Night Changes [N.H]

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My mom pulled up to the little apartment on the side of the road and the car was bouncing from the piles of my belongings in the trunk.

"Here we are! It's your college apartment!" My mom said, practically bouncing out of her seat. Her fingers anxiously tapped the steering wheel. I think she was more excited than I was. 

My yawn fogged up the car window.

I looked out the window at the small apartment. It was yellow with shutters that were falling off and its paint was chipping... it looked like a haunted house you see at amusement parks at Halloween time.

There were even spider webs connecting the brown, dead bushes to the house.

I shuddered.

It was the middle of July, and classes didn't start for a while, but my mom thought it would be a good idea to start working on the house as soon as possible. And now, looking at the house, I saw why.

"It will be fun! Just remember to thank the president of the college, he's renting it to you for free all because of me! All we need to do is fix it up a bit!"

My mom re-designed the president's house, and he liked it so much that he decided to help my mom and I financially. There was no way I would've been able to get a dorm any other way.

Yes, I was thankful for this, but I was also peeing myself just looking at the outside.

"Mom, it's going to need a lot more than 'a bit of fixing up'. There could be dead bodies in this house for all I know." I said.

"I'll help you start to unpack. How bad can it be..." my mom added, hopping out of the car.

I sighed and released my seat belt, and then jumped out of the car to help her.

My nose wrinkled. "It reeks."

"Oh Alyssa. Don't be a baby. We'll have it in perfect shape in no time." My mom's confidence overwhelmed me.

"Not soon enough," I said to myself after she left.

I was grateful for the free apartment, because it's bigger than the dorms that most students had, and I didn't have a roommate. But the task of fixing it up was daunting.

If I didn't get rid of my mom soon enough, she might volunteer to be my roommate.

The grass in the yard was a bit overgrown, but it resembled the color green, and that's more than I could say for the rest of the plant life in the front yard.

My mom carried a bag from the trunk to the front door. She fished the key out of her purse, and opened the door.

I followed her in. It wasn't as bad as the outside, but still would be challenging.

A layer of dust covered every inch of the house. I walked into a hallway, with peeling wallpaper. That could be fixed easily.

The kitchen looked like it was straight out of the 1960s. Every appliance was old and wouldn't work.

"All you really need to start is a microwave," my mom said as if she were reading my mind. "That's how I survived my college years."

Yeah, that was like 1650 though.

There was a boarded up window above the sink. I tried to rip it off, and it came right off. It was thin and old wood, not a problem.

The window let in a lot of natural light.

I would be needing that, since none of the light bulbs would be working.

I opened a cabinet, and there was nothing in it, but dust of course, which was a good thing. I was expecting some mice and a spider or two.