I live in a small town which has never had a population larger than eight thousand people, it’s one of those towns in where everyone knows everyone and where gossip travels fast.
Usually the gossip is very underwhelming. Like who has been taking books from the take a book leave a book box without leaving a book behind or why did Mr. Danis stay in his RV for the night while Mrs. Danis had a girls night in the house. However on a cold night in October all the harmless small town gossip changed to something horrifying and mystifying, the disappearance of the quiet eleventh grader Jamie Hurst…
Jamie and his family had just moved into the town a year prior to his disappearance and lived into the small two bedroom house at the very end of Woodlawn Street, the house was previously lived in by Mr. Vernis a military veteran who was infamous in the town for being a very sweet but stern individual. Vernis died four days after his one-hundredth birthday, The town mourned the loss and the house stayed vacant for nearly eight years before the Hurst family bought and quickly moved into the home.
The week they moved in is the week I met Jamie Hurst, Jamie was introduced to our grade ten class and immediately made friends with much of the more popular kids from the school, Jamie moved to our town from San Francisco and that quickly made him very popular being the only family in our town to come from such a big city. Let me mention before I continue anymore that I was in no way close with Jamie, actually I never really interacted with him at all other than the couple of times we were put together in group projects. Jamie joined the school basketball team and got the reputation as sort of a jock. The school year continued on like any other school year, Jamie’s aura as the new student quickly faded and just like that he was just another student at our school. Before any of us knew it, it was already June and the end of the school year was approaching, now for a lot of students this meant talking about their big summer plans.. My family and I like usual did not have any big extravagant summer plans like Jeremy’s three week Caribbean vacation, Diana’s usual Montana cottage trip or Petr’s summer long vacation to Holland to visit family. My family could not afford anything such as those, we were lucky enough to have the money this year to go to a amusement park on one of the weekends this summer, don’t get me wrong I am not ungrateful for this I absolutely love the amusement park we go to and I am beyond thankful that my parents worked so hard just to be able to afford for me to go.
The question of summer plans than quickly turned over to Jamie, Jamie instead of becoming ecstatic about what he and his family had planned this summer instead went quiet as he quickly tried to glaze over the subject hoping that we would just move on from him and onto the next person. This was something I had noticed and thought of as very strange and uncharacteristic of him, Usually Jamie would be someone who was very vocal and seemed to be outgoing, whether it be in class or with friends such as this. Thankfully for Jamie though his hopes came true as the other students continued on without pressing on the matter and continued on boasting about all the things they would be doing this summer.
With that summer break came, Our final day of school was a uneventful one with all of the tests being finished and teachers being left without a curriculum to follow the day was full of word searches and extra PE time. Once the bell rang for the end of the day the students all belted loudly with excitement and quickly left their desks.. except for Jamie, instead Jamie’s expression was that of what almost seemed like fear? I watched as Jamie slowly grabbed his bookbag and hung his head low, I almost wanted to approach him and reach out to see what was wrong but as I had never been close with him all school year I instead chose to just keep my distance.
That summer ended up being one of the best summers of my childhood, we went to the amusement park and won a contest that I begged my parents to enter, the prize being free amusement park entry for a month. I swear I spent almost every day for the next month going and riding the rides, one time I rode the Mind-Boggler so much that I threw up. The thought of Jamie and his strange behaviour at the last day of the school year did not cross my mind at all that summer.. until the last day before school.
