STORY DETAILS
This was a second-person novella-styled project I concieved for a writing workshop in college that I never ended up finishing. It revolves around a girl named Wesley who has been given her missing friend Dana’s notebook and begins chronicalling the strange events that start occuring in the days since her disappearance.
Admittedly, I find it to be all over the place, but what teen isn’t?
Also, I wrote each of the three chapters in one sitting a day or two before it was due. Not really the smartest idea when you want to do your best work, but it’s sorta impressive to look back on?
Sept. 5th
It’s been two days since you left us, and to be honest I’m still having a bit of a hard time processing the whirlwind of events that’s taken place. That’s why I’ve decided to write my thoughts down in this notebook so that the vomit that my brain loves to spew about this whole “Dana’s missing” situation has a garbage can to land in. It’s your notebook, actually. The one you used to doodle inside of during Chemistry when that old fart Mr. Hendricks really needed to vent about his divorce for the six-thousandth time? Kinda funny how that works, isn’t it? Your mom gave it to me yesterday. She said she “didn’t know what to do with it” and then randomly took me by the hand to cry for a few minutes before my parents told her she shouldn’t be going out because of all the stress she’s been under. I hate seeing people sad, and I honestly think I was in too much shock seeing her typical snarky and in-control-self replaced with a bed-headed wreck with mascara dripping sloppily down her face to offer any of my own condolences, so I’m just going to say I’m sorry for not telling your mom how strong and awesome she is like a normal person would’ve. That probably would’ve spared me some of the weird looks my parents gave me. Anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself again. I miss you a shitton right now, and even though you’re not here right now I thought writing in your notebook would be the best way I could connect with you in a way, wherever you are.
In short, the day they found your clothes in the woods without a body was the day my life and seemingly the lives of everyone in our little hellhole went up in flames. Literally. Some old man who’s probably a few decades past his prime claimed that your disappearance was “the work of the devil” and decided to light a paper mâché likeness of the menace himself on fire in his backyard to ward off any of the evil spirits I bet he was hallucinating. Let’s just say the mini wildfire that it caused was the least of our worries compared to everything else that’s gone on this week. The police scoured the area where they found your stuff to try and figure out what exactly happened, and I think whatever they saw must’ve baffled them so much that they’ve refused to give a proper explanation to any of us regarding their findings other than the fact that your bloodstained clothes and shoes were lying neatly on a patch of charred grass in the middle of a field with you nowhere to be found. I still vividly remember the looks on their faces during the press conference, visibly shaken, skin doused in sweat as their voices quivered with each word. Whatever they saw must’ve been weird enough to warrant them vehemently denying the opportunity for any of the “concerned” townsfolk around here to probe them any further. They shot down a hell of a lot of questions about whether or not you were a satanist or a cultist. Knowing you I bet you’d’ve gotten a kick out of that.
At this point I feel like I’m rambling, so I’ll try to keep the rest of my thoughts brief, but stuff really has gotten weird. I’ve never seen people riled up this badly over a simple disappearance, and what really irks me is the way people are throwing around baseless rumors about what they think you are. As if any of those airheaded assholes even bothered to get to know you. Your mom’s been devastated, too. I know you hated her (so did I), but every day she’s been coming over to our house and sobbing on the couch while my parents try to comfort her. From the cops to the media, absolutely everyone’s been hounding her incessantly over all of the accusations and it’s clear she can’t take it anymore. I feel really bad that my 17-year-old brain can’t conjure up any words of support when she cries my name over and over, “Wesley… Wesley…” I just don’t know how to talk to her knowing what she used to do to you. I’m unsure if I’ll ever figure out how.
Sept. 6th
Dana, curfew SUCKS. These pigs keep patrolling the roads past 9 pm to “keep us safe” or whatever, as if there’s a serial kidnapper on the loose. They’ve especially been adamant about not letting anyone near the site of where they found your clothes so I can’t even get a good look at all of the commotion still going on down there. After hearing every child in town scream “she sacrificed herself to Satan!” or “there was a summoning circle under her clothes!”, your mind’s bound to jump to a lot of wild conclusions. I hope at some point I’m actually able to sneak in there and see what your media-declared gravesite looks like, but at this rate the cops will finally be out of here by the time we’re supposed to graduate… in May.
