Alice Is Missing
The house remembered me even if the town didn’t.
Same front steps with the heel-bite on the second one. Same door that sticks unless you lean in with your shoulder, like you mean it. Same dry furnace breath pushing through the vents when you crack it awake. I dropped my bag by the coat tree and listened to the quiet take a step closer. Snow does that to Silent Falls—packs the sound down until all that’s left is the soft tick of the thermostat and the little noises you only hear when you’re by yourself.
I hadn’t come down Main. The back road snakes in behind the mill like a habit you can’t shake, and I took it on autopilot. No reason to linger, no reason to see the places that make you do math about how long you’ve been gone. The sooner I got under a roof, the better. It was full dark by the time I turned the last corner—streetlamps fuzzed with falling flakes, the kind of cold that climbs the back of your neck and sits there.
Winter always made this house feel smaller. Maybe it was just me. I’d left, the others hadn’t. The group thread on my phone was proof of that: their lives were still stacked like Friday-night pizza boxes, while mine was split between two towns and long stretches of not-replying. I told myself that was just school, just distance, just the way things shake out. It never felt that simple when I was standing in my dad’s hallway with the whole place listening.
The couch had that old-thrift store groan when I sat. I clicked on the living room lamp, then clicked it off again. Too yellow. The phone’s light was cleaner—thin and blue and honest. I flipped it open and watched the screen bloom, that tired little backlight doing its best. The battery icon blinked like it was nervous for me.
I didn’t have a plan beyond say something. There’s a ritual to coming back for break that I’d let slip: text Alice first, then Julia and Evan by osmosis. Sometimes all three at once. Sometimes just Alice and let it filter. Last time I was home I’d told myself I was busy, that we’d catch up next time, and then next time turned into this time.
I scrolled the group thread out of muscle memory. Old jokes, old plans that didn’t happen. A run of nothing, then a burst, then nothing again. Threads look different when you’re the one who went quiet first. The little gaps feel like you left doors open in a storm and now the snow’s drifted in and you’re trying to sweep it up with your hands.
I thumbed to Alice’s contact and hovered there, like maybe the right words would pick themselves.
Charlie Barnes: hey, just got back in town—at my dad's. you around?
The little “sending…” icon spun. One bar of signal. No delivery chime. I watched it for a full minute, hit retry, got the same spin. Alice hated calls; texts were our thing. If she saw it, she’d reply fast. If she didn’t, the group would know where she’d gone. If I called she’d tease me for it—she always said calling was for grandparents and emergencies. Text or nothing. It was never nothing with her, not really, just the space between messages stretching until you forgot what you were in the middle of saying.
The house popped as the heat kicked on. The window glass held a film of breath on the inside where I’d leaned too close, watching the snow. Street outside, empty. My reflection in the glass looked like an older version of me trying to remember if I’d locked the car.
I went back to the thread. I didn’t want to make it weird or heavy or like I was asking anything of anyone. Just a simple hey, I’m in town. Keep it breezy, pretend I hadn’t done the disappearing act for months at a time. Don’t make it about the moving-away part. Don’t make it about the you-left part either.
I opened a new message to the group and stared at the blank screen. The cursor blinked like a seismograph. The keypad felt smaller than it used to. T9 tried to guess me and got it wrong, like a friend who hasn’t seen you in a while and uses the nickname you don’t use anymore. I backspaced more than I typed. Hey looked too short. Heyyy looked like I’d stolen someone’s phone. What’s up was a lie. I settled on something that sounded like me if I’d slept and drank water and wasn’t thinking about how the town presses in when the snow piles up against the curbs.
I thought about Alice’s last real reply to me—weeks old and still pinned in my head like a ticket stub. We’d talked about practice schedules and finals and nothing. The last thing I’d sent had been a picture out the window of the bus: a smear of trees, a smear of me. She’d replied with a thumbs-up and a “:)” and then the thread got quiet in that way that tells you the other person fell back into their life.
Hesitation built itself into a wall one brick at a time. What if this was dumb? What if it was too late for casual? What if I was the guy who shows up only at holidays and expects confetti for remembering everyone’s names? My thumb hovered. The heat cut out again. The house settled. The street stayed empty. The screen lit my hands like a campfire.
