This is about the last few months leading up to this week-ish.
So, some background, I (F14) have moved around a lot in the past few years. I’ve lived from the ocean to the mountains in a matter of a few months. Moving a ton means a ton of schools. So recently, having moved, it was towards the end of the year, so I’m coming into a new district beginning of my freshman year.
Sure, that’s ideal. A bunch of people are moving around. That fine. But walking into this new school for the first time, I feel like I’m gonna barf. I’m usually nervous (having a general anxiety disorder does that), but this feels different. It felt like the feeling you get when walking alone dark at night. That dread, the pit in your stomach that will never leave.
I put the nerves up for being the fact that I knew no one. I mean, anyone’s nervous first day of school. I told myself that I was being unreasonable. I told myself that I should be less nervous. I knew some people, having tried out for volleyball and made the team prior to the school year starting.
The first school day went on fine. It was school, so nothing special. But better than all the endless scenarios my mind put before me. I even met someone! It was towards the beginning of the day, so I had someone to hang out with throughout all our mixing classes. This was going to be easy, I thought.
But I thought that too soon.
This all began while I was walking to the locker room to change for volleyball. I had gotten a bit lost, and I bound to be late if I wasn’t changed within the next 10 minutes.
While walking past the quad, I saw a group of five girls. They were stood in a circle, and I could only make out the face on one. They were all looking down, facing something thar was on the ground.
That wasn’t that part that made me stop dead in my tracks. It wasn’t that part that made me forget momentarily about practice. It was the girls face. The only one I could see.
She didn’t have eyes. She didn’t have eyesockets. Come to think of it, she didn’t even have a face. Well, facial features.
And that may sound crazy! Hell, I thought it was crazy. And maybe I am, I don’t even know why I’m telling this to a subreddit. It’s probably a stupid idea. But trust me. I’m not. I wouldn’t be saying this if I wasn’t sure.
I may be sure, but if I’m not the biggest idiot alive for what I did.
I stopped, directly parallel to her. Looked at her for a solid two seconds, and whatever decided to go through my brain was my last braincell, and it was on its way out.
I threw my hand up as if I was raising my hand in class and yelled at her, “YO, I THINK YOU FORGOT YOUR EYES ON THE WAY OUT!” Thinking back, maybe that wasn’t the wisest decision. The girl raised her head slowly, stopping as if she was looking at me.
“Hey!” I looked away from the girl. It was my teammate, whom we will call K. “Why aren’t you changed? The coach is going to be here any minute.”
“OH shit, you’re right.” I followed K away from the group. I glanced back once, and all five were staring directly at me. They all looked the same as the first girl. There are no features at all. No eyes. But I still felt as it they were staring into my soul.
When we walked to the locker room, K stopped me right before we walked in. “Hey, who were you talking to?”
“Huh?”
“You were just yelling at air. Are you trying to be known as the crazy freshman?” It was framed as a joke. But it told me a lot.
I laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. Thought I saw something.” K laughed and changed the subject.
I thought at the time I was going crazy. Maybe I still am.
The next week or two followed a similar routine. I went to class, did minimal learning, and then I went to practice. On my way to the locker room, I would see one of the girls. I’ve decided to number them since I never learned their names.
1, the first one I saw, had bright red hair, she was fairly pale, and decently tall. She always wore some sort of bright color. Maybe a yellow, maybe a pink. It she had a face, she’d be pretty. Actually, they’d all be pretty if they had faces to go along with it.
2 was the exact opposite. She appeared more often than the rest of the group. She had darker skin and dark brown hair. She was shorter than 1, but I think 1 is the tallest. She wore darker clothes, an occasional yellow.
3 and 4 looked almost identical. Maybe they were twins, in whatever strange group this was. They both were short. And were both tan, as if they spent too much time in the sun but never burnt. The only difference was that 3 had a brace around her foot, while 4 had one around her wrist. Strange. The two usually appear together, which helps when I was first learning the five.
5, well, 5 was the strangest. I’ve only seen her once, besides the initial encounter of the group. And even then, I’m not entirely sure she was there at the time. She wore glasses, and her hair was short. She had bangs that were entirely too long. They covered her glasses, making them, in theory, useless. But if you don’t have eyes, glasses are useless anyway.
It is human nature to be curious. It’s a terrible trait, really. A stupid one at that. I guess natural selection never heard of the phrase curiosity killed the cat. But then again, I’ve heard the phrase, yet I still decided to research this.
