The Last Of Our Girls

Preface

                I remember that night in perfect clarity. Isabelle stood by my side on the train tracks watching the sun dip beneath the trees in the distance. We'd been planning this for months and we had finally pulled it off. We were free. We would never again have to come face to face with what was sure to be haunting our nightmares for the rest of our lives, ever again. Lower and lower the sun sank in the sky. We waited with bated breaths, listening to every minute sound in the forest surrounding us.

"The sun's almost down." She said, moving closer to me. "Won't be long now." She whispered.

As soon as those words left her mouth we could feel the train nearing us. It wouldn't be far off by the feel of it. We jumped off the tracks, preparing to run. Suddenly, there it was, huge, loud, the earth trembling underneath us. This was our last chance. We ran for our lives and our freedom. We ran behind the train pushing our legs to carry us as fast as possible, but Isabelle was falling behind. She had to make it, she was the only other one left. I couldn't be left alone. I wouldn't be left alone, but she was so weak already. I made it, I jumped on the back of the train looking back to see her holding her hand out. I tried grabbing her, tried hoisting her onto the train beside me but, she was so tired. When I had gotten her into the train car she was barely still alive, she had used all her strength trying to catch the train.

"Emily, take this." She said handing me a worn piece of paper she'd hidden inside her shirt.

"What is it?" I asked trying to make sense of the list of names she's just handed me. She looked at me with a bone deep sadness in her eyes; it was then that it dawned on me. It was a list of the other girls. The ones that hadn't made it back.

"What do you want me to do with it? Tell their families?" I asked, turning to her for guidance, but her eyes had already lost their light. She was another name to add to the list. Isabella Cartwright was going to be just another forgotten name. She was gone before her time. Just like every other girl on the list I now held in my hand. I had to make it right in some way. Had to make sure she didn't die in vain, that none of them did. I spent the rest of the train ride to wherever it is we were headed, just thinking.

They tell me not to think too much about that night, the night they found me and Isabelle in a train car after we'd been missing for so long. Instead they want me to focus on everything leading up to that night. They ask me hundreds of questions about everything I can remember, even though I've already told them everything I can remember. Everything I'm telling you now has already been repeated time and time again. This will be the last time and then I will let myself find peace and leave this all behind me.