"911, what's your emergency?" a dispatcher said.

"He's in my house," I cried.

"Who's in your house?" she asked.

"My step father," I said. "He's going to kill me."

"Are you alone?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "Oh my god, he's coming up the stairs."

"Miss, I want to you to hide somewhere for me, ok?" she asked. "In a closet or under the bed."

"I'm under the bed," I whimpered. "He's getting closer."

"Police are on their way," she informed me. "Just stay as quiet as you can."

"Please help me," I cried.

"Help is on the way," she promised.

When I heard the door open, I squeezed my eyes shut. He was walking around slowly, that I could tell. My heart was pounding so loud I thought he could hear it. Then his footsteps stopped. For a second I thought I was safe and I let out a soft sigh.

All of a sudden I felt hands grab onto my ankles and I screamed. As he dragged me out I kept screaming and started to try and kick him.

I was so terrified I could barely understand what was happening. He hands his hands wrapped around my throat, bringing me up from the floor, and slamming back down, causing my head to hit hard on the floor. Black spots started forming in my vision, and then I felt his hands loosen. Air was rushing back into my lungs so fast I wasn't able to see him pull out a giant knife from his back.

Then I saw it, as he held it over me, ready to end my mere existence. I was speechless. This isn't how I wanted to die. Just as he was going to go for the kill, a shot rang out, and a small blood red dot appeared in his chest.

Everything seemed to slow down. His mouth hung open in shock as he looked down at his chest. But then like someone hit the fast forward button, the knife clattered to the floor and he just collapsed right on top of me.

That's when I started hyperventilating. He was dead, and he was on top of me. And then all of a sudden he wasn't. An officer had pulled him off of me and carefully dragged me away.

"It's over now," he said. "He can't hurt you anymore. You're safe."

Gasping, I shot out of my bed. I couldn't breathe, and my chest ached. I put a hand over my mouth as I cried, not wanting to wake my mom. After I was able to control my breathing, I walked into the bathroom and turned on the cold faucet. I just needed some cool water to help calm me down, so I thought. But it didn't help much. So, I grabbed my flip flops and headed out of my room directly out of the house. Maybe if I just walked around, I could clear my head. I didn't know where I was going, I just kept walking.

This happens almost every night. I have that awful dream, wake up in panic, and then have an anxiety attack. Only it's not a dream. It's a memory, one I will never forget. No matter what I do, it's engraved into my mind.

I suppose it doesn't help that my mother never lets me forget. Actually, that's probably the worst part. She blames me for it. Now she can't even look at me without getting angry or sad. It was even too hard for her to live in the house where everything happened. That's why we moved here to Mystic Falls.

My hope was that if she no longer had to look at our old house anymore, maybe looking at me would me a little easier. Maybe she could finally forgive me. Only wishful thinking.

In the two days that we've been here, she hasn't once come out of her room, not even to eat. I take her food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but she doesn't eat much of it. Luckily, for her, tomorrow is my first day of school. She won't have to deal with me for seven hours.

By the time morning rolled around, I had only gotten a few hours of sleep. Honestly, I felt like shit. I just wanted to curl up in my bed, fall asleep, and not wake up. But I couldn't do that, so I got out of the comfort of my bed, and made my way into the bathroom. Within forty-five minutes, I showered, styled my hair, did my make-up, and got dressed.

Then I began my walk to school. It took me about fifteen minutes to get there and only a couple to find the office.

"Excuse me?" I said to the lady at the desk. "It's my first day here."

"Oh! You must be Riley Perrin!" she smiled. Hearing the last name made me want to puke. I swear if I had anything in my stomach I probably would have.

"No!" I objected. "I think there's been a mistake. My last name isn't Perrin, it's McPherson."

"My apologies," she said. "Your mother filled out the papers, and wrote Perrin as her last name. We just assumed it was the same."

"It's not," I said quietly.

"Ok, well," she said. "Just give me a few minutes to correct it in the system, and then I'll have a new set of papers for you."

"Thank you," I said.

After I let out a breath, I sat down in a chair next to her desk. What a great way to start the day. Not.

"All done," she exclaimed. "Now here is a list of your classes, and here is your locker number and code. You may also find this map of the school helpful."

"Thank you," I said and turned to walk away.

Now I just had to find my first period before the bell rang. Just my luck, it rang right as I thought that. Great, just great. Now when I walk into the class, everyone's eyes will be on me. Fantastic. But let's not get ahead of myself, that's if I even find it.

"Stupid map," I muttered. I couldn't even find where I was on it. So, it was useless. Just as I let out a frustrated sigh, I ran smack dab into someone. Unlike the other person, I went flying to the floor, also sending my bag to the floor, spilling everything.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry," someone apologized.

"It's ok," I said. "It was my fault. I really need to watch where I'm going."

"You're new here, aren't you?" he asked, helping me gather my things.

"Yeah," I laughed. "I'm Riley."

