If she was still alive, I was almost positive she wouldn’t be the same person as when she disappeared. Maybe she wasn’t that person in the first place, for all I knew. What I knew for sure was my perception of her had changed. I wouldn’t even know where to start if I ever got to talk to her again. It would be like meeting her for the first time all over again.
After scrolling through her page, wishing none of this had ever happened. I grabbed a hoodie out of my closet, and went out to my car.
I drove over to Nancy’s house, pulling up ten minutes early. I pulled out my phone and scrolled. I was startled when someone knocked on the window and dropped my phone. Nancy smiled at me through the window. I rolled it down and picked up my phone at the same time.
“Hey Brian, I know our appointment isn’t for another few minutes, but you can come in now if you’d like.” Something about the way she looked at me seemed off, even though she was just as pleasant as always.
“Yeah sure, I’ll be right there.” I opened my door, and closed the window before shutting off the car.
Nancy waited for me to get out and led the way to the back office. The blinds were closed and a candle flickered. It put me on my guard.
“So, what’s new with you? Your mother called yesterday worried you were saying some strange things about Mady.”
I took a deep breath and plunged in. “You already know what’s going on with the whole Mady thing. Now we found notes from the person she thought was trying to hurt her. We haven’t read them yet but I’m hoping there’s so sort of clue to tell us where she is.” I decided to leave out the part about the computer being stolen last minute. Nancy always told me that if she didn’t think I was in danger then she legally wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about what I confided to her. If she knew people were breaking into my house to get at Mady’s things I worried she would feel she had to tell someone. I hoped she couldn’t tell I was holding out on her.
“Brian, you know what we talked about last time. I don’t want this to become an obsession, and by the sounds of it, it has. If you’re willing to tell your parents you think Mady is still alive, then this is something you’ve started to convince yourself of. I just don’t want you to get hurt by harbouring unrealistic expectations.”
I understood where Nancy was coming from, but deep down my gut told me Mady hadn’t killed herself.
“Yeah, I know you’re right. Even if this is just a dead end, I need to follow it through. I know she’s probably dead, but I need to do this.” I wanted to convince her that I was ready for the worse possible outcome, and she seemed to buy it.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about your situation, and I don’t want you to call the cops when you get to the bottom of all of this.” She paused for a moment.
“Excuse me?” What? The first thing I would do when I found Mady, dead or alive, would be to call the cops. Why wouldn’t I?
“I mean, I want you to get the time you deserve. Once you find her I don’t want you to rush that, because if you do find a body, you need to take the time you need with her because once the police get on you and find all of the evidence you have stashed in that room of yours, they will question you until you break and tell them everything, and you’ll never be able to see her again. When you find her, I want you to call me when you think you’ve had enough time with her, and then I’ll take care of the police. I’ll tell them that you were mentally unstable and we were working on it in our sessions. I thought I had broken through, but you had a mental break and then they won’t question you as much. You can come see me for the next couple months after that, I can give you a clean bill of health and then you can move on from this once and for all.”
I thought about it. Nancy was right. If the police found all of the things I had in my room tying me back to the disappearance, they would never stop questioning me, and though it felt strange to be conspiring with my psychologist, her plan made the most sense. If they thought I was insane, they would never question why I was so hell-bent on finding Mady, and they would see I never did anything to her. This was all assuming I found a dead body at the end of this.
“I guess that makes sense.” I responded, bewilderment still written all over my face.
“I just want you to get better, and I don’t think you will until you get the time that you deserve with her instead of the police running around looking for evidence.”
The rest of the conversation veered away from Mady and focussed on my home life. I told her how things had gotten much better since I shared how I felt, and that Dad was away for work at the moment. She asked how that made me feel, and the conversation just kind of spiralled from there. Before I knew it, our hour was up and I was walking back to my car. The nice start to the day had turned nasty and now rain spat down from the heavens, covering everything in a slick layer of water.
I got into my car and started the engine, drove away and then pulled over. I liked to do that after my sessions. I would pull around the corner from her house, and go over everything we talked about in our sessions. It really helped me process it.
My psychologist, the person who is there to keep me safe and help me through all of this, just offered to cover for me so I didn’t get in trouble. That was seriously weird, but at this point I was willing to take whatever help I could get. Through this whole thing I was worried about when everyone found out what I had been doing, and what the repercussions would be, but she just gave me a way out. I wasn’t sure if I should be thankful, or feel weird that she was so willing to help me with this.
Chapter 12
By the time I got home it was 11:30 and I hadn’t eaten yet. I went to the kitchen, and got a burrito which I ate looking across the lake at the mountains. I called Jason, Jessica, and Kent and let them know I was home. They were on their way over. We needed to find Mady soon, but I was scared of what we’d find as well. The way Nancy talked she made it sound like there was no way she could be alive, and I guess that made sense. It had been months since Mady disappeared, and she was just a teenaged girl on her own.
