Mosvil Utah, a town no one seems to know. Small and very old, on the dry desert-like fields. Somewhere southwest of any other civilization. Now as it seems almost every scary story starts off this way.
Some small town in the middle of nowhere, nothing for miles but field and rock. Just one town, seemingly holding its own. The shortly-numbered yet lively community works together to keep things in shape and order.
But who's to say this is an ordinary story?
One person who might not say so is the girl who lived this story personally.
Me, Bailey Fraser. Just a girl, who lived on the edge of this once-quiet town. In a small rundown home just fit for four. Only a few blocks from anywhere you'd needed to go. (Small town living for you.)
Let us start here.
It was May 21, 1993. The last day of the school year. I was officially done with My junior year in about six and a half hours. I stared at the clock just above the math classroom door, then looked downwards at the name tag placed just to the right. Which read "Mr. J Tomson." Scowling at even the sight of Mr. Tomson's name. I wondered how a teacher could be so completely cruel as to give out a test, on the very last day of school.
"Okay, everyone! Pencils down. We now have about twenty minutes left of class, so I will need your tests turned in at my desk now to grade them before you go!" Exclaimed Mr. Tomson. I looked down at my test, almost smiling as the only thing I'd written was my name. I stood out of my desk, the same as everyone else. Each of us slowly one by one placed our papers in a not-so-neat pile on the desk, in pure annoyance. I walked back to sit down at my desk. "Bailey! Looks to me like you think you're just too smart to take my test. Am I correct?" Mr. Tomson said in a stern voice.
"No Mr. Tomson," I replied, a small smile turning the corners of my mouth. The other students laughed a little, especially my best friend, Dylan. Who had been quietly sitting in the back row. "You're lucky it is the last day of school, otherwise you'd be sent to the principal's office right now," said Tomson.
"You don't want to ruin your reputation, Mr. Tomson, you might as well just send her, she's disrespectful, and you never tolerate that." Syndie Meyers chimed in. Syndie was the pretty little princess type. She always had perfect grades, and perfect attendance, so of course every teacher absolutely adored her.
"Well, I suppose you're right Syndie, thank you for the reminder," Tomson replied with a small grin. "Okay Bailey, head on down now." He nodded towards the door. I looked at Syndie, smiling so as not to show my pure anger and hatred towards her. Then I looked at Dylan, who had his hand on his face trying not to burst into laughter. I laughed too, making him laugh even louder, and out came a loud snort.
"You too Mr. Campbell, hit the road!" Tomson said somewhat angrily. Dylan looked up in shock but still smiling. "Wait, what did I even do?" "You think it is funny to be in trouble so maybe you should be too. Go now." Dylan and I stood up both still giggling, and walked out and down the hall to the principal's office.
We reached the office only to find that no one was there. So we looked around the small cluttered office. Seeing the awards hung in frames, and fake houseplants almost always made me want to vomit. "Where is he anyways?" Dylan asked. "How would I know," I say as I shrug my shoulders. We turn around to walk out and we see Ms. Ward, the art teacher about to walk in with a handful of papers. "Oh! What are you two here for?" She asks in a sarcastic voice. Remembering how much Mr. Tomson sends the two of us down here.
"Tomson." Dylan and I said at the same time. Ms. Ward almost laughs. "Well, Mr. Reid isn't here today so he told me to collect any students who'd been sent to the office and to take them to my room for in-school suspension. Which I feel is a little much considering that it's the last day of school. Anyways come with me." We followed Ms. Ward to her room. She's my favorite teacher and has been ever since I started at Mosvil High School. She's the only one I can say anything to without getting in trouble.
We finished the rest of the school day in Ms. Ward's room and with two minutes on the clock, we packed up our things and as soon as the bell rang ran out the door. "Have a good summer guys! Hey, no running in the halls!" Ms. Ward yelled out the door.
We ran out the front doors, ready to begin the perfect summer. The summer before senior year had to be epic of course otherwise what was the point? Dylan and I walked down the sidewalk ready to head home and eventually found my sister Amber, talking with her friends. You could always spot her in a crowd, because of the almost unnatural red tints in her long brown hair. I grabbed her arm and started to pull her away slowly. "Oh, I gotta go! I'll catch up with you guys later. She smiled at some guy. I think his name was Aaron. I'm not 100% sure but whatever. "Do you really like that guy? He's such a monet." I said to Amber. "Oh come on he's not even."
After a while of walking Dylan turned the corner and yelled bye to me and my sister. He lived about two blocks down from where we did. "So what's up with you and Dylan? Hm?" Amber asked in almost a mocking way. "Seriously? No way, don't ever even ask me that." I replied. I've never thought of Dylan that way. We've always been like siblings so that thought never really even came to mind. For me at least. "Whatever," Amber said, slyly smiling. At this point, we finally made it home. Dad was outside loading stuff into his work truck. I had almost completely forgotten, he'd be gone pretty much all summer for work.
"Hey, girls!" Dad yelled from the driveway. "You're leaving already?" Amber said as we walked up beside him. "Yeah the big man ended up chaining the schedule, so instead of next Thursday it's today." He said with a small frown on his face and disappointment in his gruff voice. We heard the screen door swing open and all turned to look. We saw my mother, carrying a big box, of what sounded like more tools. "Oh hang on there, let me get it, honey." Dad said struggling to take the box from her. Mom sighed and smiled slightly. "Okay now, I gotta go my girls, I love you all so much. I'll call as much as I can." Dad said hugging us all. He hugged my mother tighter and longer though. We all knew how much he loved that woman. "We love you to dad." Amber and I said. We started slowly walking towards the house, but both of us watched our parents express their love in one simple hug. They were the type of lovers who had known each other all their lives,
they even met in kindergarten. I guess when they finally started dating Mom was working at Shaws Bed & Breakfast down the street from the high school when Dad came in and they just clicked.
