Missing is the New Normal

Every couple weeks another desk would go empty, haunting the room, reminding everyone how fucked this town was. Another classmate gone, taken by someone we all desperately wanted to catch and make pay for every life taken. The police were useless with their sloppy investigation, claiming the kids had just run off, or those whose bodies were found had just committed suicide. No one knew why or who took these kids. All we knew was that they weren’t leaving of freewill. Every kid had left their phone, wallet, and keys, gone in the blink of an eye, never to be seen again. Some missing for more than four months, others washed up on the beach dead. The hope of finding them had long been gone, and most people accepted the fact that this was the new reality. If a body for those missing hadn’t shown up, it was only a matter of time. The small town of Greendale, Oregon had been overtaken with gloom and paranoia that their kid would be next.

When I arrived in class today, the missing one was my best friend, Allie. The heavy lump in my chest, my heart shattered into a million pieces, and a tear ran down my cheek. It was no longer some random kid I had met in passing. It was my lifelong friend and soulmate, who I had done everything with since kindergarten. Allie and I  had been inseparable. She wasn’t just my best friend. She was more than that; she was the first person I ever cared about in this cruel world, the first one to ever steal my heart away, my first love. Immediately, once I got my grasp on reality, I started blowing up her phone and viciously interrogating everyone in sight. I didn’t understand how this could happen to her when I had just seen her the night before when I dropped her off at home. There had to be a simple explanation for why she wasn’t at school, but I and everyone around me knew that wasn’t true. Our suspicions were confirmed when the police stormed through the school towards her locker. They were supposed to be collecting evidence, but I knew it was only an act so they could appear to be doing something about a dozen missing high schoolers and parents’ dead children. I accidentally made eye contact with the sheriff, and he headed towards me. Anger, sadness, and fear coursed through my body as I accepted the fact that she really was gone. The sheriff was asking me questions but my mind went blank, and nothing he said seemed to be English. I burst into tears and made a scene in the crowded hallways, hoping to have some impact on the importance of the situation to the police. Still, they continued to be useless for weeks to come.

At any moment I knew that I could be taken next, and there would be nothing I could do about it. In some ways I was ready to be done with this life, give up and start a new one. However, I still had aspirations for the future, goals I wanted to accomplish like graduating, getting married, and maybe one day doing something great. I wanted to help catch the murderer and stay alive to see him punished, but I knew it wasn’t possible.

I sat in bed and wallowed at the fact that my best friend and many of my classmates were gone, knowing that I would soon have to hear the news of her washed up dead body. While in my dark room, alone, I could feel the eyes of someone else there. I thought nothing of it, though ,because that’s just how this town felt. When the feeling was no longer imaginary and the touch of a stranger's hands were over my mouth, I knew I was the next one taken. I thought to fight back in hopes to escape, but in an instant, my conscious was turned off. The world went black. 

In the weeks to come after my capture the town dwindled in hope. Everyone accepted the fact that someone else would disappear next, and they gave up any effort to save the missing ones or protect those still present. I don't remember much during this time except total darkness and the sludge that appeared out of nowhere. The retched smelling substance was the only thing that kept me barely living. There were no others in this darkness, only my own thoughts and emotions. Like the rest of the town, I had given up. Fear no longer fazed me because if I wasn’t already dead, I wished I was. There was no possibility of trying to escape when I didn’t even know where, when, or who I was anymore. I stopped eating the revolting sludge, stopped seeking out water, and let my body slowly kill itself. Alone in the darkness, I reminisced the short life I had lived and cried, for I wished I could’ve lived more. Every great memory I relived,  Allie was there with me. When my body was so depleted and deteriorating I knew it was my final hours of life, and I didn’t care. 

I closed my eyes and saw Allie’s face, longing for her to be by my side. I could almost feel her near, but I was jolted back to consciousness when a loud familiar scream came from a distance, and a blinding light penetrated the darkness. When I saw the familiar face of someone, it looked to be Allie, but she was beaten and bleeding. I used my final strength to call out her name. Who knew if I was really seeing her? All that mattered was that there was a possibility she was alive, about to be dropped into the darkness with me. It became more real when the thudding sound of her limp body fell from the light. I searched until I could feel her still barely beating body, and slightly make out her face in the darkness. As our eyes met each other, intertwining her hand in mine, hope of escaping together seemed possible.