HAPPYVILE, 2014

Happyvile High has been without a chef for an awfully long time but finally managed to hire someone. Abraham Cook, despite his family’s reputation he was a competent cook and could actually make some decent meals for the students. It was around this time that students started to go missing. At first it was 1 student a month, then a couple before eventually the school looked into it. Of course, the teachers and police did nothing to investigate the matter, instead just saying “they ran away” or “ditched school”. Sarah, however was not happy with how poorly this was being dealt with. Many students would simply shrug their shoulders, but not her. “The special for today is lasagne” Sarah scoffs. “How can they just go on and not give a damn that students are disappearing almost on a weekly basis?” Sarah asked, feeling angry.

“I’m sure the police are doing everything they can” Sarah’s best friend, Jessica, replied, not paying much attention except for the food in front of her.

“You should eat, all this pointless wondering is going to make you hungry” Jessica moved her food towards Sarah

“Hell no. For all I know, they probably put their disgusting, unwashed hand in that food before they served it” Sarah replied, pushing the food back to Jessica.

“As long as it tastes good, I don’t mind”

“Your standards are very low”

“Eh” Jessica said and continued digging into her food.

“Fuck it. If the teachers and police are not going to do anything, then I will” Sarah said with extreme confidence

“What are you going to do?” Jessica asked, not seriously

“I… I don’t know” Sarah replied, slinking back into her seat.

“Again, just let it go. I’m sure they will all turn up eventually, probably” Jessica replied with a mouthful.

That night, Sarah couldn’t stop thinking about the missing people. Sarah had read all papers and news reports about the disappearances, but they were all the same, ‘this student was staying late and never returned home. Parents didn’t find out till the next morning and no one saw a thing’. Personally, Sarah didn’t much care for the students as all of them were the absolute worst but the latest victim Kate was a close classmate she really liked and was baffled at how little her own teachers cared about a Grade-A kid. Sarah began documenting all the missing kids, but she couldn’t find a pattern due to how little the police cared. Some kids were not even reported missing until weeks later. Feeling defeated for the night, Sarah went to bed.

The next morning, during their lunch break, Sarah decided to buy a drink. It wasn’t until now that Sarah got an up-close look at Abraham. Like most of the males, he was very tall and noticeably huge. Not fat, but very built. He had an untrimmed beard that had little strands sticking upright, his eyes had bags underneath bags underneath bags and his skin was covered in bruises and scars all around. Despite his bodily appearance, he was surprisingly clean. His apron, clothes and even body odor were insanely neat and smelt like he dumped a load of perfume onto himself. After Sarah bought her drink, she went and sat down next to Jessica.

“I’ve noticed something” Sarah immediately said as he sat down.

“Aaaaaaand her comes the conspiracy theories” Jessica said, not even phased.

“Abraham is insanely clean”

“Well yeah. I know Happyvile isn’t the cleanest place, but we gotta have SOME standards”

“No, I mean like he is overly clean. Like not even a dirt or smudge anywhere, his clothes are pure white”

“Maybe he is a clean freak? Oddly, the dirtiest people are the cleanest”

“Perhaps. I just have an off feeling about him”

“You have an off feeling about everyone”

“That’s not true” Sarah points to Jessica

“Fair point. How’s your investigation coming along?” Jessica pondered, not really caring

“I got nowhere. This town’s not-giving-a-shit makes it almost impossible to even find out when they went missing”

“Uh-huh”

“What are you eating?”

“Spaghetti. It’s the new Lunch special” Jessica said, with added fake enthusiasm

“I still don’t know how you can eat that. It doesn’t even look like spaghetti”

“Maybe it’s a family recipe. Do I care? Nope” Jessica said and continued eating.

As the two continued chatting, they were approached by a classmate of theirs

“Have any of you two seen Adrian?” Sally asked

“Uh no, he was absent from first and second period” Sarah replied

“I haven’t heard from him since yesterday. If you do see him, please let me know” Sally said and walked off to a nearby table and asking them.

“Here we go” Jessica said, knowing what was about to come

“Another person to the list” Sarah replied, sounding smug.

Later that night, Sarah did a lot more studying and came across a status post a student had made. “It has been 2 months and my friend Alice is still missing! The police aren’t doing shit! Please if anyone knows anything, message me!”. Sarah finally had something to go on. Even though Sarah wasn’t close with most people, she at least knew of Alice who was one of the very first people to go missing. Sarah was able to begin a timeline. As Sarah began writing names, she had a curious thought.

