I’ve always found creepy mysterious things fascinating. I always have, even as a kid. My parents used to put me to bed by telling me scary stories. Scary stories about monsters, vampires, witches and ghouls. I like to refer to these kinds of stories as old-school scary stories. These stories are nothing like the scary stories you hear about nowadays with murderers and kidnappers. Unlike vampires and monsters, murderers and kidnappers are actually real, making it more frightening.
Old-school scary stories never scared me that much because I knew none of the stories was real. It was fake. It was all fake. After all, there’s no point in being scared of things that aren’t real right? Well, that’s initially what I told myself whenever I would get scared. However, I had no idea what lay in store for me as I got older. I’m currently 20 years old, I live alone just outside of town in a tiny apartment. I’m a student with a part-time job so a tiny apartment is sadly all I can afford. My best friend Emily comes to visit me sometimes.
We have been best friends since middle school. Emily and I had decided to have a sleepover at my place this weekend. Emily was going to sleep on an air mattress while I took the bed. The days leading up to the weekend consisted of studying, working and sleeping. When Friday finally showed up I got excited, I waited until Emily was done working her shift and then she came over to my apartment.
It was around 8 p.m. when she turned up, we had something to eat and sat down to watch a movie. When the movie was done the clock struck 11 p.m. Emily went to the bathroom while I started tidying up a bit. My phone suddenly vibrated, I didn’t check it at first because I thought nothing of it. Little did I know that would be the biggest mistake of my life.
After I was done tidying up I realized that Emily had spent an unusual amount of time in the bathroom. I grew a little concerned about her absence, but I quickly shoved it away, reassuring myself that she was probably just fixing her makeup or something. I sat down on the couch and checked my phone. It was a snap from Emily. She had sent me a picture. That’s odd I thought to myself. The concerned feeling I had a moment ago came back stronger. I tried reassuring myself again, maybe she had sent me a snap to show me that she was fine. I opened the snap. I screamed. I was horrified.
How could this have happened? I was right here. Tears started streaming down my face. I was sitting on the couch, shaking like a chihuahua. The snap contained a picture of an unconscious Emily with the words: “Looks like your friend needed a time-out”. I rushed to the bathroom as quickly as possible. That was probably a dumb decision, but at that point, I didn’t even care because I had to help Emily.
When I opened the bathroom door there was no sign of anyone. There wasn’t even a sign of a break-in or an open window, nothing. How on earth could someone have broken into my home? I had been in the apartment all day. I started panicking, I had to call the police. I pulled out my phone and dialled the emergency number.
A policeman picked up the phone: “Hello, what’s your emergency?”, I answered hurriedly: “Hello my name is Mia Cavanaugh, I live at 34 Park Hill Avenue, my friend Emily Fieldman has gone missing, you need to hurry please.” the policeman on the other line replied: “Okay, we’ll be there right away.” I hung up the phone and sat down on the couch.
My phone vibrated again, I knew I had to look but I didn’t want to. I picked up the phone and saw another snap from Emily. I opened it. It was a picture of a terrified Emily with a knife held to her throat and a person with a black mask standing behind her, on the picture it read: “Be careful what you say to the police or the bitch gets it.” I tried to study the background but I couldn’t make out anything. It was all black behind them, the picture had been taken with a blitz showing only Emily and the other person in the mask.
From the looks of it, the person in the mask seemed to be a man. Regardless, how did they know that I had spoken to the police literally seconds after I had hung up the phone? At least I had evidence now because of the picture they had sent me. A thought quickly appeared in my head, if they knew I had spoken to the police then they would have found out if I had shown the police this picture, and if they had found out about it then they would kill Emily. I had to find the perpetrators on my own or else I’m afraid Emily was going to die.
The police showed up about 10 minutes after our phone call. I opened the door and greeted them. I knew I had to lie to them so I said: “It was a false emergency, Emily had gone to the store without me knowing, I’m terribly sorry.” the policeman I had talked to on the phone looked stern and replied: “Are you sure? Because if that is the case you have a risk of facing a 1,000$ fine or ending up in prison.” I answered: “Yeah I’m sure, I’m so sorry, I really did think she was gone.”
The policeman sighed: “Well, you sounded pretty concerned on the phone so we believe you, we’ll let you off with a warning this time but if it happens again you will be charged with a 1,000$ fine. Worst case scenario there is a possibility of you ending up in jail. So please be careful when calling us for emergencies.” I replied: “Yes absolutely, it won’t happen again. Goodbye.” the policeman said: “Goodbye, have a safe night and take care of yourselves.” the police then left. I closed the door.
My phone vibrated again, I knew who it was immediately. I looked at it. A snap from Emily. I opened it. There was a picture of Emily tied up in a chair, her eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying a lot. The text on the picture read: “Good job love, we’ll reward you for your cooperation.” I sighed, what reward were they talking about? I’m not even sure if I wanted a reward.
My phone vibrated again. Another snap from Emily. This time it was a picture of a warehouse with some cars in it, with a text saying: “This is your first clue as to where Emily is hiding.” the picture I had got was from a warehouse but it was dark and it was hard to make out where it was. I suddenly spotted some cars lined up in the far back, those cars looked really familiar. That’s when a thought popped into my head: “Of course, they’re in the abandoned warehouse for cars, that used to be me and Emily’s hangout spot when we needed a break from the world.” I knew what I had to do.
I drove my car to the old warehouse and parked it outside the building. I went in. Nothing. The sun had gone down so naturally, the warehouse was pitch black. The only sound that could be heard was my footsteps as I tried to find my way in the darkness. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight. I tried to find a light switch but I had no luck.
