VANISHING TOWN

The morning sun rose higher in the sky, but the cold fear lingering in the SUV made it feel as if it were still the dead of night. Rachel kept her eyes fixed on the road ahead, her hands trembling slightly in her lap. In the rearview mirror, the faint green glow that had consumed Crescent Falls was nothing more than a sliver on the horizon now. But her gut told her it was far from over.

Mark drove in silence, his knuckles white as he gripped the wheel. Luke was in the passenger seat, staring out the window, as if trying to convince himself that what had just happened was real. Dani sat next to Rachel in the back, her arms crossed tightly against her chest, breathing heavily, like she was on the verge of panic.

“What… what the hell was that?” Dani finally whispered, breaking the silence.

“I don’t know,” Mark replied, his voice strained. “But we’re out. We made it. That’s what matters.”

Rachel shook her head, her eyes narrowing as she watched the road. “Are we? Are we really out?” Her voice was laced with doubt. The way the town had just… disappeared, the way the buildings dissolved into the fog, it was like nothing she had ever seen before. No ghost story, no urban legend could explain it. “I don’t think it’s over.”

Luke turned in his seat to face her, his brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Rachel sighed, pressing her fingers against her temples. “We didn’t escape it, Luke. That place—whatever Crescent Falls is—it let us leave. We didn’t break free. It’s still watching us.”

Mark scoffed, though his grip tightened even more on the wheel. “Let us leave? That’s ridiculous. We’re fine. We just need to get far away and forget this ever happened.”

“Forget?” Rachel’s voice rose. “Did you see what we just escaped? Those things—those *people*—were coming for us. They had no faces, no features! And the town just vanished. That’s not normal. Something isn’t right. We need to figure out what’s happening.”

Dani, still breathing heavily, whispered, “Rachel’s right. This doesn’t feel over. That green light… the buzzing… it’s still with me. It’s like I can feel it under my skin.” Her voice was small, and tears welled up in her eyes. “It’s not gone.”

Mark sighed deeply, frustrated. “So what, Rachel? You want to go back there? You want to turn around and face… whatever the hell that was?”

Rachel was silent for a moment, staring out at the empty stretch of highway ahead. “No. But we need to understand what’s happening. We need to find out what Crescent Falls is before it finds us again.”

Luke crossed his arms and nodded slowly. “Look, as much as I don’t want to admit it, I agree with Rachel. We need answers. But how? That town doesn’t exist on any map. I checked last night. I tried to pull it up on GPS, and there was nothing. Like the place didn’t exist.”

Rachel’s mind raced. They couldn’t go back to Crescent Falls, but there had to be something—some way to learn more about the town and what had happened to them. Her thoughts landed on an idea. “Maybe it’s not on the map. But towns like Crescent Falls… they leave traces. There’s always a story.”

Dani nodded, wiping her eyes. “Maybe local legends, or archives somewhere. Small towns like that always have some kind of history.”

“There’s got to be a record of it somewhere,” Luke agreed. “Old newspapers, maybe a local historian or something.”

Mark finally sighed and glanced at Rachel in the rearview mirror. “Okay, fine. Let’s say we try to figure out what happened back there. Where do we even start? There’s no way to just Google ‘creepy disappearing town with faceless people.’”

Rachel pulled out her phone and stared at the blank screen. No signal. But as they drove, small bursts of connection flickered in and out. She knew they had to find somewhere with solid reception. Somewhere with information. “We find the next town over,” she said, her voice steady. “They’ll know something. Someone will have heard of Crescent Falls. There’s no way we’re the first to experience this.”

Mark didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue. He simply kept driving, his foot pressing a little harder on the gas.

---

After hours of driving, they finally reached a small town, one that looked far more alive than Crescent Falls had. The streets were dotted with pedestrians, small shops with people coming and going. They parked the car and made their way to a local diner, a place that looked like it had been there for decades. The kind of place where the locals gathered, where stories passed around like coffee refills.

Inside, the smell of bacon and fresh coffee greeted them, and the sounds of chatter filled the air. Rachel and the others sat at a booth near the back, scanning the room for someone who looked like they might know the area well.

Their waitress, a woman in her late sixties with short silver hair, approached with a warm smile. “What can I get you all?” she asked, holding a notepad at the ready.

Rachel hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to bring up Crescent Falls without sounding insane. She glanced at the others, then took a deep breath. “Actually… we wanted to ask if you’ve ever heard of a place called Crescent Falls? We passed through it on our way here.”

The woman’s smile faltered. Her pen froze mid-air, and she looked up sharply. “Crescent Falls, you say?” Her voice had dropped to a whisper, her eyes narrowing as if searching their faces for something.

“Yeah,” Dani piped up, her voice soft. “We stopped there last night. It… wasn’t what we expected.”

The waitress stared at them for a long moment, then glanced around the diner, as if checking to make sure no one was listening. She leaned in closer, her voice low. “You kids should’ve never gone there.”

Rachel’s heart skipped a beat. “Why? What do you know about it?”

The woman shook her head. “I know enough. Crescent Falls ain’t a place folks talk about around here. Not anymore. It’s been gone for decades. Burned down in a fire. The whole town—gone. Nothing left but ashes. No one’s been there in over fifty years.”

Rachel’s blood ran cold. “But… but we were just there. It was real. The buildings, the streets—everything.”

The waitress gave her a sad, almost pitying look. “You weren’t in Crescent Falls, sweetheart. You were somewhere else. A place that don’t belong in this world anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Luke demanded, his voice tense. “We were there. We saw it.”

The woman’s gaze darkened, and she straightened up, her eyes full of warning. “If you were there, then you need to leave it alone. Crescent Falls ain’t finished with you. It never is.”

Before they could ask any more questions, the waitress turned and walked away, leaving them in stunned silence.

Rachel’s heart pounded in her chest. The mystery of Crescent Falls wasn’t over. They had touched something dark, something that wasn’t supposed to exist anymore. And now, whatever it was… was following them.

---

**To Be Continued...**