Nancy Drew, A Hero or Villian?
Dear Aunt Eloise,
Let me start by saying I miss you. I miss Frank too. You will send him my love, I hope. I know I should write to him myself or text, but we didn’t leave things in the best of places. And I’m still not ready to talk to him. That can make me a bad person, and I will make no argument, in fact, do that. It’s just a lot of stuff has been unsaid for so long, and it has finally come out. It seems the two of us had a lot of unresolved issues. And we said things we can’t take back.
As for the updates, I’m glad to hear everything is going all right. I am sorry you feel weird not waking up and knowing I am in the safety of my semi-quiet hometown. However, it was never exactly quiet when Frank and I got involved. Still, it’s good to know I am missed. I will be back eventually. I’m not sure Horseshoe Bay is really a place I could ever call home.
Speaking of Horseshoe Bay, I have a lot of updates for you. Starting with the fact it seems I was right in the assumption my new friends (though I hardly feel confident in calling them that) might be the best option for me. I seem to have at least picked a group that will not immediately shun me once I explain to them the real reason I ended up here at Horseshoe Bay. I have not had a chance to tell them, but with what I was just a part of, it seems that it’s likely they will accept me. However, I am not sure that I totally understand.
I’m not sure I believe anything they’re saying. I mean, you know me. I’m a far more rational person than to believe in mysterious circumstances. Everything, most of the time, has a rational explanation. Of course, that begged the question why I was in the town in the first place. However, like I always like to misquote, when you take out all the possible options, the only thing left is the impossible. Of course, I only ever used that when something finally did make some rational sense. Still, for the time being, I shall soldier on.
And speaking of moving forward, I have not found a good way to talk to them about it. I will, though, I promise. I just need a bit more time. I promise. It’s just I think they might have gotten involved in something weird. I mean, they think they accidentally or not so accidentally summoned a ghost, or maybe it is a multitude of ghosts. And the weirdest part is this doesn’t seem like the first one they’ve summoned or tried to summon. From what I can tell, they seem to have summoned a lot of them. I have not asked them exactly what ghosts they have summoned yet. I would love to investigate that. Maybe I should just explain what I know or show you what I saw, and then you can judge for yourself what exactly is going on. Hopefully, you can make more sense of it than I did.
I was just walking into The Claw when I heard, “I’m sorry, but we’re closed for the day,” George said, already trying to usher me out. She seemed a bit more frantic than I had ever seen her before.
I have never been one to fight something like this, so I did what I was told, or maybe I should say I tried to do what I was told. “Of course,” I said, turning to the door. I was able to reach for the door before I collapsed to the ground. I remember the thud I heard as my whole body collapsed to the ground with no warning. It was almost a sickening thud. A hollow shell collapsing into the abyss.
However, when I opened my eyes, I was no longer on the ground, nor was I in the Claw. Instead, I was standing in a place I had never seen before. The room was silent. The whole building was wood. And I remember I wasn’t wearing shoes anymore. I tried to move but couldn’t. I couldn’t take a step. The only thing I could do was look around; all I saw was wood. The wood was moving in on me, maybe. I shook my head, knowing it was all imaginary. The room. The walls moving. All of it. It was just a test by the worst parts of my psyche. And I was failing. After all, walls don’t move in on someone. I tried to speak more to hear my own voice than to break any magical spell I might have been put under. However, nothing came out. Not a whisper, not a squeak. It was silent.
I tried to look around the room again and again. It felt like the room was getting smaller. I could no longer believe it was all in my head. I wanted to imagine it was, but the walls were starting to come even closer. I was feeling the air squeeze out of me like an accordion. I tried to scream, to speak, to whisper, but I heard nothing in that room. My whole body tensed. It squeezed in on itself as the walls got tighter and tighter. Just as I felt the walls scrape my skin, I was woken with a start.
My heart was thumping out of my chest, like a cartoon in love, but I was not in love, nor was I all a flutter. No, instead, I was panicked, trying to forget a horror movie I had just watched in real-time. I also had the very fun experience of just being in a cold sweat in public. I am sure that looked just great in front of these relative strangers.
I was sitting in the Claw once more exactly where I had collapsed upon the floor. I looked around. There was the door behind me. And the people I keep vouching for, for reasons I am becoming less and more certain of, were surrounding me. Nick, Nancy, Ace, Bess, George. They were all there. All surrounding me, I was the car crash everyone couldn’t look away from. They looked at me, waiting for some explanation. Finally, Ace asked, “You all right?”
I tried to nod my head, but my head felt heavy. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I closed my mouth. And then tried to speak again, but still, no sound could be heard. My voice was gone. Nancy looked toward Bess and said, “Go get her some water.” Bess got up and immediately went to go get water.
All I could think was to get out of there. I no longer wanted to be there. I couldn’t face any of them. I wanted to get away to figure out what had happened. There had to be a rational explanation. Maybe a panic attack. I had had those before. It had never occurred like that, but it was possible. It made sense. I’ve been putting so much pressure on myself to figure out some mystery I no longer cared about. I am even packing my bags to leave once more.
I placed my hands beside me to try and force myself to stand up. I couldn’t even push the first try and instead collapsed forward. I tried again, and this time I could push a little before falling back down. I had to try again. I was going to force myself to stand. I would deal with the consequences later. I was wavering back and forth; if it hadn’t been for Nick and Ace, I certainly would’ve fallen again. Still, I couldn’t thank them. I opened my mouth to thank them, but nothing came out. I still had no voice, no ability to say anything at all.
I turned around and went straight to the door, opening it. I could hear their calls calling me back like sirens to the sea. They needed to explain. They wanted to make sure I was alright. I needed to make sure I was alright and to do that, I needed to get out of there. I had to leave and recenter myself.
I slammed the door and headed back toward town. I was hoping the air would spark something in my lungs. I looked back, and they were following me. I didn’t want to face them. I quickly ducked off some path. I had no idea where I was going; I hadn’t even memorized the route from the hotel to the Claw yet. And now I was looping through roads that didn’t come to mind. Still, eventually, I made it back to the hotel. I do want to say if I had no idea where I was really going, I believed how could they.
And that is where I am writing to you from; right now. I had to hit pen to paper as soon as I could. My hope being I would understand what is going on. However, it seems I still don’t quite understand.
I hear them knocking at my door. I can’t ignore them forever. I must talk to them. And I hardly know what I will say. Hopefully, the words will come to me. Wish me luck.
Love,
Joe.























