A place located high up in the mountains, where lies and secrets filled the streets, a place where bad things happened, a place that fed on innocence to exist-
That was Rockville.
The envelope had fallen into our hands like it was sent from heaven , during a time when my father was unemployed and paying off the bills was becoming increasingly more difficult , the contents of the envelope promised to solve it all .
A couple hundred dollar bills , a map , and a letter addressed to us in the back of the map that read :
Dear Mr./ Mrs. Robinson ,
We hope this letter finds you well in spite of the tough times you’re currently facing . We hope our little gift hasn’t offended you in any way and that hopefully it’ll help you pay off all your pending debts . The money solution we have offered you though is only temporary and you will find that after you burn through all of it you’ll be back in the situation you are currently in, which is why we are reaching out to you, to offer you a solution that could last a lifetime. Come and stay with us , the location is at the bottom of this letter and the map should help you find it . We hope you make the right choice and to meet all of you very soon.
We followed a blind promise …
We traveled through the dense forests for a couple days until we stumbled upon a sign that simply read
Welcome to Rockville
When I hopped out of that car I thought I was still sleeping and in some sort of deep dream , I slapped myself hard on the face and after feeling the pain I realized this was reality.
From the houses to the streets to the people , everything emanated a sense of perfection and a will to live that I had never seen before . The people were awful nice to us , they welcomed us with open arms and helped us get settled. The letter hadn’t lied when it said we wouldnt be needful of anything as my parents quickly got jobs in the town and we were given a beautiful 2 story home to live in. Due to the nature of the people of Rockville , finding friends was a very easy task and that’s how I met Daniel and Ashley who were both siblings . They became my closest friends …
The first month in Rockville was great, school hadn’t started yet and while my parents went to work I would hang out with Daniel and Ashley playing out in the park , the towns central plaza and what became our favorite spot , the woods . I would also spend a lot of time at Daniels home playing video games and just fooling around in general and it was during one of those meetups where I found the first oddity inside of Rockville .
Remember how I mentioned that everything seemed perfect including the people ? Well that wasn’t a lie, during one of the days I was staying over at Daniel and Ashley’s home playing a game of UNO their mom had called them downstairs to attend the visits. They told me to come with them to help them out and naturally, I agreed , we were setting out some snacks and drinks on the table when I saw them come in , a young couple that looked to be in their mid 20s , I introduced myself and after some small talk, I excused myself and went back upstairs while Daniel and Ashley talked to them . After the couple had left , they both went back upstairs to finish up our game .
“I’m really sorry for having you wait this long , we just had to spend some time with family .” Ashley apologized as she placed down her card .
“O it’s ok , no need to apologize , who are they though a cousin of yours ?”
Ashley and Daniel both started laughing
“No silly ! They’re our grandparents.” She said.
I nearly chocked on my drink when she said that .
“Y-Your grandparents ?! How ?”
“Family secret” Ashley said as she placed a finger on her mouth
“Not much of a family secret and more of a town secret.” Daniel said as he placed down his final card and yelled in victory
“Town secret ? What tow-?”
“We’re not allowed to speak of it , but you’ll see, you’ll see very soon .” He said
I left their house that day very confused and the idea of Rockvilles secret kept popping up into my head . I was determined to get to the bottom of this, not knowing I wouldn’t have to wait long to do so .
School had started the week after and everything was going just fine until the second week of school when I met Andrew , the second oddity inside of Rockville . He was a slim , short kid with curly brown hair and blue eyes , but he wasn’t like everyone else . The expression on his face and eyes was as if all the life had been sucked out of him and was instead replaced with nothing but emptiness and sadness . During the following weeks I started to notice something else that was off about Andrew, he was starting to gain weight at an incredibly fast pace , he seemed to be gaining 3 pounds every single day and due to this it didn’t take very long for him to reach the point of obesity.
