Author's Note

I'd like to dedicate this to my good friend and fellow author Dyinglight.

Not only did he inspire the majority of these first two chapters, but his actions and ideas have impacted the series as a whole.

You have my gratitude, old friend.


The shrill cry of an alarm clock woke Lauren from her slumber. It was early, 5:30 in the morning to be exact. She sleepily fumbled with the alarm, successfully putting an end to its annoying racket. She yawned and sat up in bed, looking out of her apartment window. It was a gloomy day. The sky was overcast and a light rain was coming down. Every now and then thunder would rumble across the sky. Despite the bad weather and how early it was, the city of Providence, Rhode Island, was wide awake. Lights twinkled through the raindrops and the sounds of the large populace rang throughout the streets.

Lauren made her way to the bathroom, taking a quick shower in order to make it to work on time. She dried herself off and got dressed, putting on her everyday clothes; blue jeans, a gray T-shirt, and brown boots. After getting dressed, she went back into the bathroom to brush her teeth and comb her hair, drowsily looking at her reflection as she did so. Her deep blue eyes contrasted slightly with her black, neck length hair. As she went through her morning routine, she glanced at a picture of herself and her two best friends; Katelyn Milens and Carl Ross.

The three were childhood friends, having grown up together in the town of Crystal Falls, Michigan. They'd been inseparable up until around Carl's 18th birthday when he'd moved to the town of Oakside, a quiet little village in the Canadian province Alberta. In only a few short years, Carl had dug too deep into the town's dark history, and in the process, discovered something terrible. Lauren didn't know what he'd experienced at that farm since he refused to talk about it, but whatever it was, it had a lasting effect on him. Kate was in a similar situation. Up until 2009, she'd been living in Crystal Falls with her sick mother. But then, one summer night, she ventured into the abandoned Riverview Park, a mysterious place located deep in the woods behind her house.

Lauren didn't know what Kate had seen in Riverview since she also refused to tell her about it, but her experience had a profound effect on her. Kate's PTSD was so severe that she had to go to a mental hospital for a while, and had been taking a medication known as Preaxin ever since. Then, things took a turn for the worse when Kate's mother, Beth Hayes, died only a few months after the Riverview incident. That had been the final straw for Kate, and she moved to Oakside shortly after, the logic behind it being that since Carl was experiencing something similar, he'd be able to help her cope.

After winning the battle with her hair, Lauren made her way into the kitchen to brew some coffee. It sucked getting up this early, but she got out of work at a decent hour because of it. While the coffee brewed, she put some toast down and turned on the news. Her apartment wasn't exactly huge. It consisted of roughly four rooms; the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room, with the kitchen and living room being split, and a few closets here and there. It was far from luxurious, but Lauren enjoyed it. After all, simplicity meant less maintenance required.

It had its perks too. It was cheap, clean, and since she lived on one of the upper floors she got a great view of the city. Most of the neighbors and employees were nice as well. Lauren quickly finished her breakfast and began gathering her necessary supplies; her laptop, folders, writing utensils, and a handful of other items, packing them all neatly into a small briefcase. Lauren worked for a private investigation company, one that specialized in the more "outlandish" cases. Mysterious occurrences, disappearances, paranormal activity, that sort of thing. Most of the abnormal cases were easily debunked, but every now and then something interesting would come up.

After Lauren had gathered all of her things, she threw her jacket on and left the apartment, locking the door behind her. She took the elevator down to the lobby and walked out into the brisk autumn air and busy streets, trying to flag down a taxi. She owned a car, a silver Volvo XC40 to be exact, but she found it much cheaper and less time consuming to simply pay for a ride most of the time.

After a taxi finally pulled up, she wasted no time getting out of the storm. "Let me guess… 7th Street?" Lauren glanced at the driver with a smirk on her face.

"You know me so well, Aaron," she responded. He chuckled a bit before getting back on the road. Aaron Ross was one of her many friends. She'd met him through a mutual friend shortly after moving to Providence. He was in his early 20s, only a couple years younger than herself. He had dark brown ear length hair and eyes of the same color. He was known for giving acquaintances discounts and happily gave Lauren a ride to work every morning. They both enjoyed their morning conversations.

"5:30 in the morning on a fucking Monday. God, work's a bitch, isn't it?"

Lauren couldn't help but laugh at his statement. "You have such a way with words… has anyone ever told you that before?" she asked.

