The Garage

I've never really liked telling people about this, it was easily the most tragic and scarring thing that has ever happened in my life. I've only talked about it a few times, mainly to therapists that my mother continually made me see. I'd never go in detail, or at least not try to, never was one for therapy, I only really went to quell my mother's fear that I'd never get over this; but you can't just move past something like this.

I guess that the best way to start this would be to give you all a little bit of background. I live in a pretty typical suburban neighborhood; predominately parents with children and a few elderly couples. Overall, a nice neighborhood. My story begins about a week after we moved into our new house. It was towards the end of summer, and school would be starting up in just a couple weeks. I lived with my mother, and my younger sister, who for the sake of her identity, I'll be addressing as Melissa, who, at the time, was 9 years old. I had just turned 18 and would be starting my senior year in highschool. Even though we moved a good distance away from our last house, I was still going to the same school. My sister, however, had changed elementary schools due to it being too far out of the way. Naturally, my sister was upset that she'd have to leave all her friends from school behind, but being a 9 year old, that soon passed. Melissa came to find our neighborhood was just about everything she could have asked for, many of our neighbors had young girls who were right around the age of my sister.

One afternoon, a little over 2 weeks after we moved in, our neighbors, who I'll address as The Rogers, invited us over for a barbecue. My mother was delighted at the idea and was very excited to get to know more of the neighbors, so we went straight over. Being a typical teenager, I wasn't thrilled to have to hang around a stranger's backyard with people my mother's age and my kid sister's age, but I ended up having a good time. Melissa had a blast, as it turned out there were 4 girls who were in the same grade as her, and would be her classmates in the upcoming school year. As you can imagine, they all became fast friends, but none more-so than one of the girls, who we'll call Annie.

Annie lived in the house right across the street from us, and was just about everything you'd expect from a young girl; very friendly, bubbly, and generally just fun to be around. Annie's parents, Gerald and Cynthia, seemed like great people; they had a certain warmth to them, always friendly and inviting. Annie's parents and my mother ended up becoming good friends due to how much time Annie would spend at our house, and Melissa at their's.

Over the course of about a month, it seemed like Annie was spending more time at our house than at her own, and Melissa rarely went over there either. I was fine with Annie spending more time at our house, I had really grown to like her. She was very intelligent and mature for someone her age, and I had never seen her act out. We always told Annie that she was welcome whenever she liked, an offer she certainly took us up on. For about 2 weeks, Annie came home from school with Melissa every day, and stayed at our house until about 7 pm, the time her parents said was the latest she could stay, at which point I would walk her back across the street to her house, say hi to her parents, etc, etc.

I never questioned why Annie was spending so much time at our house, she was best friends with my sister, and we were always very welcoming to her. It wasn't until one night when I walked her home that I got suspicious. Normally, her parents were very friendly to me and thanked me for walking Annie home, but this night was all different; When I arrived at their house to drop Annie off, I knocked to let them know that I was there, but the parents who greeted me didn't even look like the same people. They appeared as if they hadn't slept in days, they both were smoking cigarettes when I didn't even know that they smoked, and just looked like they were spread too thin. I greeted them with a hello as I normally did and got a response that troubled me, Annie's father, Gerald responded with "Where the hell has she been anyways, do you have any idea how late it is?" I was slightly taken back by this, "What do you mean" I said, "I always drop Annie off at 7 pm or earlier, that's the time you said you'd prefer her to be home." Gerald glared at me like I was trying to sneak one by him, "It's going to be earlier now, I don't like how much god damn time she spends over at that house of your's, it's not normal, she should be home with her parents more, she's so young." I could tell that they weren't in a good mood, so I told them to have a good night and that I'd talk to them soon. I regret having left Annie that night more than anything else in my life.

The next day we saw nothing of Annie, Melissa said that she was out sick from school, and wished she'd get better so she could come play. It wasn't a very satisfying answer but it made sense, when your child's sick you wouldn't want them being out of bed, and definitely wouldn't want them around other kids. Something just didn't feel right, Annie seemed fine last night when I dropped her off, but didn't think much more of it.

Three more days pass with no sign of Annie, more sick days from school. By this time I'm starting to get a little bit worried. I convinced my mom that we should bring something over to their house and see how Annie was doing. My mom agreed and we headed over to the house. I knocked on the door, as I normally did when I came over, which was returned with a raspy "Come in." by what i assumed to be Cynthia's voice, though it sounded almost nothing like her. My mom and I entered the house and found Gerald and Cynthia sitting in their living room, smoking and watching TV. I was shocked at the dismay the house was in, dirty dishes and clothing covered the floors and surfaces, paired with a putrid smell of unwashed bodies. "Hmm, no wonder she got sick," I thought to myself. I told them that we came to see how Annie was doing, since we heard she had missed almost a week of school now. Both parents just sort of shifted their gaze from the television to us and gave a half smirk, Gerald sarcastically gave a "How thoughtful." before returning to the television, then directed us to Annie's bedroom.

