Page 5 of Little Stolen Memories

Until it wasn’t.

“Aubree and Jackson were dancing together in the living room,” Cora said. “Brynn and Aidan were upstairs. I was sitting in my grandmother’s recliner, and Aubree said something about not seeing Owen for a while.”

“How long had it been since you’d seen him? Can you remember?”

“I’m not sure. Jackson said Owen had gone outside to get something out of the car, so I opened the front door and looked out, but I didn’t see him anywhere. I started to panic, and I decided to search the house. When I still couldn’t find him, the five of us met in the living room, and Jackson and Aidan decided to search outside.”

“What happened next?” I asked.

“When Jackson and Aidan didn’t return to the cabin, we discussed calling our parents.”

“And did you?”

Cora shook her head. “We should have. It was a mistake. I wish we would have locked every door and every window and made those calls.”

“Please understand I am not judging your decision when I ask you this, but what kept you from calling your parents?”

Cora pressed her head into her hands. “It was my fault. I made the decision. Aubree was worried if we told our parents where we were, we’d all be grounded for the summer, and we wouldn’t be able to see each other. I suggested I’d go and look for the guys, and I said if I didn’t return in fifteen minutes, then we’d call.”

“Tell me what you remember happening after you left the cabin.”

“It was dark, hard to see anything. I’d taken a flashlight and my grandmother’s night vision binoculars, but even then, it was still difficult.”

“What did you see and hear?”

“I remember how quiet it was—too quiet. I’d been going to my grandmother’s cabin ever since I was a kid, and it had never been as quiet as it was that night. It was almost as if all the critters in the forest had all run away. I decided to look through the binoculars, and that’s when I thought I saw something move.”

“What did you think it was?”

“I had no idea, at first. Part of me was scared. The other part was filled with adrenaline. All I was focusing on was finding Owen and the others. So when I saw movement, I just … I ran toward it.”

“What did you find?”

“Jackson. He was on the ground. Blood was everywhere. It looked like he’d been hit on the side of his head, but there was so much blood, it was hard to tell what was going on.”

“Was he alive?”

“Yeah, and he was trying to talk to me, to tell me something … warn me, I think.”

“Do you remember what he said?”

“I remember his mouth moving, and me crouching down. I said something to him, but I’m not sure what. I just remember how I felt, like I needed to get back to the cabin, to Brynn and Aubree, and we all needed to get the hell out of there. At some point, I remember standing. I looked toward the cabin and started running … and then … and then … he was there. He was right there in front of me.”

Cora pressed a hand to her chest as if struggling to breathe.

“Take a few sips of water,” I said. “And please, take your time. If it’s too much to talk about, we can stop for now and pick this up again later.”

“No, I want to continue. I have to—for them. All these years of hiding, I should have been stronger. I should have pushed to keep the investigation open until the killer was found, and I … I didn’t.”

“You want my opinion? You’re being too hard on yourself. You went through a lot back then, and you’ve carried it with you all these years. It’s understandable you’d want to step back from society after what happened. I get it. I’ve taken a step back myself before.”

“Yeah, well … even if you have, it looks like you managed to get your life back together. I haven’t. I’m a recluse, only going out when I have no choice. I guess the way I look at it is part of me died along with my friends that night. I’ve never found a way to get myself back.”

“You’re here,” I said. “I’d say it’s a step in the right direction. There’s no right or wrong timeline on finding yourself again.”

She nodded and went quiet, and I waited, hoping she’d find a way to finish the conversation she’d started. There was so much more I hoped to ask, but I didn’t want to push—not too hard, not if she wasn’t ready.

Cora took a few more sips of water, seeming to come back to a state of normalcy, and then she looked me dead in the eye and said, “The man, he was just there, you know? He came out of nowhere. I remember he had something in his hand, but it was hard to tell in the dark … a baseball bat or a big piece of wood, maybe.”

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