Ever since the principal had banned texting, Mia barely talked to her boyfriend during the day. Sometimes she didn\u2019t see him until lunch. That morning, though, he was standing right outside her classroom, a smirk on his face, his dark hair framed by the brown and orange poster for the fall dance stapled to the wall behind him.<\/p>\n
He whispered hello and tried to kiss her. She shifted her weight to avoid his lips. The graze of his stubble smeared her foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop it, Danny. I don\u2019t feel good. I have to get to class.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pushed him away but he slipped his arm around her waist, bringing her closer. She knocked his hand from her stomach and broke free.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you lately?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing, I just don\u2019t feel good today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you better start feeling good, \u2018cause we\u2019re all going down to that mill by the river tonight. We\u2019re meeting at nine or ten by that ranger-station-thing. By the cliff. Near the quarry. You can get in by the waterfall.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat? Why?\u201d She tried to squeeze past him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re gonna\u2019 look for ghosts and stuff, it\u2019ll be fun, it\u2019s supposed to be haunted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t wanna\u2019 go. I\u2019m tired. I just wanna\u2019 go to sleep early.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta\u2019 go. C\u2019mon. We all are.\u201d He planted himself in the center of the doorway and refused to move. The morning bell began to ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine, whatever. I\u2019ll go. Just get out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAwesome, I\u2019ll see you later.\u201d<\/p>\n
He kissed her one last time before stepping aside.<\/p>\n
She hardly ate any lunch. The scent of onions seemed to taint the whole cafeteria. It was only near the end of the day when her stomach finally settled.<\/p>\n
She found Danny sitting on his car in the waning sunlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you\u2019ll meet us at ten, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cC\u2019mon, you have to go. Ethan and Kelsey are going. It\u2019s like a double date, but with ghosts and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guess?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFine, I\u2019ll go. I told you I\u2019d go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCool, I\u2019ve got these huge flashlights. My dad bought two of them. They\u2019re really powerful.\u201d Danny pulled out his phone and began absent-mindedly staring at the screen. \u201cI hope they\u2019re not too bright, though. But I guess nobody\u2019s ever down there by the river, like, at ten at night or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
An autumn wind blew through the trees, stirring up chimney smoke from nearby houses. Mia felt hungry for the first time in days.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust make sure to wear boots or something, since we\u2019ll have to go through the woods and there\u2019s tons of broken glass and stuff like that inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pictured the old mill. She\u2019d studied it in eighth grade. The Bancroft family had made fabric there starting back in the 1800s. It closed in the 1960s. Now it was just falling apart, abandoned from a forgotten era. She wasn\u2019t sure if Danny even knew it was called the Bancroft Mill.<\/p>\n
For dinner she ate mashed potatoes on the couch with her mom. They watched the news and the weatherman said something about the dew point causing fog, how it was bad for pumpkins if they were cut already. Her mom went straight to bed. It was easy to sneak out.<\/p>\n
Mia stayed off the highway and drove cautiously, barely able to see the murky neon sign of the drive-thru where she stopped for fries.<\/p>\n
It only took fifteen minutes to get to the gravel parking lot by the cliff.<\/p>\n
A streetlamp illuminated Danny through the mist as she approached. He was on the hood of his car, drinking a beer. Ethan stood next to him, trying to light a cigarette, his arm around his girlfriend, Kelsey. They shielded their eyes.<\/p>\n
Danny yelled through the darkness as she turned off her engine.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t use your high beams like that, people could see us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she got out and walked up, he offered her the beer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want a sip?\u201d<\/p>\n
She pretended not to hear.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously, don\u2019t use your headlights like that. We don\u2019t wanna\u2019 get caught.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust try to be more careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan finally lit his cigarette and blew some smoke into the haze. Mia stepped back from the cloud; a stick snapped beneath her. Kelsey jumped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The boys laughed.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of feet below, over the edge of the cliff, the dark river churned on steadily. They stood quietly in each other\u2019s company for a moment until Danny finally spoke up.<\/p>\n
\u201cC\u2019mon, let\u2019s go, we\u2019ll take the path by the quarry. It\u2019ll be quicker.\u201d He took another sip of beer, offering it to Mia again. \u201cYou want some or not?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGod, you\u2019re never any fun. Why are you so uptight?\u201d<\/p>\n
After hesitating a second, she grabbed the can and took a drink.<\/p>\n
Danny snatched it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, don\u2019t drink it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they moved into the forest, Mia let the bitter, lukewarm liquid sit on her tongue for a second, waiting for Danny to move ahead. As soon as she was sure no one else was looking, she quietly spit the beer into the dead leaves behind her.<\/p>\n
They reached the river in less than five minutes. The mill stood along the edge of the waterfall as if the foundation had grown from the water. Almost every window was broken, the roof caving in. Staring at the building, Mia wondered why she hadn\u2019t just stayed at home in bed.<\/p>\n
Near the edge of the waterfall a rotting wooden platform sat perched on some boulders, a pedestrian bridge once used by mill workers. A rusty door hung from its hinges, blocking their way.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanny, check this out.\u201d Ethan kicked the lock with all his strength, ripping the metal door from its frame. It slammed onto the wooden platform, then bounced, reverberating off the steel beams supporting the bridge. Birds scattered from a nearby tree.<\/p>\n
