Short stories

Misty Creek

2003
    I flopped on to my bed. My friends betrayed my trust yesterday. They told the whole school about my fear of spiders, and now the whole school is making fun of me. I became friends with these people about a month ago. Oh! I should tell you my name first. I am Matthew, Matthew Dixon, I like being called Matt though. I live in a small house near a creek that leads into a forest. It's called Misty Creek. I also live with my dad, Max Dixon. My mom, Elaine Dixon, is in the hospital with sickness that requires a treatment that costs a lot of money. Sadly we can't afford it yet. On a different topic, I'm a 16 year old high school student, and yes I'm a sophomore.
"Hey Matt?" My dad asks as he opens the door to my room.
"Yeah?" I ask.
"You looked upset when you came home today," He replies.
"Just the same old school work dad. Don't worry!" I lied. I didn't want to worry about me and mom at the same time.
"Okay. You know you can always go to me if something is bothering you, right?" My dad asks.
"Yeah," I say and smile.
"Thank you, Matt." He says and leaves my room, leaving my door open. I sigh and grab my notebook that I write lists and stories in. I didn't actually have any homework that day, so I decided to go to my favorite spot in the creek, a hill overlooking the forest down below.
I arrived a few minutes later, trudging over prickly weeds and flowers, to my spot and sit down and continue on a list I stared the day before:
Places I want to visit:
~Italy
~Greece
~Los angeles, California
~London, England
~
I looked at the flowers around me. I had another, but I forgot what the city was called. Then I remembered it. Moscow, Russia. I turn back to my page to write it down. But once I looked back down at my book, I saw someone had written in it:
~ Italy
~ Greece
~ Los angeles, California
~ London, England
~ New York City
    I looked around. There was no one, so I wrote 'Hello..?' I stared at the page, no writing showed up, and put my pencil on the ground, and moved my hand to my notebook. I sigh, upset with myself. You probably wrote that and didn't remember it. I look at the forest down below and look back to the page:
~ New York City

Hello...? Hi!!

My eyes widen. I grab my pencil and write, 'who are you?' Whatever it was, answered with:
'I'm Sammi, and I'm a ghost, you're a human, I see. what is your name?', 'Matthew.' 'so, are we friends?' 'Yes!'

I learned more about him over time. One day once I got to the creek and started talking to him through my notebook, then he wrote; 'I want to show you something' , 'okay!' He appeared hovering above the hill down to the forest, in front of me,
"Hello Matt!" Sammi said.
"Hi," I say.
"So- what do you think?" Sammi asked.
"So cool!" I say, it was the truth, he looked so cool, but scary at the exact same time.
"Thank you!" Sammi said happily. I don't know why, but his smile sent chills down my back.
"No problem," I say, " I have a question,"
Sammi looks at me and says, "what is it?"
"I ask you this every day but," I sigh, "how did you die?" Sammi looks away, " you don't have to-" Sammi cuts me off, " no, you should know. So how do I start? well, umm, I died here on this hill. I was hanged. It was in the late 1800's. How? you're probably asking. Well, umm, I, umm, well, I murdered more than one hundred people," I sit there dumbfounded, wh-what? I think
"Matt, please don't go. I know I did that, but I'm a changed man! Please trust me," Sammi says, but that was the thing, I didn't trust him, at all... Not any more. I got up and ran.
"Matt! Matt, please! Don't run away, please stay with me forever, Please!" Sammi yells, so I keep running. I was scared, and he sounded like he was angry.
"Matt!" He yelled again, "come back! You can't run forever!" I keep running, past the big tree, the biggest tree in the creek, and jump over a fallen tree. I keep running. then it happened. I ran past the big tree, again, and the fallen tree, then again I passed the big tree and fallen tree. I was going in circles, how? I think. it's a straight run to my house!
"Having trouble finding the way home, Matt?" A voice behinds me chuckles, Sammi! I think. Fear started to engulf me.
"You will stay here forever, with me" Sammi says.

...
"Matt!" I yell, Matt had gone into the creek and hadn't come back. It was past sunset, and he usually went right after he got home from school, which was around six hours ago. it was frightening. I tell him to always get home at seven, which was about 30 minutes ago it is 7:37 now. I go over the fallen tree and pass the biggest tree in the creek then keep heading forward towards the end of the creek. My voice was getting tired because I had been yelling the whole time. I got to the edge of the creek, which was a hill that overlooked the whole forest down below. I walked to a clear spot. There lay Matt's notebook opened to a page with writing all over, so I picked it up and read it. there were two different styles of handwriting, Matt's and a cursive one. My son couldn't have written the cursive one. He had a hard time writing cursive , so even writing like this means- was he kidnapped?! I think. My phone rang, so I took it out of my pocket, it was the hospital.
"Yes?" I answer
    "Is this Max Dixon?" A lady on the phone asked
    "Yes, this is Max Dixon," I say
"I'm sorry for your loss," she said solemnly.
"W-what?" I say, my voice stuttering.
"This evening Elaine Dixon passed away," the lady says and hangs up. It took me a while to register everything, but once I did, I broke down and started sobbing. I lost my son and my wife at the exact same time.
    Years later, Max remarried to Danielle Reed. Danielle Had a son named Leo who, at the time, was sixteen. What about Matt? you ask. He was never found again. But as people say, time goes on. Leo grew up, and 17 years later Leo married someone named Bella Smith, they had a daughter named Lexie Dixon, who at the time was five at the last part of our story;

2020
"Hey mom and dad" I say as I walk on to the porch of my parents house, as Lexie runs ahead.
"Hello Leo," my mom and dad said.
"Hello Max and Danielle," My wife, Bella, says.
"Hello Bella!" they say.

Hours later Lexie was playing in the backyard as I sat on the porch. The breeze was nice, it was sunny as well, and the creek looked beautiful. But as my dad warned me, 'don't go near the creek', which I kept yelling to Lexie about.
"Honey," A voice behind me says, and I turn around to see Bella.
"Yes?" I ask.
"Do you know where Lexie's brush is?" she asks.
"No, did you pack it?" I ask.
"I don't remember," Bella says, and walks back inside. I look back to where Lexie was playing and don't find Lexie, she wasn't anywhere.
"Lexie?!" I yell.
"Daddy!" I heard Lexie yell, it was coming from the creek, then I heard Lexie scream again, then silence, I ran into the creek and yelled, 'Lexie!' She didn't answer, so I ran and ran until I reached a hill.
" Lexie?" I ask. No answer. She wasn't here, so I ran back to the porch to find Bella standing next to my dad.
"Dad, Bella! Lexie is gone!" I yell.
"We heard you yelling, and her scream," Bella said. She looked so broken.
"Son," my dad says, " I need to tell you something."
"Okay?" I say and walk in. We sat on the couch and he told us of my step-brother and how, like Lexie, he disappeared, but how, unlike Lexie he left his notebook behind, which had writing in it. The creepy part was that there was different handwriting than my step-brother's. We decided to call the cops, and they weren't going to send an Amber Alert yet, but they did send two cops to help us search.
Two weeks later, they found Lexie's body. Her body was barely a body, it was twisted and burned, and later they found she had also been drowned, and that most of her bones were broken. From that day forward, the government closed off the forest and creek to everyone, but kids still dared to go in, not knowing what would happen. their bodies were always found, like Lexie's. It was like a sign, 'stay away or else'. I always wondered, what did happen to my step-brother?

-End-