My name is Peter Lyons and this is the story of the most insane night of my life. It was 6:27 on a warm spring day. The sky was clear, the birds were chirping, there was a slight gust of wind every once and awhile to relieve one from the heat. I was in my 1988 BMW e30 m3 fixing my tie in the slightly cracked rear view mirror. I hopped out of the car and slammed the door because I was on a trip to meet my prom date on top of the steps. Only to realise I had left my keys in the car locked. There was no chance that I could fit through the somewhat exposed window. I stuck my hand through the window and I could barely grab the keys by the lanyard attached to it, but I got it and I was ready to go and meet my date. I continued to walk around the car and the house adjacent to my dates house there was a lady smoking a cigarette on the front steps wearing blush pajama pants and a bathrobe over it. It looked like she was having a rough day. I advanced closer to her house,
“Hi how are you?” I said. She replied in a voice that made me presumed that she smoked quite often,
“Could be doin’ better. You going to meet your date?” She replied.
“Is it that obvious?” I laughed but she didn’t, and she just looked at me with her droopy eyes and said,
“Well I’m sorry to break this to you kid, but you’re date ran away from home. No one knows where she went. Her parents are devastated, and she isn’t picking up the phone.” My world stopped. The girl who I was in love with is gone. What was the motive of this I thought. Yet I couldn’t think of anything. Buzz buzz! My phone goes off and it's from an unknown. The notification on my phone reads,
“Unknown: 1 attachment” I quickly open it. To find something that looks like a small piece of a map
“Weird.” I say to myself. Buzz Buzz! It went off again and the text read
“Come and find me.” I jumped up and realized this might be a piece of where Charlotte, my date, location might be at. I ran back into the E30 and sped off to my house where my parents were waiting for me on the porch. Mom was surprised seeing me coming home.
“Why are you back so soon?” she asked. I had to think of something quick. My parents do not like Charlotte or her family. My mom thought Charlotte was bad news because she had been drinking and doing drugs since she was 13. My dad didn’t like her dad because they would always be getting into fights at school football games and eventually one of the pair would be kicked out by the school's security.
“Uh…” I said with a long awkward pause, “I forgot my boutonniere,”
“Ok honey, just hurry up you’re gonna be late,” my mom said. I could tell that she knew I was lying but she didn’t want to fight it. I ran upstairs to print out the picture of the text of the map. I snatched it from the printer then compared it to a map on my wall. The text was from a region about 8 miles from my location. I left my house no boutonniere and no idea where I was going to be going tonight.
“Goodbye honey, I expect you to be home around midnight.” Said my mom in her thick southern accent.
“Yes ma’am I’ll be back in enough time. I love you!” I said as I was getting into the BMW. I pushed the pedal to the floor. You could hear and smell the rubber of the tire burning on the asphalt. I took off not looking at my speed or looking behind. While driving I received another text saying, “27.3314° N, 81.0458° W” I put that into my map app and I headed off to that location. When I arrived I arrived in the middle of nowhere. The whole place was desolate except for one abandoned house that looked like it had been previously opened. I parked the car and this time I made sure I had the keys before I closed the door. I approached towards the house and cracked open the door. The room filled with light. It seemed that this room had been untouched for years but there was a table in the middle with a map with 4 tacts and yarn around them encircling a area.
“Another clue I presume,” I said to myself in the best detective voice as I could. I went over and took a picture of the map and looked at it closer on my phone. The next location wasn’t far away. It seemed around a couple miles away. Buzz Buzz, another text.
“Look around the room. Maybe you’ll find out why I’m doing this.” the text read.
“What does that even mean” I think to myself. Then I quickly figure out what the point of this was. There were needles, syringes, burnt spoons, lighters and more. I couldn’t believe it. Suzy never went farther than cigarettes. The stuff that she was dealing with meant serious business, and I just didn’t understand. Buzz Buzz. Yet another text. “I’m sorry Peter, the stuff I was using before just didn’t work anymore. Peter you need to save me. I think I took too much. I’m at the Broward water tower please help me.” the text read. Never had I been more devastated. The location on that map meant nothing. If she’s telling the truth Broward was 20 miles away I thought. I sprinted back to the car. If I wanted to save her I would need to hurry. Buzz Buzz, it was my mom.
