Three thirty in the morning, not a soul in sight. The city’s lookin’ like a ghost town on a moonless summer night. Raindrops on the windshield, there’s a storm movin’ in. He’s headin’ back from somewhere that he never should have been. And the thunder rolls…

I was adding the last couple of details on my most recent sketch, as I listened to the soothing voice of Garth Brooks. I had my headphones in, so my dad wouldn’t hear the music. If I woke him up tonight, I knew there would be consequences to pay. Granted, if I wake him up any time he’s asleep, there’s consequences to pay. I know I should’ve been asleep since it was two in the morning, but I couldn’t sleep. I can’t sleep most nights. I typically spend half the night on my balcony, working on my latest sketch and listening to music.

As the second And the thunder rolls played, I heard a scream. I ignored it at first because my mind tends to play tricks on me, but then I heard it again. I yanked out my headphones. I started looking around, trying to see if I could find the source of the scream, but it was too dark for me to see past the little area the light on my balcony covered. The next time I heard the scream, I was able to tell what the person was saying.

“HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! ANYBODY! PLEASE! HE-”

The screams were cut off. My heart started racing. I tried harder to see something, anything that would allow me to help whoever it was that was screaming, but it was still too dark. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight. I then made a decision that I would later come to regret, but in the end, this moment will be the moment that changed everything. I decided to follow the scream, find the source, and help as much as I can.

I climbed down the tree right next to my balcony, keeping my phone in my hand, so I could find my way down to the ground. When my feet landed on the dead grass, I took off running in the direction I heard the scream come from. The screaming had been cut off, so I hoped whoever it was, was still there and still alive. As morbid as that sounds, it’s a possibility that crossed my mind as I hopped over the fence, separating my backyard from the forest.

I ran through the trees, leaving the path behind me. I ignored the tree branches that were hitting my arms, legs, and face. Who knows, maybe I’m freaking out for nothing? Maybe it’s just somebody pulling a stupid prank, but then again, who would pull a prank like this at two am? And I couldn’t just ignore the feeling that scream gave me.

I reached a clearing and stopped to catch my breath. I looked around, using my phone’s flashlight to see. I don’t know why, but I had this feeling. Something important happened here, and I want to know what. I saw something, a couple feet away from me, shimmer in the light from my phone. I walked over to the area where I thought I saw something and started searching for whatever it was.

At first, I didn’t see anything, but then I found something amidst the tall grass. It was an iPhone. I picked it up and pressed the home button. The screen lit up, showing a picture of two teenage boys. They had their arms around each others shoulders and were looking at each other, smiling. They were wearing baseball uniforms. I recognized the colors on the uniform as being the school colors of Stonewall High School. There are only two high schools in town. Stonewall was where the richer kids go, and Clear Water is for the all the kids who can’t afford to go to Stonewall. I go to Clear Water.

I looked up, thinking one of the guys had to be close, but I didn’t see anybody else. When I looked back at the phone, the screen had gone back to black. I pressed the home button again, but this time the home screen was different. It was just black. There was no longer a picture of two best friends. I thought that maybe I’d imagined it, but when I closed my eyes, all I could see was the two boys. I don’t know how, but I just knew that I hadn’t imagined the picture.

I unlocked the phone with ease since there was no passcode. I hoped I would find something on the phone that would tell me who it belonged to, but there was nothing useful there. It had all of the apps that come with a phone, but nothing in them. There were no contacts, no messages, no phone calls. I almost stopped looking through the phone, but then I opened the photos.

There was one photo. It was a picture of the same two boys from the other photo, but this time there was a girl in the photo. She was wearing a cheerleader uniform, and they were in the baseball uniforms again. The girl was being lifted up by the two boys. Each boy had one of her feet in their hands, and the girl had her arms above her head. They all looked so happy.

I used my phone to take a picture of the photo of three friends, just in case this one disappeared too. Someone had to have left this phone here, and for some reason, I felt like it was important. I looked around, thinking that maybe this time I would see something, but there was still nothing there. You think I would realize that I’m alone and there’s nothing else in the field that would tell me what happened here, but I still felt like I was missing something.

I locked the phone I found, after checking the time. 3:30. It didn’t feel like I was gone for over an hour, but I guess I haven’t really been paying attention to time. I was too busy running, trying to find the source of the scream. To be honest, I don’t don’t know how far from home I ran or even where I am. In the daylight, I know my way around these woods, but because of how dark it is, I can’t help but feel lost.

I had two options. I could either try and find my way back home or stay here and wait until there’s enough light for me to see. If I tried to leave now, I’d probably only succeed in wandering further from home than I already am, and if I stayed here, I knew I would be able to find my way back once it was light.

I decided to stay here and try to get some sleep until the sun came up, but I didn’t necessarily want to sleep on the ground. I guess I don’t really trust what could happen if I’m on the ground, unconscious, and vulnerable. I figured it’d be smarter to climb up one of the many trees surrounding the field I was currently standing in. While I have no way of guaranteeing there’s nothing already in the tree, I knew I would feel safer up there than I would down here. I don’t know why, but I always feel safer above ground than I do when I’m on it.

I jogged over to one of the bigger trees. Despite how dark it was, I could still see an outline of the trees. I kept my phone in my hand with the light on, allowing me to see where I would be climbing. Then I started my way up. After a couple minutes of climbing, I stopped and moved onto one of the wider branches. I got into a comfortable position then looked at the time on my phone. It was 3:48. I still had a little less than three hours of waiting to do until the sun will rise. Looks like I have a lot of time to try to figure out what really happened tonight.