Even if she was dead, I needed to find the body. Jason, Kent, and Jessica showed up at around noon and we gathered at the kitchen table talking and playing on our phones. We had a lot in store for today, but I think we just wanted to have a moment of normalcy before we delved into the notes.
By one o’clock it was time for us to bite the bullet and start reading. I led the way upstairs and retrieved the notes from the depths of my closet. The idea of spending the afternoon cooped up in my room wasn’t appealing to any of us so we went downstairs to the back patio. The clouds had cleared and the afternoon was a beautiful and sunny. The temperature was rising, and there wasn’t a single lick of wind to speak of.
We spread the notes across the glass patio table in chronological order. I decided it would be best to read Mady’s note first in case it had some sort of clue in it, so I picked it up and handed it to Kent to read out loud. I didn’t trust my voice.
“To whoever is reading this. These notes were given to me by an anonymous source. They were sent over the past few months, leading me to believe I’m in trouble and need to run away. I hope you will decide to help me find out who has been sending the letters. There is an address in town printed on a few of them, but I never visited the house for fear they would take me right then and there. Visit the house, and the next blog post will be unlocked. Good luck, and stay safe.”
Kent set the letter down and looked at me for guidance. Mady must have written it in a hurry. Her usual perfectly looped letters were jagged and sloppy.
“So, the question is, do we read of the letters, or do we just go to the address and find out who’s inside?” Jason swept his hair out of his face.
“I think we have to read them. Maybe we’ll see something Mady missed? Something that will lead us to the letter writer?” I looked at the first one. It wasn’t very long, but with so many to go through it could still take a long time.
“Yeah, you’re right. I think we
read the first one as a group, and then we each take one so we can get through this quicker.” Kent picked up the first letter.
Nobody objected, so he began. The entire thing made my stomach turn. It talked about how they would take Mady like when she was a kid, and pretend they were family. She would be their daughter and they’d take her away, never be heard from again. It was creepy.
After that, we each took a letter in order of date and started to read. When we finished, we shared what was in the letter we read. I didn’t blame Mady for running away, although why she didn’t tell her parents was beyond me. Every single letter had a different creepy feel, and they all talked about either killing or kidnapping her.
‘I will cut you so shallow it feels like a million paper cuts running across the entirety of your body, then I will sit there and watch as you slowly bleed out and I can see the life running out of your body.’ One described.
Another said. ‘At nights, I lay in bed and dream of putting a bag over your head and dragging you down the street kicking and screaming. I know it wouldn’t be that easy, but one day I’ll get you, and that day will be marvelous for the both of us.’
I could feel bile rising in the back of my throat and chills running up and down my entire body. The letters were disgusting.
The writer talked about how much they cared for her, they wanted to make her part of their family. It was obvious they were mentally ill and obsessing about her for some reason.
The last two letters in the collection were the ones with the address. I wondered just how long this person stalked Mady. Her parents hadn’t received a letter from them since she disappeared. I knew that because I definitely would have heard about it, so it made me wonder how they knew exactly when she disappeared. Maybe Mady didn’t just leave, maybe she was kidnapped, and they were forcing her to do this for some reason. Fear curdled my stomach. Maybe they were really after me? But that was silly, this all had to do with Mady being snatched when she was younger.
“That was disgusting,” Jessica said. Tears welled up in her eyes, and I felt bad for putting her through this.
“The person is nothing short of insane. When we find them, and we will, they need to go directly to an institution.” Kent put down the last letter and leaned back in his chair to stretch out. We had been at it for about an hour and I think we were all feeling the effects.
“That address has to be just a little ways off Main Street. There are a few abandoned houses down that way. My aunt used to live on that street but she moved away years ago. The house hasn’t been lived in since,” Jason proclaimed, picking up one of the two letters and studying the address.
“I guess we should go to the address. Mady never did, but it’s all we have to go on.” I went into the house to the computer in the downstairs office. I typed the address into Google and hit enter.
The address was in the poorer part of town, it was really just a few houses down a road that were cheaper than the rest. It looked rundown and appeared to be one of the very few original houses that hadn’t been pushed over and rebuilt.
We piled into my car and pulled up at the address on Oak Street minutes later. It looked as it did on the street view I pulled up on the computer. The paint on the front door had worn away over the years, exposing the wood beneath. Most of the windows had at least one crack in them, and the shingles on the roof curled up like a bad perm. I doubted anyone would live there, especially when the temperature dropped and snow started to fall.
“What do we do now?” Jason peered out the window as I put the car in park.
In all honesty, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“I guess we go and knock. See who answers the door,” I said with false bravado.
I stepped out of the car and looked expectantly at my friends. Reluctantly, they followed me.
In a tight group we moved along the broken concrete of the sidewalk and up the creaky steps. The cement porch was bare of any furniture and the place looked deserted.