Oh, I didn’t really get to write about this yesterday, but on the off-chance that you randomly reappear without warning and rightfully reclaim this notebook, I hope you don’t think that I’m taking your disappearance a little too casually. It hasn’t been the easiest time being cooped up in your bedroom all day because the school district refuses to let you or any of us go to class after this mysterious satanist kidnapper emerged from nowhere. All I’ve really been able to do is think, and write, and occasionally play a bit of Pokémon when my conscious emerges from the haze that’s constantly obscuring it twenty-three hours a day. Anyways, I have a lot of thoughts about why you left, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure that the entire narrative around your case is complete and total bullshit. I don’t think you’re dead. In fact, I don’t think you were kidnapped either. First of all, who would target some random girl like you and I living in a small town in the middle of central fucking Illinois with a population of barely a thousand people? It’s practically our birthright to be acquainted with each and every one of our neighbors, and you and I both know that the weirdest person you’d find in our town is one of those Dollar Store preachers that’ll heckle you on a street corner until you make peace with God. Case in point, we’re all nobodies here. From the way that the cops have been nervously monitoring the area around where you disappeared for the past few days, I can tell there’s something more to this than what they’re letting on. Why send a whole squadron of government men down here for a teenage girl? The whole thing just doesn’t make sense to me. As much as I want to give you a call and rant about how stupid everyone’s being about you, I know it’s not that simple. Which sucks! A lot actually! You’re literally the only person in my life who doesn’t look at my My Chemical Romance t-shirts, black hair and converse and make visible gagging gestures. Not to mention the fact that I adore hearing you ramble about anything and everything that’s on your mind at a given moment. A girl disappearing in one spontaneous moment? Sounds like the Dana I know. I’ll find out what’s going on though. You know how stubborn I tend to be when I get in over my head.
Also, your mom came over for dinner tonight. She invited herself in again because, I dunno, she doesn’t understand the concept of privacy? Her face was a lot more well-groomed this time around too, not a mascara-infused tear in sight. I don’t really get why my parents entertain her for so long when they know how worked up she gets when you end up letting her ramble, but I guess being good listeners is a trait that runs in my family. She was ranting a lot about the things that the cops kept doing to her, and when I mean ranting, I mean ranting. Her face was bright red, dripping with sweat as she told us about how police barged through her door and “raided” her daughter’s bedroom in between messy bites of orange chicken. She said they told her that they had a warrant signed by the state that required them to search your room for any “evidence” regarding the disappearance and that she would have to stay with relatives until their investigation had concluded. Naturally, your mother refused to leave until the chief of police himself hauled his ass down there and gave her the rundown on why exactly all of this needed to happen. Sounds about right for the woman who constantly questioned every single little detail about our friendship to begin with and berated me for being a “bad influence”, so I found it a little ironic how she became the one crying at my dinner table.
I will admit though, some of the things she said to us set off some major red flags in my mind. First, “the state” can’t just issue a search warrant, even my dumbass knows that. Second, why would the cops need any evidence from your house other than the fact that you’re not there? I really wanted to say something like “Hey, don’t y’all think it’s a little weird that the cops are putting more effort into extracting a house’s worth of trivial evidence than actively searching for Dana?” but your mom literally would not stop talking about how pissed she was at the way she was treated by the cops so I kinda gave up on interjecting. My parents, having lived in relative safety in this town for their entire lives, aren’t really ones to question authority either. Sometimes it feels like your mother cares more about her own discomfort than the fact that her only daughter has gone missing without a trace, which honestly should piss me off way more than it does. But y’know, it’s your mother we’re talking about. Empathy isn’t something that’s ever come naturally to her.
After dinner I kinda just slithered my way back upstairs to my room and started pumping some Pearl Jam into my ears. Since your mother is probably going to crash here tonight because she’s been put on “house release” I don’t think I’m going to be able to make another attempt at sneaking into Dana ground-zero without alerting the horde. I wouldn’t have put it past the cops to have bugged her purse while she was blowing up at them, so I have an inkling we’re probably being watched right now.
Sept. 7th
Today’s been strangely uneventful up until the past hour. Your mother’s basically been screaming at the cops over the phone all say asking when the hell she’s gonna be let back into the house. Pretty funny how much more concerned she seems to be about sleeping in her own bed rather than the wellbeing of her own flesh and blood. My parents have been checking in on me periodically as well, which I appreciate, but I really hate how adamant they are on making sure I’m still sane like I’m some sort of hospital patient. I’m not twelve alright?! Anyways, you’re never gonna believe who texted me half an hour ago. It was Elias! Y’know, that nerdy brown haired douche from Chemistry class that always tried way too hard to win you over? And guess what? He’s asking me if I want to go to look for you in the words tonight with him and his friends. The audacity! When I first got his message, I was really confused seeing as I don’t recall ever having given him my number for any reason, so I bet he doxxed my school email. Anyways, he said that he’s heard all the cult and satanism rumors floating about and knows they’re a bunch of bullshit. I figured I should let the actual conversation we had do the talking because I’d rather not write about how annoying this guy is for another half hour.
