Their Last Summer

Whale Watcher (2023)

The draft June wrote to that strange email address has made me rethink this whole "investigation". Someone knows there's something weird about the whole thing, and they chose me to figure out what. Or do they already know what is strange about it? In that case why haven't they gone to the police? I have so many questions and not enough information to get answers. I need more. This leads me to copy and paste the email address into the search engine.

The first website to pop up is a place where you create an alias account in order to spill your darkest fears. The draft being a fear June has goes with the whole theme here, so I decide to look further into this website. Where do I even start? There has to be thousands of entries, and the names being anonymous doesn't help.

I scroll through the first few, it's nothing out of the blue. I need something to narrow this down. The username would be too difficult to find, but I try it anyway.

First I try June's name, June Layton, but nothing pops up. I try ten more combinations of June's name, but it's no use. Finding the username is like a needle in a haystack. The next option I think of is the date on the posts. The draft was written on the day June went missing. I type in that date and three posts pop up.The first is from Whalewatcher10.

"I had the weirdest dream today! I was in a whale haha! I'm actually scared now.."

I highly doubt that was June. I click the second one, Sadlovergirl3000.

"I'm scared my boyfriend is going to break up with me. :("

That could be June. She was dating Jalen Flank at the time she went missing. Her and Jalen had been dating since the start of junior year. Is that really her fear though? I click onto the last entry, from Somethingsup_360.

"I'm going camping today with my friends. I feel bad, they think it's just a fun summer hang out, but I'm going for a different reason. I'm scared that I made the wrong choice."

This had to be June. She went camping the night she went missing. I can't believe I actually found what she wrote. She went camping that night for a different reason? Why is she scared she made the wrong choice?

I get my notebook out and write her entry in the middle of the page. June's friends Maggie, Connor, Jalen, and Victoria were all with her that night. I need to talk to Maggie, June's best friend, about what happened. She would know if anything strange happened, but wouldn't she have told the cops everything she knew already? I have to try. Maybe there was a little detail they didn't think was important. I grab my phone, intending on messaging Maggie, but I see Debbie has called. The least I can do is call her back.

She answers on the second ring, "Hey Henry!"

"Hey Debbie."

"I called to tell you I made chicken noodle soup for you."

I mentally slap myself, Debbie made me soup for a sickness I lied about, "wow, thanks Debbie."

"Don't mention it, I can come by now."

How could I tell her no without hinting at something being wrong? "Ok, I'll be here", I reply, hanging up the phone.

Her house is only five minutes away by car, and Debbie will probably ride her bike over, so it should be ten minutes before she gets here. I decide to figure out more of June's entries while I wait. I click on the profile that posted about camping. It only has one entry, the one I already read. I'm 90% sure this is June. Something happened on that camping trip, and I need to find out what. Maybe I should go to the person who would know more about that camping trip than anyone, Maggie.

I'm brought out my thoughts by a knock. That must be Debbie. I quickly get up and head to the front door. I open it and see Debbie's ashy blond hair.

She smiles up at me, "You don't look horrible, considering you're sick."