The Twists and Turns (Flash Fiction)

Instructions

The Twists and Turns It was a sweltering-hot summer afternoon with all the glistening green leaves and Nina was having ice cream with her best friends that she wouldn’t trade for the world: Molly and Drake. They were having fun at the local amusement park, and then Drake muttered something to himself no one else could understand. Drake does that randomly. They all go around the amusement park doing games. Four minutes later they get off the dropper which is their favorite roller coaster. They didn’t care that they ate beforehand; they still loved it. Twelve minutes later Molly said, “I have to go to the bathroom.” While Molly was in the bathroom Nina and Drake got hot dogs and sat down. After they sat down four minutes later they were getting concerned about Molly. When Nina was in the line to get cotton candy Drake went to the bathroom to check on Molly. Later he came back and said, “Molly isn't in there.” Nina’s heart stopped — her eyes grew wide. “What?” Nina's voice quivered as she spoke. Nina’s head started spinning in circles, while her chest hurt. They checked their phones and saw a news report that said people are going missing locally, and they think it is the same person who is taking them. They also said the person targets the people who are alone. She didn’t… no she wouldn’t believe that someone had done that to Molly. Molly was the kindest person she knew. Nina took a moment to take in what happened with tears in her eyes. Four minutes later Nina stopped crying because crying didn’t help finding Molly. They left the bathroom. Nina and Drake held a search party to look for Molly. Drake always has a flashlight with him on a key chain he always has just in case they might need it. They checked the other bathroom and realized the window was open. This was no surprise, it was always open because it let the cool air in. Strangely, Nina got the chills from it this time. They checked one of the stalls and there was a tiny bit of dirt on the toilet. On the floor next to the toilet there was a hair clip. The hair clip looked like Molly's but it was a common hair clip that almost everyone had. They checked outside and saw footprints in the dirt of what looked like two people walking together. They followed the footprints … footprints that led to a graveyard. Nina felt a little bit cheeped out. Hours later, by the time Nina and Drake gave up looking at the graveyard, it was dark outside and everyone else who was in the search party already left. Nina felt cold, really cold, maybe even as cold as ice even though it was summer. As they were leaving the grave yard they turned on the flashlight, but the flashlight was dim. When they were walking back to see if they missed anything along the way, the flashlight they were using went out. Nina got a little bit scared after everything that was going on. It was just space and black. Drake said "I came prepared and brought two extra flashlights for us to use”. As they were walking back Nina saw drag marks into the woods and they followed the drag marks to a ruined, abandoned shed that was in the woods. Nina never saw the shed before even though she went to the amusement park everyday during the summer. Nina was confused why she never saw it before. Nina noticed that the door that led inside the shed had some holes in it. Drake said, “we should leave and come back in the morning.” But Nina ignored him and went closer to investigate. They went inside and there were a lot of cobwebs and in there they found Molly's body in the corner of the shed along with all the other local people who went missing. Nina called the cops while looking at Molly's phone which was on. She picked up Molly's phone at the same time it died and realized something horrifying as she stood dead still. She accepted Molly's fate—and her own—as she stood there. All she wished for was to see one more day as a glint of silver caught her eye in the reflection of Molly’s phone.