"Jeremy," he nodded. "Are you lost?"

"As much as I hate to admit it," I laughed. "Yes. I'm sort of directionally challenged."

"What's your first class?" he laughing.

"Umm," I said pulling out my program card. "History, with Mr. Saltzman, room 146."

"That's where I'm heading right now," he smiled.

"Awesome," I smiled. "At least I know one person. So what's the teacher like?"

"He's pretty cool. Our old teacher was an ass," he said.

"What happened to him?" I asked curiously.

"Attacked by and animal," he said.

"Oh," I said.

"But Mr. Saltzman is nothing like him," he said. "When he started working here he let me do extra credit so I could raise my grade and get back on track."

"He sounds like a good guy," I noted.

"We're here," he said. "You ready?"

"About as ready as I'll ever be," I gulped.

"Don't worry, I got your back," he promised. I smiled up at him appreciatively and then he opened the classroom door.

"Jeremy," the teacher said. "Who's this?"

"Your new student you thought didn't exist," Jeremy laughed.

"Sorry," Mr. Saltzman apologized to me. "When the office said I was getting a new student from Los Angeles, I didn't really believe them, especially when you didn't show up."

"That's my fault," I said. "I got lost. But Jeremy here saved the day."

"Well," he said. "Welcome to my class. You can take a seat next to Jeremy if you'd like."

Class passed by slowly, but pleasantly. It was nice to be able to focus on something other than my screwed up life.

"Riley!" Mr. Saltzman called after the bell rang. "Can I see you for a moment?"

"Yeah," I sighed. Everyone had already filed out of class.

"If you don't mind me asking," he began. "What made you decide to move from Los Angeles to Mystic Falls?"

"My mom wanted a change of scenery," I shrugged.

"So it's just you and your mom?" he asked.

"Yes," I nodded.

"Ok," he said. "Well I was going over your transcripts from your last school. It seems that you were doing very well. However, there was a period of three weeks that you didn't go to school. Do you mind telling me what happened?"

"Family problems I guess you could say," I sighed.

"I only bring it up, because a lot of absences like that can affect your grade," he said. "So if there's ever a problem, you can always come to a school official, and we can arrange some take home assignments."

"I understand," I nodded. "But it won't happen here. Everything is back to normal. Can I go now?"

He nodded his head and I turned to leave.

"Oh and Riley," he called out.

"Yeah?" I asked turning back.

"If you ever need anything," he smiled. "My door is always open."

"Thank you," I nodded.

The rest of the day went by slowly. As I was walking out of the school to head home, Jeremy ran up next to me.

"Hey, I was wondering," he asked. "Do you want to go get a burger with me? There's this place called Mystic Grill just a few minutes away."

"I'd love to," I smiled. "I'm starving."

"You didn't eat lunch?" he asked as we walked.

"I saw the cafeteria food," I said. "But then decided my stomach had nothing wrong and chose not to torture it."

"Probably a smart move," he laughed.

"So how do you like Mystic Falls so far?" he asked as we walked into Mystic Grill.

"It's pretty nice," I said. "Definitely a big change from LA, but I like it."

"Hey Jer," a guy with blonde hair said. "Just two?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Riley this is Matt, he's a friend of mine and my sister. Matt this is Riley, she's new to town."

"Nice to meet you Riley," Matt smiled, shaking my hand.

"You too," I said, as he led us to a booth.

"Can I get you guys something to drink?" he asked.

"Coke," Jeremy said.

"Me too," I nodded.

"Alright I'll be back with your drinks and to take your order," Matt said and walked away.

After Jeremy and I ate, he introduced me to his sister, Elena, and her two friends Bonnie and Caroline and her boyfriend, Stefan. I liked them a lot. Soon after, I said my goodbyes, and headed home.

I didn't bother to call out to my mom that I was home because I knew she didn't care. I just walked straight back to my room and locked the door. I didn't need her coming in here drunk off her ass and antagonizing me.

After I flipped my lights on, I pulled out my schoolbooks so I could get started on homework. The only teacher who gave me homework was my English teacher. All I had to do was read a couple chapters of this book that they were reading.

By the time, I finished reading it was about eight and I was getting hungry again. However, I had two problems. The first one being that I didn't want to go into the living room and see my mom because I knew she was probably drinking. The second problem being that even if I did go out there, there was a 99.9 percent chance there wasn't any food to begin with.

So, instead I just got ready for bed. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep so I slipped my ear buds in and began listening to The Fray. They were my favorite band ever. I like a lot of country and indie music. Pop and rap were my least favorite genres. But I still had a few exceptions.

Eventually I managed to fall asleep.

Authors Note:

So what'd y'all think? I've had this story in my computer for the longest time. So now I'm going to be working on it a lot more.

BTW I'm not sure how old Riley is going to be. She's the same age as Jeremy, but I don't know exactly where I'm starting this story. That'll come out within the next chapter probably.

Emma Roberts is playing Riley.