✓ | WELCOME TO DEADTOWN → original

one

                    SLAYDEN, VIRGINIA WAS EERILY QUIET WHEN OCTOBER FIRST ROLLED AROUND. The leaves were just beginning to blend together with oranges, reds and browns and the wind was crisp all around. Tshirts had finally been switched for oversized hoodies and jeans, the Halloween ice cream shop had finally opened up on the corner of Main Street, and people were sketching their costumes for Slayden's annual Halloween Festival just a mere thirty-one days away.

The woods were as forbidding as ever, black branches hanging over the faint patches of white-grey sky, the entrance into the trees littered with beer bottles and firepit ashes here and there from where the students at Edgewater High liked to crash deep into the night. And although everything seemed normal about the small inclusive town, something seemed. . .off. Like something in the air didn't sit just right or like the grey clouds rolling over the sun, casting a gloomy autumn glow on the Monday morning.

And for some reason, that Monday was the day when everything that seemed normal- everything that seemed "okay" for a town as fucked as Slayden- switched off.

Kayden Turner was digging around in her glove compartment for her phone, swearing underneath her breath. Her blonde hair fell slightly into her eyes, and she looked wildly around, mentally hitting herself for turning her ringer off the night before. She was five minutes late, and Kyle was going to kill her. He was meeting with his friends on the football team, and he had told her she had to be there for moral support. And she was fucking late.

As she glanced at the clock on her dashboard again- the numbers had now clicked to 8:06- her fingers brushed against the cold screen of her phone. She let out a sigh of relief, unearthing it from underneath a glacier cherry gatorade and lip gloss, turning on her lockscreen.

Kyle: Where the fuck are you?

Kyle: You better be here soon

Kyle: Answer my fucking calls! This is so typical of you

Kyle: Fuck u

She swallowed, seeing the black 11 flash up at her after missed calls, and swiped to call him back. It rang for a couple of seconds before he picked up, his voice hard. "Where the hell are you, Kayden?"

"I'm sorry!" Kayden said desperately. "I'm sorry, I woke up late and I couldn't find my phone. I'll be there in a minute, I swear. Where are you?"

"You better be. I'm in the courtyard. Get the fuck here."

He hung up on her, and Kayden squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to hit herself. The one thing he had asked her to do, and she had fucked that up too. Quickly, she unlocked the car and tumbled out, slamming her door shut. She rattled off a quick text to her best friend Alexis Stonewall- see you in 1st hr. kyle needs me- before slipping her phone in her back pocket, locking her doors.

As she headed into the school, she saw Genevieve Oritz flirting with one of the baseball team's star players, Landon Edges, and resisted from rolling her eyes. Landon would be hooking up with Gen by the end of the night. As if she sensed Kayden passing her, Gen looked up, the teeniest of smirks playing on her lips as she leaned over to whisper something in Landon's ear.

Kayden tore her eyes away, continuing her fast paced track towards the courtyard. Fuck Gen for being able to do whatever she wanted just because she could get in some guys' pants. It was stupid as shit.

She finally got to the end of the school, pushing the door open to the courtyard. It smelled good, like the grass had been freshly mown, and if it wasn't so grey and gross outside, Kayden might have taken the time to enjoy it.

She saw Kyle telling one of his friends from the football team something and then get up and head towards her, his friendly expression sliding from his face as he saw her. She dug her fingernails into her palms. Never mind.