Here it is. The beginning. The start of when our world would change forever. When we would never see the world the same again. This story needs to be told. The truth needs to be revealed. As soon as this book is leaked, spreading across the country, they will come for us. And they will find us. But read on. No matter what happens, read on. Because our sacrifice will only be meaningful as long as you read on. Do not forget the words that fill this book. And no matter what you do, do not forgive.
It all started in my hometown, the town of Creyton. A town of no more than a few thousand people, nestled in the shadows of the mountains circling it and hidden in the dense forest of the foothills.The only way that anyone could know that the town existed from the outside was the constant clouds spewing out of the smokestacks of the town's only factory.A mill established before anything else, a town springing up around it. Due to it's focus on the factory, the building of the town was half-fasted and had little care put into it, evident by the poorly paved mainstreet that flowed into the sparsely graveled and heavily mudded roads around the rest of Creyton.
The further away from town the worse the roads became until they were more mud pits than anything else. My best friend Taylor's truck tires whirred in the mud worrying us both that any second it would finally get stuck and we would never end up making it to the party but be forever lost in the mud. I grabbed the 'holy hell' handle above the window as her truck plunged down after crawling over a mud covered log.
"Is it even worth going?" I asked before gritting my teeth together to stop them from smacking together, "Should we just turn around?"
"No point," Taylor said curtly, her dark brows pushed together in concentration in a way that made her look angry at whatever was outside her window. "It's just the next turn up ahead."
"So there's still time to turn around!" I say cheekily.
"We can't avoid another one of these. If we don't show up again you know everyone will be pestering us about it tomorrow at school." She said with a sigh as she turned the corner revealing firelight and dozens of other kids standing around it. She parks and turns off the ignition.
"Well I guess we're here now," I said, reaching into the backseat and grabbing the six pack of coolers. I open the door making sure to steer clear of the thick mud covering the truck. Together we make our way to the fire. We were already an hour late so the booze was obviously hitting almost everyone pretty hard at this point.
Taylor takes a seat in an available seat even though it was obvious someone had just been sitting there, Taylor ignoring the jacket draped over the back and the drink on the arm and moving them both. I stand beside her and reach to grab a drink I brought.
"Look who came for once!" One of the guys by the fire chuckles.
"Yeah, yeah and look who isn't high for once," I say in jest back. In a town as small as this everyone knows each other pretty well, and this guy in particular is known pretty well for having an affinity for a certain herb.
"Nope drunk instead!" He laughs. I laugh with the group and crack open my drink knowing full well that I will probably not even drink it. Drinking isn't really my forte, the feeling of losing control of myself and functions isn't much to my liking but to avoid getting drinks thrust in my hand and being encouraged to drink up, I bring my own for appearances. Taylor of course had the luck of being the designated driver so she had a valid excuse.
"Fifteen minutes and I say we come up with an excuse to leave. Their yelling is already tiring me out," Taylor said in a hushed tone. "You were definitely right about coming."
"I told you, maybe you should listen to me more, huh? Years of being friends and you still haven't figured out I'm always right," I joke, "And I don't think they'll let us sneak off that early since this is the first time we've come out here with them in a while." But as I spoke our excuse for getting out of our party obligations walked up to us. Well more like was dragged over to us. Our good friend Julie who was the main force pushing us to go to the party was helping escort Victoria, the new girl this year who we had become fast friends with, over to the fire.
Julie who was clearly drunk, clumsily helped Victoria into a chair beside me, who with a quick glance at any fool could tell was black out drunk, the strong smell of booze was another obvious indicator. "Diana, Victoria's drunk." Julie said matter of factly.
"What really?" Taylor said sarcastically.
"No no, too drunk. Sara, that silly goose was supposed to be our driver but I don't know where she went, and I think Victoria needs to go home like now," even her drunkenness couldn't get rid of her constant concern for her friends wellbeing. Her red mane of hair lit by the firelight looked like a fire itself making her widened eyes seem less concerned and more crazed, or maybe that was the booze.
I jumped at the chance," Well don't worry about it, we'll bring her home right now. Taylor can you help me bring Vic to the truck." Taylor leaped up, even more ready to leave than me, and single handedly lifts her up. "She's going to be mad at us for dropping her off for her parents so drunk." I say to Taylor as we carry her away from light of the fire and people.
"Yeah but do you honestly care? We get to leave, that's all I care about," she scoffed. Victoria was barely on a functioning level as we guided her to the truck. Where we parked the truck was nearly completely dark, the trees hiding the light from the party from us. But two bright lights bobbing down the road blinded us in the dark. Sara's truck pulls up to us, the window rolling down.
"Are you guys leaving this early?" Sara says, leaning out of her truck that she looks too young to be driving. Sara had the amazing ability to both look 13 and 30 at once, probably due to her petite stature, barely taller than 5'2 and shaped like a twelve year old.