"So many times I've lost count." Aaron joked. "You pick up a few things after being a chauffeur for complete douchebags 24/7. You're literally the only person I've given a ride in the last few days that hasn't made me want to put this car in a river."

"I'm honored," Lauren said, chuckling as she opened her briefcase, looking through one folder in particular; Oakside. That town had an ugly history and was shrouded in mystery. Why her friends had picked that place to live, especially with their 'issues', was beyond her.

The mystery began back in the early 1900s. People rapidly started going missing, and the few who turned up were found in a pretty bad state. Unfortunately, due to a lack of evidence, no one knew why. Everyone just assumed it had something to do with the local wildlife or the treacherous terrain. Things had been quiet up until a few years ago when the disappearances mysteriously started again. The file contained little information, only containing a few tattered documents, some old pictures, and a note from Aiden Parker, her boss and chief journalist of their small team. Lauren had read the letter dozens of times, but what would one more hurt?

Lauren,

We picked this case up a few days ago.

So far, none of us have been able to make anything out of it.

There's little to no evidence and we have yet to locate any witnesses.

We understand if you don't want to work on it. It's not that big of a loss.

Hell, this one's over a century old. If you can come up with anything, let us know.

~Aiden

As Lauren finished re-reading the letter, the taxi came to a stop. "Alright Lauren, here we are," Aaron announced.

"Hmm?" Lauren exclaimed, looking up from her work. "Oh, we're here… thanks, Aaron. It's $9.58, right?"

"Well, since you're a friend, just give me five dollars and I'll call it good." Lauren handed him a five and closed her briefcase, stepping out of the car. "Oh, by the way…" Aaron said, rolling the window down. "Luke asked me to tell you that Lily won't be able to make it to work today. She's sick or something."

Lily Greene was the mutual friend that Lauren had met Aaron through. She was one of Lauren's co-workers and was married to Luke Greene, a close friend of Aaron's. "Thanks for the heads up! I'll tell everyone," she responded.

"No problem. See you later!"

"Bye!" Lauren said as Aaron drove off, turning to enter her team's headquarters. It was a decent two story building made out of pale bricks. As she walked up the short flight of stairs to the porch, she saw a familiar face leaning against the wall, holding a cup of coffee; Mark Hadley, another one of her co-workers.

"Morning, Lauren." he greeted. "Come on in, we're already working."

"You coming?" Lauren asked.

"I'll be there in a minute. Go on ahead… Aiden and Cole are up there already." Lauren shrugged and entered the building. It wasn't much. There were a few desks, computers, filing cabinets, and just about everything else you'd see in an office. Just smaller. Aiden was going through a filing cabinet while talking to the last of their coworkers, Cole Davis. The three investigators greeted each other, and after getting themselves situated, the conversation began.

"So, have you managed to make any progress with the Oakside case?" Aiden asked.

"Some, but not much," she responded, pulling a few documents out of her folder. "From what I've read, it appears that the source of these disappearances seems to favor children and young adults. Also, just about every person who's gone missing has something in common…"

"Made any progress yet?" Mark loudly interrupted, walking through the front door with an empty coffee mug.

"That's what we were just talking about, Mark," Aiden said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Oh, sorry Lauren. Please, continue."

"It's alright. Anyways, almost all of these disappearances have something in common. In the weeks, months, or even years leading up to them, the victims show extreme signs of insomnia and paranoia, often becoming easily agitated or even aggressive. There have even been reports of victims being driven insane… Look, I'm not sure where all of you stand on this one, but I think it's pretty obvious that the source clearly isn't an animal. It won't be easy, but we need to put a stop to this. Innocent people are dying for no good reason." she finished.

"Well... that was... dramatic, to say the least," Mark muttered.

"It's a good cause, but how exactly are we supposed to do anything about it when the only locations of interest are forests and mountain trails?" Aiden inquired.

"That's where you're wrong," Lauren said, smirking. Now she really had their attention. "After hours of going through these documents, I've managed to pinpoint one place that's particularly infamous… Oakside Park."

"Hey, guys…" a voice piped up, from behind a computer screen.

"Yeah, Cole? What is it?" Aiden responded.

"I'm looking at Oakside's official website right now… you're going to want to hear this." Everyone gathered around his computer as he read aloud the text on the screen. "Oakside Park was shut down and abandoned back in 2008, but now it seems that the local government is starting to rebuild it."