I was laying in bed half excited and half dreading the beginning of the new school year, on one hand I was so happy that I would be seeing the few school friends I do have once again but on the other it was the eleventh grade and the classes I had this year were going to be very difficult.. Boy looking back now childhood troubles seem so insignificant and easy compared to what we deal with now as adults. As I lay there thinking about school my mind came across something that it had not thought about the entire summer, Jamie Hurst and how strange and unlike himself he acted as the school year came to an end. I tried to push it aside thinking about how so many things could have caused that reaction from him, maybe his scores on his year end tests were not the best? maybe trouble at home? maybe just him being a teenager and going through teenager problems? whatever the issue was for some reason that night it was all I could think about, eventually though I managed to drift off to sleep…
It was seven AM and I awoke feeling exhausted but at the same time excited and nervous for the first day back to school, once again the thought of Jamie was not present and my focus was once again school. I arrived by 8AM fifteen minutes before the first bell. This gave me a little time to reconnect with my school friends, we quickly talked about our summers. Jeremy was still burnt from falling asleep in a beach chair by the pool at his resort, Diana went on about how when she is older she is moving to Montana and Petr talked about how he barely made it back in time due to his flight being cancelled three times. We stood outside our classroom door as the other students all began to line up by the door, all chattering in unison before our teacher Mr. Cotton arrived quieting the class and opening the door and telling us all to pick our seats, making it a point to mention how the seats we choose will be the seats we will have for the entire semester. I somehow managed to be one of the final students to get a seat, I was left to either choose a seat at the very front of the class or one of the two seats available at the very back of the room. I of course chose one of the back seats, no way I would put myself in the front of the classroom like that Mr. Cotton is well known for believing the kids at the front of his class are the ones who know all the answers to his questions.
After about five minutes Mr. Cotton began roll call, Every student in the classroom was present except for one in particular.. That being Jamie Hurst, Mr. Cotton paused expecting to hear the boy call here like every other student but after a minute of silence the teacher looked up and nodded his head in disappointment before muttering under his breath “Absent on the first day, not good at all” before finishing roll call. Class went on like any other class would until thirty minutes in when during a lesson about the history of world war two Mr. Cotton’s speech would be suddenly interrupted by the classroom door quickly swinging open. Quietly with his head down Jamie entered the classroom looking unrecognizable from the last time he was seen, his usually well kempt Blonde hair was greasy, matted and looked like it had not been brushed in several weeks, his bright and wonderous green eyes now looked sunken and dark with bags under them making it seem as if he hadn’t slept for the entire summer break, the clothes he wore now were dirty and ripped when before he would get upset if he got just a tiny stain on them. Mr. Cotton looked dumfounded by Jamie’s appearance and tardiness as was the rest of the class, as quiet gasps were heard at the sight of Jamie. Jamie chose the seat at the back of the class right beside me and slumped down into the seat not smiling or even giving attention to any of the other kids in the class, kids that just a few months ago were his close friends.
This strange theme continued for the rest of the week with Jamie arriving later and later for class and looking more dishevelled and depressed. One thing that never changed with Jamie was the clothes he was wearing, he arrived everyday with the same dirty grey hoodie, ripped and stained light blue track pants and scuffed and worn down pair of white and red jordan sneakers. Mr. Cotton began to look more concerned for Jamie after each day. By time Friday came Jamie was asked by Mr. Cotton to stay behind after class, at this remark Jamie stood so quickly that the chair he was seated on flew backwards and hit the wall. Jamie stared right into Mr. Cotton’s eyes before cursing at him, in an instant Jamie grabbed his bookbag and stormed out of the class… This was the last time Jamie ever went to school. For weeks following the incident Jamie would be seen arriving to school in the morning only to leave as the bell rang for first period.
On the first day of October it was especially cold and gray outside and thanks to my father’s loud and noisy morning routine I was woken up by 6AM. Instead of falling back to sleep for an hour I decided I would get ready and go to school early today, maybe I could try the schools breakfast program and see if it is really as bad as all the students say it is. I got myself ready and arrived to school by 7:15am, quite a bit before any of the other students. I believed I was alone.. that was until I saw a lone boy sitting on the front steps of the school, it was Jamie Hurst. At first I kept my distance but Jamie looked up and saw me he broke a very faint and tiny smile before nodding at me to come over to him.
Extremely hesitant I took a deep breath and exhaled before slowly taking steps towards him, I had never interacted with Jamie one on one and I already had social anxiety, so that on top of Jamie’s complete change of character I was definitely intimidated to say the least. When I approached Jamie my heart was racing as there was a moment of silence that felt as if it would last forever so I worked up the courage to finally break it.
