The water is freezing.
It's freezing and yet Allison dives into it like a fish jumping back into the ocean.
Coming up for air, she starts to swim laps from one end of the pool to the other. Her muscles start to ache, but the exercise gives her a placid feeling and only eggs her on.
After her tenth lap, she decides to take a break and take in the solidarity that swimming gives her. Sitting on the edge of the pool, she kicks her feet back and forth and revels in the peace that the chlorine water gives her.
Click.
Turning around at the sound, Allison surveys her surroundings. Seeing nothing she shrugs her shoulders and gets back into the water to continue swimming. In the midst of her lap, the pool lights in the activity center start to go off one by one. She is cast in darkness, safe for the emergency light located in front of where she was just resting.
Looking up from her place in the middle of the water she hears nothing, but decides to let whoever turned off the lights know that someone was still in the pool area.
"Hello? Someone is still in here!"
Receiving silence in return she starts to mutter to herself -about people being ridiculous and that they should probably check an area before turning the lights off- while making her way to the edge of the pool.
When she starts to lift herself up out of the water, two hands out of nowhere are pushing her under. She tries to grab on to the hands to let get them to let go, but they are too strong. Feeling the oxygen start to escape her lungs, she acts drastically and bites the offender's hand. When they let the one hand go, she uses her strength to pull them into the water.
Swimming back up to the surface, Allison finds a way to fly up to edge of the pull and away from the water. Breathing harshly, she tries to make out the figure dressed in black. The mystery person has just risen to the surface and starts to swim in her direction.
As the figure gets closer, she can make out their features. The mystery person had dark hair like her own; they had brown eyes and wait a minute. She thinks. That wasn't a stranger. That was her.
"That's impossible." She whispers to herself. The shock at the discovery hasn't left her yet. Not even when the other her gets out of the water and stands above her sitting form.
This darker version of herself has the fierceness of a killer hidden in her brown eyes. Her stance is ready for battle and her breathing is ragged. The other Allison looks at her with so much hate.
"I hate you so much." Her doppelganger says through clenched teeth. Her hands are now clenching at her sides. A bite mark is now visible on her left hand.
"Why? I don't understand. How are you me, when I'm me?" Allison points to herself when she asks her last question.
The darker version of her persona finds a way to twist her lips into a malice laced smile. "You are so naïve. You have no idea what's to come. What's going to happen when you move to Beacon Hills." She releases a dark laugh.
"What do you mean? What happens to us?" It sounds ludicrous in that moment, but she can't find a way to care about the reality of the situation when she is literally talking to herself.
Sitting down in a poolside chair, Dark Allison fixes an amused smirk on her face. "It's weird how I used to be you. The normal teenager with an odd, but nice family... Do you know what questions you should be asking yourself?" She receives a shake of the head in response. "You should start questioning everything. By everything I mean your parents to start off. Why does your dad feel the need to set off in the middle of the night with a group of his friends, just to sell weapons to the police? Why does your mother force you to exercise more than you like to? Why does your aunt Kate tote around bows and shotguns in the back of her car? And why do they all look at you like they've planned everything in your life to become something bigger than yourself?"
Allison stands up at that moment and tries to find answers to any of the questions that her doppelganger has posed for her. Finding none she gives the ragged version of herself a sad look of defeat.
"Oh me. It's weird though isn't it? It's like they want you to be in, no not be in,but lead an army. Those proud glances that they give you when you achieve your personal best at archery isn't because you did better than before, but because you are becoming exactly who they want you to be." She says ending her monologue with venom.
Fixing her face so it's no longer scared, but annoyed she asks ,"And who is that?"
Smiling brightly, Dark Allison stands and starts moving closer. "Me. Well, hopefully not me, but the version of me that saves everyone...on time." She whispers sadly to herself, but Allison still catches it.
"What's that supposed to mean? I'd never become you!" She says her voice rising.
Giving her a cryptic look, Dark Allison says, "Let's hope not. Just do us two favors." She looks into Allison's eyes. "Pay attention to everything and believe in the unexplained." She says with a mourning smile.
Allison doesn't know what to make of anything. She knows that doppelgangers don't exist, but they have to if hers just tried to kill her. Why would Dark Allison lie to her? She knew all of the questions that she asks herself daily. It was like the other version of her knew things and she knows that things are going to happen when she and her family move to Beacon Hills.
"Fine. I'll pay attention and believe in the unexplained. I don't understand why you can't just tell me everything, instead of being all cryptic about everything and also why the hell were you trying to kill me?" It was a reflex of hers. She would give in to a request only to lash out after agreeing to do it.
