Insanity

Chapter Five

"Wake up! Wake up! Jesus Christ Rosalee Taylor Brazos, get up before I throw away all those drawings of Roger Taylor!"
Lee shot up, and glared at Cassie. "YOU WOULDN'T."
"Oh, but I would. Every. Last. One. Of. Them. Now, get your butt out of bed, it's time to research!"
Lee groaned, and rolled out of bed. She, out of paranoia, hid her fabled drawings somewhere else, while muttering under breath, "Oh but I would burn those pictures of Elton John, and eye for an eye you tart... Besides, I drew them..." Cassie ignored Lee's comments and grabbed everything they would need for the day, and headed downstairs. Today, they'd be researching that map that the stranger had dropped yesterday. Cassie had her suspicions about it, but she thought she might as well test it. Lee seemed suspicious as well, but when Cassie and shared her suspicions, Lee raised her hands up and yelled "TAH HELL WITH IT, LET'S JUST DO IT."
So Cassie had gone along with it, and honestly, she agreed with Lee. They had tried so many other things, and they hadn't worked. They might as well try it. It could be their last hope.
Yeah....
They were not very optimistic.
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They left the cafeteria after a "hearty" meal of oatmeal that was more stale than Cassie's humor (don't come @ me), they were off to the library. They took a longer route however, because they haven't forgotten about "The Man" (as they referred to him), and decided that they needed to be more cautious. They actually did enjoy the different route, looking around at the scenery. Lee was overjoyed to see that somebody had graffitied the side of a grocery store with a very beautifully detailed image of space. Cassie liked the trees all around town. The leaves were bright red, orange, and yellow, seeing as it was early fall. The setting was pleasant and sweet, and it put both girls in a good, hopeful mood.
"We should take this route more often, it's really pretty." stated Cassie. Lee nodded. "We really should. It was getting boring going the old way."
She sighed. "It really is a nice day." she said, wistfully. Cassie stayed quiet. She knew what Lee was thinking. Was this beautiful day a sign of what's to come? Or is it all just a set up by Mother Nature, to get their hopes up, only to crush them into pieces. Cassie hoped it wasn't the latter. She didn't know if she could handle it if this plan didn't work.
They finally walked into the library, which as usual, was mostly empty, besides a few college students and the batty librarian. They went to a computer in the far corner, and organized everything onto the table near the computer. Cassie, being better at navigating the internet than Lee, turned on the ancient monitor and started tapping and clicking away. Lee found the newest map she could and started looking for the place that was circled on the map that The Man had dropped. They searched for about three hours, sometimes speaking to each other, asking if they had found anything, which, so far, was a no. They didn't stop to eat anything,(actually they usually never got any lunch, since they didn't go to school) and they didn't stop to take any breaks. Around the three hour mark, Cassie yelled. "Lee! I found something! Come here!" Lee shot up out of her chair and ran over to the computer. "What is it?" "It's the place circled on the map! It's building not too far out of town, about an hour's walk. It's actually a very small town that was abandoned years ago." Lee blinked. "Is it still there?"
"Actually yeah, it is."
"And we could go there?"
"Well, it's possible."
Lee stared at Cassie, then looked at the computer, then at Cassie again. Tears of utter joy were building in her brown eyes. Cassie laughed and got up to hug Lee. Cassie held her only friend in her arms for while, trying to calm her down. After a while, Lee stopped crying and Cassie released her. "We finally found it. We finally found our way out. Holy crap we can leave!" Lee was jumping around in the spot, cheering about their good fortune. Cassie was also celebrating, laughing and smiling broadly. Of course, they both knew that it would take more planning to get to their destination, but they had just accomplished something huge. They had been working on this part of the plan for years. Years of frustration, tears, anxiety, and times of hope that was almost instantly squashed. They felt that they had won the lottery, or had won the best tickets to a Queen or Elton John concert. (Actually, in Lee's words, she felt as if Freddie Mercury had be resurrected and John Deacon had come out of retirement.)
"Hey Cas?"
"Yes?"
"How come that town was abandoned?"
"Oh that. It's actually quite interesting." Cassie sat back down in front of the computer, and began to read an article about the town. "See, there was an  insane asylum in the farthest corner of the town. Years ago, a bunch of the inmates escaped and practically destroyed the town. Everyone who wasn't dead or badly injured got the hell out of there, and there was a whole FBI investigation was conducted. Still today, they aren't sure how the inmates had gotten out. The government shut the town down after allowing the citizens to go back and move their things. It's just a ghost town now."
"Holy crap... Does it say how many people were murdered?"
"Only one, and her name isn't listed. Her husband, who was just border-line insane killed her and tried to kill their daughter. A neighbor saved the poor kid though."
"Oh wow...." Lee paused. "You know it's odd. This place has been tainted with bad history, yet it's little known, and relatively small. Why did The Man have this specific map, with that town specifically marked? It's a little fishy..." She trailed off. Cassie stayed silent. She hadn't thought about that. It was very odd, and she was wondering if they should continue with this. This town wasn't exactly a pleasant place, and it's history was even less pleasant. She looked at Lee, who was frowning, clearly deep in thought. Cassie quietly asked, "Should we... Should we go on with this?"
Lee looked Cassie in the eye and nodded. "Well, it's abandoned, and maybe we're just misunderstanding the situation. Besides.... This is the only choice we have unless we want to rot in that damned orphanage."
Cassie sighed, and shut off the monitor. "Let's go ahead and clean up. We deserve a break. Maybe we could stop off at the record shop?"
"Oh hell yeah, I heard they got a new shipment of Roger Taylor vinyls!"
"Oh of course you did, you obsessed freak...."
And they laughed, and started clearing the table, not understanding the consequences of their discovery.
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(Oh yes, I'm back to writing. Family matters have been resolved, though other things sprung up and it took a while to get back to writing! I'm kinda changing how I write and organize a few things, and it makes me feel better so shush, you have no say.
Anyways, I don't have much to say, so I hope you have a wonderful day/night!!
             ~~~Abby
P.S. Merry Early Christmas :D)