“Honey have you and suzy made it to prom yet.” She asked. I left it there I didn’t care to reply to it. Hopefully she would understand that I probably was at prom. I put in broward water tower on the my maps app and found it was about 20 minutes away. It was starting to get late and time was running out incase she did overdose on whatever she was on. I tried calling emergency services but my phone died. This was when I knew there was little I could do to fix this situation. Since my phone was dead my route to the water tower was dead too. I had an alright understanding on how to get to the broward, but I would be lost when it comes to finding the water tower so I guess I would have to look around for it. This is when my heart rate started going up and I wasn’t too focused on looking at my speedometer to see how fast I was going. I started realizing my speed once I started passing people left and right thinking they were going way too slow under the speed limit. Luckily I didn’t run into any police officers on my way or this whole plan probably would have been compromised. I zoomed passed the welcome to broward sign that always had to be replaced because kids were stealing them. It was officially dark out and my car only had one front light working. At the glimpse of my eye I could see the water tower in the distance. I took the nearest exit and turned in the direction of the water tower. The water tower was a good distance from the highway, but I got there in fifteen minutes. I put my car in park, and got out.
“Charlotte! Charlotte! Ok Charlotte the joke is over you can come out.” I yelled out hoping it was just a joke. I waited there for a second waiting for a response. There was no response all you could hear was the chirping of the birds and crickets. I climbed up to tower considering that she might not of heard me on the ground and that she was at the top. I was completely wrong all there was at the top was a lawn chair and a can of coke crushed. I sat on the chair and I saw what great of a view I was looking at. Out of nowhere in the distance a flare lights up the sky. As most normal people would consider it a signal of distress. I knew at this point I had two options go find someone who had a working phone or deal with this myself. That was just what I did I went and dealt with it myself. I got out of my chair, and descended down the ladder as quick as I could and ran through the field. When I got there, there was a table with a red and white tablecloth over it with candles and punch and pizza on top of it. Looks like something Charlotte would have set up. There was a card on the table it read,
“Dear Peter,
Tonight was the night that we were supposed to go to prom. Supposing that you followed all the clues to get here I ran away from home because my parents were being unjust and wouldn’t let me go to prom. They had no reasoning which made me just want to leave which is exactly what I did. If I’m not here then there are three things that could have happened
I decided this was too much and decided to head home. Text me if you don’t find me
The police located me and are now rushing me to the hospital because of what I took
Or I’m passed out somewhere in this field. I could be almost dead or dead when you find me
I love you peter. Thanks for helping me this year. I know I shouldn’t have took so much and now I regret it. If I don’t make it to tomorrow let everyone know that it was my parents fault. I love you Peter.
,Love Charlotte.”
That’s what the card said and that was it. The pizza box was left open. The pizza was shaped into a heart. The grease was building a lake in corner of the box. The silence was concerning me. I started looking around for my lovely date. There was a bush that seemed to be shaped weird. The bush was shaped into something that looked like someone who fell into it. There was no way that she fell into there I thought, but I was wrong. There lay my prom date, head first through a bush and her head was in a rock. There was no coming back for her she was gone. I turned her over her forehead was bloody. The wound was a few inches long and about an inch wide. I couldn’t believe what I came to witness. I started crying and freaking out.
“This girl died and I wasn’t here” I thought to myself. I fought through the tears and grabbed her phone and called emergency services.
“911 what is your emergency?” the responder said
“My prom date is passed out, at about half a mile from the broward water tower. She has a cut across her head. I can’t tell if she’s dead. Please sent someone” I said fighting through the tears
“Stay with me kid. So your prom date is passed out and has a open cut on her head correct?” she said
“Yes that is exactly it please send someone!” I said frantically
“Alright can I get your name,” the dispatcher said
“My name is Peter Lyons. My prom date is Charlotte O’mare. Please hurry she’s losing a lot of blood really quick.” I said trying to close her wound
“Alright Peter I’m dispatching an ambulance to your location. They’ll be there soon stay  strong kid.” The dispatcher said and then ended the call. I took off my tie and wrapped it around her head to try and put pressure on the wound and maybe just maybe save her. The Ambulance arrived 10 minutes later. Those ten minutes felt like a hour, but the dispatchers finally arrived. Me and the two other EMT’s carried Charlotte’s lifeless body to the ambulance. They let me ride with her to the hospital was too late. She already lost too much blood and was dead. They stopped trying to save her a couple hours later at the hospital. My family and Charlotte’s family both bonded together as if we were one. My dad and Charlotte’s dad were getting along. The parents were sad, and they were proud of my effort to save Charlotte. Charlottes funeral was a week later and I gave the eulogy and was the last person to leave Charlotte’s funeral.