I clenched my eyes and slammed the off button on the alarm clock. I laid there in bed, dreading the moment where I was going to have to get up and get ready for school. School. Sighing, I threw one leg off the bed and partially slid to the ground. I twisted my head to look at the clock and realized that the five minutes that were spent laying here was actually twenty minutes. Letting out a loud groan, I started getting ready for school.
I got into my black jeep and put the key in the ignition. The usual loud beep of the seat-belt reminder dinged throughout the cabin and the radio came on full blast, startling me for a moment. I threw my backpack in the back and checked my phone for the inevitable realization that there was never going to be any new messages. Like ever. No good morning! or How are you doing today? I rolled down the window and pressed my foot on the gas pedal. The car jerked forward, like always, before moving along smoothly. Checking in the mirror to make sure my hair looked halfway decent today, I accelerated down my driveway.
I saw the same ol’ signs, the same ol’ trees, the same ol’ houses on the side of the street. I saw Mrs. Jenkins walking her dog on the sidewalk and flashed her a friendly smile. She looked at me like I was just some delinquent teenager and hushed her dog as it barked at my car. I remembered when she came over to my house, when we had just moved into town, to bring cookies and welcome us to the neighborhood. My family was in a huge fight, my mom was screaming at my dad because he was coming home late every night, my brothers were punching each other over the tv controller, and I was extremely frustrated with the fact that my computer was being exceedingly slow. I answered the door, and Mrs Jenkins saw that our house was in total disarray. She said hello, mentioned that she had to be somewhere awkwardly and set the cookies down on the welcome mat. The cookies weren’t even that good.
All of a sudden, I heard the piercing sound of a police siren and I pulled over to the side of the road. The cars behind me did the same as a line of police cars whizzed past. The sirens and flashing lights faded as they turned right onto the intersection about a mile ahead. I had a flashback to when my brother’s crazy ex-girlfriend, who somehow kept her extreme bipolar disease from him, came to our house threatening her own life. Our old house was right on the line of the city and the town, so the sheriff’s department, along with the city police, showed up when we called them. I had never seen so many flashing red, white, and blue lights in my life.
When I passed the intersection, I glanced to my right and saw that the road was blocked off. There were several police cars lined up and two tall men were loading a black body bag into the ambulance. I looked straight ahead and noticed a piece of paper lodged in between the wiper and my windshield. That piece of paper would not go anywhere, no matter how hard I tried to dislodge it by turning on the windshield wipers. There was something about this piece of paper that made me leave it as is and immediately stop the windshield wipers.
Ten minutes later, the streetlight that I was at turned green and I turned into the school grounds. I parked on the edge of the parking lot so I could avoid all the other cars that were already parked. Parking wasn’t exactly on my list of talents. While I grabbed my backpack and exited the vehicle I remembered that piece of paper. I examined the windshield but it wasn’t there anymore. I didn’t think much of it and resumed walking towards the school doors. As I reached the sidewalk I felt a gust of wind and turned around. Something smacked me in the face. It was the paper. It slid off my face and flew away with the wind. I practically dove for it on the road and clasped it in between my hands. I heard a loud honk and gasped as a huge truck zoomed past, literally, two feet away from me. I quickly got off the road and looked at the paper.
It wasn’t a paper after all. It was a picture. My mouth dropped when I realized that the girl in the picture was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was sitting on a fence, her golden locks flowing in the wind, and her green eyes sparkled. With her left hand grabbing the fence, her other arm was in the air and her right hand was in the shape of a peace sign. She was wearing a cheerleader outfit and seemed to be laughing at something that the photographer said. Her teeth were almost unnaturally white and perfect. I must’ve stared at this picture for a good 10 minutes before the bell rang and I came out of my trance. I carefully set the picture in my backpack and ran inside the school.
“The Watergate scandal was one of the main factors in forcing Nixon to resign,” said my monotonous government teacher. I sat in my desk in the front of the class, my head resting on my hand, as I watched the teacher’s movements. My other hand ran along the outline of the picture in my pocket. All I wanted to do right now is to take out that picture of the girl of my dreams and stare at it for the rest of eternity. I felt like it wouldn’t exactly sit well with the other classmates in my class. They’d probably snicker amongst themselves and make fun of me for it. I don’t exactly have a lot of friends, or any friends for that matter. My shyness must come off as aloofness or cocky. I bit off the skin on the edge of my fingernail.
