One

 

          Melissa,

                   Gone to Taylor’s for a while. Might be back before New Years.

          Miss you,

                   Haven.

 

          Melissa eyed the paper that had been slipped under her pillow, unbelieving that Haven’s hand had scribbled those tiny sentences. The hand writing did look like Havens, she had to admit, and she could imagine Havens fluttery, stuttering voice speaking the words to her inside her head.

            Taylor... Which of Havens friends had that been? The orange-headed one? No, it had to have been the blonde. Which one, which one?! The question repeated through Melissa’s head, pounding off the rim of her skull and bounding back to her brain.

            Suddenly, something occurred to Melissa. “New Years…” She muttered. Jumping from her bed, she ignored the icy hard wood beneath her feet, that would had usually brought shivers to her spine, and practically threw herself into the living room door.

            A corkboard was glued to the wall, pins pricked over most of the surface it offered. A small, word-and-date calendar hung over a little notebook, of which a hole was punched out of in the very center, and Melissa leapt over to it.

            A large, black-printed ‘SEPT. 9’ was on the front sheet. “September…” Melissa muttered. New Years was almost four months away.

            Did she leave anything behind?! Melissa thought, beginning to fling herself behind furniture and between the cracks that lead to the familiar crawl-spaces. Remembering the hours and hours she and Haven had spent investigating them, Melissa sighed.

            A small, rectangle-shaped, pink book with a black ‘X’ colored over the front, was wedged into one of the cracks. Snatching it, Melissa flipped to the front page, and read the entire first line.

            “Phonebook!”

                       *           *           *