. We still need to discuss where we're gonna go for our dress hunt.", she continued as Lauren caught up to the two of them.

"I think we should head to Port Angeles. I googled some stores, and they have the most beautiful prom dresses ever.", Malia heard her best friend say. "Yeah, but Seattle has more shops and malls, soooo?", Cassie stated when suddenly a small girl, with a pixie cut, stopped in her tracks, as she was about to walk past them.

"You girls plan on going to Seattle?", she asked in her clear voice and looked at each of the three friends. "Uhm...we don't know yet, to be honest. Why?", Lauren asked, slightly confused and kept looking at the girl's strangely golden eyes. That was when she recognized her. Her name was Alice, and she was part of the Cullen family. The younger adoptive sister of Rosalie and Emmet, who were in the same grade as the three girls.
"Ouh, nothing. I only heard that there were several murder cases in the last few days. It's slowly taking over the news.", Alice told them, and Malia's face went pale. A lump was growing in her throat, and she looked at the small girl.
"M-urder..c-ases..?!", the girl managed to get out, and tears were welling up in her eyes as Alice slowly nodded her head. "No..this can't...he can't be dead...no...", Malia sniffled and held onto her best friend's arm as her knees started to shake.
"Wait? Who..", Alice started, but Cassie cut her off. "Sorry, but we gotta go.", she quickly said before her, and Lauren started to guide Malia out of the school building to catch some air and be unbothered while trying to calm her down.