Crestfallen Lane

Chapter 1

Crestfallen Lane was a small side road barely noticeable anymore, even in a town as small as Renews.  Barely urbanized, even in 2016 and people still managed to avoid it yet never forget about it. I suppose you could say there was something about that place that made you want to lose sight of it's very existence, though you never could. It would haunt you with every passing moment that you stood near, so the townsfolk just left it alone. Some of us couldn't though, we had been born Descendants of the Crestfallen, stuck living with the mysteries and rumours that surrounded it day to day. And there wasn't a day that passed when the rumours weren't mentioned. Talk of hauntings, witch craft, alien abductions, some secret treasure the Mayflower left behind; you imagine it, it's been said.

Ironically all these stories dated back to something far older. Something long forgotten even to the elderly folks of the town, or so they say. All that's known is Renews' history, especially that regarding Crestfallen was suspiciously vague.

It had always irked me, all talk but no questions. Especially as I treaded my way home when I was young down all the other old roads; Main Road, Back Road, Boat Cove Road and all the others. I would count them until I got to my road, Crestfallen Lane. I had always thought, 'what a beautiful name for a street', but everyone had always avoided my little paradise like the plague and I had yearned to know why. All my family would ever say was 'you are a Descendant of the Crestfallen like all of us, we do not ask questions nor take part in the rumours. We stand silent and keep the town.' I never understood that part, 'keep the town'. Otherwise I might have listened like the others.

So instead I packed up, and hit the road at eighteen as soon as I got my acceptance letter. I planned to drown myself in history, enough to keep me busy until I was ready to take a crack at that ancient puzzle I was born into.

  I dove into history as soon as I could, going deeper as if I'd never come up for air again. I read through centuries of Canadian history, British and French colonization, traveling to Québec to search the Canadian Archives for any mention of Renews.
I mainly drew a blank. The only piece of information I knew for sure was that whatever had happened on Crestfallen Lane had happened in the early days.
I knew Renews had been settled in the early 1600's, as a small fishing village. That was all any student in Renews ever learnt about the town history. Yet another reason why I had left. A small town shouldn't have that many secrets.
I hadn't learnt much more for all the credits and degrees I had acquired. A Bachelors in history and a Masters in Canadian history. And now all I was left with was shifting through the rumour mill that was Crestfallen Lane online.
I Googled every rumour, analyzing every possibility all the while trying to fit it in with what I already knew. Colonization, early 1600s, small fishing village; leaving only two rumours.
Witchcraft and ghosts, I was skeptical of both, leaving me with only one option. I would have to return and face my fellow Descendants of the Crestfallen. Perhaps even fall in line, temporarily.