Deluge in the Desert
3rd Place, 8th Grade
by Madison Griffin, CVA Middle School
The air is crisp, nice for an October day. Except nothing is nice about today. My life has changed drastically over the past 24 hours. Both my friend and my brother have gone missing over the course of a day. I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what happened. They both disappeared within a matter of seconds. Vanished without a trace. Before she went missing, my friend told me an old town legend. We just moved to Devil’s Desert, and the name seems to reflect the goings-on of the town. When it rains, people go missing. It’s inevitable. No one knows why people only go missing when it’s raining. Some people return. Some never do. Everyone thinks it’s a crazy person, but my friend thought it was something more. Something evil; something sinister. She wasn’t far off, because the next day, it rained, and she was gone. Someone – or something – wanted to keep her quiet. No one besides their families cared enough about them to investigate, so I decided I would take matters into my own hands. How, I don’t know. All I know about the kidnappings is that they both heard a doorbell ring at their houses, and answered the door. That puts me nowhere closer to finding either of them, but It’s all I have for right now. And then it hits me. To find them, I have to retrace the same steps they took. Luckily the forecast for tomorrow calls for… rain. The rest of the night I lie awake, a feeling of sadness washing over me when the realization of the week’s events finally hits me. The next day, I camp near the door, hoping for the doorbell to ring. I sit there for hours, and start to fall asleep. Suddenly, I’m jolted awake by the bell. It’s late, and everyone else is in bed. I grab my phone, a flashlight, and a small bag. I walk up, uncertain and extremely anxious about what’s behind the door. The only thing that keeps me moving forwards is the need to find my brother and bring him home. I turn the lock and open the door. And then… I wake up. I have no idea where I am, and no idea how I got here. Nothing about this place gives me a sense of safety. And then I see it. My brother and friend both sitting across from me, chained to the wall. I can’t see the state that they’re in, but I doubt it’s good. I realize that I’m also confined. All of my things have been taken. I notice a small sliver of light, a couple of feet behind my brother. I look around me, frantically searching for any sign of life. Then I see something lurking in the shadows. “Who are you?” I yell.
A horrible, grating voice says, “I guess you’ll see.”
I think it’s all over, but one thought rings in my head: Some never return.
But some do.
