Is This True?

Chapter 18

I was alone.

My hands shook from the papers I was limply holding. Collapsing onto the ground in a messy heap, I didn't even bother to pick them up from the hardwood ground. 
What use were they to me anyway?

All they told me was about my new case--the one Mr. Woods himself had chosen for me.
And, now tell me, what did he say? He said that this one would prove to be more helpful and safe. Indeed, this one would not permit me to be safe whatsoever. He was bringing me back into my past--something that I was apart of and quite something I didn't wish to be. I had to go back into time on that one particular trip where my whole life changed before my own eyes. The trip that changed everything down to what I believed. I didn't want to believe in it anymore, and quite frankly, I had no choice.

I had to do my job. I had to do this. I had to fix this.

There is such a reason as fate, and fate now has brought me up again into this mess. Yet again, I had to deal with my past of the supernatural and with the people I had sworn to forget and somehow remember.
Joan. Andrea. Samantha. And not to mention that little girl that still haunts me in my dreams--Mary.
I really couldn't go back to that life, could I? I was living in peace. In harmony! Why did it suddenly have to come back? Now? There had to be a reason, but what was that reason?

I let out a breath of air, my ice cold hands clasped together on my lap before they leaned down to pick up the fallen papers.
My eyes scanned the pages once again, taking in the solid information; but I didn't even know what I was reading. In my mind, they were just words written in ink. They meant nothing to me and they made no sense. Various words caught my attention: missing. dead. suicide. strange. disappearance.

But who was it that had died? Gone missing? Committed suicide?

That was simple, I already knew. Mary was dead and so was Andrea, but she committed suicide as well. Where does that leave Joan and Samantha? Does that mean they were missing?

I reread the pages.

Indeed, they were both missing. And I was supposed to find them? Alone?

I frowned,
"This isn't right. This doesn't feel right at all."

***

After summoning up the last strength I had, I got myself together and headed straight to the nearest library for some further research. I didn't even know what I was supposed to be looking for. I just knew that maybe, I might find something worth reading or knowing. I mean, this is Ontario--the very place we stayed over fall break years ago and perhaps, I might run across the same people we had met. Like Colin, Steven, and not to mention Sean.
Or maybe--just maybe, Joan or Samantha would surprise me with a visit. It seemed years ago, no matter where I was, they'd always find me.

Searching through a stack of old newspapers, I read almost every one that I could find up to when we left. Even if that was a course of over four years, I still had to make sure I wasn't missing anything vital. And it proved that I did find what I was looking for:

Searching for the owner at an abandoned house. If not claimed, the house will be auctioned.

There on the front of the newspaper was the very house of Samantha Eller. It looked quite the same, of course, and still the way I remembered it.

I closed my eyes, feeling as if I was going back in time to that very day when I stepped through those doors. I could still hear the click of the door, shutting us in from the storm outside. And I could remember the smell of the antique furniture and the dust from off the old books. I could remember the room upstairs, and the way the floorboards creaked as you walked on them.
And of course, the book filled with memories. I learned about Mary's death that day, and the death of Joan's parents. I had no idea, but now I knew.