The Night We Forgot

01- Lydia

Nobody is afraid of the dark.

They're afraid of what might be waiting inside of it.

I had forgotten how dark the roads to my childhood home were at night. The trees overcrowded both sides of the long, narrow road, their branches twisting together overhead, blocking out what little moonlight there was. I kept my high beams on watching the road appear slowly through the fog.

I told myself coming back would be temporary.

Only a few days long, long enough to figure out what happened to my mom, pack up the house, and leave Blackthorn one last time and never come back.

As the old house appeared through the trees, I stared at it. There was a light on upstairs. I stared at it through my windshield. My mother had been missing for 6 days. I told myself it was probably nothing.

I step out of my car and start grabbing my things. I packed only enough for the weekend because I refuse to stay longer.

Taking a deep breath I made my way towards the front of the house and reached for the handle and began to turn it. The door creaked out before I had the chance to push it.

She didn't lock it?

I shrug my backpack off onto the ground as I close the door and lock it. The house looks different, like it's been picked through, but not messy. As I walk to the kitchen the first thing I notice is the terrible smell. It reeks of rotten meat, sour milk, and something sweet and spoiled beneath it all. She left the fridge open. I immediately close it to hopefully contain any more smell from leaking out. That's a problem for a different time.

I keep looking around the house, everything looks normal except the lingering feeling that someone might be here.

"Hello?" I call out, "Anyone home?"

No answer.

I make it upstairs into my bedroom, it's not how I left it.

Papers are scattered across the floor as if someone had been searching for something in a hurry. I look up at the wall.

Strings, everywhere.

Dozens of them stretch from paper to paper all over the wall, connecting photographs to newspapers, to notes I don't recognize. Others have dates written on the circled in red ink. I stare at it for a moment, trying to make sense of what I'm looking at. I decided to leave it alone. It's already late, whatever my mom was working on will have to wait.

I make my way down the hall to my mother's room and as I'm walking I feel like someone is watching me. I look down the dark hallway.

Nothing.

I get ready for bed and lay down, but I can't shake the feeling. I slowly creep to the door and peer outside. I jump back slightly when I see a dark figure. I rub my eyes real quick and look back in the hallway.

Nothing.

I take a deep breath and rationalize with myself. The long drive here mixed with how exhausted I am is really starting to mess with me. I need to sleep.

I lay down in bed and pull the covers over top of me. I can't shake the feeling but the exhaustion finally takes over and shuts my body down for the night.