The Disappearance on Sunflower Ranch

You know when you wake up in the morning, you can feel the sun lightly brush your face, giving you a refreshing feeling? That's how it felt living on Sunflower Ranch. It's like you were given a warm hug every morning you woke up, even if nobody was there. I found that feeling quite ironic, because it was as off-white as a powdered donut almost every day, but the feeling of warmth and love made up for it. But one day, that feeling was snatched away from Fiona's unsuspecting hands.

The Sunflower Ranch home consisted of 2 constant residents (Fiona and Amy) and many daily visitors. It was in a quite remote location, with only two neighbouring homes (the many daily visitors). Everyone was seemingly happy and kind, clearly they were all oblivious to the fact that something was not quite right. You're probably wondering, 'What are they hinting at? Did someone die? What happened?' Well, you're about to find out.

The daily routine at Sunflower Ranch was like anyone's daily routine. Fiona and Amy woke up, had breakfast, walked the dogs and moved on with whatever errands they had to run that day. But one day, Amy didn't wake up. She didn't wake up, because she wasn't in her bed in the first place. Let's go  back a little bit.

The Day of Amy's Disappearance
Fiona woke up at the time she always did; 8:00am. Amy would usually follow, but for some reason she took much longer than usual to get herself together. So, obviously this striked some concern and confusion within Fiona, but not too much since she might of just gone to bed late, right?

Date: 8:23am, Wednesday, 14th of June, 1993
Fiona had woken up and dressed herself, ready for the day. She strolled on down the stairs as per usual, expecting Amy to be in the kitchen, fetching herself some toast. But, to her surprise, she wasn't there..? This was quite strange, considering Amy usually followed a schedule every morning. Maybe she worked a night shift last night? Maybe she went to bed late? All viable options you would think, she couldn't be further from the truth. But Fiona didn't know this yet, so we'll move on.

Date: 9:01am, Wednesday, 14th of June, 1993
It was now past 9:00am, and Amy still hadn't come downstairs for breakfast. Maybe I should go and check on Amy? Fiona had thought to herself. So she did exactly that, she went upstairs to Amy's room. Knock Knock Knock. Nothing. Knock Knock. Again, nothing. "Amy?" Fiona called out, while vigorously knocking on the door, to the point where her knuckles matched the colour of a tomato. Fiona was panicking now, so she barged the door open. She then stood there frozen solid. Amy wasn't in her bed. It was perfectly made as it was the morning before. There wasn't a note or anything... this was all wrong..

Date: 9:14am, Wednesday, 14th of June, 1993
Fiona had to do something. Her roommate was gone, without a trace left behind. She immediately called Amy's number, praying for an answer. She was left with the dial tone for a while before she heard a click, then a,
"Hello?"
Fiona let out an enourmous sigh, filled with relief. "Amy!" Fiona exclaimed, "You have no idea how worried I've been!" She stood there on the line for about 15 seconds, not getting a response. "Hello?" Fiona said, slightly confused. "I'm not sure what you're talking about," Amy began, "I've been at work all morning, did I not tell you?"
This is where Fiona had to take a step back, having to process what she was just told. The Amy she knew would have told her the day before, and left a note saying if she wasn't going to be there in the morning, so this was beyond puzzling. Another gap in Amy's story: their neighbour, Marnie, works at 'Wong's Chinese' with her, and Marnie calls the house every morning at 9:00am to check that Amy's going to work that day. Plus, what generic Chinese food place needs urgent help before 8 in the morning on a typical Wednesday? Something definitely wasn't adding up here.

Date: 9:27am, Wednesday, 14th of June, 1993
Fiona needed to get to the bottom of whatever strange operation was going on, so she decided to call Marnie, just to double check Amy's story. Fiona picked up the phone with great urgency, punching in the numbers with sweat running down her forehead. Click "Yeah." That was definitely Marnie, "If you're from the post office, I don't care if the parcel got sent back."
"No, actually. It's me, Fiona." Fiona said more confidently than ever, even though she was scared out of her mind. "Oh, hey, Fiona!" Marnie chirped. "What's up?"
"I'm just calling because apparently Amy is at work with you, even though it's barely 9:30."
A pause.
"Did she not tell you? We have an off day today, it's the manager's birthday, or something." Marnie said quizzically.
Oh no.
"So she's not at work with you then?" Fiona whisper-shouted shakily.
"Nope, haven't even heard of her all day,"
This was not good at all.
"how about you come over and we figure this out together?"
Marnie was great like that. She would always hold her hand out in a time of need. "Yeah, that sounds great." Fiona said, taking a deep sigh of tranquility.

