Riley stared at the closet door. It was almost bedtime, and she hated it. She had tried to explain to her mom once upon a time, but that didn’t matter anymore. She would get more sympathy from a rock. But it was okay, she had learned not to expect too much anymore.

She fixed the sheets on her bed and looked back at the closet door. She could swear she had just seen the shadows shifting around the door. It was hard to remember the first time she thought she had noticed something. Her mom had brushed it off when she had brought it up, saying it was just her overactive imagination. Honestly, there was a part of her that still wasn’t sure that it wasn’t all in her head.

Closing the door to her room, she pulled out her homework. Math was one of her favorite subjects and helped her with destressing. Her other classmates always teased her for that, calling her a nerd and a geek. Most days she was usually able to shrug it off. Most days.

She heard a couple knocks on the door. Before she even realized it, she was holding her breath, waiting to hear what came next.

“Go to bed, geek.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. Just one of her stepbrothers. She couldn’t really complain about them too much. They were obnoxious and made their comments, but that’s usually all it came to. Some part deep down, she still told herself it came from a place of affection, that there was love hidden somewhere in that. Just playful teasing that usually happens between siblings. At least that’s what her mom usually told her anyways.

Looking back at the problem, it was a little bit of a trickier one. She nibbled on the back of her pen. The first time her teacher had seen her pull one out, they had a fit about not being appropriate and what if she made mistakes. Then they saw how well she picked up the material and how quickly she could move through problems. Now, they’d be more confused if she tried to pull out a pencil and offer her a pen instead.

The closet door creaked a little. Riley turned her head so fast that she almost got a crick. Even still, there was no denying that the closet door was a little more open than before. “I’m not afraid,” Riley muttered to herself. The closet door remained motionless, with the crack taunting her, almost saying “Sure you’re not.”

There was a sharp knock, before the door opened and Christine walked in, not that she’d actually ever call her stepmother by that name. Riley reminded herself to relax, her body tensing automatically. Christine looked around the room with a disapproving look before settling herself on the corner of the bed. Riley turned around from her desk to face her.

“So,” Christine said, finally turning to face her.

Just one word. That’s how Christine always liked to start conversations. Never a full sentence. No, it had to just be one heavy word and then pause for tension, just to emphasize how exhausting and tiring it was to be having a conversation with her stepdaughter.

“There was a call from your school today.”

Riley gulped and waited. She had learned a while ago not to respond, that there was always something more after.

“Something about a fight with another student.”

“It wasn’t my fault! He started it,” Riley burst out, not being able to stop herself, not that it would do any good. It never did any good.

“Of course not,” Christine drawled, “because it’s never your fault. It’s only the third time we have been told about a fight and we’re only a quarter of the way through the school year. I’m sure everybody just happens to have it out for you.”

The closet creaked open a little more and Riley could swear she almost heard a rumble come from it. It took all her strength not to react with Christine sitting right in front of her. The last thing she needed was to rehash ‘that’ argument again.

“I’m not saying that,” Riley mumbled angrily.

Christine just stared at her for a few moments with those cold eyes, almost like she was examining her.

When she had first learned she was getting another mother and that her mom had decided to remarry, she had been so excited. It was great getting to have another parent again, and for a while she had enjoyed it. It didn’t take long to realize that Christine wasn’t as thrilled with having another child to take care of, let alone one that wasn’t even hers. She had started noticing a lot of little things after a while, constantly being excluded from things, getting smaller gifts compared to her stepbrothers.

She had tried to say something to her mom once, but her mom had encouraged her to just give it some time and that it was a hard transition for all of them. Her mom must have said something to Christine after that too, cause after that any tiny bit of warmth that may have come from her was completely gone. The most she could hope for was just to be ignored. After that, Riley kept her mouth shut and tried to keep her head down.

“I don’t know what we are going to do about you. It seems like every time I turn around there’s always some new problem with you. I’ve never had these kinds of problems with your brothers. Do you just enjoy making things harder for everyone else?”

Riley hated those impossible questions. Of course, it wasn’t like that, but it’s not like she could say anything to Christine anyways. Instead, all she could do was look down and hope that Christine couldn’t see how upset she was.

There was a cold shiver that ran up and down her back that made her stiffen.

Christine sighed and started to get up. “I’ll have to talk to your mom more about this. I really wish you would think about your actions more and how much you put your mother through, if not all of us. I’m really disappointed in you, Riley,” Christine said, as she walked out of her room.

There it was, the gut punch. Bringing her mom up to make her feel even more guilty. She swallowed hard, to keep from crying out loud, as a few hot tears escaped her eyes and ran down her face.

She hated how Christine pretended to care and played with emotions, like a toy she could use to amuse herself. In some ways, it would be some much easier if Christine just actually hit her, and then she could call it out for the hate and cruelty that it was. Instead, it was colder, with just enough manipulation and mind games to make her wonder if she wasn’t overreacting.

It was one of the reasons that she enjoyed math so much. It was simpler and had rules and patterns to follow. She could find the solution if she worked at anything long enough. But trying to fix problems with other people? That was just too messy and complicated.

“That woman is a real piece of work.”

Riley fell out of her chair and tried not to scream. Standing in her closet doorway, was something crossed between monster and man. It was standing on two hoofs, in a fancy suit. Instead of hair, it had tentacles that were pushed back, with other tentacles growing out of its chin. But the part that really caught her was its eyes. They were a deep purple that actually had her feeling more relaxed and kept her from screaming for help.

“I’m so sorry that you had to deal with that.”

Riley shrugged. “I’m used to it. This was just a Tuesday for me.”

“I was supposed to scare you, but I’d just feel like a really big dick if I did that now.”

“I’m just glad that this wasn’t all in my head like I was beginning to think.”

“Nah, I’m very real. If you want, I could go give that bitch a real fright.”

Riley contemplated it for a moment. She really contemplated it. On one hand, it was very tempting. There was a part of her that would find it very rewarding and maybe give Christine a taste of her own medicine when no one believes her about it. But she knew couldn’t do that.

When her mom introduced her to Christine and had told her about them becoming a family, it was the first time she had seen her mom smile in a long time. It was one of the only things she actually did like about Christine, how much happiness she had brought to her mom. Riley couldn’t be the one to potentially take that away from her mom.

“It’s a very sweet offer, but no thank you. So, you just go around scaring people then?”

“Pretty much, though we try to be somewhat fair about it when we can. Listen kid, you sure there isn’t anything I can do to help? I hate just leaving things like this.”

Riley stared at the photo she had sitting on top of her desk. It had been taken shortly after they were married. Christine and her mom were holding each other with each brother standing on either side of them. Christine had just whispered something in her ear that had caused her mom to burst out laughing. Instead of being in the picture, Riley was on the other side of the camera taking it for them. Most people would think it was weird that she would keep a picture she wasn’t in, but it was a really good picture of her mom.

Still, somewhere along the way, that picture had become the way things were. Shunted to the side, out of the way. There wasn’t really room for her anymore in the family. And the truth was, she didn’t really want to be here that much anymore anyways. There was only one monster in this house, and it wasn’t the one standing in her closet doorway.

She turned back to him with a weak smile. “Take me somewhere else? Is that something that is possible?”

The monster smiled at that and gestured towards the door. “That is entirely possible. I will warn you though, it is a very different and strange world over there, and there won’t be any coming back. But we would be happy to have someone like you join us over there. “

Riley started to join him before pausing. She looked at her desk and grabbed the picture from the frame. Tucking it into her pants pocket, she followed her new friend back into the closet.