Chapter Text
Welcome to Happy Hollow, Ohio!
At first, the town may look small and quiet, away to escape the big city or to visit the many parks and first to go camping. However, recently those peaceful quiet days were over. For about a year now, mysterious monsters have been appearing around town. Some seem innocent, but some cause trouble and destruction around the once-peaceful town.
However, despite the monsters appearing in this quiet little town, it didn’t stop three teens from investigating the matter.
In a cul-de-sac, a 14-year-old girl named Sara Covetman and her two best friends, Lewis Bright and Oliver Acrimony were in her room as the young girl put another photo on her pin board that was filled with news articles, photos, and even notes she got from her classmates about the monsters.
“Okay,” Sara spoke up, as she walked back and forth explaining the rest of her discoveries. “As of today, a bird-like creature was spotted last night not far from here.” She pointed at what looked like a parrot flying at fast speeds in the sky.
“Darling that looks like a regular parrot,” Lewis commented.
“It’s not a regular parrot, Lewis!” Sara exclaimed, facing her friend. “Reports said this parrot-like creature is far bigger than any parrot.”
Lewis and Oliver looked at one another and sighed, “Sara you’ve been paranoid over these creatures for months now.” Oliver said.
Sara scoffed as she turned to her friends, “I’m not paranoid, Oliver.” She replied. “I’m interested in this. Think about it. Weird creatures appearing in our hometown that haven’t been documented by anyone before.”
“Darling there could be multitude of reasons of what these creatures are,” Lewis said.
Sara glared and slammed her hand on the first photo on her board. This photo showed what looked to be a humanoid covered in flames. “Let’s start with an incident one month ago, where our teacher, Mr. Glare saw what looked to be a “man on fire”. How do you explain that?”
Oliver thought for a bit and came up with an answer, “maybe just a man wearing a suit.”
Sara rolled her eyes and groaned crossing her arms, “Why would a suit be made of fire that looks and feels real?!” She replied.
“I-I don’t know?”
“You don’t know!?”
Lewis sighed as Sara continued to ramble over the whole ordeal, again. He heard this the 3rd or 4th time this week, and decided to stare out the window. There he saw something that caught his interest; a moving truck pulling up to the house across the street, and following behind was a dark blue car. Catching his focus he decided to look into this, instead of listening to Sara ramble about “cryptids.”
Lewis tapped Oliver in the arm, and pointed at the window, causing the taller boy to look and see the new neighbors. The two boys saw a father and son exit the car and start grabbing everything from the truck and trunk of their car. From the looks of it, the son looked to be the same age as them.
Sara paused on her rambling and saw her two friends staring at the window, instead of listening to her. “Hey!” She yelled, snapping her fingers.
Lewis and Oliver quickly turned to their friend.
“Are you listening to me?” She asked.
“S-Sorry Sara,” Oliver replied. “It’s just someone moved into the neighborhood.”
Sara raised an eyebrow and went to look out the window to see the movers, and the father and son bringing in boxes inside the house. The young boy went to the backseat of the car and took out a box that had a blanket over it. This caught the trio’s eye as they leaned into the window to get a closer look, especially Sara. She then took out her camera and took photos of the young boy in hopes of putting this on her mystery board.
“What are you doing?” Lewis asked.
“Taking photos for my investigation, duh,” Sara replied. She continued to take photos till she saw something move inside the box. “What the…” Sara tried to get a close-up on the box and saw a pair of eyes.
Not long after the boy looked up and stared at the trio, Lewis and Oliver yelped and pulled their friend back as the latter closed the blinds.
The boy blinked before running inside the house holding the box tight. He went upstairs to his new room, passing his father in the process. The boy looked out the window making sure no one would see him. He let out a sigh and closed the blinds.
“Is it safe?” A squeaky voice asked through the box.
“Yeah, it’s safe.” The boy replied.
Back with Sara and her friends, the young girl was able to escape her friend’s grasp and glared at them. “What the heck?!” She yelled.
Lewis and Oliver sunk down, but not for long as Lewis got up in Sara’s face. “Why the heck are you spying on him?!” Lewis asked.