"Oh Alli, I wasn't trying to kill you. I was trying to wake you up." She says her face changing shape.
"What?"
"Wake up! Allison Argent, wake up right this minute!"
"Mom?" Looking around, her doppelganger is gone and the dark pool area suddenly becomes bleached and white.
Opening her eyes, she sees her mom's furious blue ones. "Get up. I've been trying to wake you up for ten minutes. C'mon we have to be out of San Francisco by 10:30, in order to reach Beacon Hills before nightfall." Her mother says before briskly walking out of her now vacant room. After packing for their big move two weeks ago, Allison has been sleeping in a makeshift bed on her wooden floor.
Wiping the sleep from her eyes, Allison lets out a deep breath before getting up and folding up her bed. Gathering her pillows and Mr. Bear, she makes her way downstairs to put her stuff into the back of the Tahoe. She returns inside the big- now empty- house to take a shower, brush her teeth and get ready for the four and a half hour drive ahead.
☾
About two hours into the drive, Allison starts to think about her dream. It was so realistic that she had to keep telling herself that it wasn't real. The dream just a sick vision from her subconscious, but it doesn't stop her from thinking about the things that her doppelganger said. She starts questioning everything.
"Mom? Why are we moving to Beacon Hills?" She looks over the dashboard to her mother who was just humming along to one of the songs on the radio.
"Your dad got a new job offer. It'll pay better and you can get a better education in a place not so loud." She says with a vibrant laugh.
Allison doesn't know why, but something in her gut tells her that that wasn't the whole truth. She wants to press on, but decides not to from fear of getting into a confrontation with her mother.
"Okay." Is all she can really say without sounding suspicious.
They stop at a small diner for brunch and talk about the school Allison will be attending. Apparently, her aunt went there when she was a teenager. That was good enough for her. She looked up to Kate so much that getting an education that she received would be like having her next to her even if she was living in LA.
Getting back on the road, they start to see beautiful trees that seem to go on for miles. He mom informs her that there are woods all around Beacon Hills and it makes for tasteful scenery, especially since it is Fall.
They reach Beacon Hills just as the sun starts to fall into the horizon. Allison looks out her window in awe as the scenery flies by. She had never seen trees like that before. Not even when they lived in Boston for a year when she was thirteen.
The trees turn into buildings 30 minutes later.
Her mom stops for gas saying that it would be smart to park a tank full of gas in their new driveway, than to not be able to reach their new home at all. Allison doesn't really say anything to that. She just gets out of the Tahoe to stretch her legs and use the facilities.
Exiting the gas station she sees a line of Sheriff Vehicles and an ambulance, whiz by on the same stretch of road that she and her mom had just journeyed on minutes before.
Thinking that someone must have gotten lost in the woods she gets back into the car.
It turns out that her dad gave her mom bad directions and they have been driving in circles for two hours now.
The sun has gone down and it just started raining a few moments ago. Coming down the same stretch of road that leads from the woods to the gas station, Allison doesn't remember asking anything, but her mom is scolding her about how her dad had to come down before them in order to meet with his new security team.
Her mother is seething so much that she doesn't notice the boy that has wondered on to the road looking disheveled.
"Mom, look out!" She yells.
Her mother swerves around the young man.
Allison just wants to know if he's okay.
"We have to go back." Her mom says nothing. "We have to make sure he's okay. You almost hit him!" She looks at her mother in complete disbelief that she is still driving like nothing happened.
"Well he shouldn't have been out in the middle of the road." She says unemotionally.
"Mom, turn around!" She shouts.
Her mother turns the SUV around, but the boy is gone. Allison gets out of the car on a mission to find him and help him. She wonders into the woods. Seeing nothing except an inhaler, she picks it up and hopes that the boy will come back for it. Her mom coming up behind her startles her. They stand there in the woods for a moment longer before a howl is heard. Her mom ushers her back to the car and throws the inhaler into the woods.
Turning right on Sumter road this time, they start to big houses lining the road of the residential area. Continuing straight they pass an even bigger house with trees next to it and a short girl with red hair exiting a Porsche. She looks like she could be a runway model. Allison doesn't know if the girl is her age, but she hopes that she sees her in school tomorrow.
Reaching the end of the infinite road Mrs. Argent pulls the car into a circle styled driveway and parks the car behind a Toyota.
Getting out of the car, Allison takes in the fresh air and stares at her new home before entering the front door with a nervous, but excited feeling to be in a place that wasn't a big city.