Remember The Curfew | Teen Ink

Remember The Curfew

October 26, 2017
By noah.russell BRONZE, Eustace, Texas
noah.russell BRONZE, Eustace, Texas
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Weird things happen in this town. Cars go missing, animals go missing, but the most common of all?  People go missing.
  It all started September 30, 2016, when my best friend, Sadie Gallardo, went missing. I’ve never been the same since the “accident” (they so call it), but I know it wasn’t an accident. That’s why it’s gonna come down to me. My name’s Jack Priscilla, and it’s my job to find out who--or what--caused Sadie to disappear.
She’s been my best friend since the first day of first grade, and we’ve always walked to school together. As soon as we convinced our parents that we were old enough to make it to school without getting lost or . . . kidnapped, they said, “Okay, off you go,” and we did.
Off we went.
It feels different to do this on my own. Sadie was--er, she is--always fun and full of joy.
She’d nudge me whenever she cracked a joke; it made me wince a little, but I wasn’t going to say anything, since ya know, I’m a guy. On another note, it’s my first year of high school. I decided to play football this year. Big mistake! The first day of pads, I was put against the biggest, baddest,strongest, not to mention the most popular kid in school, Brad Scott-Worth.
I played running back in middle school and was pretty fast, but compared to these kids,  I am slow as a two ton elephant. I managed to break through the Varsity lineman on the first play, but not through Brad. When he hit me, it felt like I was getting run over by a speeding train. That’s when I broke my leg.


How was I supposed to find the reason my best friend disappeared now? Except for doing my homework in my room after school, the only other thing I could do was have binoculars and stare at the streets in front of my house, Sadie's old house, and the house that belongs to that creepy old lady that has like 400 cats.
After hours of staring at Sadie’s house, I noticed something. There were coordinates on her bedroom window which looked to be written in some type of red substance.
The coordinates read, 110 degrees west and 46 degrees north. After reading the coordinates over and over again, I entered them into my phone, and I was shocked. They were the same as the abandoned factory we would go to after school. Then I saw movement in the window. A tall figure swept quickly across the room, with the white curtains floating in the wind behind him. I looked away for a moment to get my soup, and when I looked back, a man with a scarred face stared at me with a haunted look, then closed the curtains. I stayed out all day watching and waiting for the “man” to appear again, so I could get a picture. But after waiting until 10:00 P.M., nothing happened, so I went to sleep.
I had trouble sleeping that night, because I was wondering: who--or what--was the figure in the window? What could the coordinates mean? Who could’ve taken a poor helpless girl?
I didn’t know any of these answers. Did she run away? Possibly get kidnapped? Who was that in the window? But I was going to follow those coordinates, answer these questions, and solve the mystery of why and where Sadie disappeared. 


     Halloween: my least favorite holiday, because that’s when the bad things happen. Three years ago on this same day, my friend Carlos’s little brother went missing and hasn’t shown up since. The police gave up after 2 years of investigation and told the town not to worry. But I’m not convinced they should have stopped searching.
I’m paranoid that I’m next and someone’s coming for me. I have no proof I am just a scared little boy. But who am I kidding? I am so dang paranoid that I have to sleep with my little sister’s night light glowing. I even get scared with that, because a giant princess shadow haunts me while I am sleeping.
But otherwise? I’m totally fine. At least I hope.  
  Halloween night: I’m wishing myself luck while dressed in my giant squirrel costume. I have to bring my little sister Grace trick-or-treating. Ugh, why is it always me? But at least when I take my sis trick-or-treating, I can look for clues or mysterious activities involving Sadie’s disappearance. 
We walk and we walk for a couple of hours and I swear my sister managed to get about 5 pounds of candy.  After about 2 hours, I was getting annoyed. My sister got a sugar high off of Snickers and M & M’s. I took her home and told my mom I was going out with friends.
But I lied.
  I was really going to look again and again to see if I could find anything about Sadie. Now I’m searching for clues like a dog looking for a bone.
It got later and later and I began to grow fearful. By 10 P.M., it was pitch black (except for a light pole). I sprinted to the light post. I heard footsteps behind me. Were they my own? Or was my mind playing tricks? Were the footsteps echoes of my own? I looked around searching for a creature and then I saw him. The scar-faced man staring at me through his blood red eyes. He started walking toward me, and I froze. I began to turn like I was going to run.
Then he started running and I didn’t move an inch. He grabbed me by the arm and yelled to me in a raspy voice and said, “Quit looking for your little friend Sadie, you won’t find her. If you don’t stop looking for her i’ll come for you and it won’t be nice.”  I ran, and I didn’t stop running. Miles and miles I ran all the way to my house and straight to my room.
What did it mean by quit looking for her? I mean I couldn’t stop now and I wouldn’t stop now. I am so close to finding more clues and I am finally ready to follow those coordinates. Starting tomorrow morning I’m gonna be there waiting.
I woke up that next morning and I took off on my bike towards the abandoned factory to continue looking for more clues. I pulled up to the front door and swallowed my fears. I began walking towards the door. I walked in and boy did this place stink. I was probably the stupidest person in the world because I began to call her name. “SADIE?!”, again, “SADIE?!”.  Then I heard him. Running behind me and grunting like a buffalo. I took off to the first room I found and hid. He walked in and began to look around. Searching for a me.  He walked out of the room and I had a moment of relief until I knocked over a bucket. Then he appeared in the doorway and began to walk toward me.  I grabbed the bucket and hit him, then sprinted for the front door. I grabbed my bike and didn’t stop pedaling all the way to Stevensville and Ferry border. Only then did I stop and look back at that factory, not wanting to go back, but at the same time wanting to. I knew she was in there crying in the corner of a room with him just stalking her torturing her. I was heated. I pedalled for an hour back to my house. I told my mom I love her, went straight to my room, and slammed the door. I began to plan.
Day 2: I had it all figured out. The steps for the plan. The execution. Maybe my ideas were a little unpredictable since my last step was to find Sadie, defeat him, then Sadie and I would run off to our little neighborhood and just catch up on the year we missed. But that isn’t rational. I have to find clues to where she is exactly in the place. That next morning, I pulled up around to the back this time so the scar-faced man wouldn’t hear the sliding doors. I went all the way to floor 11 of the factory to begin my search. I looked for hours and I didn’t find a thing. I was on the 9th floor and I finally found something: Sadie’s right shoe dangling from the balcony. I looked down and saw him waving at me. I untied the shoe and as I turned around he was standing there with his arms crossed. He then spoke in his raspy villain-like voice: “I told you,, Jack Priscilla, Sadie is dead. Don’t come back ever again, or you too will share the same fate.” He followed me home like a shadow and watched me all night waiting, making sure I didn’t leave the house.

