• It all started in a place you could have sworn time stood still. Most small towns seemed that way. I lived in one of those cliché small towns where everyone knew each other by name, our animals and kids could run loose and no one would even point a finger and yell at you saying you were a bad parent. We all trusted each other and cared for each other. Not many people moved in town, plenty moved out. Mostly the younger people, off to try and live their dreams in Hollywood or New York. Trying to be a big time movie star, maybe a Broadway singer. We never did see any of them on TV or in movies. But we always wished them luck.
    I decided that I was going to stick around. I was 18 now, so I moved out of home and into a small apartment on the other side of town. It wasn’t a far move though. I shared the place with my long time friend, Issy. She was almost my opposite you could say. Short black hair, wandering green eyes. She stood about a foot taller then me. She could have moved to New York and worked as a model for a big fashion company, but she wasn’t into that kind of stuff. She was magazine perfect. The figure and flawless skin. She was always happy, never really enjoyed big parties and large crowds. She would much rather enjoy a night home with a few friends and a few movies.
    I wasn’t half bad myself. More cheerleader type, with the long blond hair, blue eyes. I could run around for hours and never get tired. I loved to party, being around people made me happy. Though I seemed the bitchy type, I was far from that. I loved to help out around the neighbor hood. I babysat for free, and how the kids loved me. I worked at the animal shelter and also had a job at the local mall. I had just finished school and college wasn’t in my ‘To Do’ list anytime soon. I had much more on mind.
    My mother was growing very sick, she had lung cancer and my father had to work overtime just to pay the bills. Even though I had moved out of the house, I was still here to help. I couldn’t just leave my mom to die alone. After everything she has done for me, I owed her this.
    The only schools in town were a high school, a middle school and an elementary school. We had no colleges, so my best choice was to stay in town until my mom died, then go to college.
    I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a doctor or teacher. Maybe I could teach medicine. But then I would have probably 8 years of school to do. I really didn’t want to spend my whole life in school, as much ‘fun’ as that sounds. I weighed the options of working in hair or make-up, it sounded good, so I put that on my possible list. Back to the teacher option, maybe a kindergarten teacher. I loved kids.
    Though there was complications in my life, I found a way to live it out like a normal child. I did everything that all the kids in town did, I had a Sweet Sixteen, new car, went to prom, I even had a few boyfriends. Small town boys were not really my type though, they were too much of a pain, they thought of one thing and one thing only. Those boys thought that just because we were in a small town with few boys that we needed to give them our everything. But us girls, we knew that when we wanted we could get out of this place and find real men, the kind that would actually jump in front of a bullet for us, brave men, not boys that ran away from little girls.
    My last boyfriend was Johnny Heckler, he was a kind boy, bought my dinner and paid for my movies. But prom night he only wanted sex, and I wasn’t up for that yet. I may not have been a Christian girl, but I wanted to wait till I had the ring and promise that it would be forever. I wasn’t going to be one of those girls that had a baby and the daddy ran off with all my hopes and dreams. I was going to make something of myself and be a good mom with a loving husband. Live in a beautiful house with a big yard. I had dreams, plans, hopes. I wasn’t going to waste it all on a one night stand, the thought was foolish.
    I hadn’t always lived in this town, I was really born in New York City. My family and I lived there till I was about 7. I loved how when I came to this town everyone was so excited, asked me questions. That was how I met Issy. She was the only one that didn’t want to know about the big city. She sat back and sort of laughed at everyone, no doubt thinking the other kids were foolish. I found her to be a nice girl, I decided to be friends with her. Soon the thrill of having a big city girl died down and I could be like anyone else. Issy and I became best friends, we had our few splits, especially when I became a cheerleader. She hated the thought of peppy girls getting all the guys. The thought that they were all sluts. We made a promise that we would stay virgins until marriage and the thought of me being a cheerleader made it look like I broke the promise.
    I spent about a year of high school as a cheerleader then I moved on to Swim Team, but it wasn’t as fun as it sounded. I never did find a good after school activity I enjoyed. So it really didn’t help me decide what I wanted to be for the rest of my life.
    Issy and I decided about a year ago that we would move in with each other after we graduated. We both got jobs and saved our money all through senior year. We had enough at graduation to get this place and the rent was cheap seeing as the landlord was my uncle.
    Issy and I moved in the day after our big senior summer trip. We decided it was best, we could finally feel free and independent. We had bought the few pieces of furniture that we didn’t already have at the weekly Flee Market. We had our own rooms and a huge bathroom. Perfect for us, we were like most girls, spending hours in the bathroom making ourselves look just right. Yeah, we didn’t intend to impress anybody, it was just something we did. And I can say this, we did it amazingly. We could turn heads at every corner.
    The attention never got to our heads though. We could care less about it really. We could and have lived without it before, we were going to do it again.
    The side of town we lived on was a semi-quiet area. There was the occasional Friday night high school party. But usually all the big parties happened down by the lake. What’s a high school party in these parts without a couple teens in their birthday suits. Issy and I always went to those type of things. Everyone did. We liked to keep an eye on our crushes social life as much as everyone else. This was the best way to do it. We know who they liked, who they hung out with, who they flirted with and who denied every bit of them. Knowing all that could be helpful.
    We were not stalkers, as much as what we did sounded like it. We did what every girl did. Trust me, you look around a party, you’d see every girl looking at some guy, some talking to them, some dancing and some...well leaving with them. Issy and I avoided all alcohol, we didn’t feel up to waking up next to some creep like Harold Forres or Micky McDaniels. They were the drink spiker's of the town. They’ve had pretty much every girl in this town. Soon, when the girls started tracking back their ‘memorable’ nights with each other, they figured it out and everyone in town knew the horrible truth. Oh how their parents had a Field day with them. Most people in town were mad at them. But I sat there and laughed. It was the girls fault really. I learned that by watching. If they would have went easy on the alcohol, watched what the guys did and not get completely drunk, they wouldn’t have a story to tell.
    I knew how rough life could get. I did live in some pretty bad parts in New York. I remember one day when I was 6, my mom was driving by a house, the cops were bringing out something. I was curious, like any child my age would have been. So I watched as we sat at a stop sign. Just before we left, the blanket over a dead girl, probably no older then me, flew off. She was bloody and beaten. That picture is still carved in my mind.
    The parts of New York I lived in was full of crime. Murders, shootings, muggings, rapes, you name it. Though that little girl was the first and last I had ever seen myself. And I never wanted to see another. So living in a small town was a safe bet that nothing horrible was going to happen.
    Though nothing was ever a guarantee, the thought was good enough. Not many things happen in small towns. At least not the ones around here. I always felt safe, there was never a doubt in my mind I wasn’t.
    But that was all before people started disappearing, only to be found dead.