The Freaks | Sally Face

Chapter 1: Moving Day

It's nearing 10am, Dad and I have been driving for what seems like days, when in reality it's only been a few hours. I have my AirPods in, loud enough to drown out the world around me so I can forget about why we have to move to this shitty little town anyway. Part of me will really miss my small town in Michigan but considering I didn't have any friends, I'm relieved to start again.

I haven't taken my eyes off the window for at least two hours, the sky has changed twice going from an early morning sunrise to now a beautiful shade of blue. I wondered how long the weather would last? I decided it would be best to close my eyes for a moment, just to catch up on some sleep. I don't get much sleep nowadays anyway, what with the night terrors or insomnia keeping me up for hours on end. I turn on one of my favourite 1975 songs and slowly calm my breath.

After what felt like 2 minutes of sleep, I feel a slight nudge in my arm causing me to jolt upright. I pull out my headphones and look around to gage my surroundings.

"Riv it's alright my love, don't panic" I heard my Dad's soothing voice so turned to his direction. "Sorry darling, I shouldn't have nudged. I know better than that..." his face looking down to the floor.

"It's alright Dad, don't worry. What's going on?" I questioned, still a little shaken.

"We're here love. Would you mind helping me get the boxes out of the back?"

"Sure" I said putting my AirPods in their charging case and pulling myself out of our truck.

It was fortunate really that my Dad owned a pick up, that way we only needed to hire one moving truck to bring our main furniture along with my drum set and bass guitars. I knew how much it was costing Dad to pay for it, so I was happy that he didn't need to pay for two. I looked up at the sky, no more of that striking blue but instead a dull and depressing grey with signs of heavy rain. I let out a deep sigh and started helping Dad take off the cover to reveal what little stuff we had.

"Right Riv, I'll start taking the heavy stuff and you can start grabbing your things. That going to be alright?"

"Sure Dad..."

I started sectioning off the back of the truck, a corner for my Dad's things and the living room trinkets and then my couple of boxes plus one of my bass guitars that I couldn't bare the thought of it rustling around in a movers van. It was packaged into my black leather case that had multiple band stickers placed on top, some of them being; My Chemical Romance, Muse, the 1975 and Sainty Falls. I carefully pulled the case out of the back and plopped it on the floor beside the truck. I knew I could take another box with me so I manoeuvred myself around successfully got one out.

When I finally turned to face the building, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. Outside there was a large sign that had been graffitied over with many designs so you could barely see 'Addison Apartments' underneath. The building itself was plain and looked like it hasn't been decorated in decades. My eyes scan to the top floor of the apartment complex, many of the windows were shattered or boarded up, I wonder why? I take a deep breath, pick up my bass guitar and make my way into my new home.

Inside was a lot better than the exterior. The walls were painted a basic cream colour with some wooden panelling placed on the bottom half near the skirting boards. There was a large 'community board' with several flyers pinned onto it. As I looked closer, some of these dated back to 2007... great 14 years ago. Next to the community board, there were the mailboxes for each room, some of them said names of the occupants, some didn't. All of the mail slots on the 5th floor seemed to be closed over, maybe that explains why the windows were boarded up as no one must live there. I decided I had had enough snooping and made my way to the elevator. It seemed the most modern aspect of this building was the elevator, it was clean and looked fairly new, the same can't be said for the rest of Addison Apartments. I pressed the large 4 button as Dad explained at the beginning of our trip here we would be living in room 404. The lame elevator music began to play as the doors closed leading me up to what would be my new home.