Elias: Hey Wesley it’s Elias, you wanna go out into the woods tonight with my buddies and I and see if we can find where Dana’s hiding?
Me: Why? Didn’t you hear the news? They found her clothes lying in the woods. She probably got abducted by a serial killer or something… it’s not safe for us to go out there
I lied about my beliefs here on purpose. I really didn’t appreciate the fact that he’d most likely violated my privacy in order to coax his love interest’s closest friend into searching for her, so you can hopefully see why I tried to kindly demotivate him without ripping into him like a rabid dog.
Elias: Haha, you know I know that’s all bs right?
Me: Uhh, how so?
Elias: Come on girl, the cops have been stationed out in the woods for the entire damn week now! There’s no way there isn’t something bigger going on here. I bet Dana’s hiding out in the woods somewhere and they know she’s there… and maybe she saw something the government doesn’t quite approve of 😉
Me: Dude, you’re crazy?? You think she’s hiding out there naked or something? And why the hell would any government secrets be hiding in our fucking woods??
Elias: Nah I’m kidding, she probably staged the whole thing honestly. I bet she just wants the attention and left a fake kidnapping note or some shit so now the whole state’s going crazy over her case, you know how she is! Always the light of the party…
Me: Yeah, I do. Just because Dana’s always been outgoing doesn’t mean she’d stage her own disappearance for shits and giggles. Anyways, I really don’t feel like getting arrested with you of all people. I’d rather at least keep my dignity intact if I’ve already lost my best fucking friend
Elias: But don’t you want to see what’s going on for yourself? I know how close you two are and I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for you to process your best friend going missing
Me: And I’m unsure why it’s so hard for you to process why going out to look for Dana is not something I have the emotional energy to do right now. Why are you even texting me about this to begin with?
Elias: We’re gonna be heading out there at around 11 tonight btw, feel free to join us if you want 🙂
And just like that, my disdain for that boy has reached an entirely new level. He totally thinks being intentionally vague with me about his intentions regarding him and his gang of dorks looking for you is gonna convince me to sneak out of the house tonight… and he’s right. I can’t stand not knowing what that jackass is actually planning to do out there. The dude probably wants to see if he can get any pics of your corpse since that’s the closest he’ll ever get to kissing you. I’ve got my own reasons to go out looking for any sign of you too. If he pulls any weird shit, I’ll be sure to let him know you never loved him.
Sept. 9th
Dana, what the fuck. Whatever hive you stirred up while you were out in the woods is really, really angry. When I said I had a feeling there was something more to this whole debacle than what the cops were letting on, I didn’t actually think that it was anything more than a case of you having seen something you shouldn’t’ve and getting imprisoned by the government. Now I know I said that I didn’t think that you’d gotten kidnapped, but I think that statement disregarded too much of the whole “clothes found in a searing hot patch of grass” thing. My hands are shaking too much to keep writing right now so I think I’ll keep writing to you tomorrow morning when my head finally screws itself back on properly. Jesus Christ.
Sept. 9th – 11:29 pm
Alright I lied. We used to tell each other everything, even our most traumatic little secrets (like the time I had to wear a dress to the middle school dance and tripped over it on the dance floor. Yikes. That is nothing compared to this.) so even though I’m really freaked out right now I’m going to be brave and try and neatly lay it all out for you.
On the 7th, I decided to sneak out of the house to see what Elias and his cronies were up to near the woods on the outskirts of town where you’d vanished. The police have had a huge blockade set up there since a few days ago with a ton of these giant hazmat-like tents lining the forests’ edge, not to mention the entire area has been under heavy surveillance. When I met up with Elias about a half-mile away from the “exclusion zone” or so he calls it, I figured that whatever Elias’ plan was to get us inside of it was guaranteed to end in us sitting handcuffed in the back of a SWAT truck with CIA agents asking us who we’re working for, or the more realistic outcome of a shitty perimeter-watching cop telling us to run back home and that us kids shouldn’t be out so late. Being the smarty-pants that he is, Elias had devised the foolproof plan of walking all around the perimeter of the exclusion zone out of sight and finding the most easily accessible opening into the forest. Since the barriers and police cars that made up the blockade only covered about a half-mile stretch, and since we couldn’t actually tell how far into the forest the cops had blocked off, he figured that “eventually there should be an opening”. Knowing how brain-dead the plan was, I suggested that we send one of the boys Elias had brought along (whose names I don’t care to remember) up to some of the officers and distract them by asking a ton of useless questions. If he could occupy their attention enough, we’d be able to quietly sneak our way down into the forest and take a quick peek at the scene before heading back out. Elias’ smugly obliged, claiming that if the plan didn’t work and we got arrested that “he’d pin the bail on me”, which literally isn’t how posting a bond works but I assured him that the plan was better than what he had thought up of.