Well of course that's what Mom always said. For some reason, Dad always tells the story a little differently but never mind that.
A few hours after Dad left we had dinner and watched a little Seinfeld with Mom. Falling asleep on the sofa.
So far summer was good, still 3 more months of pure freedom. (Or so we thought.)
Dylan and I had plans to go to the local swimming pool that day, so we did. Once we got there it was completely packed. Of course, Sydnie Meyers and her little merry band of male addicts had to be there. The smell of their fake tans made me want to hurl. We ended up leaving early and decided to go down to Shaws for some food.
As we walked home drinking are rootbeers I mentioned what Amber asked me the day before. "What!?" He burst into laughter. "That's what I'm saying!" I smiled, glad that we were both on the same page. "You're like my sister. You know how weird that would be?" He said. "I can only imagine," I replied with a small laugh, shaking my head. We soon got back to my house. Dylan liked to come over on Fridays because that's the night mom always made her famous spaghetti. We walked in the front door, through the living room to the kitchen, where my mom was stirring the sauce in a small pot. Her long brown hair tied up in a bun, and her apron tied tightly to her petite body. She turned around already talking to Dylan knowing he'd be there with me.
"You want green sauce too," She said looking at Dylan. "And no sauce for you, just cheese." She said looking towards me. I was confused until I heard Amber behind me. "Yes please." She told Mom. She walked passed Dylan and me into the kitchen to help Mom set the table. I started walking to the couch to turn on the television. Dylan followed.
In about an hour, we'd all finished eating. "Okay I didn't want to tell you till now but, I got us a little surprise." Mom said, she opened the freezer and brought out a big gallon of vanilla ice cream, then two big bottles of root beer. "Root beer floats!" Yelled Dylan. "I thought it would be a nice surprise since you couldn't celebrate your birthday last week Dylan," I said. "Oh, yeah. It's okay I know my dad had work, im not too worried about it." He said. "Well, I still thought we could at least have your favorite dessert." Mom said. "Thank you, Mrs. Frazer. Thank all of you." He said with a big smile. "You know you can call me Susan right?"
Mom asked with a small laugh. "Yeah, but I like to sound like a gentleman." He said with a smirk and a small nod. "Oh, as if!" Exclaimed Amber. Everyone laughed, knowing how Dylan acted. He's always been the class clown type. Dad would say it made him seem like a bad influence on me, but he still liked Dylan. We'd known him since I first brought him home in the third grade. He'd become like part of the family. So of course no matter how annoying he could be, we all loved him.
We all finished our root beer floats and sat there for a moment. "Okay well I better get going, my dad said he wanted me home before 8:30." Dylan stood up and thanked Mom once more. Then waved us all bye as he walked out the door. "So, would you call that a successful first day of summer?" Mom asked with a smile. Amber turned her head to listen, still scooping melted ice cream and root beer from the bottom of her cup. "Yeah, I'd say so, minus Sydnie Meyer's spray tan." We all laughed. "Honestly yeah me too. I hung out with Grace, Stevie, and Aaron today so that was fun." Amber said. Grace and Stevie had been her best friends since they met at the playground in pre-school. I liked Stevie, but something about Grace just always rubbed me the wrong way.
"Aaron Simmons? Greg Simmons son?" Mom asked. "Um, yeah I think so." Replied Amber. "Oh, I've heard he's a nice kid. Greg owns the pawn shop over on the other side of town I believe." Said mom.
"Pawn shop?" Asked Amber in a weird tone. "Awww, you'll grow up to be the queen of used items. Maybe you could get married in a used bathtub decorated with flowers." I joked. "Oh my god stop," Amber replied trying not to laugh. "Oh, so you're going to marry this boy?" Asked Mom smiling. "No Baileys just being funny." Amber said looking at me with the "shut-up" stare that she gives me all the time. Honestly, I view Amber as my absolute best friend. No matter how much we annoy each other. She's the only sibling I have. So having her as an older sister makes everything just that much better. "Okay well, would you girls clean up the kitchen for me tonight? I had a long day dealing with Willma from the post office." She groaned. Wilma was a very short, fat, mean lady. Who never lets you get a single word into a conversation. She's constantly talking. Mostly about her cats.
"Yes go ahead to sleep Mom, we got it," I said helping her out of her chair and hugging her. As she went to hug Amber I started to pick up the cups off of the table. "Goodnight my girls!" Mom yelled down the hallway. "Goodnight Mom!" We both yelled back.
"So whatcha doin' tomorrow? I was thinking we could go see a movie around three." Amber mentioned. "Oh yeah, that sounds great, what movie?" I answered. "I was thinking, Daybreak or something. You could even bring Dylan if you want." She said. "Okay yeah sure, that sounds fun." We finished cleaning up the kitchen. Washed all the dishes, and straightened up the counters.
Making sure everything was "spik and span" as mom likes to say. "You think you're gonna marry pawn shop prince?" I asked one more time, laughing. "You know, if it's the right fit then honestly I wouldn't mind the whole pawn shop thing. I mean who are we to judge? Look at this place." She says looking around the house. "Hey, I love this place thank you very much. I think it's perfect in its little sad way." I replied. This was my home ever since I was born. It makes me happy and I don't think I'd ever want to live anywhere else.
"Alright well, anyways we should head to bed," Amber said. "Yeah, goodnight pawn princess," I said as I walked down the hall behind her. "Night dork," Amber replied as I closed my bedroom door.