After yet another, typical ho-hum school day, I laid in my bed at home with my laptop resting on my lap. Mom was downstairs making something that smelled amazing and my brothers were playing Call of Duty in the other room. I was scrolling along on news articles and I found the news article describing the events that had happened this morning. It was a car accident and an 18 year old boy was killed. I read the article and kept browsing when something from a few weeks ago caught my eye. It was about a 17 year old girl who went missing a few weeks back from my town. She was homeschooled and was picking up something from the grocery store for her mom when she mysteriously vanished. Nobody’s seen her since. I didn’t recognize the girl’s name, Dana Smith, so I kinda skimmed over the article and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the picture of her.
I pulled out the picture from my pocket that I found this morning and held it up to the picture online. It was the same girl. Same blonde hair, same green eyes, same smile. I couldn’t believe it. I thought to myself what are the odds that the girl in that picture was the same girl that went missing a few weeks back? Why did it have to be her? Is she lying dead in a ditch somewhere? Could someone have the heart to potentially end Dana’s life? She seemed so happy in that picture with her peace sign and beaming smile. My heart dropped and I felt empty inside. I scrolled down the article and read that her boyfriend had been in questioning for her disappearance but was let go due to there not being any evidence.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow in the window to the far side of the room. I took the laptop off my legs and got up towards the window. The moon was shining, illuminating the tops of the trees behind my house and making the shadows beneath them seem darker. I decided that it was just my imagination and walked towards the door. It was then that I heard a slight tapping on the window. My world went dark. The crack of my closet door being slightly open seemed to move. The entrance to my room all of a sudden seemed so far away.
The tapping resumed, soft as ever. There seemed to be a rhythm to the tapping and it sounded sharp. Not like a finger or a knuckle but like a fingernail. I had to make the decision whether to run for the door or turn around to face the murderer that had to be standing there. I eyed the door, which still seemed to be moving farther away, and took a step forward. The tapping stopped and left behind a silence that was almost unbearable. I imagined the window slamming open with a shadow that would drag me into the darkness and I bolted towards the door. I had one foot outside the door when I heard a soft, female voice.
“Dooooooooooon’t…leeeeeeeeaaaaaaaveeeeeee,” she said with desperation.
I partially turned my head. My heart raced, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my whole body shook with fright. Should I see who’s calling me from the window or should I break that cliche and run to safety? Window or safety? Window…safety… I turned my head sharply towards the window and just about had a heart attack. There was a girl standing outside the window; her hand on the glass was in the shape of a peace sign. It was the same girl from the picture. The missing girl. She called to me, “Heeeeelllppppp meeeeee.”
As I walked towards the window, a voice in the back of my head kept telling me to run to safety but my body wouldn’t oblige. She seemed so scared, so innocent, so beautiful even with her skin a ghastly white. Her flowing locks were matted against her head, her eyes were bulging out of their sockets, and her fingernails were peeled off her fingers. Her lips cracked and peeled with each moan. Her eyes, instead of being a bright green, were white as if she was blinded by something. I came to the realization that this was the girl. THE missing girl. And in that moment I felt extremely stupid that I didn’t come to her rescue right away. What’s wrong with me?
I ran to the window and opened it. As I opened the window, Dana began to walk away. Her movements made it seem like she was floating. I couldn’t see her feet as they were covered by her white dress that shimmered in the wind.
“Wait! Come back!” I yelled after her and climbed out of the window. Dana headed towards the trees and beckoned for me to follow her. I chased after her as she disappeared beyond the line of trees. I ran faster, sweat dripping down my forehead. My bare feet landed on sharp rocks here and there but I didn’t care. I had to save this girl if it was the last thing that I do.
I entered the forest and looked around for any sign of where she had gone. I saw a glimpse of her white dress behind a large tree and sprinted after it.
