I've always been the type of person who tries to figure things out that others can't. For the last 18 years of my life I have always had the shit end of things, this time it was gonna be different. I'm gonna get out of here and be someone, I want to be a cop or a writer, either is fine with me. This town is small but not a few hundred people small, more like a few thousand and I hate it. I spend most of my time in the library where I can be accepted. It's crazy how much time I spend there actually, the librarian knows what I read and notified me any time they get something in he thinks I might like. It's nice to be noticed though. My family doesn't do that, they just keep to themselves and whatever drug binge they're on at the moment. Sucks for me in the end, but I get to do whatever I want and the townspeople watch over each other here, so I feel safe. Well, I did. over the last few years, there have been multiple kidnappings and murders, so they say. Some of the townspeople say they just up and left or they moved on from here, and the bodies of them were never found. The creepy thing though, as they were all from here and were around my age. There were a few that I knew from when we were kids. Some people say it's been going on for decades others say just a few months, but nobody knows anymore. Nobody ever pays attention till it's too late. I've kind of figured that out. I wanna be the one who makes a breakthrough though, and at least finds something out about where they may have gone or got the family's closure. I have all the resources I could need from the library where I help sometimes, and I've gotten pretty close to Mr. Sanders, the librarian. He's so sweet and he's always on top of everything. Though there are some days I think that maybe he wasn't fit for the job, maybe he would be better as, like a personal trainer, he's fit and young, not normally what you would see in a librarian, but all the people here know him and from what they say he has been here since he was born. It's a pretty cool story, he inherited the library and his house from his grandfather who was once the mayor of the town and he had a knack for gardening. Mr. Sanders keeps up with the roses in the center of town, they're beautiful and they always are kept up, whether fresh soil or new roses, whatever he does he's good at it. There are a lot of good people here so it's hard to find new suspicious people to look into. There are still a few weird people who fit the criteria. The murder would have to be someone people trusted, who had money, blended in, was able to get rid of the bodies, and be discreet about it too. Like the mayor, he fits all that and I've heard the rumors of him and his obsession with little girls and girls my age, and he's in his 50's. Gross. There are rumors about the Mailman who comes into town a few times a month to deliver everyone's mail, even though it's just outside of town and people could drive. The Ice cream man, which is kind of cliché, considering that in the books and movies that's who always does it, but there is just something off about him. Gives me goosebumps. The point of the matter is, there are a lot of sketchy people who do sketchy things in this town, that nobody seems to notice. Morgan and Hailey sure didn't. They were the girls I knew from school, we were never really friends but I knew them. They disappeared at different times, according to the newspaper Morgan went missing from the park about two years ago and everyone said Hailey just left for college early but I have a gut feeling that she didn't go on her own, how could she when she hadn't gotten her diploma yet? She disappeared about a year ago. So it seems like someone gets taken each year. It scared the town for a while and they set a curfew that they still haven't lifted, although I don't mind. I tend to stay to myself most of the time and read or write. While being out most of the day today, doing some investigating on people, I decided to stop by the library to see Mr. Sander and see if he needed anything. The bell was above the door rang and it introduced me to whoever was in the bookstore. Thank god I wasn't trying to be sneaky. Looking at the book as I pass by the shelves to the register where Mr. Sanders should have been, but he wasn't. Which wasn't strange, he was always out doing something somewhere. "Mr. Sanders!! Are you here?" There was no answer. That was strange, he usually at least hollers back at me. It wasn't a big store and he usually doesn't spend time at the warehouse next door. That's where the deliveries to the bookstore go. Getting one of those gut feelings again I start to look around the store. No sign of him at all. The bookstore had a basement where they kept all the rare and exquisite books so they won't be touched, so I decide to take a trip down there, even though Mr. Sanders says to stay out of there. The door was heavy but I tried pulling it and it wouldn't budge. It was locked. "Kelly? What are you doing here, and why are you trying to go downstairs? I told you to stay out of there" Mr. Sanders comes out of nowhere with a book in his hand and his apron on, scaring the shit out of me. "Where were