April

Chapter Three: Gone

I'm not the one who needs help.

Hazel awoke early. She was still quite tired, despite having gone to bed two hours earlier than normal. Her night's dream was still fresh in her mind, and it still gave her a strange feeling. She was upset about not seeing her younger sister after her first outing as an independent person, and wished she'd been awake to greet her.

"Ugh, she was probably mad when she got here!" She exclaimed, pulling her blankets closer and sighing loudly. Though she wanted to, Hazel knew there was no point in going to April's bedroom to apologize, as April often slept late into the morning and the clock read 6:30.

Though it was unusual for the girl to be up before 9:30, Hazel knew there was no way she'd fall back asleep, so she simply stared at the ceiling and listened to more music.

April and her older sister, Hazel, were walking down to fish at Green Lake, when a voice called from nearby, "HAZEL! APRIL!"

After exchanging a wide-eyed glance, the sisters stopped. "What do we do?" April whispered, glancing at the house behind her, where the source of the voice was. Hazel too, glanced behind April. There, on his porch, was the boy most people referred to as "Creepy Neighbor Andy." He was waving frantically at the girls, trying to catch their attention.

Creepy Neighbor Andy was notorious for popping up in the most unlikely of places. Sometimes he would be standing behind a tree at the park or sitting (without permission) in somebody's boat down by the fishing docks. He was a rather mysterious specimen, and Hazel had warned April about avoiding him on numerous occasions.

"He's weird, April. We don't talk to him, make eye contact with him, or even breathe around him. Got it?" She had said.

"Why is he so weird, Hazel?" The younger girl once questioned, glancing at Andy, who had turned up at the beach, coincidentally at the exact same day and time as the Underwood's. Hazel had only been able to shrug, as nobody knew what made Creepy Neighbor Andy so...creepy.