No Longer Abandoned

Chapter One: Arrival

I have always wanted to become someone who explored ghost towns for fun, hell maybe I even wanted to do it as a job at some point. Though now, as I get closer to the coordinates on my map - there is a knot in my stomach and a lump in my throat that refuses to disappear.

I grip my steering wheel tightly as I drive down the barren countryside, dirt kicking up behind my car and a long stretch of empty road lies ahead.

I turned off my music about fifty miles back since the signal was close to nothing out here.

I slow down and come to a stop as I check my map once again. It was just a few hundred feet ahead, the town no one knew ever existed. I managed to find word of it though in the old library archives. Of course no ordinary citizen was allowed in them but my father being the mayor and all - well let me just say that it has its perks.

About two weeks ago, the classes at the university I'm attending let out early due to a freak thunderstorm. All of the power went out in the buildings so we all were told to go home. Well me, being the nerd I am, took my usual path to the library - in the rain, without an umbrella.

"Alice?! You're drenched!" My best friend, Amelia, exclaimed as I drug myself into the library.

I wipe my feet and give her a dorky, toothy grin. "Yeah, sorry about that" I say as I walk past her and to the archives. I was only allowed to go in there when the library was empty.

I hear Amelia sigh behind me and fumble with her keys. "...the things I do for you" she mumbled as she unlocked the door.

We make our way inside and she coughs from the dust like she always did. I scan the many boxes of old records and one catches my eye, it's labeled "Arrensport Tragedy."

I pull the box from the shelf and plop it on the table in the center of the room.

"What's that? You usually just browse" Amelia says as she closes the door to the records room.

"It caught my eye, have you ever heard about this?" I beckon her over with my hand.

She sits beside me and reads the faint lettering on the dusty cardboard. "I don't think so, you would think it would be something to remember" she says. I only nod at her statement as I pull out a couple of folders.

I begin flipping through the loose papers and end up finding coordinates. I type them in my phone notes and then in my maps app.

"It's literally in the middle of nowhere" Amelia says in the breathy tone.

I chew on my lip, "I want to investigate" I say out of the blue.

"What?! You don't know what could be there! You could get killed!"

"So? It's my passion, I'd rather die doing something that makes me happy than die from boredom at some stupid office job" I frown.

She sighs and puts her head in her hands, "I know I can't stop you..."

"Why do you try then?" I chuckle.

"Because you're my best friend and I don't want to see you get hurt" she says.

My parents don't know that I set out, well I mean they might if they went into my room and saw my note saying I was going to be gone for a while.

I drive down an even more uneven dirt road and finally I see buildings in the distance, well they look like buildings. I park next to a blank sign and get out of my car. I lock it and begin looking around.

Many of the buildings were just worn down grocery stores and some were unidentifiable.

As I'm making my way out of one of the dilapidated stores, I see a blurry figure dart past me - making me jump backwards. I look where it was going and it stops about a mile ahead of me.

I make the figure out to be a person.

I didn't think anyone lived here or let alone knew this place existed.

"Excuse me! Do you know anything about this place?" I call to them.

They just stare at me as if I hadn't said anything at all. I make my way down the steps of the store and they run off again. I frown and begin to follow them.

I had been following them for what seemed like hours but none of the scenery had changed from whence I first started. I could have sworn that I was moving though.

A chill runs down my spine, making me shudder and I stop moving. My lungs burn and I bend over trying to catch my breath but the burning doesn't stop. I close my eyes and ball my t-shirt in my fists and take slow deep breaths, filling my lungs with sweet oxygen once again.

I open my eyes and see a pair of feet directly in front of me. I look up slowly like a camera slowly panning towards danger and my eyes come in contact with a pair of ocean blue ones. My heart pounds inside of my chest as we just stare at each other.

"H-Hello..." I manage to croak out of my dry throat.

The stranger tilts his head to the side as if I'd just spoken in tongues.

"Can you understand me?"

He just nods slowly as he starts walking in circles around me, the silence was so tense and thick that I could only focus on the sounds of his calm breathing.

He stops in front of me again and reaches his hand out to me. I look up at him, surprised at his sudden action. He gestures to his hand with a tilt of his head and I wearily take his hand.

He pulls me towards him and his other hand rests on the small of my back.

"After all these years, you return to me" he says.

My head swirls with confusion as this rather handsome man holds me like a lost lover.

"I-I'm sorry. Y-you have the wrong woman. I just only met you not even a minute ago..."

"On the contrary. You're as beautiful as you were those years ago"

"U-um I appreciate the compliment but I—"

"Follow me, my love. There is much to explain" he says and lets me go.

My heart aches at the loss of touch, why though? I don't even know this man.

He beckons for me to follow him and at that moment - my body moved without my doing. My heart pounds quickly against my ribcage as I follow a complete stranger towards an abandoned building.

This can only go horribly wrong.