Chapter 3 Teen Spirit

Load up on guns, bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's over-bored and self-assured
Oh no, I know a dirty word

Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido
Yeah, hey- Smells like teen spirit, Nirvana

She wears her hair in a bun so nobody would notice she's cut it. She tosses the clothes from Moira's room into her bag. She changes in the girl's room. Undoes her hair. She still looks a little bit childish. All the other girls wear makeup. She wonders if she should try.

Natalia goes to class. She looks different. Nobody could mock her for looking and dressing like kid. Not that she cares anymore. She can't wait to spend time with Lucy again. Lucy is fun. Lucy is nice to her. Not like the others here. She finishes her homework during lunch break. Most of it anyways. She is leaning against the fence when she hears a familiar voice.

"Hey, Alex."

Natalia grins.

"Hey, Lu."

"Wow. You cut your hair!"

"Yeah, it's been kind of annoying me. "

"You look cool."

"So we're gonna hand more posters today?"

" I got a better idea."

Wearing pants made it easier to get over the fence.

"So what the plan?"

"We're going to the other side of town." Lucy said. " Let's hop a bus."

"Won't we look suspicious? It's school hours."

"Don't worry.

"Plus I don't have any money. Kathy always packs me lunch. So I don't get any for school." She said feeling kind of sad.

"Dude, no problem. I know where to get cash. Besides we won't really need it."

They walked to the bus stop and waited. The bus soon shoved up. People started to get off. Lucy pulled her into the crowd and behind the barrier between seats. They were hidden from sight and there seemed to be no other passengers who could tell on them. They were illegally riding a bus. It was wrong, yet kind of fun. Natalia was struggling with how she felt about this. She wanted Lucy to like her. She wanted to have a friend. She felt lonely. And perhaps she was not the only one. There was something exiting about breaking the rules. Something nostalgic…

In the next stop Lucy dragged her out of the bus. They were in town now. In a suburban area.

"Let's go."

She followed. They went into the woods outside the suburb. There was a path, wide and paved. Soon it lead into a park.

"Wow. this is beautiful" Natalia said looking around.

"We used to come here so Ash could take pictures. But were not quite there yet."

They walked to the edge of the park. Into the woods again. Small wooden steps going uphill. They ended up on a cliff overlooking the entire park. The golden and red trees, the little river going around the park.

"So pretty."

"Yeah. " Lucy said. "We used to hand here a lot. But we had one other place. Since a lot of people come here. Two student's kind of stand out. "

Natalia noticed there were a lot of people with small kids.

"Yeah. I don't want to get caught."

They went back into the woods. A different path. Natalia tried to memorize it. It lead to an old garbage dump. One that looked illegal. Like somebody just started dumping old washing machines, televisions , cars and other junk in the woods. No fence, no workers, nothing.

"You used to hand out here?" Natalia said looking at the garbage.

"Uhuh."

"This place is dump."

"Yeah. But's had a lot of cool stuff." She said walking over to one of the old cars.

It was a red sports car with a busted side.

"Like what?"

"You'll see"

Lucy led her around showing her the swing they made from an old tire. A fort from old washing machines and garbage bags. Crawling inside there was barely space for two but the drums of the machines were filled with stuff. Old toys. Comic books, drawings.

"This was our first special place."

"Why did you leave?"

"Well one day there was bad storm, we were here and the wind was so strong we almost got crushed by a falling washing machine. Ash was the one who called for help. My leg got stuck under the thing."

"Ouch. That had to hurt. "

"Well my mom found out and that was the end of that. We couldn't hand out here anymore. We still did sometimes but we needed a new place. "

"How did you find the house?"

"Well there was an urban legend. The house was a tool shed for the grounds keeper of the school but he actually lived there. I don't remember why. Maybe wife kicked him out. This all happened like fifteen years ago. So, teens from the school would throw parties in the area. Like in the woods. And he didn't like the noise. So he killed them. "

"I don't believe that." Natalia said. "You made it up. "

"Believe it or not. The police found dozens of bodies in the woods outside the shack. It's a good walk from it but I can show you the place."

"That is seriously messed up." She said."

