| Their Beds Are Empty |
[21 Mar 2008|05:59pm] |
There are two twin beds in room 248. They have matching quilts and bedside tables and stuffed animals kept from childhood. Everything is purple. There are pictures on the desks in plastic frames, next to laptops bought brand new for college. The tags on the door say 'Becca' and 'Kacie', and there's a dry-erase board filled with silliness: notes from friends, smiley faces, and a rough sketch of a penis that some drunk guy filled in on his way down the hall. In every way, it seems like a typical dorm room, remarkable only because the girls that live inside are sisters.
In Dayton Complex, they are popular. They eat in the cafeteria. They go to programs for scrapbooking and spa nights and scary movie marathons. They are pretty, too. Becca's a book nerd, but Kacie likes the boys. She runs from room to room at night, wearing pajamas and no bra, and finds excuses to squeal at the top of her lungs. The RA gets a headache just thinking about her. They're majoring in science. Becca wants to be in Physics, and Kacie in Psychology.
At first, nobody notices that they're also a little strange. They always seem to know what one another's thinking. There's an undecipherable language they use together, which people explain away as just 'twin talk'. The night before Amy Johnson's body was found in the gardens, Becca cried for hours. She wouldn't explain how, but she seemed to guess that something was wrong. Kacie hides it better.
Two nights ago, they didn't come home from History class. Only one person saw them crossing campus. All that Jennifer Starks remembers is that she saw them walking away from a man in a black sedan, 'kind-of official looking', and then they were gone. The RA reported them missing, and campus security ran their protocol, but there's something off about it all. Policemen came and took reports and ransacked the little, purple room, but then everything stopped.
No press. No investigators. Nothing but a piece of yellow tape across the door.
The students hold candlelight vigils. Their parents beg for answers. But nobody seems to know where Becca and Kacie went, and worse yet, no one important seems to care.
[Submitted by Kate]
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