The Lost

It was during the middle of summer break when I realized that they weren’t coming back. And by “they,” I’m talking about the Lost. It seemed like a handful of people from each city just went missing all of a sudden. One minute they were doing any normal thing and the next minute, their face is on every newspaper and magazine with “Reward if found…” written above their photos. Nobody knew if these people had anything in common besides being someone close enough for everyone to miss. My girlfriend, Siera, her mom, was among the group, and my manager from the Yard Barn was gone as well. Those were about the only two people that were close to me. The other 20 were just associates.

The people left in this stupid town had grouped up to look for clues and act like this was Law and Order. Theme music playing in the background and all. It was a hot mess express, but I was glad to have grouped up with a few kids from my high school. The group consisted of four people, my best friend Mika, his girlfriend, Sharron, Siera, and yours indeed. I’m Kore, by the way. I’d like to think we were the actual Mystery Gang of Fairville since we brought our own individualized gifts into the world. Mika’s dad is the chief over at our local police station, which means he has access to tools and has a keen eye for observations. Siera was taking Advanced Geography and knew the entire map of our town like the back of her hand. I always told her that meant it was time for her and me to pack our bags and head to California. You’ve been somewhere too long it can get around without needing a GPS. Sharron was a bit of a stalker and knew everyone’s information; she could even manipulate people to get them to say whatever she wanted or do whatever she wanted. When Mika first met her, he swears it was love at first sight, especially since they both magically liked the same things. I kept trying to tell him that she most likely got all his info from the internet, but he looked past that to be with one of the most affluent girls in town.

Last but not least, I…. don’t know what my skill is. I know that I helped bring the group together, but I’m not good at anything besides being social. I have no clue how I will contribute to bettering the world and figure out this mystery. But when there is a will, there is a way. I always felt like the outcast or the person who received the Participation trophy. At the same time, everyone else had gold medals and certificates. The only award I ever earned was having perfect attendance throughout my 12 years of school. It wasn’t like I could help it though, till this day, I’ve never driven myself to school, even as a senior. Siera saved to get her a car while all my money went towards helping my dad with the bills. My dad was sort of a loser who was just lazy and didn’t accomplish much in life besides spreading his seed around town. Sometimes, I wish he had been a part of The Lost; I think the world would have been better off. When I wasn’t worrying when my dad would disappear, my friends and I would go lurking around town for any new clues or survivors. About two weeks ago, this group called themselves the Fortie’s found one of The Lost ones inside a dumpster with their hands over their face. The person was allegedly praying really loud, and that was the only reason they were found. What caught the town off guard was the fact that they were speaking a whole other language. I’m not talking about Mandarin or anything crazy. They were speaking like they were off of one of those Star Trek episodes. It was wild, but it encouraged us and gave us hope on finding more people and finding out what the hell was going on.

It seemed like most of the groups around town had collected all the evidence, but there was still no hope. The only place left to search was this old abandoned factory that no one ever dared to set foot in. Of course, my friends were going to be the ones to dig their teeth into it. We loved scary stuff and used every excuse to skip class and watch Horror movies at one of our houses. That’s how we knew the old factory was ours, to begin with. Everyone else in town was too afraid to go near it and came up with several myths and tales about what went on inside it. Today was the day we all found out.

Mika met up at my house while we waited for Siera’s car to pull up front. He brought over a duffle bag full of tools from the police station. The bag was labeled “Forensics.” “We aren’t going to get in trouble for this, right?” I asked Mika as he threw the bag on my bed and kicked up his feet. “Of course we are! But I’m sure a missing Forensics bag is the least of everyone’s concerns.” I rolled my eyes and heard a car horn outside of my window. We crammed inside of the Volkswagen Bug and took off at full speed to the factory. It was all the way across town, deep in the woods. It was so far back that you had to drive your car halfway in and then walk 3 miles before you even hit the property. As we got out to walk, I wrapped my arm around Siera and gave her a kiss on the head. Sharron had pushed her way in between us and yelled, “Get a room! We have a mystery to solve!” She and Siera walked together while Mika and I trailed behind, passing a cigarette back and forth to pass the time. When we got to the factory, a man was standing outside. But it didn’t look like he was standing guard; he was facing towards the doors of the factory and was rocking back and forth. Sharron approached him and placed her hand on his shoulder, which seemed to calm him down. From where I was standing, I could hear the man saying, “They’re here…They’re inside!!”