Thirty three years ago a young girl was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in an abandoned house in Idaho. In her hand she was clutching a letter that read:
Carly,
Please follow me to Oregon. My father found new work here and we can be together forever. We will no longer be apart. I will always love you!

-Love Luke Johnson

Carly, 18, set out to find her love. She had been driving for three days and was exhausted. So she stopped in an abandoned rest stop in the middle of nowhere. Carly walked into the public restroom to freshen up. Suddenly, when in the restroom, Carly found a slight change after walking out of her stale. Knowing something was wrong she quickly washed her hands and headed to her car. As she headed to her car she realized she was in a completely different place .The trees were dark with sharp branches and no leaves. For some reason it reminded her of the street she grew up on, only on the darkest grayest days or the year. Carly walked down the street as if she were going to her own house back in Ohio. A feeling of déjà vu came over her as she walked down the street, she was not sure if this was a place she actually recognized or if it was something she had only dreamt about, but there was something eerily familiar about it.

She came upon a house that she recognized from her neighborhood. It was not the house she grew up in but one she had walked by hundreds of times. The house had always given her the creeps. It was never so much the house as it was the man who lived in it. She had never spoken to him, but for some reason he bothered her to the point where she had nightmares involving the neighbor chasing her.

Since there was no other houses around she decided to knock on the door and see if anyone was home. She was hopeful that someone could help her get her bearings and find a place where she could stay the night.

She was so tired maybe there was a place close by. As she knocked on the front door it pushed open as if the latch were broken. The door swung open to a large living room. To the right were some stairs and although the downstairs was dark, there was light coming from upstairs so that she could vaguely see that the house looked lived in. She yelled out asking if anyone was at home but heard no reply. She thought she heard someone moving upstairs and called out again as she moved toward the base of the stairs.

She jumped with fright as she heard a woman’s voice reply “come on up I am in the Kitchen”. Her heart was still pounding as she went up the stairs but she was so relieved that someone was home. As she reached the top of the stairs she could hear the footsteps coming her way and explained the door was open as she tried to knock.

She stopped mid sentence as she was greeted by a woman that looked exactly like her boyfriend Luke’s mother. Her heart raced again, as she had never really gotten along with Luke’s mother. “Is that you Mrs. Johnson?” Carly asked. “No” replied the woman, “my last name is Crabtree but you can call me Helen, my husband and I take care of the rest stop”. “You look tired” she added “would you like to have something warm to drink and rest a minute?” Carly nodded yes as she moved around the corner and into a small den. She felt more certain than ever that this woman was Luke’s mother. “Is Hot Chocolate alright” Helen asked as she moved away and down the hall. Carly replied “that would be great”.

After Helen finally left the den Carly began to look around the house and found a picture of the creepy old man. Helen then walked in the room frightening Carly ,Carly then asked “Who is this?”,pointing to the picture, and Helen replied in a deep voice “ That is me!”. Carly barely looked up and noticed Helen had become what seemed to be the creepy old man. He introduced himself as Mr. Crabtree Helen’s husband, but Helen was nowhere to be found in the house.

What was happening she wondered? Why were these people she recognized showing up thousands of miles away? Was she dreaming? Was she hallucinating? She sat down on a small couch as she tried to control her thoughts. She reached for the Hot Chocolate as these thoughts raced through her head. She took a sip and began to relax. The warmth of the drink felt good as it went down her throat and instantly began to warm her body. She had not eaten all day and it felt good to get something in her stomach.

The old man sat down in a chair across from her. She took another sip of her drink and closed her eyes as she swallowed. It again felt warm and comforting as it went down. She focused on the drink and that feeling and she felt the warmth spread through her body. The warmth as she relaxed made her miss her home and family. Was she too quick to leave home on moment’s notice and abandon everything she had known her entire life.

Her fingers began to tingle as she opened her eyes. The old man was gone. The room was spinning and thoughts raced back into her head. Had they put something into her drink? Where are they? She herd moving in the other room but felt she had better leave. She raced toward the stairs but went the wrong way. As she turned to run the opposite direction she ran into someone who was right behind her. A sharp pain went through neck as everything went black.

No one had heard from Carly for 8 days when she was found. The police had decided that her death appeared to be an accident. Her funeral was attended by almost everyone from the small town she had grown up in.Luke Johnson and his family were there as well. They had made the 6 hour drive from the town they had moved to in Pennsylvania.