I breathed out. It fogged the window again. The trick is you don’t think about send. You think about the next part, the feeling after. The phone makes its little noise, the message leaves like a bottle into a dark river, and you get to pretend the three dots that come back are a heartbeat instead of just typing.
I typed. I kept it simple. I didn’t overthink the commas or the apology. My thumb shook once, small as a whisper, and then I pressed the button.
Charlie Barnes: Hey! Sorry for the big group text, but I just got into town for winter break at my dad's and haven't been able to get ahold of Alice. Just wondering if any of you have spoken to her?
The reply came faster than the heat in the vents.
Three dots. A pause. Then the screen filled like it had been waiting for me to look up.
Evan Holwell: Hi Charlie. No havent heard from her in 3 days
Charlie Barnes: 3 days? Did she go somewhere?
Julia North: She's missing Charlie. I'm really sorry nobody told you when it was first declared.
Julia North: There are posters
Julia North: That kind of missing
The room tightened. The lamplight had nothing to say about it. I felt stupid for believing this would be a normal break check‑in, like the town had kept a seat warm for me. I stared at my own message—the way I’d worded it like I’d just missed her at the store—and felt the floor tilt.
Charlie Barnes: oh jeez, so no-ones heard anything?
Evan Holwell: Something has to have happened to her, some creepy fuck taken her away or some shit!!
Charlie Barnes: Like Alice would let someone just take her, she could kick the ass of anyone in this town
Julia North: I don't know...some of these people have weapons.
Silent Falls always sounded like it was holding its breath in winter. Now the phone added its own hush—the beat between messages, the soft knot in my chest when the dots started and stopped. I didn’t have anything useful to add. I had distance and a late entrance and a phone battery that looked as tired as I felt.
I flipped to Julia’s DM. If I couldn’t do anything smart, I could at least check in like a person.
Charlie Barnes: Hey Julia, how are you holding up?
Julia North: I'm so scared.....where is she??? I can't believe this is happening. I think the school knows more than they are telling us.
Charlie Barnes: She'll be OK Julia, its probably just a sport event she got pulled to last min, she's strong regardless
Julia North: She is. She shouldn't have to be though. But I know you really understand her. Thanks for reaching out.
Charlie Barnes: Anytime Julia, I know this has to be hard on you
I sat with that DM open, knowing it wasn’t enough and not knowing what would be. The house creaked as the heat cycled. I flipped back to the group.
Evan Holwell: Everyone has guns these days, all these nuts who wanna carry them everywhere
Charlie Barnes: How is Jack doing?
Julia North: I messaged him to reach out but he didn't reply. I can understand that tbh No extra brain for anything else right now.
Somewhere under the panic and noise, the town I grew up in was still the same: cops who shrugged, rumours that moved faster than snowmelt, and kids who knew better than to wait for adults to fix it.
Evan Holwell: So the police just called. I reported all the harrasement that Bria Brown was doing. They just blew me off
Evan Holwell: Useless pigs!!
Julia North: Oh for fucks sake!!! I know she is involved. Have you seen how she keeps looking at me?
Charlie Barnes: She's always had it out for Alice, what has she been doing now?
Charlie Barnes: Cops in this town have always been useless
Evan Holwell: Load of abuse about Alice and Julia being together
The screen brightened as if it could argue with that. Snow stacked itself along the window ledge like it had time to kill. I rubbed a thumbprint off the glass and watched it fog where my breath hit.
A new notification nosed in from the corner. A stray text I should have seen days ago finally wriggled through my phone’s bad signal and landed like a stone in my stomach.
Charlie Barnes: Stupid phone signal, I just got a text from ALice that she sent a few days ago, I though she had just ended our chats abruptly like usual, but there was one more, she was training at the barn again, but she said she felt she was being watched and was heading home
Evan Holwell: Oh man, that proves it right there
Julia North: OMG she was heading home??? Are you certain it was from a few days ago?
Charlie Barnes: This was from Monday, so 2 days before she went missing
Charlie Barnes: did she say anything to you about this?
Julia North: Oh ok so not right when she went missing. I didn't want to tell her secrets....but she sometimes would tell me stuff like that, that she thought she was being watched. I said not to ignore it and trust her intuition. But you can't make a police report for just a bad feeling.
It fit too neatly. A barn, a bad feeling, a walk home swallowed by winter.
