Short Stories

Missing

My best friend, Harry, had been missing for a week. A week. I decided that I should go check on his house, perhaps he was hiding out there. So I grabbed my phone and keys and left my apartment.

As I looked to his house from across the street, I noticed that his porch lights were on, as were the lights inside his living room. Strange. I checked the road for oncoming cars and crossed. I knocked on his green and white door and an unfamiliar middle-aged man, roughly 38, opened the door. I explained the situation to him and how I wanted to check the house to see if he was there when he explained to me that he had been living there for years and that he hadn't heard of anyone going missing in our small town lately. However, he still let me in as he told me he had nothing to hide.

I walked around, inspecting the house, all the belongings were different. I thought that checking Harry's old bedroom would be best, given there might be some sort of clue as to where he had gone. I walked over to where his bedroom was and opened the door, and much to my dismay, it had been turned into a storage closet. I thought it would still be a good idea to look around. After about thirty seconds of looking, I noticed my name painted in the corner, with a message underneath it. "Please come find me. Don't forget me too." I grabbed a scrap piece of paper and wrote down the message along with Harry's name. I told the man that I was done and left.

Once I got home I had a light dinner then went to bed. I tossed and turned as I thought about Harry's message. What did he mean by 'find me' and why did no one remember him? After a while, I finally fell asleep. When I awoke, I noticed there was a piece of paper on my bedside table. It was a note:

Please come find me.
Don't forget me too.
-Harry

What did that mean? And who was Harry?