We sent up one of Elias’ friends who claimed to be a good enough actor to the front of the blockade where a large group of police officers were chatting it up with each other. Under the cover of darkness, as well as the bushes that lined the street, the rest of us sneakily made our way towards an opening that we’d spotted in between two police cars on the edge of the road. Elias’ friend must’ve been really persistent, because the entire time we’d inched closer towards breaching the exclusion zone they could not get this kid off their ass. I bet they thought he was high or something as the last glimpse of them I got before heading deeper into the woods was of them sitting this kid down and force-feeding him bottles of water as if he was coming down with the flu. Even though we’d successfully made it into the zone, and I was closer than ever to seeing what had happened to you with my own eyes, I definitely felt a tinge of resentment burning within me in those moments. The look of glee that Elias gave me when we made it through, knowing that he was getting what he wanted, made me want to sock him in the nose.
As if it wasn’t already creepy enough being in the middle of the woods at night, the forest was eerily quiet once we’d ventured deeper. I half expected a wild animal to jump out of the darkness and scare the living shit out of us. Elias and his gang didn’t seem all too concerned though, quietly whispering and giggling to themselves as we slowly inched our way through the underbrush. We laid low, trying to avoid being spotted by any of the stray policeman that mad taken up position along a makeshift path that extended deeper into the woods. With how late it was I bet that it was easy for them to mistake any of the gentle rustling that we were making as noises from a wild squirrel or skunk, because we were somehow able to avoid any kind of detection until the sight of a dimly lit outpost caught our attention.
As we made our way towards the outpost we’d found, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. What looked like a mini village had been set up in the middle of the forest, large white tents encircling a smaller fenced off area. From what little light there was we could make out numerous human figures all clad in yellow or white hazmat suits as if the area were radioactive taking images and holding various sorts of gadgets, analyzing something unknown. I nearly stuffed Elias’ face into the dirt trying to keep him from blowing our cover as an unmarked black van barreled its way down the carved-out road down towards the site. Then he flipped me off, which was a little funny. After seeing all of this, Elias began to deliberate between himself and his friends on how close we should get to what could only be described by us as “the lab” seeing as it was totally some sort of government outpost trying to study something that obviously wasn’t supposed to be there. Once again, Elias suggested that we just wing it and get as close as quickly as possible so that he could take a barrage of images on his smartphone and do who knows what with them. If we weren’t forced to lay low, I would’ve yelled at him again for getting far too in over his head. But I was too. We were so close to finally getting some clear-cut information on what exactly was happening out in the woods that warranted such a secretive operation taking place, and even though we were in no way prepared for any kind of encounter with the authorities we’d already made it this far through sheer luck. This time, I obliged to Elias’ dumb idea, and we set off closer and closer to the mysterious little village-site-lab-thing.
What we saw when we finally had creeped our way up behind one of those white tents was nothing short of incredible. As we stealthily peered out from behind it, we caught a much clearer view of what laid behind that small fenced off area that we could barely make out earlier; A glowing circular patch of light dyed a sickening red hue, the light pulsating as if it were living flesh. Lying in its center were a what looked like a set of clothes, the details of which I couldn’t quite make out from the distance we had to be away from where they were. The men in the hazmat suits were constantly probing the area, taking small fabric samples and pictures of the oddity as if it were a living being. Men and women in black suits lined a good portion of the perimeter, deliberating amongst themselves in a quiet dialogue. Not only was this all strange enough, but the sight of slim white poles extending upwards between the trees were even more peculiar. Resting upon the summit of each were large cameras pointed upwards, watching the polka-dotted sky as if they were waiting for something. At this point Elias and his friends had already begun to take photos, whispering words of excitement amongst themselves as they stared in awe at quite possibly the strangest sight we’d ever seen in real life or in the movies. As they mumbled, I felt a pit begin to grow in my stomach as my eyes began to more clearly make out the details of the clothes that lie neatly in the center of the glowing red patch. Your dark red shirt, your light brown shorts, your jet-black sneakers, and your… other stuff. You know what I mean. Seeing your underwear lying neatly on top of your shirt would’ve been the funniest thing in the world if my eyes weren’t already fogging up with tears. I’d finally gotten to see you Dana, or at least what was left of you, because at that point I had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on. I remember kneeling further down to the ground and choking back my sobs as the knuckleheads continued to gawk over what I had begun to assume was your gravesite. You’d’ve definitely jokingly called me a little bitch if you saw me crying over you like this. I didn’t expect it either. I’m always so focused on keeping up the façade of strength so that no amount of teasing or ridicule can bring me down, but what held up my foundations was always having you to fall back on. As much as I thought I was prepared to see what had happened to you, I really wasn’t ready. Elias kept slapping my back over and over trying to let me know that we probably should be getting out of there before any agents stumble across us, but at that moment I truly felt paralyzed. My best friend has been reduced to a smoldering outline with scientists probing what I could only assume were her charred remains etched into the ground.