The thread moved in tiny avalanches.
Julia North: It happened for a while but she was doubting herself about it. I showed her this subreddit about people who had creepy vibes that turned out to be something more sinister and asked her not to ignore the feelings and be safe.
New dots. New momentum.
Evan Holwell: wouldnt surprise me, theres that CJ creep that keeps hanging around town
The name hit the chat like a draft through a cracked window. I felt it, the shift you get when the board starts to fill with faces. I watched the dots after that and felt my own heartbeat match them, caught between wanting the next message and not wanting any more of them at all.
I didn’t have a plan yet. I had a town that kept secrets, a barn at the edge of things, and a phone I couldn’t put down.
I kept reading.
The group thread kept breathing in my hand—start, stop, start—like it couldn’t decide if it was alive. I peeled myself out of it and opened a private window with Evan. If there was something concrete under all the fear, it would be here.
Charlie Barnes: So the cops really just blew you off?
Charlie Barnes: For a missing teen girl?
Charlie Barnes: Bastards
Evan came in hot and skidding. I could hear his shoes on tile through the spelling.
Evan Holwell: I know! Not to mention shes like the star player at school, surely that would mean something more to this town
Evan Holwell: Shame you havent been here, shes been incredible
Evan Holwell: fuck, you dont think it could be a rival team that took her, do you?
He wanted a villain we could point at and go home. I wanted the same thing and didn’t trust it.
Charlie Barnes: Are there any games upcoming? Might just be a interschool 'prank'?
Evan Holwell: Or revenge
Charlie Barnes: She did say she won the last Basketball game by a landslide, had to call it early as there was no way for them to come back... what was the school again?
Evan Holwell: Cant remember, some other shitty town a few miles away
Evan Holwell: No surprise really that they got beat so bad really
I let the silence open up. The three dots came and went twice. He was working up to something.
Evan Holwell: dude im freaking out right now
Evan Holwell: i need to tell someone about something
Evan Holwell: but you CANT tell anyone
The cursor blinked like a metronome. I forced my breath to match it.
Charlie Barnes: I can only promise I wont tell anyone if its not important to finding Alice
Evan Holwell: It doesnt, im just scared i will get blamed for something
Charlie Barnes: What is it? What happened?
The next messages landed crooked and ugly.
Evan Holwell: So Alice has been asking me to provide her with some rweird drugs. Not like weed or anything. But for the past couple of weeks ive helped her spike the drinking bottles for the opposite team.
Charlie Barnes: DUDE WHAT!
Evan Holwell: Nothing bad, they just get abit dopey so dont play as well
Charlie Barnes: OK so did anyone see you do it?
Evan Holwell: I thought not, but not this shit is happening im freaking out
Evan Holwell: worse still is I still have all of these drugs that i cant get rid of
My stomach went hollow. Shock wanted the wheel; I kept my hands on it. Damage control first, ethics debate later.
Charlie Barnes: Is the Dagger still open?, just drop it in the alley behind there, all sorts of shit ends up there
Evan Holwell: Yea its still open, thats not a bad idea
Evan Holwell: i just dont wanna get caught with this shit
Charlie Barnes: Just lose it.
I hated how easy giving orders felt. Maybe it was just that my brain needed a job.
Charlie Barnes: I know its hard for anyone to say no to Alice, but thats a bit far for her to go
Evan Holwell: i know
Evan Holwell: i cant help myself
Charlie Barnes: She's... special, we all know
Evan Holwell: You arent kidding
Evan Holwell: Just wish i could have a real chance with her
I stared at that last line until the afterimage burned. We were all idiots in our own ways, but some kinds of stupid left fingerprints. I closed the DM before I said something I couldn’t unsend and flipped back to the group thread.
I waited on the DM—typing bubble, then nothing; typing bubble again, gone. He was moving.
The notification thunked across the top of my screen: Evan Holwell (Group). He’d bailed on the private lane and swerved into traffic. Fine. If he needed the crowd to keep breathing, I’d meet him there.
I minimized our DM and watched his name jump to the most recent line—same panic, new window.
Evan Holwell: Erm guys, I've just read all this weird shit about Silent Falls Train Stations
Charlie Barnes: Do tell
The screen’s glow felt colder. He was walking and doom‑scrolling; it read in the way his messages leaned.