you, I tried calling when I got here, and you never answered" He looks at me and points to the warehouse door a few feet from us. " I was looking at the new shipment we got in for the store" Makes sense. "Oh I didn't know that the delivery was today, do you want me to come in to help you?" He shakes his head and walks back to the register where he puts his book down and grabs a clipboard. "No it's okay I got this, the curfew is going to start soon, you should probably get back to your house." Home. I wanna go anywhere but there. "yeah I guess." Dropping my head down and playing with my notebook. "Here, this will give you something to do" He hands me a newer book that I haven't seen in the store. "This must be a new copy huh" He smiles his gorgeous white smile. " Yeah, we just got it in, don't ruin it though okay? It's not even in inventory yet." I smiled back at him and just looked at his blue eyes. "Yes, Mr. Sanders." As I said that a twinkle spread across his eyes and he grinned at me, a wide toothy grin. "Good, Now you better head home, I'm closing up shop, stay safe." That was new I had never seen his eyes do that, and why did they do that when I said that to him. Oh well, I'm not gonna think too much into it, and with that, I waved him goodbye and turned to leave. The bell rang once again and I looked back to see a gorgeous man with his eyes on me waving goodbye. The bookstore wasn't too far from my house, maybe a thirty-minute walk uphill. The not-so-good part is that it gets dark early now since it's winter and there are no streetlights on my street. So it's pitch black and all I have is my flashlight on my phone. So the walk home begins with the same thing it does every time, headphones in my ears and George Strait singing sweet, sweet lyrics to me. My music ranges from pretty much anything you can think of. Pop, rap, country, metal, blues. Just different kinds for different purposes I suppose. While I was getting serenaded by my music, a cold burst of wind ran through me. This hill is what gets cold, I live up on the hill and we're right between the mountains so the weather here is different every day. As I looked around I realized it was already dark and I needed to get home fast, I hated being outside in the dark. Who knows what could happen at this time. Hopefully nothing though, so I just kept moving along. **Snap** The sound of a branch breaking behind me almost caused me to give myself whiplash from spinning so quickly. There was nothing there though. " Oh Kelly you're just psyching yourself out, quit it," I think it's the absolute dumbest thing to talk to yourself but I had to give myself some reassurance. After all, it was just me out here. **Snap** There it was again. "Hello? Who's out there?" I stood there waiting for an answer, but there was none. Mentally scaring the shit out of myself I turn back around and walk a little bit faster home. Man, I'll be glad to get back to that hellhole. It's better than being out her- *SNAP* I whip myself around and see what looks like a shadow at the end of the street. Standing there staring at me for a minute, "Who are you? You better go away my dad will kick your ass!" They just stood still. *PING* My phone startles me and I jump at the sound of a text message going off. It was my best friend, nothing important. I look back up to see the shadow walking towards me at a pretty good speed, "AHHH GO AWAY!" Scared, I take off running up the rest of the hill, I'm almost there. Maybe five minutes to my house, that's all I need is five minutes. **BOOM BOOM BOOM** I can hear the footsteps behind me as I'm running for my life. My face starts to get hot and my legs are aching from running up this hill, but I have to keep going. If I value my life. Running as fast as I can, I turn my head back around to see how close the shadow was to me when I tripped over something and hit a rock. Oh, My head hurts but I have to keep going, I touch where I can feel something sticky and shine the light from my phone onto my hand, it's blood from my head. Tears well up in my eyes and I just wanna stop but I have to run home, I have to get home. I pick up the things that I dropped when I fell and see my notebook is gone. Fuck, where is it? My phone flashlight is shit so I have to get close to the ground somewhat to see and I finally find my notebook after looking for a few seconds next to a patch of trees, I hurry to pick it up when the shadow steps out in front of me and grabs me by the neck. "AH-" There's something over my face, why does it smell like that? Why is this happening to me? What did I do? Is this the person who is murdering people? My eyelids start to get heavy as my mind runs through a million questions. I keep trying to fight it, but the more I fight it, the more the shadow keeps shoving the weird-smelling rag into my face. "Shh, it's all gonna be alright Kelly" Wait, I know that voice from somewhere. Feeling tired I try to fight back by hitting them and scratching but everything is getting dark and my head hurts more and more. I can't breathe, I have to take a deep breath and the darkness won, and my eyes shut slowly.
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