I walked further in and discovered a door. I opened it, and on the left side of the door on the wall was a light switch. I flicked the switch but there was no light. “Of course.” I thought to myself, “this place is abandoned, there is no electricity here anymore.” in the middle of the room was a chair. I approached the chair cautiously. I was afraid someone was going to jump out from the darkness and kidnap me too, but nothing happened.
I looked at the chair and realized that this had been the chair that Emily was tied to, but she wasn’t there. “Hello.” I said getting nervous, “I did what you asked me to, now where is Emily?” but to my dismay, no one answered. My eyes then fell upon the cars that were lined up. I spotted a note hanging on the windshield. I made my way to the cars and took the note. It read: “Here’s your second clue.” I turned the note around but there was nothing there, I looked up trying to spot something but the room only held the chair and the cars.
My phone vibrated. I took it out knowing who it was. Another snap from Emily. I opened it to be faced with a tree. Why in the world would it be of a tree? I studied the background as well as the tree and that’s when I realized it. That was the tree that Emily and I had carved into the wood that we would be best friends forever. I recognized that one of the branches had grown in an odd way but that’s what made it special, that’s what made me and Emily choose that tree. I just really wish I was right and not that the kidnappers had taken a picture of another tree, I had to try for Emily’s sake.
I drove to where the forest was and parked it in the parking lot by the entrance to the woods. I got out and started to walk up that all-too-familiar path. While walking further into the forest a flashback suddenly hit me. A flashback from the first time Emily and I walked here together. Some boys in our class chased us all the way up here because they wanted to beat us up. We ran from them and hid in the woods and that’s when we decided that we would be best friends forever.
After walking for a while I had to turn away from the path and head into the thick forest where there was no path to guide me anymore. This walk took longer than I had remembered, because of everything that had happened it felt like 1 minute lasted for 20 minutes. I started to pray to God to keep Emily safe and that I would find her in time. To be quite honest I wasn’t really a Christian but I was so desperate.
It was better to be safe than sorry. I started to run because I wanted to spend as less time as possible. I got there soon enough after my little run but there was nobody there. I walked up to the tree and I found the carving. Our carving. E + M = BFF. Looking at it, I smiled remembering the good times. I traced my finger alongside the E in the carving, that’s when my emotions got the best of me. I started to cry. I hugged the tree wishing it was Emily who stood in my arms and not the tree. After I had cried a whole lot I had to start looking for clues. I stopped hugging the tree and began my hunt.
After a little while with no luck, my phone vibrated again. Yet another snap from Emily. I pulled out my phone and opened the snap. I could tell that the picture was taken in our schoolyard. In the place where Emily and I first met each other. I couldn’t see Emily in the picture though and that freaked me out. I placed my phone in my pocket, I had to get there as fast as I could. I ran down to my car and drove off.
I parked my car in the school’s parking lot and got out. I had to find Emily. It was the only thing on my mind right now. I started walking down the schoolyard, I couldn’t see anything. My head turned to the side and that’s when I spotted the place which was where the picture was taken. My first encounter with Emily. All the memories came flooding back. The same old tiny shed with the same old tree beside it.
I walked towards it, I had a feeling that I would find my next clue or better yet Emily in there. As I got closer I noticed someone had left the door to the shed ajar. I opened the door to the shed and looked inside. It was dark but the room was illuminated by the moon. There was a desk and a chair standing in the middle of the room.
I walked to the desk and found a note. The note read: “final destination is Emily’s place, can you reach us in time?” I waited for the distinctive sound of the Snapchat notification. Nothing happened. I couldn’t stand here all night so I ran back to my car and sped off towards Emily’s place. I sat the whole trip just hoping Emily was okay, I couldn’t think of anything else.
I reached Emily’s place as fast as I could and ran inside. There was nobody there, I admit that maybe barging into Emily’s home like I just did wasn’t the greatest idea but I was desperate. I tried to call out Emily’s name but no one answered. I searched downstairs for her but to no avail, I went upstairs but could not see anything. Her room was the last room I checked. She had to be there “of course, why did I not look in here at first? I’m so stupid.” I thought to myself while opening the door.
What greeted me next horrified me. Emily’s dead body lay on the floor, I ran over to her and held her limp body in my arms. I started sobbing, I couldn’t believe it, how could this happen? I hugged her even though I knew she wouldn’t hug me back. I sat there for what felt like an eternity, hugging her tight like I would never let her go. I had lost my dearest best friend, the one who was always there for me, the one who knew more about me than anyone else.
I spotted her computer while I sat hugging her, it was turned on. I lay Emily gently down on the ground again and went to investigate it. When I got to her computer I saw that it was logged into the dark web. Did she use the dark web? A chat was opened where I could see that she had been talking to a hacker who threatened her. I crossed out the page because it was too menacing to watch.
When the page disappeared I found some videos of me on her computer. I pressed play on one of them and it showed me while I looked for her in my apartment. There was another video of me when I was at the warehouse. And another one of me when I was in the woods hugging the tree. They filmed me while I searched for Emily, that’s how they knew when to send me snaps.
I looked up and found screenshots of Emily and I’s chat. The times we talked about the places I had been to tonight, like the tree and the place we first met. That’s how they knew that these places meant something to us. “What is this?” I said to myself, overwhelmed with what I was seeing.
My phone vibrated suddenly. I took it out and looked at it. Another snap from Emily. My heart started to beat faster, a tear fell from my eye, I got so scared. I knew who it was. I plucked up what was left of my courage once again and opened it. It was a picture of me from behind, I suddenly heard Emily’s closet door creak open. I whipped my head around and gasped. It couldn’t be…