“Because I saw something move in that box!” Sara exclaimed.
Sara’s friends looked at her in disbelief. “Darling, it could be his pet,” Lewis replied.
Sara glared and crossed her arms turning away from her friends.
Lewis sighed, “Sara, we're worried for you, you’ve been into these conspiracies and question everything that happens in this town.” He said. “Please, just take it easy for once.”
Sara frowned and thought about her best friend’s words, they've known each other since elementary school, but she’s been interested in this since it started, and every person she explained this to treated her like she was crazy. The only ones who seemed interested were her caretaker and her two best friends. Now it looks like her friends are becoming those people who think she’s crazy.
Soon, Sara’s door opened snapping the young girl out of her thoughts as her caretaker opened the door to her room. “S-Sorry to interrupt, but Lewis, Oliver it’s 6:30 pm you two better get home since there’s school tomorrow.”
“Alright.” Lewis sighed, as he walked out of the room.
Oliver followed behind and turned to Sara. “See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow.” Sara sighed, watching her friends leave. Once they were gone, Celio took notice of their ward’s behavior.
“You okay?” Celio asked.
Sara looked up and forced a smile, “Y-yeah I’m fine. Lewis, Oliver, and I were having a discussion.” She replied.
Celio frowned, knowing Sara was lying, they knew it had to be over Sara’s obsession over these “cryptids” and that this obsession looked like it was starting to drive a wedge between her and her friends.
“O-Okay. Dinner will be starting soon.” Celio said before leaving their ward alone.
“Okay,” Sara replied. She looked at her camera, dug through the photos she had taken of the young boy, and tried to get a close-up of the box. Sadly she couldn’t see anything or zoom in further, but she knows for sure this was not a pet.
Meanwhile, Lewis and Oliver were walking back to their house. They talked about Sara’s recent obsession and how they’re worried for her. “I’m scared for Sara, darling,” Lewis said.
“Me too. I’m worried about her.” Oliver replied. “I don’t mind her being interested in all this, but it’s starting to become an obsession and it’s scaring me.”
“Same here.”
“And I don’t know how to tell her, because she-“
“Gets offended.” Lewis finished.
“Exactly!” Oliver exclaimed.
They continued to walk till they passed by their new neighbors and saw the new kid trying to carry some boxes. Lewis saw the kid needed some help and turned to Oliver. “Darling, I’m going to help the new kid.”
“Okay, I’ll see you at school,” Oliver said.
“See ya!” Lewis yelled, waving back before going to the new kid. Lewis grabbed two of the boxes from the top, “Here, let me help you with that.”
“Oh, thanks.” The kid replied.
At that moment the two locked eyes and started to blush. They turned away chuckling nervously, “I-I’m Lewis Bright.” Lewis introduced himself,
“I’m Wiatt Nicholson.” The kid replied.
“W-Welcome to the neighborhood.”
“Thank you!”
The two stared at each other a bit more, thinking of what to say to the other. “So…need help bringing stuff in?” Lewis asked. “Wow smooth Lewis, smooth.”
“I do actually,” Wiatt replied. “Just put it with the other boxes in the living room.”
Lewis nodded and the two walked inside the house and put the boxes down on the couch. “So, will you be attending Happy Hollow High?” Lewis asked.
Wiatt nodded, “I am.” He replied.
“Great, you can walk with me and my two best friends tomorrow.”
“That would be great!” Wiatt exclaimed.
Lewis chuckled. “Well…do you need help with anything else?”
“No. I think I’m good.”
“Okay. We’ll see you tomorrow darling.” Lewis then left the house and went next door.
Wiatt stepped out to see his new friend was next door to him. Lewis waved Wiatt one last goodbye before going inside the house. Wiatt waved back before going to the moving van and pulling out a small shoe box. He opened it before looking at Lewis’s house and smiled.
“Wiatt, think you can bring in one of the boxes from the van!?” Wiatt’s dad called out.
“Sure!” Wiatt replied back before closing the shoe box and putting it on top of the big box that he brought into the house.