Ashes
Who doesn't love reading someone else's diary?
The following is a transcription from several pages of a burnt personal diary that was found next to the remains of Angela S. Yorke. Police officers entered Ms. Yorke's apartment at 113 Cherry lane on July 28th after she had been reported missing for several days. The interior of the apartment had apparently been completely destroyed in a fire, although none of the neighbors had reported seeing flames. In the corner of the bedroom the officers found a large pile of ash that was later identified, through dental records, to be the body of Ms. Yorke.
From the charred hand of the corpse the officers recovered a badly damaged diary which she had apparently been writing in throughout the period of her disappearance. Experts have been unable to determine the cause of the fire, nor the reason why it damaged only the inside of one apartment, leaving the exterior and all surrounding rooms unharmed. In an effort to solve the mystery, the diary underwent an extensive restoration to repair and copy the charred pages.
The diary of Ms. Angela Yorke:
Exterior cover,
[Both front and back covers of the diary have sustained fire damage that erased any possible writing.]
Interior front cover,
[Angela penned a small note to herself in the corner.]
Hooray! I've finally moved into the new apartment! Yes! I've been waiting so long to move into my own living space! You'd never understand! I'm so excited, my new job starts on Monday! It's going to be awesome! I can already feel the room of having my OWN JOB! I bought this diary to prove to myself, when I'm old and senile, that I really did it. I really made it on my own in the world. So, congratulations girl! You made it!
Sincerely yours(elf),
Angela S.
July 2,
Too exhausted to write much. Me, Susan, Hillary, and Andre spent all day in the woods. We got lost at one point, which is why we got back so late. However, I feel that it was a lucky break; we ran across this really old looking cabin right beside a creek. It kind of freaked us out at first, but Susan said that there wasn't any record of a cabin in the area and that we must've run across some ancient hunter's woodhouse. Tomorrow we're all returning to explore it more fully. Maybe if we collect enough information about it, we can get mentioned in the locals. Meanwhile, I'll be treating the blisters all over my heel. I really do need new boots.
July 3,
What a strange day. It took us forever to find the path we had accidentally stumbled across the day before. When we finally got to where the cabin had stood, it was gone. In its place there was a big mound of ash spread all over the grass. We stomped all over it trying to find clues, but all I could find was scorched wood and melted nails. Susan found a burnt doll, only its blue glass eyes still untouched. That freaked us out. Then, Andre kicked apart a small pile of charcoal and found a tooth inside. Well, we booked it back to the main trail pretty fast after that. In the darkness beneath the trees I think our imaginations must have run a little wild; of course, once we were in the sunlight again we realized we must have taken the wrong trail and run across the ruins of another cabin, which must have burned down a long time ago. Still, sitting in my bedroom at night, thinking about that patch of burnt wood, makes me shiver.
July 4,
What a shitty 4 July. Work was a pain in the ass. I came home all angry at my boss, ready to collapse on my couch and watch bad TV, when I noticed a trail of black footprints all over my carpet. It spooked me until I realized that the prints were from my own shoes. Somehow, I managed to track ash all over my floor and not notice it until tonight. I thought the hike would've been enough to get that crap off my shoes. Damn Damn Damn Damn. Also, when I was relaxing in the bath I found black stains between my toes. I couldn't get them out completely, but I'm not as worried about that as much as the carpet. I pulled out all of the bottles under the sink, but none of my cleaners could get the stuff out. I'll have to go rent a carpet cleaner tomorrow and get the stain out before the landlady sees it. Curse you, white carpet!