I noticed how everyone avoided him like he was some sort of walking pest . I felt bad for him but I didn’t know how I was supposed to help him , and then one day he just stopped coming …
He was never mentioned in school , nor did the town ever make mention of him . It was like he vanished off the face of the earth . Then I remembered what Daniel had said a couple weeks prior to Andy’s disappearance and my heart sank, “You’ll see, you’ll see very soon.”
I realized that their had to be some sort of connection between Andrew’s disappearance and Rockvilles “secret” . The curiosity was consuming me day and night , so one day during lunch I brought up the question to both of them
“Hey do you guys know what ever happened to that kid , Andrew I think his name was ?”
They both looked at each other and I saw Ashley’s face grow pale for a second , then Daniel looked at me dead in the eye and said
“ He was one of the chosen ones and he has now fulfilled his purpose in life , to protect Rockville.” He said as he immediately looked down towards his plate .
“Wh-What do you mean he fulfilled his purpose?! What the hell is going on here ?” I said with a quivering voice
“Come over to our place and we’ll explain everything there , this isn’t the place for this type of talk , they could hear us…” Ashley said as she started to glance from side to side to make sure noone was nearby
That same day, after I wrapped up my homework I went over to their place just like we agreed upon . We spoke in whispers because we didn’t want any of the grownups to hear our conversation . I pulled a chair in close to them and simply asked
“What’s going on here?”
Daniel let out a heavy sigh and said, “ Rockville’s secret is that it offers all of it’s inhabitants a chance at eternal life and happiness , that’s why you see that there are no funeral homes here nor do people age past their prime , like our grandparents . We have everything here , food , a beautiful place to live, perfect health but it all comes at a price. In order to conserve this state of life , every couple months , a family is visited by the town committee and whoever is the youngest within that home is chosen to go with them to perform what they call “God’s work”. It’s an honor to be chosen but –” Daniel fell quiet .
“You lose everything” Ashley said with a low voice “We honor those people forever in -” Another silence
“In?” I asked
“Rockville’s treehouse , it’s located in a trail not many people have traversed but we accidentally stumbled upon it when we were playing tag in the woods a couple years back with our other friends …”Ashley grew quiet for a second and I watched as a tear trickled down her face. “ That are no longer with us. They were also chosen to do “God’s work”. She let out a heavy sigh and started to sob.
“O God … I am really sorry to hear that , do you think there’s anyway we can go to this treehouse ?”
“Ye- Yes I think we can. Meet us tomorrow after school and we’ll go over there its not too far”. She said
I didn’t know what to think after that conversation , I wanted to get out of Rockville as soon as possible but I decided that I was going to stay until they showed me where the treehouse was .
The next day , after classes had ended we rode our bikes straight into the woods of Rockville , but something was different about these woods , they weren’t vibrant and filled with life like the rest instead it was dirty , the trees had no leaves on any of their branches and an awful smell emanated from it , a smell of death .
“God that smells awful! This is where you guys honor those people?”. I said feeling disgusted
“It wasn’t like this last time we were here…” Ashley said. “Somethings changed …”
“I forgot to ask yesterday , but what even is “God’s work?” is that a code name for something?”
Silence.
“What is it?” I asked again this time more scared of the answer.
“It means they die … their purpose in life has been fulfilled and by doing the ultimate sacrifice they guarantee the protection of our town. They do “God’s work” in that sense . I hate the idea too but that’s the way it is, trust me , when we found out about it we also reacted the same way as you. ”
We rode in silence for another couple minutes until we had finally arrived . A massive treehouse stood right above us and by looking up I could tell it had been abandoned and neglected for a long time .
“Where are the names of the people?” I asked while I pinched my nose from the putrid smell nearby
“Right over here , take a look!” She pointed at the bark of the tree , and sure enough , there were dozens upon dozens of names printed all over it , the list was so large that it led right to where the treehouse sat . I climbed up to keep reading the names until I found Andrew’s name carved into the top of the tree , and as I read the name that was carved just above his , my heart sank . It was my name…