The Haunting Hour

Chapter 1: Graduation

The town was quiet. Really quiet. Any traveler passing through would most likely think it was eerie and haunted. It was quaint and small, but still mostly quiet. Tonopah Valley was always quiet like that, people who lived there didn't find it strange at all. It was just how things were around there. But that one Friday, the final day of May would prove to be anything but quiet. It was filled with fear, confusion, anger and distress. Above all it stood loud with horror. The waves of emotion stretched far and wide in every crevasse of the small town. The ways of Tonopah valley would never be the same. Never again. 

May 31st, 2016. Graduation day. The seniors of Tonopah Valley High School were all leaving. Everybody was there, not a single shop was left open. All friends and family gathered on the football field as the seniors stood, dressed in their royal blue caps and gowns. The principal, Mrs. Meyers, walked onstage.

"OK seniors, before you guys all leave as High school graduates, lets give a big round of applause for our valedictorian, Cidney Cordon!"

Cheers erupted from the stands, everyone, every student, teacher, and parent loved Cidney Cordon. She was great at everything but the most humble way. she was as pretty as she was smart and above that she was nice and kind. She had blonde hair and sweet brown eyes. Her smile could light up a dark room.She had deep dimples and her skin stayed flawless, not a trace of makeup either.  She was a straight A student and was graduating with honors. She was a cheerleader, and a volleyball player. She had a quarterback boyfriend and a gorgeous best friend. That's kinda cliche isn't it? The girl that everybody loves or that everybody loves to hate being the center of a story? She goes through a conflict, learns her lesson and lives happily ever after? Its been said and done a million times. All those stories have been already written. This my friend isn't one of them. This story is one that will live in infamy with the best or worst of them. Because unlike most tales, America's sweetheart was missing.

There was a long pause as students waited for Cidney to walk across the stage. Mrs. Meyers walked backed to the microphone and again asked for Cidney Cordon in a nervous, and hesitant voice.  Cidney's mom, a single parent, walked from her seat to the front of the stage. Mrs.Cordon had 3 boys and only one girl; Cidney. Her husband had died from prostate cancer 7 years earlier. She protected Cidney at all times. She couldn't bear to lose another loved one, especially not her only daughter. 

"Nancy where's my daughter?" she asked Mrs.Meyers.

"Oh Liz, I don't know she just- I saw her today, I know I did."

 There was a scoff , every senior on the field knew without a doubt who it had come from. Korissa tan. Korissa tan had jet black hair, grey eyes, and rosy skin. she was beautiful all in all, but that beauty had failed to sink deeper than the surface in a real long time. She hated Cidney with a passion,the only time Korissa and passion were int the same sentence. they had been best friends once upon a time, but their friendship slowly crept away. It dissipated until it no longer existed and all that was left was bitterness. the bitterness that Korissa seemed to carry with her a t all times. She stood up and walked towards the stage

"You guys are getting all worked up over nothing. The chick probably Bailed, I mean its not like she's great at keeping promises."

Cidney's boyfriend Luke garner came to his girlfriends defense.
 "Jeez Rizz chill. She'll show up... eventually..."

Luke was the starting quarterback on the varsity football team. He had brown eyes and sandy brown hair. Every girl in the school wanted to date him, but he only had his eyes on Cidney. Or so it seemed.

"All I'm saying is, she might not come. I wouldn't put it past her that's all." Korissa said.

Vanessa Bayer was the next person to join the small group at the front of the stage. Vanessa was pretty; she had shoulder length black hair, green eyes and pale skin. Vanessa was Cidney's best friend, and she admired Cidney more than anything. People said that they were inseparable, that Vanessa was too close to her. People said a lot of things. one irrefutable fact was that Vanessa loved Cidney, it was just a question of how much and it what way.  She walked over to Luke and smacked him with her graduation cap.