Evan Holwell: Its some conspiracy theory shit talking about human traffickers taking people from the restrooms at night
Evan Holwell: Why am i reading this stuff
Charlie Barnes: You're just going to worry yourself by reading that stuff
Evan Holwell: you cant blame me, its not like i can sleep
Evan Holwell: cops wont do anything!
I toggled back to our DM and typed a short line—Text me when it’s done. I didn’t hit send. The instruction was already there in the chat and in his head. If he got stopped with the stash, my message would be one more brick on his chest.
The house was too quiet. The town felt like it had stopped a block away and was listening in. I watched the three dots bloom and fall across both windows. Evan was in motion; you could feel it in the gaps. I tried to picture the alley behind the Dagger, the old drain that ate everything, and forced myself not to think past that.
He’d said he had the drugs. He’d said he was going to ditch them.
Then he went quiet.
Evan’s three dots came and went like a signal dying in a storm. I stared at the empty DM until the glow of the group thread bled through my peripheral vision and made my pulse feel loud. If he was out there moving with the stash, I needed to keep the other line open.
Julia pinged me first.
Julia North: David just messaged me about "Alice's little drug problem." He's making it up, right? Alice isn't into drugs?
Charlie Barnes: ... I might know something about that.
Julia North: Telll. Me.
I stared at the cursor. Ten minutes ago he’d sworn me to secrecy; now Julia was asking for the one thing I wasn’t supposed to say. Betray Evan and maybe help Alice, or keep it and lose time. Trust is a kind of currency in Silent Falls, and I was about to spend his without asking.
Charlie Barnes: I heard from someone that Alice may have been drugging her opponents before matches
Charlie Barnes: So maybe David heard something himself and got his wires crossed
Julia North: ????? Wtf she would never do that? 😡 Who said it???
Last chance to stop. If I said his name, I’d burn one trust to buy another. Evan’s or Julia’s—either way I was the match. Fuck it. For Alice.
Charlie Barnes: Evan
Charlie Barnes: Literally told me just a few min ago
Charlie Barnes: Asked me not to tell anyone tho, if you confront him, its gotta be David that told you
Julia North: OK. 😦 He can't have seen anything right? Alice would never do that!
Charlie Barnes: Evan says that Alice asked him to help spike their drinks, and he's currently got the drugs
Julia North: .........Ok I'm gonna message him this must be some sort of mistake.
Julia North: But I won't say you said it
Julia North: I'll say it was David.
Charlie Barnes: Thanks 🙂
She left to do what I’d asked—take it to Evan and keep my name out of it. In the moment, all I had was the screen and the feeling that the room had tilted a degree to the left.
I tabbed out and opened Alice’s Facebook. Her privacy settings were loose enough to let a stranger get lost. Albums stacked back to middle school—team photos, trophies, birthday cakes. The comments were a crowd of familiar names I missed being part of. And then there was him.
CJ Wallace. Same profile picture I’d seen float around town groups. He’d been leaving comments everywhere—on recent shots, on old ones, even on pictures where Alice looked twelve. Little jokes, too‑friendly emojis, a “still got that smile” under a championship post that made my skin try to leave. It didn’t read like a stranger; it read like someone who’d decided he belonged.
I took a breath, flipped back to the group, and put it in the open.
Charlie Barnes: ...Did anyone else know that CJ had Facebook? Creeps been leaving messages on all Alice's pictures
Julia North: It's on her pics on fb . Even the ones where she is like 12.
Julia North: I called him a sick pedo flasher, who cares if I get a fb ban again.
Charlie Barnes: Why is she even friends with him in the first place?
Julia North: Was she?? Omg let me check
His typing bubble hiccuped in our DM, then died. A heartbeat later, his name jumped to the group—anger switching lanes.
Evan Holwell: YOU TOLD JULIA!!!!?
Julia North: No David told me!!! Evan what are you talking about??
Evan Holwell: What the fuck Charlie!?
I let him swing. He had the right. The typing bubble flared, vanished, flared again—anger pacing the length of his screen. I counted to three and didn’t type. He wanted a fight; we had a missing girl.
When it peaked, I cut it off before it turned into another fire. We could fight later.
Charlie Barnes: Evan, we can deal with this later.
