A Mystery At Ravenscroft

Dear Diary...

Parker

September 18th, 2021

I take the book and open the cover. I look at the pages, shocked. It's someone's diary. Would it be wrong of me to read it? To go through someone else's personal life like this? I put all my morals aside for a brief moment and decide to look through the diary. On the very front, it reads "The Diary of Ken Taylor." I blow off the dust that has accumulated on the cover and its pages. I read the first entry, dated August 12th, 2021. Wait-- so this is recent--like very recent. It makes me uneasy to think that I'm sitting in the very spot where this girl was. Now I can't help but wonder why this was left behind. I start to scan down the rest of the entry.

Dear Diary:

I'm making it through, just barely. I feel like I'm being watched... all the time. With the help of Viv and Mads, I've been able to keep myself sane. The game tonight was harmless and quite entertaining. But someone else has gone missing. I'm so close to figuring out why these people are just disappearing, but I worry I'll get stopped in my tracks. Will I be next? What have they done?

•••

What on earth did I just read? This has to be a joke, right? This can't be real... can it? Maybe it was for a school project. But if it was, why was it hidden? In a wall of all places. Something isn't sitting right with me. After briefly hesitating, I flip to the next page, intrigued and scared at the same time. This page is dated August 13th, 2021.

Dear Diary:

It's happening again. I can't stop. But if I don't, they'll find me and kill me, I just know it. I just wanted to be seen, to feel like I belong. Find some best friends, possibly a husband... and now it's turned into this. I can't stop crying; I need to rest but I can't; my conscience won't let me. We enabled this to happen. I had the power to make it end but chose to stay silent. I'm part of the problem, and I need to find the solution. Quickly, before it's too late.

•••

I hear my mom knock on my door, and it startles me so bad my soul almost leaves my body.

"Oh, I'm sorry darling, I didn't mean to scare you," she says, looking at me apologetically. "I was just checking in on you; I hadn't heard from you in a while."

"Oh no, it's fine," I say, reassuring her. "I was just putting up some of my things."

I shove the book back behind the dresser and get up off the floor. I walk over to where my mother is standing and wrap my arm around her. "Do you need some help downstairs or in your room?" I ask, trying to get my mind off of whatever the hell I just read.

"Yes, that would be great," she says with a smile.

"Come help me decorate my room; you have such a great eye for detail."

Yes, apparently I do. And because of it, I'm most likely losing sleep tonight. I don't know what I just read or if it was real, but I will definitely be getting to the bottom of it. The amateur sleuth in me can't resist something like this.

I follow my mom into her room and help her decorate, putting paintings on the walls, setting up her TV, and making her bed. All the while, I'm aching to go back and read more. It's like a drug, and I'm already addicted.