It’s been a whole week and I’m scared because the man has not stopped watching me. I don’t know what to do besides sit and watch him as he stands in the street with his scarred face and beady red eyes watching like a hawk.
Two weeks have gone by and at last he is gone. Now, I take the dumbest decision of my life and go to the factory. I pull up and began searching and searching for hours. 4 hours and 10 minutes into the search, I heard crying. SADIE?! I entered the room where I heard the crying and there she was. Sadie was balled up in the fetal position in the corner and looked like she lost 50 pounds. I picked her up and the man appeared in the room. I grabbed the nearest item to my right. I was ready for a battle. Then to my surprise he turned his body and said to me, “Go ahead” with a strange grin on his face.
  I picked Sadie up and brought her home. She was shivering and mumbling strange things I couldn’t understand. I couldn’t help but think what the man could’ve done to her or said to her.
It’s been a couple of days since Sadie has been at my house. Her parents came over and about choked me to death when they hugged me. They took her to her house and cared for her. After about a week of care, Sadie began warming up and talking to me. At night, though it’s really creepy. Sadie lays in the corner mumbling some kind of language.
Two weeks into the stay, she began acting pretty normal. She has been eating and showering normally and having full conversations with me. I feel so relieved that she didn’t snap and try to kill me or something. Hopefully that is not a jinx. Sadie and I have been watching our favorite show together: The Adventures of Dino and Gary.
One night I stayed up listening to Sadie mumbling in her sleep, and it was strange. I heard words like, “kill” and “not him”.  I went to sleep and I woke up to a horrible sight. Sadie had snapped. She was holding me down with a knife in her hand trying to kill me. She seemed to be fighting back against someone, stabbing the mattress next to me. She hit my shoulder and I yelled as loud as I could.
Good thing my mom heard me and ran to my room. She grabbed Sadie and tied her to the staircase. My mom called the cops as I was basically bleeding out on the front porch. Then I saw him. The scarred faced man just stood there in the streets pointing, smiling, and laughing.
About 15 minutes go by and I began to feel dizzy. Then I passed out. All I could hear was the siren of the ambulance I was in. “......Wooop….Wooop.” As I drove off all I could think about was why did Sadie do what she did? When we arrived at the hospital, all I could hear was the voices of doctors screaming and rustling tools around on a metal table.
I woke the next day in my hospital bed and began  wincing in pain over my shoulder. The doctors said I would be in this room for the until tomorrow. I looked around the room and saw my room looking at me with a face full of sorrow. I fell asleep out of boredom. I woke up and to my surprise I was in my mom’s car driving back to my house. I arrived home and bolted to the living room and turn on the TV because my mom said I was on the news. The reporter spoke about a deranged teenage girl who attacked her fellow classmate after being tortured for almost 2 years. They also provided vivid images of my wound.
Apparently the cops took Sadie to Ferry Psychiatric Hospital and put her in a straight jacket. The doctor said she’ll been in there for a long time and,I have no doubt in my mind they are telling the truth. Yet I have a feeling some way some how she’ll get out.
I come and visit every once and awhile after school when I get bored because I have nothing better to do. She just sits there in her straight jacket and rocks back and forth. I sit in the window wondering what she’s thinking and trying to put myself in her shoes. I only stay for a couple of hours because I can’t stand to not talk to her. I don’t know how I still want her as my best friend even after she tried to kill me a few weeks ago. I guess it’s just something inside of me that is calling her name and drives me to her. I don’t know and I don’t really care.
It’s January the 1st and finally it happened. Sadie broke out of that little psych ward. The authorities don’t know how she got out or where she is. But I am scared. I know she is coming for me, so all I do is sit and wait. 3 days go by nothing happens. 4, 5, and 6 days go by and still nothing happens. The 7th days hits. I look out my window there she is in the street looking like a cousin of the grudge. I run outside but get stopped by my mom. She told me not to go outside by I swam around her and went anyways. I stood on the front porch as she walked towards me. As I turned to look around the street I saw him. The scarred face man behind Sadie controlling her like a puppet. Sadie then spoke in an unsettling voice, “ Hello, Jack, I’m coming back and when I do, you will be six feet under!” Sadie turned and walked away with the man. All I could do was think about what she said and then I thought to myself. This all happened when Sadie forgot to Remember the Curfew.

To be continued…..


The author's comments:

My peice is about a young boy's best friend who gets kidnapped by a mysterious scarred faced man. After many trials and errors he finally rescues her. She then snaps after being brain washed by the "man" and trys to kill Jack. 

 

Hope y'all enjoy!


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