Evan Holwell: No, you don't get to say that.
Evan Holwell: You promised.
Evan Holwell: Two minutes later and Julia's in my DMs?
I kept my thumbs still and let the typing bubble burn itself out.
Evan Holwell: CJ's messaging you? how does he even have your number?
Charlie Barnes: CJs been leaving messages on Alice's pictures
Julia North: I thought she didn't update her privacy stuff
Charlie Barnes: She has to have been for him to see her pics
The chat held its breath.
I scrolled back over CJ’s trail, hoping it would look smaller on a second pass. It didn’t. Comments stacked like footprints, all the way into the years she should’ve been invisible. If Alice had felt watched, this was the shape of it—too familiar, too casual, nowhere to push back.
My thumbs hovered over the keys. Ask Julia to lock things down? Tell Evan to screenshot? None of that got us closer. The screen felt bright and useless.
Then Evan hit the thread like a brick.
Evan Holwell: FUCK!!
Evan Holwell: Guys help!1
Julia North: Evan what is it?????
Charlie Barnes: What happened?
Evan Holwell: I was walking by the park on my way home, i found Alice's car!1
Evan Holwell: Its been totalled and stripped
Julia North: Oh my god
Evan Holwell: but its filled with pill bottles
Julia North: Whatfffff
Charlie Barnes: Shit, no sign of Alice there?
Evan Holwell: No, shes gone
Julia North: She doesn't use drugs, I would know!!!!
Evan Holwell: Oh man im fucking dead
I made myself read the last three lines twice—car, stripped, pill bottles—until the words stopped jittering. For a long breath nobody typed. The house ticked. The snow pressed its face to the glass. We needed to think before we made anything worse. And then the world decided to do that for us…
Julia North: .....Fuck did you just see the local news? The Dagger is on fire!
The group went white-hot fast.
Evan Holwell: HOLY SHIT
Charlie Barnes: Saturday night—place will be packed
Julia North: They can't get the engines through. Roads are like ice. Hydrants are buried.
The snow made the sirens sound far away even when they weren’t. I pulled out of the thread and opened Evan’s DM.
Charlie Barnes: I said ditch the stash, not torch the place.
Evan Holwell: I DIDNT!! swear on my life
Evan Holwell: im not anywhere near there
Charlie Barnes: Did you dump it?
Evan Holwell: yes yes yes down the alley drain
Evan Holwell: please dont say anything
Charlie Barnes: Stay away from the club. No photos. Text me when you’re somewhere safe.
Evan Holwell: ok
Back to the group—words sparking and dying in the blizzard of it.
Julia North: Fire engines just got stuck by the mill road. Snowplow is late
Charlie Barnes: Ladders in a storm like this…
Evan Holwell: this is insane
The thread lurched, changed direction like a flock.
Julia North: Bria is boasting that she called Alice to the Dagger tonight
Evan Holwell: what???
Charlie Barnes: Screenshots?
Julia North: Hang on
I could feel the board rerouting itself—away from shadows and toward someone with a name. It was easier to be angry at a person than a pattern in the snow.
Julia North: I saw it on her story before it deleted. "told her to meet me at the dagger ;)" fuck her
Charlie Barnes: Send anything you’ve got to the cops
Evan Holwell: yeah do it
A new message slid into my notifications—different vibration, like it knew it was heavier. Alice’s name. For a second I just held the phone and let my heartbeat climb it, then break into a run. I said her name out loud like a prayer.
Alice: basement. dagger. it’s hot. can’t breathe. please.
Relief hit so hard it hurt. I fumbled the unlock, opened our thread, and started typing back before my brain caught up. Then I made myself look for the trap—waiting for the phone to cough up a little “Delayed” tag like before. Nothing. Timestamp said now. She was here, inside this moment.
Only then did I copy it into the group like I was throwing a flare.
Charlie Barnes: It's okay. We're here. Stay low if you can. Can you see stairs? Are you hurt? Keep texting me.
No dots. Then one. Then gone. I couldn’t wait.
Charlie Barnes: ALICE IS ALIVE
Charlie Barnes: She just texted me. She’s in the Dagger’s basement. Says it’s hot—can’t breathe
Julia North: IM GOING
Charlie Barnes: Julia wait—fire crews will—
Julia North: no time
Charlie Barnes: Evan you're close, go help Julia there
Evan Holwell: im on it
I opened Julia’s DM on instinct and chased her with words I knew wouldn’t hold.
