Welcome to Fair River, Maine: population 353.
Well, 351 now. If you're driving down the
lone paved road, Fair River seems as quaint
as any other small Maine town, but there's
something different here. You can feel it
as you near the edge of the woods that surround
the town. The atmosphere seems heavier, the
shadows longer. The air is colder there, cool
enough to raise goosebumps on your arms no
matter the season. I suppose every town has
its place where you never feel quite right,
but like I said, it's different here. You'll
see. I'd like you to meet Willow Howard, a
local college student, aspiring model, and
Fair River's most well known resident, at
least according the number of followers she
has on Instagram. If you've been keeping up
with the local news, you might've seen pictures
of her and her boyfriend Collin Phillips a
couple of weeks back after they up and went
missing one night. The sheriff says maybe
Willow ran off with Collin and got married.
Her parents never much cared for him. Or maybe
she went to NYC to make it big as a model.
Those explanations don't sit too well with
folks, though. Collin's car is still sitting
in the driveway where he left it, and as best
as anyone can tell, they didn't take so much
as a suitcase of clothes with them. It wasn't
until this afternoon that anyone had a shred
of evidence regarding what happened to Willow
and Collin. There was talk of the woods, of
course, as there is each time someone goes
missing, but nothing more than a quick "you
know," followed by a furtive glance at the
treeline, or whisperings of some fairy story
from childhood. But there was nothing to connect
Willow and Collin's disappearance to the woods.
The evidence that did turn up is merely a
shred, but it is perhaps the most to come
out of any of the vanishings that have taken
place over the past decade. Grace Porter stumbled
upon Collin's camera as she was walking through
the gardens that the town maintains. She hasn't
turned it over to the sheriff yet and she's
not sure if she will. She doesn't think he'll
do anything to find Willow and he might even
make the camera and its pictures disappear.
She copied the pictures to her computer and
she's thinking about writing a blog post,
but she's not sure how to get the word out
without revealing her identity. She doesn't
want to stir up trouble, but sometimes we
have to take risks if we want truth and justice
to prevail.