Date: 9:39am, Wednesday, 14th of June, 1993
Fiona zipped up her turquoise puffer jacket, protecting herself from the harsh cold. As she walked down the footpath to Marnie's house, she went over all the events in her head. This had to be the strangest thing that had ever happened to her, and Amy, obviously. Once she had finally arrived at Marnie's cottage, she knocked a few times. No answer. She was just on the phone with her? Where was she? She knocked a few more times, and the door opened. Except, whoever had opened the door opened it so they were hiding behind it. Fiona (suspecting that Marnie had opened the door.) walked in, unsuspicious. That was the single worst mistake she had ever made.

Date: 9:47am, Wednesday, 14th of June, 1993
Click. Whoever had opened the door has just locked it behind her, which meant no way out. "So, Mar…. OH MY GOD." Marnie was squirming in front of her, tied to a chair! A man with an orange apron holding a very stained baseball bat stood next to poor Marnie. "WHO ARE YOU? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MARNIE?" Fiona screamed, filled to the brim with fear. "Oh, right." The sick man chuckled to himself, "You don't know who I am! Well, I'm Ben, Marnie's... friend." He said with a manic smile on his face. Fiona slowly retreated back to the front door, trying to open it with her hand. But she couldn't, he had previously locked it. "Oh, silly! You aren't leaving!" Ben giggled. "Why.. why are you doing this? Did you get Amy?" Fiona said shakily, as her skin was becoming camouflage with the white wall. Ben chuckled to himself for another few seconds before he came up with a reply, "Well," he began, "let's just say she decided to get onto... the wrong side of Marnie's life, if you know what I mean."
Fiona had to rack her brain for a brief moment, before she realised what kind of 'friend' Ben was.
"Oh. My. God." Fiona began, crowded with horror, "You're the mental guy that tried to kill Marnie after you found out she wasn't single! I thought you had gotten over that, honestly." Fiona then gave him the 'I'm-very-disappointed-with-you' face that your mum gives when you're in trouble.
"HEY!" He roared, "I'M NOT MENTAL! I'M LOYAL!" His face turned angry shade of red, with sweat sliding down his body. "I don't like you!" Marnie screamed, extremely muffled. She did have a long bit of tape on her mouth, after all. "Please leave me and my friends alone!"
"Oh, it's to late for that one, sweetie," Ben began, in a mockingly sombre tone. "Amy's gone, Fiona will be gone, and you get to watch all of it!" He did some little dance to celebrate his demented self after that speech. "Well, we better get cracking then, shall we?" He was having way to much fun mentally torturing these poor women. Fiona kept trying to back away from him, savouring the last shreds of her shortened life, when she found a gap. Not a literal gap, but an imaginary gap, one that could possibly save her and Marnie's life.

Date: 9:58am, Wednesday, 14th of June, 1993
"Wait!" Marnie screamed with her hands flat out in front of her. "Marnie was just kidding! She actually wants to start a life with you!" Marnie was looking at her with the 'are-you-crazy?!' eyes, when Fiona have her a reassuring look. Ben took a big step back, and with a huge grin on his face, he asked, "Really?"
Marnie understood the plan now, and went along perfectly. "Yes! Of course I do! I was just nervous, you know?" Ben then grew a big grin on his face when he said, "Well, in that case.." And.. whacked the bat across her head!(?) Wait, this wasn't supposed to happen! No! Marnie was just killed in front of Fiona's very eyes! She didn't know how to react, she just.. stood there, shocked. "I…" she gasped, still processing what had happened just moments before. "You thought I wouldn't catch on to your little plan, eh?" Ben began quietly, slowly gaining volume and looming over the frightened Fiona. "You think people haven't tried that on me before? Huh? HUH? Well, there's a special place for people like you, it's called Hell!" He then bashed her across the head too.

Date: 1:29pm, Wednesday, 14th of June, 2024
'It was a very sad day for Fiona and Marnie, I do miss them.' Amy said sombrely. 'Oh my goodness,' said Celia, 'that's such an awful thing to happen! How did you get over that?'
'I've had enough questions for one day, thanks.' Amy said while swiftly walking away.

Wait, I know what you're thinking, 'isn't Amy dead?' Well, we never told you how she "died", did we? Well, just to cut a long story short, Amy was attacked by our friend Ben, while she was out on a walk. He hadn't hit as hard as he had thought, and Amy then called an ambulance on herself. She was fine but suffered minor brain damage. Now, I bet you're wondering what happened to Ben, or formally Benjamin Foster. Ben immediately fled the scene and hopped on a plane going across the country, to avoid the police. See, this wasn't his first time stalking young girls, unfortunately, so he knew how to flee a murder scene. Although she suffered minor damage, Amy could still remember the crucial details of Ben's face. He was later arrested and charged with 5 murder charges, and 5 charges of stalking with intent of physical and/or mental harm to go along with his first 5 charges. We aren't sure what happened to him after that, but at least he's off the streets now, right?..