I dig my nails into the bark of the tree. The sun slowly peeks out at me from behind the facility. The light burns my light blue eyes. It's somewhere around 3pm. I came here as soon as I finished school. Where is "here" you ask? I'm deep within the forest, far from the town. This particular "here" is my secret spot. My hideaway. An escape from everything else. What would a 17 year old girl have to escape from? You'd be surprised.
This town is my own personal hell. Others refer to it as "Darkcliff" though. Everyone sees this place as heaven on Earth and at one point, I did too. After a while I stopped believing everything was so perfect and peachy around here.
Our town is basically a tiny island. It's connected to a larger landmass by a naturally formed bridge. The entire island is elevated making it seem like a giant cliff. Our town is on top of that cliff, surrounded by forest on all sides. However, people only live on one half of the island. The other half is cut off by a denser forest, a road, and a 10 feet high electric fence. This half belongs to the facility.
The facility is actually an organization called "Human Research and Benefits". No one ever goes inside the facility except it's employees. Like my father. No one ever comes to this side of Darkcliff. No one except me and the people keeping secrets inside the facility.
I come here almost everyday and spy on it. I keep a journal of all the cars that enter through the fence, of all the cameras that I can see, of all the fences that surround it and of all the possible things hidden inside. Why did they cut down the majority of the forest to build this place? What are they really doing inside?
Now you're probably thinking, why won't she just ask her father? The employees of this facility are sworn to secrecy about their work and my father refuses to even talk about how his day was. Understand my curiosity now?
Suddenly, I hear a twig snap behind me. Without looking back to see who or what it is, I grab my longboard and break into a run. I run through the forest, away from the facility and towards the road that leads to town. Before I reach the road, I trip over a log and fall onto the ground. The leaves and sticks providing a soft landing and at the same time stabbing into my body.
As I get up onto my elbows, my pursuer catches up to me and turns me over onto my back. My black hair covers my face and I can't see who it is. I try to put up a fight but the attacker simply pins my hands down. I blow at my hair until it finally falls down the side of my face.
"Bruce, you're such a dick!" I yell.
"Oh calm down, Vicki. You ran away like a wild animal without even turning to see that it was me" he replies.
He bends down over my face and kisses me. When he pulls away, I laugh and he helps me up. I brush the leaves and sticks off my clothes and Bruce takes a leaf out of my blue highlight.
"Honestly babe, what did you think I was? You know there no bears or wolfs in these woods" he adds on.
"I don't know...... I wasn't thinking. You caught me by surprise. How'd you even know where to find me? I never brought you here" I say.
"I followed you. You always disappear after school and I wanted to know where. You're my girlfriend after all. What do you do here anyways?" he asks.
"I watch the facility" I reply.
"You mean, you spy on the facility" he corrects.
"There's something off about it. I mean, do you honestly think that they create vaccines there? That they create "human benefits"? If they did, why would they keep it a secret? Why would they surround themselves by an electric fence, hidden in the depths of a forest?" I say.
"Babe, these people send medicine and new vitamins to the hospital in town every week. They keep the place protected and isolated so that criminals can't compromise what they have there. Those workers are heroes. You're just being paranoid.... Come on, Sandra invited us to the Palm Haven Cafe at 4. If we run we might get there by then" he says.
"Alright, let's go" I reply.
He breaks off into a run and crosses the road into the forest on the other side of it. The smaller forest that belongs to our town. You can run through it in like 10 minutes or walk down the road and reach the town in less than 6. I take one last glance at the facility beyond the trees and pick up my longboard from the grass. I then break into a run after him.
YOU ARE READING
The Secret of Darkcliff
Teen FictionVictoria lives in a beautiful town surrounded by a majestic forest. In the town, everything is as normal and beautiful as one can only imagine. However, there are secrets that are being hidden from the public. There is a facility beyond the forest...