So ugh, Jamie how have you.. In that instant I was cut off by Jamie as he held up his hand and held his other hand to his mouth, Jamie then reached into his hoodie pocket and rummaged before pulling out something, He turned his closed hand and opened it to reveal three teeth covered in dried blood. Jamie then began to smile an uncomfortably long smile, Thus revealing a mouth void of any teeth at all. At this very moment my heart felt as if it was going to burst out of my chest, I could not help but to let out a scream of terror at the sight of Jamie. Jamie tilted his head and dropped the teeth on the ground before laughing wildly. In that instant Jamie reached towards me but I managed to step backwards just managing to avoid Jamie’s grasp. I quickly turned and sprinted away from Jamie as fast as a was physically able to do so, as I made space between him and I all I was able to hear was the loud and almost forced sounding laughter belting out from Jamie. I ran without catching my breath for what seemed like at least an hour until I was only a block away from my house. I rushed to it and burst through the front door and right into my mother who was about to leave for work, In shock and complete horror I spilled out exactly what had happened to my mother. Her face went from confusion to a mirrored terror to mine. She allowed me to stay home from school that day and called the local police department telling them in exact detail on what happened, The police seemed to not totally believe in what my mother was saying but gave in and told her that they would do a checkup at the Hurst adress… what happened after that has continued to haunt me and the town till this very day…..
The police arrived to the Hurst residence by 1PM that day and after several attempts to get an answer at the front door they became concerned as the Hurst’s car was parked in the driveway, After roughly 25 minutes the police forced their way into the residence and walked into a grisly scene. Before them laid the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, both of them were badly decomposed presumed to have been dead for months now. The wretched smell of the bodies made several of the Officers puke and many had to leave the house at the sight of it, being small town police in a town with very little crime this was the first time many of them have ever seen something as horrific as this. The officers began to look around the house searching for Jamie, But Jamie was nowhere to be found. The only sign that Jamie was there was teeth, the rest of Jamie’s teeth along with the full sets of teeth of his parents. The teeth were all placed onto Jamie’s bed put into a strange design… a design of a war medal. Next to the teeth was a note, written in a sticky red substance. Here is what the note read..
HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER
June 10th
Mr. Vernis has become so demanding as of late, at first he only wanted us to respect him.. Now he won’t let mom and dad leave the house. He only let’s me leave when one of us offer him a piece of us, my parents decided to use their teeth.. They told me that they will continue to offer up their own so I could continue school.. I’ve tried to act normal but now with summer here I wont be able to leave, I dont want them to suffer anymore, they’re almost out of teeth to give… soon I will have to step up.
June 29th
Mr. Vernis has become aggressive, I should have never unlocked that journal.. Now my dad is dead, Mr. Vernis said I could live as long as my mother stabbed my father in the neck seven times.. she did it. she really did it.
July 8th
She’s dead.. I am so alone now. I wish we never moved here. I have accepted that I am to be next. Mr. Vernis tells me that he will raise me now. I can’t sleep or eat, my mom is in the bathtub… I smell terrible but I cannot muster up enough courage to get her out of there.
July 26th
I left the house for the first time today. Mr. Vernis said I had to give him two teeth for everytime I left now.. I did it, It felt relieving. I thank Mr. Vernis now…
August 2nd
The bodies are starting to smell so bad, I moved mom beside dad.. I think she would of wanted that..
August 20th
School starts again soon, I think I am going to start going. I can’t take this anymore.. Mr. Vernis said that if I give my teeth to someone that I will be free from all of this. I need to be free, I have to..
September 1st
Free.. SET ME FREE
Shortly after this the Hurst residence was swiftly condemned and torn down, with the only thing being left is a small garden with a plaque in memory of the Hurst family.
It has been over twenty years since Jamie Hurst has disappeared, Twenty years since the Hurst families grim fate… Twenty years is a long time, and I honestly think of this as a distant memory.. I am only writing this because this morning the strangest thing happened, When I went to leave my house I stumbled upon a small baby blue box on my doorstep. I picked it up and began to open it before seeing what it was… Inside the box contained three small… bloody teeth…