Dark Entries

Chapter 1 - Cherryred

Blake Manor, Crystal Cove, January 4, 2023.

7pm

Daphne read that line for the tenth time and she didn't understand the meaning of those words. She read it once more and... realized that she wouldn't understand it again. The content was not difficult. It was just fashion. It was Diana Vreeland. But she hated fashion college and Diana Vreeland, so her mind was purposely making those words less and less interesting. Finally, she gave up reading the book and grabbed her cell phone. Of course, just to check Instagram: Daphne Blake. 36 million followers, 1022 new followers in the last hour. About 10% of the country's population paid attention to her life... but it was a kind of life that she herself preferred to ignore. It was a fake life, a beautiful and obvious mask, compatible with her beauty and her economic standard of living... but it was still a mask. And the real Daphne behind the mask was tired of it. So, in a spontaneous existential impulse, she opened her MacBook, typed in the search field: "True Crime Forum" and accessed her secret account: cherryred.

Fortunately, her secret identity was as popular as her real-life identity: her posts were eagerly awaited, commented and acclaimed by thousands of users. Her last post, "the moon pendant mystery", had received more than two hundred responses. There were testimonies from people who remembered the fateful day when a young woman's body was found inside the pool of an abandoned house in San Francisco, there were newspaper articles about the case, there were graphic testimonies describing the deplorable conditions in which the body was found , there were people celebrating that finally a photo of the pendant was published... and there were messages from Australian users saying the photo that Daphne had posted – a rustic pendant in the shape of a waxing crescent moon – showed a religious symbol of a tribe of local natives. Immediately, Daphne opened the Australian government's Missing Persons page and typed all the physical characteristics of the Jane Doe who was found in 1981 wearing only a necklace. In less than 10 seconds, the page revealed the end of a mystery that San Francisco police couldn't solve in more than 40 years: Jane Doe was probably Allyra Mahon, who went missing in New South Wales in 1979 .

"Some Australian families lived in this neighborhood in the early 80s. I used to deliver newspaper there and I remember it well", was the post that appeared shortly afterwards, motivating Daphne to go deeper into her research on Allyra Mahon. In a 2020 video, Allyra's twin sister, now 60 years old, talks about the day an Australian naval officer offered Allyra a job in the USA – the morning after it, the girl disappeared. When the woman wiped her tears, Daphne could see that she was wearing a pendant in the shape of a star, pretty similar to Jane Doe 's pendant. "Do you remember naval officers living near the crime scene?", Daphne quickly typed, responding the user who had posted the last message. "No, but there was a crazy guy who lived three blocks away, he enjoyed wearing army uniforms. I think he wasn't a real officer, he just dressed like that to impress girls and arouse respect. If I'm not wrong, his name was Joel. He had the reputation of being abusive to women, including his own mother", was the response that appeared after a few minutes. Then, Daphne posted the video of Allyra's sister and some links to articles that reported Allyra's disappearance. "I'm not saying that Jane Doe is Allyra, but I can see a lot of connections between the moon pendant mystery and the Australian girl's disappearance. The pendant that Allyra's sister wears is very similar to the moon pendant. I think the Australian community should report these coincidences to the authorities," she typed, and at the moment her message was posted, Jenkins opened the door, announcing the dinner.

Jenkins: Your parents are waiting for you, Miss. Blake.

The noise startled Daphne and she immediately closed her MacBook. Then, Jenkins apologized for it.