The group huddled around me when I knocked. My plan was to tell them we were selling something. It didn’t matter what; they would undoubtedly close the door in my face. But at least I would have an idea of who lived here. When my knuckles hit the faded paint the door swung open with an eerie creak.
I swallowed hard and glanced back at my friends. “Hello?”
There was no response, so I stepped inside. My friends hovered in the doorway.
The inside of the house was nothing like the outside. Everything was outdated and used to the point of breaking, but it was clean. It was obvious someone cared enough to keep the place in order.
“Hello?” I yelled louder this time. If nobody was home, I was breaking and entering and my parents would kill me if I got caught.
The house remained silent, so I ventured in a little further. The place was painted in faded shades of blue and yellows. It struck me as strange there wasn’t a single personal object in the front of the house that I could see. No family pictures, no knick knacks, no shoes, nothing. I was starting to think the person after Mady just used the address to send us on a wild goose chase.
A narrow staircase led to a second story, and to the right was a hallway which I assumed led to the kitchen. I walked down the hallway with my friends close behind, wanting to explore the main level before going upstairs. I moved quietly, hardly daring to breath. The hallway ended at the kitchen which was spotless. I opened the fridge which was stocked with of all kinds of food. I was shocked to find the electricity still worked. The house sort of dead ended there. I went to the living room and stairs, passing a bathroom on the way.
“We have to go upstairs,” I whispered to Kent who came in after me. Jason stood behind him, and Jessica stood in the doorway still playing lookout. She made sure nobody was in the street that could have seen us go into the building, and then she followed, closing the door behind her.
They nodded, but I could tell they didn’t want to. The entire house seemed to be vacant, but the food in the fridge and cleanliness said someone might show up at any moment. I hoped there would be indication of who owned the place in a bedroom.
I led the way up the stairs. After a moment of hesitation, my friends followed me. I was still trying to be as quiet. If someone walked in on us right now, I didn’t want to think about the repercussions. And if they did have something to do with Mady’s disappearance nobody knew where we were.
Upstairs, there were three doorways. The house looked larger from outside, but everything up here felt cramped. One of the rooms was a bathroom, but there wasn’t a single thing on the counter. I opened the cabinets to reveal an array of hair products. Whoever lived here was a woman, or a really fussy guy, and they had to be OCD.
I pointed at the products, afraid to speak. It was unlikely someone was sleeping through all of the noise, but there was a chance. Or maybe they were hiding and waiting to jump us.
Jason’s eyes lit up, and I could tell he caught on. I wanted to find the bedroom, so I went to the door closest to the stairwell. Both the remaining doors were closed. I inched the door open and peeked inside. The bed was perfectly made, and the room was tidy. I walked over to the dresser in the corner, and opened one of the drawers. Empty. I hoped this wasn’t the master bedroom. There was nothing here for us to find.
We went back into the hallway, closing the door behind us and approached the last room. The door handle burned my hand when I touched it. I let go and smothered a squeal of pain.
My nose twitched like I needed to sneeze. It smelled like someone started a wood fire inside the house.
My heart hammered in my chest. Mady! Mady might be in there, tied up and helpless to escape the fire someone obviously set.
I backed up, shoving my friends away from the door. I ran down the hall at full speed intending to bash the door down. The old thin wood splintered under my weight. I tried not to fall into the flames raging inside the master bedroom. The burning bed was empty; the room was vacant as far as I could tell shielding m
y eyes against the heat and smoke.
A flicker of colour caught my attention on the far side of the flames. Someone in blue jeans and a white hoodie with a red hat crammed on their head was climbing out the window. I turned and ran, flames licking at my heels. The house was gonna go and I didn’t want to be inside when it did.
My friends were waiting at the top of the stairs, together we stampeded down and out of the house. The roar of the fire increased as the old brittle wood exploded into flames. Smoke and flames poured out of every opening. It went up like a tinder box.
We stopped in the front yard. Doubled over gasping for breath and dripping sweat. It was going to be hard to explain the smell of smoke on my clothes to my mom.
I straightened up and glanced around hoping to see the person in the white hoodie. The street was empty. A small explosion in the house brought my attention back to the fire. Whoever that person was set the place on fire while they knew we were inside. If any neighbors saw us go into the house and then the fire start and us run out, they would think we were responsible. We needed to get out there and hope nobody took my plate number.
“We have to go. Now,” Jessica said. She was still leaning over with her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath.
Someone must have called the fire department because the shrill of the siren sounded from somewhere in town, growing louder as it approached.
In unison, we ran for the car. I started the car and drove to the end of the street, pulling a U-turn, and peeling away. I wanted to put as much distance as possible between us and that house.
Chapter 13
I drove to my place and we raced inside.
“That was a close one.” Kent collapsed on the deck chair.
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