Short Stories: 10-31-18

He Hides

Officer Alex Johnson arrived at the address. It was just another unsolved disappearance, as per usual these past two months. There was hardly any leads and there were no real explanation. As he searches through the victim's(Sadie Miller), he finds a small brown journal. It's titled "Evidence." Curiousness took over, and Alex flipped to the first page titled "Day One-What's Going On?"

Today has been one of the strangest days. I came into work and two of my female coworkers were missing. At first I thought it was sickness or something, but apparently Janice has been MIA since Thursday, and Maria hasn't said anything about not coming to work. I try not to get anxious over things, but this is different. Two people are missing with no clues. I'm going to investigate. In the meantime, I'll be keeping a journal to keep track, and see if this is a trend.
Missing: 2 females, both 20. No males.

Alex knew about those two. It seemed so far away now. He flipped a few pages to "Day Eleven-A Trend?"

It's been a little over a week, and a few more people have gone missing. So far there's a trend: they appear to be last seen sometime around 7:30 pm. Nighttime. Not the best, but it's all I got for now. The police are now on this. It's crazy how quick people end up missing, huh?
Missing: 7 females, ages 18-23
                 4 males, ages 19-23

Eleven people in eleven days. How depressing. He flipped the page to "Day Twenty-Five: Another Trend."

Twenty-five days have passed, and more people keep disappearing. There's quite a few trends, I've noticed. The time is the same, but the victims are all between the ages of 18-24 years. They're all last scene near Walkman Beach, the pier, and the little rock field. I need to investigate more.
Missing: 23 women, 20 men

Was it really 43 people? Man, that's insane. He flipped again, and his blue eyes gazed upon "Day Thirty-Two: Forget the Pier"

The pier was only associated with one person, which leaves Walkman beach and the little rock field. Im still not getting far with suspects, but maybe I'll see who's around during the time.
Missing: 29 women, 23 men. Seems there's more of an attraction to women

Now she mentions it. Alex flips near the end, until he realizes the book wasn't complete. There were plenty of empty pages. The journal ended with "Day Forty: I'm Sorry." What?

This may be my last journal entry, so I'll try to explain everything as fast as I can. I got into the investigation some more, despite the police not wanting me to. I've discovered something terrible, something that never crossed my mind, ever. I found this:
Selkies: also known as "seal folk", these creatures are seals that become human by removing their seal skins. They're mostly male, and their goal is to lure lonely people to them. Sometimes, they stay human if their seal skin is stolen/lost. At first I didn't think that this could relate at all, but that's when I remembered that about two months ago, there was a seal skin on Walkman beach. Fisherman Hank took it and put it on its wall. Most likely, this selkie is angry that humans took its skin, and instead of looking for it, maybe they've become murderous? I'm not sure.
Anyways, this may be my last journal entry. Maybe the selkie knows I'm after it. In that case, I'm sorry to everyone I've wronged. I love you all. To my parents, I wish you luck in retirement. And to my friends, I'm sorry for being so distance over the past forty days.
Missing: too many, just too many.

She was on point about the selkie thing. What she got wrong was the motivation. Luring lonely people was to save them, not hurt them. An island promised safety and love. Lonely people take care of each other. He ripped the last page out and went outside. He looked around before entering his car. It's time to return home.