I circled around the tree and saw a patch in the ground that looked like freshly dug up dirt. Next to it I saw a can of Isopropyl and a dirty rag. There were broken branches everywhere as if there was a struggle. I looked up and saw Dana standing there on a tree stump. She was crying and moaned, “I can’t see anything. Why can’t I see anything?” She stuck her hands out as if trying to feel for something that wasn’t there, “My boyfriend did this to me. He was angry at me about something…but I didn’t do anything. Why can’t I see anything?” A huge gust of wind blew from behind Dana, making her hair cover her face. For a split second I saw her face, in between hair strands, and it was rotting. Her eye had fallen out of its socket, her cheek was one big gash where her blackish blue teeth showed, and there were maggots all over her face. I stepped back, aghast. Dana pulled the hair out of her face and it went back to being beautiful again.
“Why won’t you help me?” Dana moaned to me in between sobs. I tried to say something but nothing would come out, I couldn’t muster up the courage to say anything. I took a step closer and reached out to her hand to try and comfort her. She lashed out at my hand, as if she could see it, leaving a scratch that cut deep into my bones. I cried out and stumbled to the ground. Dana stood over me, her face twisting from desperation to happiness, and whispered softly, “I know why you won’t help me…” She walked away.
I staggered back up to my feet and winced when I saw the blood gushing out of my hand. The blood was dark red and blended in with the forest ground. I looked around and only saw the shadows of the trees all around me. Dana had disappeared again.
“Dana! Where did you go?” I yelled, finally regaining my voice. The bright moon was blocked by the overhanging trees and there wasn’t one sound in the entire forest. I spun around, over and over again, trying to determine where she could have gone. As I spun, the tree branches above me blurred and seemed to be grabbing towards me. Instinctively I flattened myself on the ground as to avoid the branches. My eyesight stabilized and I flipped around and saw that the branches were at a safe distance, 15 feet away. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white. I sat up and saw Dana gliding through the forest.
“Dana! Wait, I can help you if you just wait for me!” I cried desperately to get her to stop. She didn’t and kept gliding away. I ran after her but she kept moving at the same distance she was from me. I avoided tree trunks, jumped over bushes, ducked underneath low hanging branches. I ran and ran and ran but I still never got anywhere close to Dana. She looked towards me as I ran with a distorted scowl on her face. I saw the trees begin to become more sparse and there was more running room on the ground. I saw the road about a half-mile in front of me. Dana was standing there, her back towards me, unmoving.
I caught up with her and mumbled, in between gasps for air, “What the hell are you doing? I’m trying to help you!” Dana didn’t budge, she just stood there like a statue. I reached out to her body, my arm shaking from the cold, but her body wasn’t there. My hand went through her white dress. My whole body went cold as I heard the rumble of an engine turning over in the distance. Dana turned towards me, a smile on her face, her hair flowing perfectly in the wind. I saw the headlights of the truck coming up over the horizon. I couldn’t get my feet to move, I was frozen in place.
“You see…The reason why you won’t help me honey…Is because you were the one who killed me!” Dana roared at me, her dead eyes flaring, “And now I’m dead BECAUSE OF YOU.” I gasped for air, my whole body shaking in place. I looked towards the headlights getting closer and closer and screamed, “I’m not your boyfriend, I wasn’t the one who killed you! I was just trying to help you!” I frantically tried to move from the road, my feet were frozen to the pavement, and tears flew out of my eyes. The last thing I saw was Dana’s perfect face, smiling at me with a finger up to her mouth, telling me to be quiet and that I’m going to get what I deserved. Then my whole world went black.
Mrs. Jenkins and her 17 year old son ran outside when they heard the sirens outside on their road. An entire area of the road was blocked off with a line of police cars. She went up to one of the police officers stationed and asked him, “What happened here?”
The police officer cleared his throat and simply stated, “It’s the second accident in two days. Both high school kids. Their hands were cut. Both truck drivers reported not seeing anything on the roads when they felt a bump underneath the tires.” Mrs. Jenkins gasped and held her son close to her.
“You promise me you’ll be safe on the roads won’t you?” she said to her son. Her son nodded and noticed something on the ground. A white piece of paper. He picked it up and saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had a smile on her face and was wearing a white dress. She seemed to be laughing at what the photographer said. With her left hand grabbing the fence, she had her arm in the air holding three fingers up.
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Credits to: Zjmadman
(Similar to A Girl in The Photograph, I know- author has mentioned that he drew inspiration from it)
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