We walked down the hall and knocked on her bedroom door, which was cracked open a bit. "Hey, Annie?" I said upon entering. We walked into the room and I was mortified at what I saw; Annie was lying on the floor in a daze, she looked like an absolute mess. She had bruises on her legs and one on each cheek, dark circles under her eyes and a front tooth missing. I was very concerned for Annie's well-being, I asked her what had happened and she responded with that she was swinging in their backyard when she fell off the swing and hit her head. While I was concerned about what actually happened, there wasn't a whole lot that I could do. It was apparent that she wasn't actually sick, and rather was just being called in sick by her parents so that her wounds could heal (or so I assumed). Before we left, I told Annie that if she ever felt like she wasn't safe, or if she ever got scared, that she could come to our house and I'd keep her safe, and that I would always keep her safe. She nodded and afterwards my mother and I went back home.

A couple days passed and Annie was back at school and getting back to her normal self; she didn't come by our house quite as much as before, but she still came over every once in awhile to play with Melissa. My mother and I had started clearing out our garage a little bit, we still had quite a bit of packed up stuff and we wanted to clear it out so we could fit our car in the garage (we had a one car garage so almost half of it was filled with boxes and furniture that we had yet to get around to putting into the house). It seemed relatively unstable, when we packed it into the garage lighter boxes and items were put underneath furniture and other heavier items. We worked on it for a few hours and then decided we'd finish everything by the end of the week. But, as these things typically tend to go, we didn't get back to unpacking, and left most of the stuff in the garage for the time being.

Two weeks passed and everything seemed to be getting back to normal; we had gotten settled into our house, I had started my senior year and was doing well, Melissa was making tons of new friends and had joined a soccer team. All in all, everyone in our family was pretty happy. Unfortunately, that happiness was short lived when we got a knock on our door one afternoon. I answered the door to find an angry and worried Gerald and Cynthia, I hadn't seen them in about a week and I have to say, they looked the worst I'd ever seen them - Cynthia's hair was so thin and brittle-looking that it seemed like brushing it would just pull it all out, both of their teeth were a dark yellow and their gums a deep red. It appeared as though they both had lost an unhealthy amount of weight in the last month and I was concerned for their well-being, but more concerned as to why they were now at my front door ready to rip my head off. I asked them what was the matter, "Just tell us where the hell she is, we know she came over here." Gerald said rudely. "Who, Annie? I haven't seen her in at least a few days. She seemed fine, can you not find her?" I was getting worried, Annie was clearly being mistreated but it appeared to be getting better so I was optimistic and hopeful that her parents had let up. "Don't bullshit me." Gerald said, "She never came home from school today and she's over here constantly so don't act like she isn't in there." Gerald starts peering into the house over my shoulder. "ANNIE, COME HERE RIGHT NOW... WE'RE GOING BACK HOME!" Cynthia yelled, paired with a violent cough. I had never heard her so angry before, she was always so loving and compassionate to Annie, and now she was just terrifying as a mother. "B... but" I said "We haven't seen her for days... a-and if she's missing, we'll obviously help you, we only want what's best for Annie." The next day I was very stressed. Annie had never tried to run away before. I was very afraid to know what finally drove her out. The police were involved now, putting out amber alerts and questioning everyone in the neighborhood. I had already been questioned, due to my family and I being very close to Annie and spending so much time with her. The police asked very generic questions and I felt helpless that I couldn't do anything to actually help the search. I could tell that even through the anger and frustration, Annie's parents were scared and worried.

Another week passed. The police had really done all they could do, and at this point they had given up the search, Annie was presumed dead. I didn't take it well, I had hoped so much that she was just hiding somewhere, and the police would find her and then look into the parents, maybe get a little justice, but no. None of that happened. Annie was lost and all anyone knew is that she ran off. I was severely depressed since then. I rarely left the house, my grades started falling, and I just didn't care. That's when my mom started making me see a therapist. I went to a few sessions, and it did kind of help to talk about it, but more often than not it just brought up the painful reminder that Annie had likely died, and nobody could find her. After 3 sessions, I stopped going. The therapist suggested to my mother that the best thing for me to do would be get involved in some extracurriculars, do chores around the house, just generally stay active and keep my mind on other things. My mom had the perfect idea; clean out the garage. The garage had never been fully cleared out from packing, and the whole Annie situation put a damper on everyone's motivation. My mom decided it was time to finish it, that resolving at least something in our lives would grant some peace of mind. Nobody really went in the garage, it was separate from our house and since we didn't park our car in there, it was just storage space for junk we didn't have the time to deal with.

Upon entering the garage I noticed that the idiotic setup we had put up previously had collapsed, our old dining room table had fallen from where we had it standing and crushed a few boxes on the bottom, guess I shouldn't have been surprised it happened. As I moved some boxes out of the way I was overcome by the smell of rot, a very unfamiliar smell, which made me want to vomit. I figured maybe a rat or other animal got in here and died, I didn't want this job now; finding the animal was going to be bad enough, not to mention disposing of the rotting corpse, the thought alone made me cringe. As I made my way through the boxes I saw it. No rat. No animal. Annie. I thought I was going to die. Annie had come to hide in the mass of boxes after running away from home, her moving the boxes to get in had made the table unbalanced.. The dining room table had crashed down on top of her and crushed her. Annie took me up on my offer, to come to our house if she ever felt like she wasn't safe. That I'd protect her, that I'd always protect her.