The Alpha of Mountain Ridge

13 days before

13 DAYS BEFORE

Courtney Bradshaw was not known for her kindness.
No,
Courtney Bradshaw was known for her bitterness.

Despite her numerous flaws, Courtney was the classic small-town beauty queen : destined for bigger things, but tragically trapped in the past. Her 24/7 lipstick coated smile was cruel, betraying the bitterness that lay just beneath the surface - she was like the apple pie your Aunt Mary made, pretty on the outside, but positively unbearable within.

In a town as small as Arcadia Falls, secrets were hard to keep. It was no secret that six people had gone missing in the past 3 weeks and it was no secret that the police chiefs last lead had grown cold. Figured, Courtney thought bitterly to herself, her red fingernails flashing underneath the yellow light of the streetlamps, it was only a matter of time before the town burned to the ground.

As a waitress in the only bar in town, Courtney was used to working late - she was also used to driving down the familiar country road that lead to her house at 2:30am. None of the new waitresses fully grasped the concept of actually locking the backdoor, nor did any of them understand the importance of money (Shady Joe's had been robbed twice in the past month, all thanks to fuckin' Karen who forgot to empty the cash register) so more often than not, Courtney was (involuntarily) volunteered to close.

"Is this town going to hell?" Courtney broke the silence of her car, her thumb drumming against the worn leather of her steering wheel, "Or has it always been this awful?"

As per usual, no one answered.

Of course, Arcadia Falls hadn't always been awful - there was a point in time where the town had been a sought after commodity....but now? People were disappearing into thin air and fuckin' Karen was probably going to get a promotion. A promotion.

"She has SPOONS for hands!" Courtney muttered angrily, squinting into the foggy darkness. "Oh I'm Karen," Courtney spoke in a false voice, one that was much too high to even be considered normal, "I can't lock up, my spoon hands can't close doors. All I can do is eat cereal really, really well."

Satisfied with her insult, Courtney returned her attention to the road, squinting unhappily into the darkness. It was early October and the first snow was just around the corner, as Courtney had walked to her car the frigid air had chilled her to the bone - it was the sort of night she wished she was already in her bed.

Distracted by her own, ever-present misery, Courtney failed to notice as fog began to ooze out of the darkness, practically overtaking the road. It was the sort of fog that settled when a bitter chill was in the air — Courtney had spent her entire life in Arcadia Falls, but every winter greeted her with an unfriendly slap across the face.

"What the hell..?" Courtney muttered as she pulled to a stop, the faint hum of the radio being the only sound for miles around. Blooming before her eyes in the road in front of her, sat an abandoned car, the doors still hanging open, the warning lights still blinking. Courtney was almost home - she could practically see her house, yet some dumb idiot (Karen was a suspect) had apparently attempted to create a makeshift barricade, tragically blocking her path. After a few moments of silently debating what was to be done, Courtney frowned - unhappy with her choices.

"Why is everything in my life awful?" Courtney grumbled, angrily pulling her car into park a little too forcefully. "What have I done to deserve this?"