At first, I asked I others.
I asked my friend, we’ll call her J, about the girls. She has been in the district for a while and has an older brother. If anyone knew about the strange girls I kept seeing. Wording it to not make me sound like a psychopath was hard.
“Hey, J, have you ever heard of people seeing faceless people?” She looked at me concerned.
“Like, schizophrenia?”
“No! Like, ghosts.” She shrugged, telling me no, and if she did, she doesn’t believe in ghosts.
Great, she thinks I’m insane. I ended up shrugging, giving up on the topic.
“Just curious.” I said. She seemed to believe it.
The next week, i saw none of them. I thought maybe my brain made them up. Maybe i was so nervous that my brain made up an excuse to be nervous. Annoying, but reassuring. I’d rather be a little insane than haunted by five ghost girls.
That Friday, volleyball practice was canceled, basketball priority. So i just got picked up right after school. I saw 5. She was just standing there outside of my house. I told my sister to go inside, that i had to do something for a moment. She looked at me, confused but obeyed.
I walked up to five, waving my hand in her face.
“Hey,” I sat on the step next to where she was standing. Maybe it was like the IT movie. Don’t show fear, and she’ll go away. “I think I may be going insane. If you could talk to confirm that you’re real, that’d be great.” She didn’t talk. She just turned her head to look down on me. I didn’t know what to do, so I patted the spot next to mine. “I’m sorry for yelling at you and your friends.” I smiled at her. I thought at the time, maybe they’re just lonely. So I pulled out my phone and just began scrolling.
Eventually, I would look up and see that she left. But i was glad i took the time to do that.
Nothing happened for a few months. Nothing paranormal. Nothing even strange. I thought that by hanging out with 5, by conquering my demons, I had solved whatever was happening to me.
I almost forgot about the strange girls who showed up. Every now and then, i would lay in bed, unable to sleep, just thinking about the weeks where I was so on edge on the ghosts that seemed to prove my insanity.
But if that were the end of it, I wouldn’t be telling this story. The paranormal activity started up again the week prior to this last. When K and I were sitting in math class. Neither of us was paying much attention to whatever strange quadratic equation was being taught to us, although K seemed more off that day. She was quieter.
“Didja know there was a huge kidnapping case about two decades ago at this school.” The suddenness about it all threw me off guard.
“Uhhhh? No? Why?”
“Rember on the first day of school when you were acting strange?” I nodded. K stared straight ahead. It looked like she was listening to our math teacher at the same time as telling me the story. “Well, last night I remembered the incident, and I got to thinking about it. I don’t know, you only said it a handful of times after that, but you looked so convinced that you saw people.” Even though she was whispering, I still felt like people were listening in on our conversation, even though the class at the time was fairly loud.
I shrugged, turning back to my screen, “Yeah, I was convinced at the time. But I think it was just a stress-induced hallucination. I had a lot going on at the time.”
“Maybe. But as I was saying. I was talking to someone about it, and they pointed me in the direction. Actually, it was one of those huge unsolved cases. The only reason people concluded that they were intertwined was because of how they all ended up being found.”
“Were they..?”
“Dead? Yeah. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Their eyes were removed. Skin near the eye socket was burned. Made them all melted.” My head dropped. “I don’t know. The whole thing just reminded me of the situation. But, you’re into the crime stuff, right? Maybe it’s something you can look into.” K said nonchalantly, turning back to whatever problem she was on.
When I got home that night, I spent the entire night researching. And sure enough, those were the five.
1, she was a sophomore, kidnapped second. She did cheerleading and was part of the debate club. Even though she was kidnapped second, she was found first.
2, the last taken. She was a sophomore as well, but wasn’t really known for doing much around school. She got decent grades and did an occasional drama production. She was found a week after 1.
3 and 4. 4 was taken a couple of days before 3, and allegedly, 3 was only out looking for 4. They were both freshmen and twins. 3rd and 4th taken. 3rd and 4th found.
5, the first taken, the last found. She was a sophomore. There wasn’t much else released about her. Apparently, her parents were less open. She shared information about her on the news.
The five were all kidnapped and found within a span of 3 months. Other than the oldest being 16, youngest 14, and them all being girls, none of them had much in common. They seemed to be taken at random. At least, that’s what the cops say happened.
I feel bad for their parents. Their children hurt, and they never got closure. It wasn’t like I could just stop by their house. I wasn’t trying to be stupid. And it wasn’t like I knew where they lived.
