Before I get into the story, here is some backstory about Jackie and I. Jackie is 15 (at the time). She has long brown hair and a distinct face. She was exceptionally pretty- the prettiest in the town (that we lived in), and had bright green eyes. She also always wore a white silk ribbon bow around her one half-up-half-down braid. I am 16 (at the time), I’m a male that is relatively good looking, and that’s all that’s truly relevant about me. Jackie and I had been best friends for ages, she lived across the street from me and as our town community is small, everyone knows eachother.
So it’s April 1986, Jackie and I had been sneaking out recently together to watch the stars in a desolated place next to a corn field. By then I had a little crush on her so I wanted to stay close to her and keep this tradition of meeting at the same spot every night at around 1am- and she did too, as she returned every night.
I remember it was the 12th or 13th of April 1986 and it was dark out. I had this gut feeling of dread but I just brushed it off as getting butterflies from seeing Jackie. I sneak out and head to the spot, at the usual time, and I wait. Usually I’m there first anyway, so I continued to wait. But she never showed up. At around 2:30am I found something, which I wish I would have reported to the police or something… it was her white silk ribbon bow, tied onto a corn plant. The only reason I didn’t report it, was because I was half asleep so like a fool I decided to head back home because I started to get tired.
I went home but I didn’t think anything of it at allas I thought she had bunked me off.
It was a Friday, so we had no school the next day so instead of waiting to talk to her I knocked on her door. Her mother opens the door and greets me; “Hey, Tyler! What’s up?” She asked me, smiling. I remember asking her if Jackie was home and luckily she was- well I thought she was.
Jackie’s mother (Judith), led me to her room where I walked inside. She left us to it and I asked Jackie why she hadn’t shown up. Jackie turned around and looked at me, “I forgot” she said. After she said that, I quickly wrapped up the conversation and excused myself back to my house.
Why did I do that? It was rude right? It would have been questionable and rude if it was Jackie. That wasn’t Jackie. I don’t know who or what they were, but I’m telling you, what I saw next to me was not Jackie. Her eyes were too wide her lips were too thin and nose was too slanted to the right. It was almost as if that thing was trying it’s best to look like Jackie, it almost did look like Jackie. But I noticed. Only when you spend so much time looking at someone’s face do you realize that you’ve basically memorized their whole facial structure, call me weird.
Jackie didn’t go to school for the next week after this and eventually the news came in. Jackie went missing. Tonnes and tonnes of search parties are sent out but nothing comes back, so the case begins to fade to the back of people’s mind, something that no one wanted to discuss anymore, knowing the probability of her being deceased by now was so high. Years go by and everyone moves on with their lives, apart from me, until the local police make a strange discovery…it was proven that she had left the house through her bedroom window but she never re-entered her house. So, truly, if I was right and that thing or person wasn’t Jackie, then who was it?
(This is a true story that happened to me, same names, rough dates- everything. Jackie is still missing till this day. Jackie, I’ll love you forever.)