Voices That Never Left

Cartoon by Krystal Primero

The police officers surround me, making sure I'm doing fine after the accident.

“Are you hurt? Can you tell us what happened, Max? Where are your friends?” They ask while wiping the blood off my body.

Well... what did go wrong?

Before nightfall, my friends--Abigail, Colin, Sam--and I decided to go on a trip to the manor up on the hill. Specifically, it was a manor famous for attracting many teens for being a test of courage for its spooky look. I clearly remember the first time it became popular; It was a hit amongst all the youngsters in my town.

However, disappearances started happening after months of being peaceful. Three missing teens, disappeared as if they never existed in the first place.

Then, two girls.

However, this time, when the officers searched the manor, they saw something they wished they had never seen;

Two girls dead.

Young bodies were extremely pungent as if they had been rotting for days. The more they thoroughly searched the manor, the more they found three skeletons.

... The skeletons of the previous missing teens.

With that, the manor was sealed off.

Officials—who dared not step inside the manor—reported this to the local news, of course, saying that "people who went up never went back down," but that didn't stop any rebellious teen at all.

Several years passed by, with some years having accidents and some having none. It was a roulette that had already taken more than a hundred lives, and that excited everyone even more... well, the thrill chasers, I mean. 

So, that's where Sam got her idea to go to the manor. You see, Sam is a part of the school's newspaper club, and she was assigned to compete in a competition.

Although she originally hesitated because the topic was too common, she thought that hers would be more unique if she went to the manor. Thus, at the end of school, she called them all up and explained her idea.

"It's a brilliant idea! No other writers have gotten the guts to experience it for themselves!"

At first, they all thought she was joking, and laughed. But then, she suddenly turned serious; She wanted to win.

Undoubtedly, the next day, they were packing their bags to head up to the manor. By the time the sun set, they were at the doors; Old and creaky.

It was like any other old and abandoned manor at first; Shadows clung to the walls, and the floorboards groaned under every step. You wouldn't expect that there would be murders in that old house, rather, you would find it odd that the officials haven't bulldozed the building yet for practically being useless now.

Not to mention there was no particular smell as well. Only the scent of wood and the unnerving coldness, that is.

The first few hours passed by, and Sam was deep into taking notes and pictures. Colin was writing down in his diary, and Abigail was starting to be interested as well. It was going smoothly.

That was until Abigail received a call from her mother. She said that she'd only take a minute and that she would go into another room and answer the call. Sam acknowledged this and continued to take notes, but it wasn't until Sam couldn't hear Abigail's cell phone anymore, that she realized Abigail hadn't come back after thirty minutes or so.

"... I don’t hear her phone anymore, or her loud footsteps, Colin."

Panicking, she said that she would look around, and told Colin to stay put so that she'd be able to regroup with him after.

He agreed, although deep inside Colin was starting to feel uneasy. At first, he buried himself in his diary, writing intently, as if alarmed. His hands trembled as he scribbled, glancing at the door every few seconds.

Hours had already passed and the manor had completely gone silent. Sam's notes flipping were non-existent. Abigail's loud footsteps were no longer there.

Heart racing, atmosphere changing.

Something had already happened, right beneath their noses.

"... That's all I remember, officer. He had run off, leaving the girls in there 'cause he was scared. I tried running after him but... I didn't catch up. I... I think they're gone."

The officer nodded and patted me on the back trying to comfort me in light of the traumatic event, and left me later on to meet with the other officers.

Once I was alone, I took a deep breath.

Looks like they believed me.

Was it obvious that I was recalling "my own" experience from Colin's diary?

No one's ever left a diary before.