Charlie Barnes: Julia, don’t go in. Stay outside, find a firefighter, show them the text
Julia North: No. If she’s in the basement I’m going down there
Charlie Barnes: At least cover your face. Stay low. Text me every step
Julia North: ok
Back in the group, everything ran on the same thin wire.
Julia North: im at the alley
Julia North: smoke everywhere. doors blocked by people watching
Charlie Barnes: Push through. Yell you have info for the fire crew
Julia North: i see a side door
Charlie Barnes: Don’t go alone
Julia North: Too late
The snow smothered the streetlight outside my window until the whole town looked underwater. I watched the typing dots and told myself they were a pulse.
Julia North: going into the basement now
The snow turned every siren into something underwater. The screen lit my hands; the rest of the house stayed dark. Three dots, a stall, three dots again.
I typed and deleted twice. The only thing worse than saying the wrong thing was saying anything at all while she moved.
Julia North: i dont think the firefighters know theres a basement
Charlie Barnes: Keep one hand on the wall. If you see a door that sticks, don’t force it. Breathe slow.
The dots went quiet long enough for the furnace to kick on. I realised I was holding my breath to match her pace.
Julia North: light blown. crawling Julia North: hear water somewhere Julia North: turning right at the bottom Julia North: shit—stepped on a switchblade Julia North: cut my foot. keeping it Charlie Barnes: Pocket it if you can. Watch your hands Julia North: i got in Julia North: i found her Julia North: shes breathing but wont wake up
I swallowed the relief and turned it into instructions.
Charlie Barnes: Good. Keep her off the floor if you can. Stay as low as possible. If you can mark the door with anything, do it. Text landmarks.
Julia North: bottom of stairs. pipes along the left wall. heavy door by the boiler room
The dots hiccupped, stopped. New line.
Julia North: someone else is down here
Julia North: hiding
Julia North: hes on the phone
Charlie Barnes: Hide. Don’t engage. Keep eyes on exits. Text what you hear.
Her next messages came thin, clipped, like she was mouthing them.
Julia North: its david
Julia North: hes saying the car and pills will pin it on her
My thumbs went cold. I typed without letting myself think past the next instruction.
Charlie Barnes: Stay out of sight. If you can get to stairs with Alice, do it. If not, wait for crews. I’m flagging this up.
I pinged Evan again.
Charlie Barnes: Get the police. Now.
Evan Holwell: ive been trying
Back in the group, the fire sounded closer even though the words were the same size.
Charlie Barnes: Julia—can you move?
Julia North: hes still talking. footsteps.
Julia North: moving toward the stairs
Julia North: wait—hes at the stairs. blocking the way. hasnt seen us
Julia North: He said on the phone that he should slit Alice's throat and film it????!!!!!
Julia North: No....I will murder him!!!!!
Evan Holwell: I'm nearly there, hold on
Charlie Barnes: Did you grab that blade you stepped on? Keep it ready
Evan Holwell: Julia dont be stupid!!
Julia North: I'm gonna fucking stab him
Evan Holwell: JULIA
Charlie Barnes: Julia no, dont be reckless
For a stretch there was nothing—no dots, no buzz, just snow at the window and the heat cutting out again. I stared at Alice’s name at the top of the DM like I could keep the thread open with concentration.
Charlie Barnes: Fire crews are in the alley—bang on anything metal. Make noise.
Dots. Nothing. Dots again. Then nothing at all.
Charlie Barnes: Julia?
Charlie Barnes: Julia, text anything—one word
The thread stayed blank like the town had swallowed the signal.
Evan Holwell: im at the perimeter
Evan Holwell: told an officer everything
Evan Holwell: im sorry
I held the phone where the light could find my face. The snow pressed its ear to the glass. Somewhere under the sirens, metal met metal, and I told myself that was the sound of a door finally opening.
Debrief
This is where the 90‑minute Alice Is Missing timer ended. We step out of the world here. The true ending is yours to choose—who made it out, what the fire revealed, what the cops heard, and how Silent Falls carries it. Let the three dots resolve however you want.