I didn’t sleep much that night.
The next night, I woke up from the worst nightmare I think I’ve ever had. I don’t remember much, but I remember thinking I was dying. I remember being in the woods, alone. At one point, I think I saw a car passing by. I saw lights.
I remember being restrained. A hand was held against my mouth, hokding me down, and I couldn’t breathe. When I did, I swore I smelled burning. I felt burning. Then it all went dark. I don’t quite remember if the dream went dark, or that’s where my memory stops. Either way, I felt blind.
I wanted to scream and cry. When I woke up, I remember doing both.
On Thursday, the pit in my stomach appeared again. Just like on the first day of school. The nerves were back. I was scared to walk into school. My mom noticed and asked if I was alright. I just nodded, waving off her worries.
Throughout the day, I felt an immense sense of dread and paranoia. I kept thinking I saw one of the five. Then I would turn around, and I’d be nothing. I kept thinking back to the dream. The dream that I could hardly make out, but if I thought enough, i could put together the pieces.
Why was I the one seeing these dead people. I didn’t believe in ghosts. I don’t care for them. I used to make fun of paranormal situations and laugh. Watch buzzfeed unsolved and call out the bullshit of the people talking about haunted locations.
But why me. I regret coming to this stupid school. I regret yelling at those girls. Sure, I feel bad. But I don’t want to get wrapped up in something. Whenever a movie protagonist does that, they end up injured or dead.
And it wasn’t like I’m a particularly strong person. There is nothing about me that would make me capable of solving this case.
So I regret trying to.
While I was walking out of the school on Thursday, I saw the group again. It was the first time since the initial encounter that I saw all five. They were lined up. It went, 51432. First to last taken. Great. I tried ignoring them at first. I tried just walking past them, but I couldn’t. They would appear in front of me whenever I tried.
Strangely, they kept getting closer to this back road. A dirt road behind the school that led to this deserted wooded area.
I’ve mentioned I’m a bit of an idiot and make stupid decisions. So I decided to follow them. I grabbed my sister, who was waiting for me outside if the school, and led her towards who was picking us up, telling them that I was hanging out with a friend, and that I’d be home later. They seemed to accept that answer and left.
I followed the five into the woods. The feeling of dread returning with a vengeance. I kept my finger hovering over the 911 dial, hoping that if anything were to happen, I’d be able to call them first.
After a solid 15-20 minutes of walking through the woods, the five stopped. No matter how much I walked past them, they wouldn’t move. The area was open, all the trees surrounding this one portion in a circle.
The five just stared at me. I couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Maybe they thought I was an idiot for following them. Maybe I was about to be next. In all honesty, it was easier not to look at them. I felt bad whenever I did.
At one point, the five disappeared, leaving me alone again.
Great, I remember thinking. Even my ghost friends don’t wanna hang out. I was about to turn back and try to figure out how the heck I was going to get home when I heard a snap. I turned around to where i heard the snap, and I saw a person.
A legitimate person. Not some ghost. It was a person with features. And even though they had a face, they didn’t seem to be very expressive. Their face was so distorted that i couldn’t even tell if they were a boy or girl. Maybe it was cause they were old.
I awkwardly waved, holding my phone closer to me. The person didn’t move, just stared to where i was standing. I looked down, and it was a small mound of a bunch of dug up dirt. I rushed off of the mound, looking at the person. They still didn’t move.
There couldn’t be anything in these woods that they could’ve wanted. I took a couple of slow steps back. It wasn’t like I had some sort of weapon. So if they decided to rush at me, my best bet was the fact that I was decently fast.
The person grabbed a stick from the floor and walked towards me. I didn’t stick around to tell what they were going to do with it. I just ran. I ran to my school parking lot and ended up getting a ride from a friend who hadn’t been picked up yet.
That leads me to today. I haven’t left my room. What the old person was doing there, I didn’t know. Maybe they were just collecting sticks. I didn’t know. But taking into account my weird dream, then the five leading me to the woods, I wasn’t gonna take that chance.
A few minutes ago, right as I started writing this, my mom came into my room to talk to me.
“I need to talk to you about something.” I put down my phone to listen.
“Yeah?”
“There has been a kidnapping at your school. A girl in your grade. They are closing the school for a few days next week to see if they can try to catch the person. I don’t want you leaving this house without someone with you, okay?”
I agreed.
But I don’t think I could fully listen to it.