The Mystery of Maple Creek

Prologue (Perspective: Hellen Mayweather)   Maple Creek, this small-town country was known as a peaceful place to go. But not after a mysterious legend unfolded in between their maple trees. What started as a little story, became a night terror. But I wouldn’t be able to meet the love of my life if I was never been here in the first place. Whatever happened in the story, I would fight to survive. I knew how headstone I must have sound to all of the people in my life, especially to my dad. But I was not meant to cross the line. I just wanted to be reunited once again with him. With Noah. I loved him. I cared so much for him that I would die to fight for our love. But the journey was not easy. Ever since I met him, I knew we were meant to cross each other’s paths in life. That I knew, he also in love with me. Our feeling was mutual. But if only the mysterious events stopped appearing in between us, we would have been happier back then. These struggles would never cease to exist. But sometimes, I was hesitating. Was he the person that I really knew? There were times when he would be sick. Very sick that made me lost my head. Noah kept a lot of secrets, but so did everyone in this town. I just wanted to know the truth. I needed to see for myself that he was the real thing. That he would not betray our love. I remembered we were on the bridge that night. We saw fireworks together. I thought we were being happy with the moment we had. But something was off. His stare looked sharp and dense. I didn’t know what was wrong with him. Was he sick again? I knew his illness was not ordinary. I was glad it was not contagious. But his ill had made him lost senses sometimes. As if he was not here with me. As if he had his own world to go. Or maybe he was still angry with me about the other day. I had accused him for something pretty terrible. And I had to apologize again to gain his trust. “Noah—” as I looked into his eyes. Although he still didn’t stare back at me. His eyes kept gazing away at the river view. And thus, I continued to say, “I meant to say sorry to you.” And slowly, he looked back at me. I was glad that he finally listened to me. As he was grinning, I started to feel frightened. “Hellen, I hope you never found out. I hope you—” and he kept grinning terribly. “I wish you are not crumbling for the idea of love. But you are just so numb.” I narrowed my eyebrows bewilderingly. “What are you trying to say, Noah?” “I am not who I am. And I hope you will forgive me for that,” he said in such a mysterious way. I couldn’t read his mix emotion at the time. He was just too weird sometimes. “That I am the darkness in this world. And I hope—you are not afraid of me when you know,” he said again. As we hugged each other, my mind wandered off. It was all coming back to the old legend that once severely haunted this town. About twenty years ago, today, those episodes of terror had ended since the people of Maple Creek believed they were safe. A local old preacher was somehow able to seal the evil spirit down the abandoned house in the wood. But those stories aren’t real. And the people probably only made up such a legend to attract visitors to this lovely town. But not until that night, when I was on a driveway, and alone. I wasn’t thinking about anything. My mind drifted away, just feeling so empty. Some drops of rain started to fall on my car's windshield. And right there in the middle of the road, I saw him again. He walked slowly like a zombie. It seemed that he was stranded out from the woods. The only light came from a pair of my sedan car’s headlamps. But it was too dark, I couldn’t really see his face. But something in his eyes showed me such a hunger that he never ever felt before. I was terrified. I kept on asking myself; would he come to me? Would he kill me? But the thoughts just kept hanging in the back of my mind. I couldn’t even move my arms. My whole body froze by a tremendous fear I felt from the inside. When he finally stared back at me, my heart skipped a beat. He looked so pale and so dead. Just for a second, I thought, this moment could be a dead-end of my life. And that how I knew, his stare meant to wreck me. I had to close my eyes. And ran from reality.