"Yeah Victoria needs to go home and no one knew where you were," Taylor says as she starts digging in her pockets for her keys.
"Oh, well shit sorry, some of the guys asked me to run out and get more drinks," she says shaking her short dark hair, "Did you guys still want me to drive her home?"
"No, no we'll take her, it's no biggie," I say struggling under the weight of Victoria.
"Yeah thanks guys I don't really want to make another trip back to town, just too bad you can't stay everyone was looking forward to having you here, Di. You know you can stay and Taylor can take her back," she said to me, ignoring Taylor. Sara has always seemed to like me more than Taylor straight from when we met her. When she moved here in grade seven her and Taylor got into a fight because Sara wanted to be my best friend and not Taylor. You know typical middle school drama, but even though it was stupid they still don't like each other much to this day.
"Well I can't drag her drunk ass alone, plus we won't be going anywhere if I can't find my keys, so that's great. I think I left them by the fire," Taylor groans, "Diana can you come help me look?"
"Yeah sure. Sara could you watch Victoria for us, make sure her drunken ass doesn't die on us," I laugh as I and Taylor shrug off Victoria who partially ends up sitting in a muddy puddle. Her own fault for getting so drunk.
"For sure, I'll wait here for you guys."
The keys were easy enough to find, they were on the armrest of the chair Taylor had taken. It was getting away from the party again that was the tricky part. Between people insisting we stay again or shuffling through the people, it might've been easier to walk Victoria all the way home.
"I bet I wouldn't have lost my keys," I tease Taylor as we walk back towards the truck once again.
"You definitely would've along with probably your phone and your wallet and anything else that isn't tied down," She laughed softly, a mocking laugh.
"I resent that, I only lose things that aren't important, like pens."
"A lot of pens."
As we neared the trucks again, the light from Sara's headlights had been turned off making it hard to see but I could vaguely make out the figures of two people near Taylor's truck talking. One of them was definitely Sara, no one else could be that small and the other person I couldn't make out. They were talking quietly and standing close to each other their bodies stiff with tension, not with romantic tension but more on guard. They seemed to be arguing or threatened of each other. The tense situation made me slow down before they noticed us approaching. I nudged Taylor and pointed to the side of Sara's truck opposite to them, they wouldn't notice if we were there. We have the tendency to be snoopy, well the entire town does.
"Oh look does anyone like Sara?" Taylor said in a whisper as we got closer.
"Everyone but you and... Victoria?" As we get closer the voice becomes more audible and familiar. "She was dead drunk, I'm surprised she's talking let alone standing."I was about to walk around and reveal myself when Taylor pulled me back.
"Wait," she hissed," Listen."
"-that's why I had to come here," Victoria said surprisingly sober sounding.
"No one asked you to, I was doing just fine," Sara said in a very rough and serious tone.
Victoria laughed a very shrill mean laugh, "Yeah from what I saw back there, if that's what you think is fine, no wonder I had to come."
"Yeah like you could do better. You've been here for a few months, you don't know these people or what it's like here. You should just go home and quit now."
" Sounds like you're the one going back back home soon."
"How'd you hear about that?" Sara's aggressive tone wavered.
"Your dear old Mom was talking about packing it all up and hitting the road out of town. They won't even miss ya with me here."
This conversation seemed to be heading in a rather personal area, Sara's mom wasn't something she or anyone else was fond of talking about. Her mom was a fairly strict parent already and with her health problems that kept her bedridden most of the time and her inability to hold a job because of it, Sara was rarely in a good mood talking about her mom. To avoid witnessing an actual fight , I pull Taylor around the corner coughing to alert them of our arrival.
"Oh hey guys, find your keys," Sara said through a fake smile that didn't fully reach her eyes.
"Yeah we did. Victoria you sure seem better," I said suspiciously.
"Yeah I am," she said in a sickly sweet tone that has won her so many friends so fast here, which after seeing that display seems to be a little too sweet for most people. Maybe she's sweet like sticky honey ready to trap anything that flies too close.
"Mhmm, do you still need a ride back," I say.
"No, I think I'm gonna stay a while longer, but thanks so much guys and sorry how sick I was a bit ago."
"It's alright. Sara are you staying?"
"No I think I'm going to go home actually. They don't need me here," she laughed a little fake laugh.
"Alright, welp nice talking to you like normal Sara. See you guys at school Monday," Taylor said quickly before unlocking and hopping into the truck. The ride home was strangely quiet as I thought about the conversation we overhead. I had no idea Sara and Victoria knew each other beyond the point of brief acquaintance and this new side of Victoria for some reason sat with me wrong. Something about it set me on edge and rubbed me the wrong way but I told myself to stop being silly and ignore it. If only then I had known how right I was. Looking back on it, I should've gotten into my car and left that night and gotten as far away from that town as possible before it was too late