"Why anyone would even try is a damn mystery," Mark commented.

"It says here that the Kullman Mining Company, established in 1895, had a strong hold on the area. The original mines closed down in 1928, and the company established the 'new and improved' Kullman Mines only a couple days later. On July 6th, 1985, they negotiated a deal with Oakside Park Management that granted them mineral rights to one of the park's mountains. Apparently, the company closed down after they went bankrupt in 2010, so pretty recently, actually."

"Cole, that was seven years ago," Mark interrupted.

"I'm aware of that, Mark, but it's a lot more recent than plenty of other cases we've dealt with. Anyways, the mine's still there… and so are the rest of the abandoned buildings. Everything just kind of fell apart over there after some guy died in a house fire. Everyone started moving out of the homes on the park outskirts and no one wanted to move in. Then, the mines closed and put the final nail in the coffin."

"Leave it to Lauren to go and show us all up." Mark joked, getting a small laugh out of everyone. "Seriously though, how the hell did you manage to uncover this much about a case that went cold years ago?" Before Lauren could respond, she was cut off by another voice.

"Wait, Lauren…" Aiden began.

"Yes?"

"Don't some of your friends live in Oakside?"

"That's… that's right Aiden!" Lauren exclaimed. "I didn't even think about that! I'll try to get in contact with them, maybe I can convince them both to help us out," she said.

"Sounds good. Nice work Lauren, I knew you had it in you," Aiden said, beaming at her.

"You're lucky, Lauren, actually being able to make progress. I'm stuck investigating a chain Chuck E. Cheese knockoffs that went out of business decades ago." Cole joked.

"You're telling me there's even less information on that case than there is on the Oakside one?" Mark questioned.

"Yeah, so far my only lead is some guy who used to work the graveyard shift at one of the restaurants," Cole responded.

Lauren had tuned out their conversation at this point. She was thinking about Oakside and how it might affect them, for better or for worse. Her concern for her friends grew the more she thought about it…

(X)

Several hours later, Lauren said her goodbyes as she headed out the door. It had been a long day, and she was tired. She started descending the porch stairs, intending to flag down a taxi. "Hey Lauren, hold up a second." It was Aiden.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Listen, something about this case feels different. I've got a bad feeling that this one might end up being more than we bargained for. Just… do me a favor… be careful out there."

"Thanks, Aiden, I will." On that ominous note, Lauren headed down the sidewalk, finally managing to get a taxi to stop for her. "Randall Street, please," Lauren said. She quickly became drowsy as she leaned against the window, listening to the sound of the rain hitting the roof and the soft hum of the engine.

...nd shine." Lauren snapped awake. She looked around frantically before noticing the driver looking at her. He wasn't impressed.

"Sorry, here," she said, handing him a ten dollar bill. He only grunted in response. As soon as she'd gathered her things and exited the vehicle, the driver sped away. "Prick," Lauren grumbled.

She entered her apartment building, almost immediately being greeted by the receptionist. "Good evening, Ms. Boden, how was your day?" the woman asked.

"Just another day at the office, same as usual," Lauren replied as she approached the elevator. Suddenly the receptionist cried out;

"Wait a minute! Your package arrived this morning. I have it for you right here."

"Oh, thank you," Lauren replied, taking the package from the receptionist and entering the elevator.

As she entered her apartment she felt an unusual chill, and it seemed darker than normal, even for a rainy day. As she went to set her package down, she noticed two things. The fire escape window was wide open, and there was an envelope sitting on the counter. Fear gripped her as the realization that her apartment had been broken into set in. She grabbed a knife off of the counter and checked everywhere a burglar might be hiding. After finding no one, she shut and locked the open window and went to call the police. However, the strange letter caught her attention first. She went to open it, finding that there was no stamp, no return address, or anything to provide identification. There was only a strange symbol drawn on the back… two intersecting eyes.

Lauren,

We've been watching you.

We know you're working on the Oakside case.

You have no idea what you're getting yourself into.

For your sake…

STOP!

The letter 'F' was signed at the bottom of the paper. Lauren was shaken. Someone was trying to scare her away from Oakside, and more disturbingly, they were watching her. She went to call the police, but as she reached for her phone, it suddenly started ringing. Her eyes went wide as she read the Caller ID. It was Kate.