Footstep pacing left and right. Whispering back and forth. But no one in sight. She lays still and quiet, afraid that any sudden movement would give her away. Staring into the darkness of her room, she closes her eyes in hopes of this just being a dream. 

The next morning she wakes up and starts her first day of summer break glued to the bed. The fear of what happened last night still lingered in her head. Non stop thinking and questioning what was living inside her walls. With no concrete voices and body, what lives in her house remains a mystery. A mystery that constantly ran through her veins. She reaches for her phone, and immediately starts texting her friends. Explaining every detail leaving nothing out, she begs her friends to go out just so she doesn't have to be home worrying about when those whispers and footprints will return. 

“Riley, it’s your house, you can’t run away, you’re their 24/7, don’t let this scare you away, show em whos the boss” says her friend, Luna. 

She hesitates, and agrees “yea, your right, it just sucks that this is how I’m spending my first day of summer”. She stays home, paranoid with any noise she hears. Both her parents and older brother are working and won’t be back till 6 o’clock. She repeatedly walks through a hallway to get to her bedroom. After walking back and forth from her living room to her bedroom, she notices a square border up on the ceiling right next to her door. Never noticing it before and focuses on it. Staring up at the ceiling like a lost kid confused. By the look on her grinning face you can tell this thing on the ceiling has never been noticed or mentioned before. She returns back to her cozy spot, snuggled up with her big white fluffy blanket and dog watching “Forensic Files”. Four and a half episodes later she rises up with wobbly legs and heads to the kitchen. She scans, cabents, and pantry, and finally makes the decision of ordering food. She orders two large pizzas. A pie of pineapple pizza and the other pepperoni. Two pies for a family of four and a half. Food for the weekend all set. 

As she’s about to munch on her first bite, her mom walks in. An awkward moment of silence and a two second staring contest that broke off with a bit of pizza. 

“What you’d order”, said Riley’s mom

“Pizza, from Delizias”, Riley replied “It just got here like five minutes ago”

Riley's mom plops her things on the floor near the couch and grabs a plate. Riley clenches her jaw deciding whether or not to tell her mom about last night. She looks at her mom and hold back. 

Her mom stares with a stranged face “are you okay, it looked like you wanted to say something”

“No, im okay, I’m just thinking about what I’m going to do this summer” , Riley knew she wasn’t thinking about that at all. She didn’t know how to tell her mom, She didn’t think her mom would believe her. 

I mean why would she, considering the last time she lied about something so personal, it crushed her relationship with her mom. But with this new situation she was unsure about telling her, which bothered her. Though this isn’t like before. Here's the thing about Riley, she has trouble trusting people, ever since what happened in eighth grade. She was friends or thought she was friends with a girl named Cali Rogers, she was someone she trusted and told secrets, secrets that are supposed to be private. For instance, Riley would write letters about the guys she liked. She would write down things she liked about them and why she liked them. Then she would show them to both Luna and Cali since they were her closest friends. Until, Cali took those letters and made copies and distributed them to the school, where everyone saw. Once Riley saw what happened all she wanted to do was go back home and never come out, and that’s exactly what she did. She stormed into her house tears pouring down her face like a waterfall. Her mom in complete shock, asked “what’s wrong, what happened, tell me what's wong”.

Riley stomped to her room and locked the door. Her mom anxiously waiting and knocking on the door, 

Riley screaming “go away, leave me alone, I never want to go to that school”.  

Riley was scared and worried thinking what other secrets Cali could’ve told the school, by now she probably would’ve told the whole school everything she knew. She spent all her sorrow trapped in her room. Her mom furious yelling at her to get out, but she wouldn’t budge. The weekend goes by and she managed to get out of bed still upset and worried about what others were going to say, however she didn’t want this to ruin her year in middle school. She put on a brave face, but inside she was hurting. Though her mother was still worried but, Riley never said a thing about what happened. 

Everyday she would beg Riley to talk to her but she didn’t budge, and the more this was dragged on, the more it was hurting her mom, and for two whole months it was the same story, until her mom put an end to this. They went on a little weekend getaway in which she forced Riley to talk. And so she did, and that same weekend they made a pack, that if there were something going on that bothers her she would tell her mom. So they enjoyed the rest of their weekend and headed back home. 

Now fast forward to now, Riley had been hiding something that has been bothering her, but she's still conflicted whether or not to tell her mother. The night she arrived to her house, she knew that what happened on the first day of summer is going to happen again tonight. She prepared for what was to come. A night full of adventures. 

She was so determined to catch what lingered in her house, without anyone finding out. This was her little mini investigation. 

Riley waited until her family went to sleep to start her investigation. As soon as the clock struck 12, she got into action. 

She stepped out of her room, looked up and there it was, the square box leading right into the attic. A string comes falling out waiting to be brought down. Riley with no hesitation, pulled. Three creeks later, it opened, a ladder leading to a dark room. Once she stepped foot into the attic, the door slammed and closed. The lights turn on. 

“Oh My Gosh” Riley said in shock. 

A bed all made and nice and neat, a coat hanger filled with jackets, jackets that look new and untouched, rugs, a couch, and a dresser filled family pictures. With confusion Riley laughed, no dust. As if she stepped into a freshly cleaned room. 

She stares at the picture looking with deep examination. They looked familiar, but she couldn’t think. That curiosity killed her. She scanned each person in each picture. 

Riley points and says” her eyes, her smile, I know her, what the….. no, no, It can’t be, why would it be, no, that’s my mom” 

She puts it down, glances to the right and sees baby pictures. She squints and realizes it’s her. Unable to catch her break she sits on the nicely made bed and scans the room. She concentrates on this one box that looks like a chest that is behind the couch, she gets closer and realizes it has a lock. She goes through every dresser trying to find this key. 

“It has to be around here somewhere” Riley said to herself. She finds it two minutes later lying peacefully right on the nightstand. She opens it, and is at awe. 

A chest filled with papers and documents and briefcases filled with even more papers, all which Riley could not understand. Laying all the way in the bottom of the chest, layed a set with 2 more keys. Earlier she saw 2 small boxes in one of the dressers, she put two and two together and now she might be getting the answers she's been looking for.