"Yeah, that's why nobody goes there and we picked it for our secret spot. And it being close to the school. "

"Makes sense." Natalia agreed. "So for some reason Ashley came back here, instead of the house. Do you have any idea why? "

"I don't. I was hoping she left a message for me but I've searched this place all over and nothing."

They took a different way back. Walking along the road. There was an old billboard just at the entrance of town. It was covered with posters of missing people. Some more recent, like few months ago, others dating two years back or even four or five years.

"Looks like people go missing a lot here." Natalia said.

"Yeah. Well, it is a lot of forest. A lot of people go hiking. Must be the bears."

"You think Ashley ran into a bear?"

"I don't think she went in that deep. And there haven't been any sightings of one. For a long time. If one came to town it would be on the news. "

They caught another bus back to school. She remembered she had asked Barry to pick her up later. So they spent some time just hanging out. Lucy decided to introduce her some band called "Nirvana".

"We should do your hair tomorrow." Lucy said.

"Tomorrow is Friday."

"Yeah. Last day of school. The best day!"

"Sorry. I have an appointment with Dr. Haupman. "

"Right I guess all see you sometime next week. Oh, right. I don't have your number. We can keep in touch."

Kathy was the one to pick her up. Barry went to the B.S.A.A. HQ for something. So he was going to not be home for a few days. Her appointment with Dr. Haupman went as usual. She didn't go into details about the bullying, or that she had been skipping school.

"You cut your hair. Is there a reason for that?" He inquired.

"I feel like I'm fitting better. Long hair is not really in style."

"Trying to fit in with your peer. That's good. "

"And I made a friend." She said.

Saying made her feel happy. She didn't really realize it until now but Lucy was her friend.

"I'm happy for you, Natalia." He said. " It seems our time is up. I'll be seeing you at the end of the month."

Moira and Claire picked her up since Kathy was at the dentist. They took her to a mall. Both noticed her hair. She had it in a bun when Kathy drove her but decided to let it loose later.

"Wow, Nat, nice hair cut!" Moira exclaimed.

"Thanks. I did it myself."

"So you want to go shopping?"

"Yeah. I feel like I need a new look. You know, new school and all."

The two didn't follow her around as much, just waited outside the store. Having money and shopping on her own felt good. They were walking past a piercing salon and the way back to the car.

"Can I get my ears pierced?"

Moira and Claire looked at each other and then at her.

"Sure. I don't see why not."

"Thanks. "

It hurt a bit but she felt rather happy she did it.

"Well looks like she's alright. " Claire said.

"Yeah. I was worried a bit." Moira said.

"Natalia's just a normal teenager." Claire agreed. "Despite having some of Wesker's memories."

"I'm sure she'll forget those eventually."

"Let's hope so."

When they drove her back Natalia felt tired.

"Thanks. "She said when Claire dropped her off at the home.

"No problem."

"Oh, and could you tell Kathy that I got my hair cut at the mall, when you call her?"

Claire give her a questioning look.

"She hasn't seen it yet. I want it to be a surprise."

"Sure." Moira gave her a thumb up.

Kathy was still not back so she had some time to herself. It was rare for her to be alone in the house. Getting on her computer Natalia decided to look into the missing people in the area. After some searching she found a website that was dedicated to this very topic. The map seemed to highlight three major areas of disappearances. On was the town where Lucy lived. The other was a town further away. And the last was a town on the other side of the mountains. As she stared into these red dots on the map, forming a triangle between them, her head began to buzz. There was something there. Something she couldn't remember.

There were pictures too. Pictures taken by the people that went missing. Most of the m looked like the picture Ashley sent Lucy. Forest in the background. The places looked similar. Then one picture stood out. There was a tall white tree. Slim, slender, no branches. Just a white pole of a tree. It stood out against the greenery. The picture was taken at a darker time, evening, or morning hard to tell. She searched for other pictures like it. There was another one. But something was off. It was not the same location. Or at least the tree wasn't in the same place as before. The other trees seemed to line up with the other picture but the white one was on opposite side. Then there was one picture. It was taken at night, in the dark by some camper that went missing. There was something obscured by the trees behind him but she could see something white. At first one could miss it. It was easy to miss. She had to zoom in. Unobscured by the trees was something white coming up from the ground. Bended. And then to the side something that looked like an arm. A large long white arm with claws.