The next day, early in the morning Sarah caught up to Principal Hayford.

“Principal Hayford” Sarah said, to get his attention

“Oh, hello Sarah” Hayford replied, looking slightly annoyed

“May I ask you a question?”

“That depends, is it about the missing kids?” Hayford said with a slight irritation in his voice

“No. I was wondering when you hired Abraham, the new cook?”

“Oh, about a couple months back” Hayford’s tone immediately changed

“Do you know the exact date?”

“Not right now, but I can look it up and e-mail you it. Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious. So far he is already the best cook we’ve gotten for this school”

“I agree. And he was cheap too. I feel like I got a good deal” Hayford chuckled

“Well thanks, I got to go now” and Sarah ran off before Hayford could trap her in a conversation.

“The day Abraham was hired, Alice went missing the same week!” Sarah said as she said down next to Jessica

“Good morning to you too” Jessica replied, preparing herself for another one of Sarah’s rants.

“Think about it. We’ve had cooks come and go with no problems and then when we got Abraham BOOM 16 students and counting have gone missing”

“That is pretty damning evidence, but you ever consider it could be the Happyvile Slasher behind this?”

“No, The Happyvile Slasher has been gone for a year now. And if it was him, we would definitely know”

“Yeah, I guess”

“How can you just sit there, eating and not give a single fuck?”

“What can I do? I’m not the police. I don’t have any skills to do anything. I mean it sucks, but what can you do?”

“I guess” Sarah replied, feeling tired she wasn’t getting anywhere. “What is the lunch special for today?”

“Homemade pizza, with cheese, pepperoni and shredded meat” Jessica said as she took a huge bite

“Looks appetizing” Sarah said, with extreme sarcasm.

Throughout the day, her suspicions of Abraham continued to pursue her, and Sarah knew if she wanted to do something, she was going to have to act. She pretended to stay back at the library, studying and as everyone began leaving except the librarian, Sarah put her plan into motion. Because the school was empty, Sarah could easily slip into the cafeteria and hop the counter. Much like Abraham’s appearance, the kitchen too was spotless. Everything was neatly put away, no dishes in the rack and the floor was clean. Sarah continued looking but aside from basic kitchen items, nothing stood out, until she saw a cardboard box in underneath a table. Inside the box were a few random items and trinkets. Keyrings, badges, pins, hair ties, just a random assortment of items and then Sarah saw it, Kate’s bracelet. She knew it was Kate’s because it had pink nail polish striped onto it, which Sarah had done as a joke. Sarah then heard some heavy footsteps and she immediately put the box back and hopped the counter, pretending to look around. Abraham entered the café and noticed Sarah.

“What are you doing here, child?” Abraham asked, extremely suspiciously.

His voice was a lot deeper when he was angry.

“Oh, I uh dropped something and came back to look for it, but I… uh” Sarah tried to make excuses, but she was bad at it.

“Hold on, I got a box around here”

“A box?”

“Whenever I find stuff students have left, I collect them and hand it to the office’s lost-and-found”

Abraham entered the kitchen area and immediately noticed dirt prints on the floor. He kept this discovery to himself and got the box, all the while eyeing Sarah suspiciously.

“Are any of these yours?”

“Oh there it is, the bracelet. Where did you find this?”

“Over by the back table”

Sarah knew he was lying, Kate would never take off her bracelet unless she had to.

“Thank you” Sarah said and walked off, with fear consuming her.

Abraham watched her walk away and cleaned the kitchen, before closing and heading home. Sarah couldn’t shake the gut feeling she had of Abraham, but she knew he was responsible for this.

“I found Kate’s bracelet in the kitchen! He claims he found it on a table” Sarah exclaimed over the phone to Jessica

“So you broke into a kitchen and found a bracelet in a box”

“I didn’t break in, it was open”

“Sarah, that is a lazy connection and you know it”

“I’m telling you, he is responsible for Kate and maybe the others. I know it!”

“I’m hanging up, call me back when you’ve calmed down”

“Fucking asshole” Sarah muttered and dropped her phone onto her bed. Sarah knew Jessica was right, this evidence was barely anything, and even if it was enough, the cops wouldn’t give enough of a shit to do anything. Sarah knew if she wanted to make a change, she would have to get picture proof.

(To be continued)