That was when the sirens went off. The lab suddenly sprung to life as the once dim lights brightened, illuminating the entire area in a white light. The people in suits hastily rushed into their tents, shouting and rustling through whatever the hell was in them as the commotion reached an all-time high from what we’d seen and heard before. Elias grabbed my hand and yelled at me to get up, snapping me out of my daze. A look of terror was plastered across his face as if he had seen something, something I’d failed to notice since I was too busy weeping my eyes out. I wiped the tears from my eyes as we began to rush backwards through the underbrush towards where we’d first infiltrated, passing a swarm of police cars and vans barreling their way down the road towards the lab. Then the buzzing started. A low, overwhelmingly deep hum began to pierce our eardrums as the glow emanating from the site became even more luminous. At this point we were sprinting, throwing all caution to the wind as we tried to get the fuck out of there as fast as we possibly could. I figured that whatever the hell was going on back at the lab was probably much more important than some kids sneaking around in the woods, so the last thing I was concerned about was getting handcuffed at this point. Being the clumsy idiot that he is, Elias decided it was at this point that he needed to trip over a tree branch protruding from the ground beneath him, smacking his head into the ground and forcing all of us to momentarily stop and help him up off the ground. Winded, I decided to quickly take a look behind us as Elias’ friends helped him get his bearings straight. I was not ready for what I saw.
Through the breaks between the trees, I could see three glowing blue lights descending from the sky dancing around each other in a circular pattern. I could faintly make out the screams of the men and women tasked with confronting this extraterrestrial horror muffled by gunfire and that sickeningly loud hum. With each foot they descended, the humming got louder. I can only describe the sound as microwave-esque, but ear-piercingly deep. I felt each vibration in my core, and there was a horrifying allure to each pulsation. It was almost as if whatever was producing these sounds was calling me to get closer, to let myself get lost in the lights. But then the lights got brighter, their figures combining into a singular orb of chaos, wispy trails of light creeping outwards from it like solar flares. What sounded like childlike laughter began to reverberate off the trees and through the forest, and then a deafening roar replaced the hum, drowning out all the commotion that once filled the site of the lab where we were mere moments before. Then, as quickly as it all started, it stopped. The lights zipped back up into the sky, emitting a sonic boom of energy that ripped through the forest and knocked us all onto our asses. As Elias and his friends took off behind me, I stared in horror back at what was left of the lab. All that remained was an even larger mass of burning red ground, battered tents and clothes strewn everywhere as if the people wearing them were sucked out of them in an instant. I couldn’t look any longer. I ran as fast as I could back to my house without even thinking about whether or not I was even safe. Elias had already ditched my ass, so I didn’t even bother thinking about if he was okay. It took around twenty minutes for me to run all the way back to my house.
When I finally got home, my parents were out in the yard franticly calling out for me. Every house on the block’s lights were on and people had begun to line the streets in confusion because of y’know, the giant sonic boom that must’ve passed through our entire town mere minutes beforehand. I gave my mom a huge hug and told her I was okay and that I just needed to go to bed, completely drowning out all of the questions that my parents had begun to throw at me. I just needed to go to my room and take a moment to myself. That was all I could think of. As I ran back inside, I caught a glimpse of your mother lying dead asleep on our living room couch, numerous bottles of beer lining the carpet beneath her. I think that was the scariest thing I saw that night.
It’s been about a day and a half since the incident, and ever since then the town’s been on high alert. Nobody has been allowed to leave their houses and I’ve heard that residents are apparently being told that the “explosion” that we’d heard was the result of a plane crash. They’ve even sent the damn national guard down here to make sure that nobody tries to sneak out while the government does whatever dirty work they’re continuing to do down at where the lab was. If you can’t tell, I’m still in shock. I want to write more but it’s about midnight now and I haven’t slept this entire time, because every time I try to close my eyes, I can hear that laughter that rang out right before the blast. It sounded just like you, Dana. I don’t understand.