Mia searched the woods for impending reproach, but no one came. The sound of the waterfall resumed. The evening carried on.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me go first, since I\u2019ve been in here before. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danny offered his hand to Mia.<\/p>\n
She took it, noticing how cold his skin was, but how it also felt somehow comforting. They held each other tightly and shuffled across the bridge, inch-by-inch, the river rushing below.<\/p>\n
Upon reaching the end, Danny led them through a short passageway to an open door.<\/p>\n
The fog gave way to damp, stagnant air.<\/p>\n
It was a big room. Sprawling. Broken tables and shattered glass and discarded factory equipment littered the floor. Graffiti stretched from wall to wall, scrawled chaotically in different layers from all the kids breaking in over the years.<\/p>\n
Danny pulled out his phone and started taking pictures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was only here a couple minutes last time. But this is the boring part, where people worked. There are other places where they did tests on people and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, right.\u201d Ethan shined his light in Danny\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
Kelsey rolled her eyes as she moved closer to her boyfriend. \u201cI\u2019m sure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did, seriously. I hear a guy killed a lady in here once. There\u2019s all kinds of crazy stuff. I\u2019ve never even been in half of it. It\u2019s like a maze.\u201d Danny stepped over a puddle, pulling Mia along. \u201cLet\u2019s try this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he led them through a door in the back corner they entered a deserted hallway, eventually hitting a dead end by a stairwell. Danny pointed his flashlight towards the second floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s check it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
They climbed quickly.<\/p>\n
Mia\u2019s heart was pounding by the time they reached the top. It was kind of fun. Like a haunted house. She almost even smiled when Danny swung her around at the top of the landing to kiss her on the cheek.<\/p>\n
She couldn\u2019t truly relax, though. That one thing in the back of her mind wouldn\u2019t let her be happy.<\/p>\n
She let her hand drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s your problem?\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d moved on before she could reply.<\/p>\n
The upstairs hallway was empty save an overturned bench. Tight, windowless. Danny herded them along to another door, this one paneled and locked.<\/p>\n
Ethan skipped ahead, wanting to be first.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he kicked his way in he called back to the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cCheck this out!\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an office. A nice one. A place someone important must\u2019ve spent a lot of time. There was a big oak desk, covered in dust, resting beside a cracked leather chair. A mangled filing cabinet, rusted and with no doors, lay on its side. Above the desk, a framed map of the river, still intact and under glass, acknowledged them with their own reflection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is awesome.\u201d Danny scanned the room with his flashlight. \u201cIt\u2019s like people just ran out in a hurry. Like they left everything exactly where it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really.\u201d Ethan searched the filing cabinet. \u201cThey took all their papers. They obviously knew they were leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever.\u201d Danny made his way over to the old leather chair, running his fingers along the bronze studs, picking up black dust. \u201cGross.\u201d As he wiped his hands on his jeans in frustration, he kicked the aging legs. All of the sudden, without warning, the heavy seat gave out and crumbled to the floor, crashing with a bang. \u201cWhoa!\u201d As Danny jumped back in surprise he spontaneously ripped the map from the wall, throwing the frame to the ground. Glass shattered. Mia covered her face from the shards.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanny, come on–\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStop breaking stuff. I think we should just get out of here. It\u2019s getting late.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s your deal? We\u2019re trying to have fun. Why do you always have to be so serious?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired. It\u2019s been a long day. And I don\u2019t feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never feel good. It\u2019ll only be a little longer. Me and Ethan and Kelsey are having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he continued marching around the room, the floorboards bent beneath him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d stopped in the corner, focusing his light on some peeling wallpaper behind the filing cabinet.<\/p>\n
\u201cEthan, get over here.\u201d<\/p>\n
A glint of metal sparkled as they examined the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a door knob.\u201d<\/p>\n
They put down their flashlights and began tearing long strips of paper from the wall. A tarnished brass lock revealed itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cDude, Danny, what the hell is this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a secret door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danny tried the knob first. It wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n
Ethan added more force. But it still wouldn\u2019t move.<\/p>\n
Finally Danny told everyone to stand back.<\/p>\n
After getting a head start from the other side of the room, he exploded into a run, kicking his boot out at the last second, striking the door with all his might.<\/p>\n
A loud crack shook the walls as the lock broke. The door swung wildly back and forth for a minute before creaking to a stop.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t another factory room. It wasn\u2019t an office for a secretary, either.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the type of room that should\u2019ve been in the mill at all.<\/p>\n
There was more peeling wallpaper, but this time it was green and yellow and floral in design, running down to a carpeted floor. It smelled sweet and moldy, like no one had been in there for a hundred years. The thick carpet had once been gold or teal, and was now a faded and filthy combination of both.<\/p>\n
As Mia\u2019s eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made out dozens of small pictures decorating the walls. They were indecipherable at first, but she could soon see clearly. They were delicate watercolors. Paintings of animals. Bunnies. Kittens. Birds.<\/p>\n
Goosebumps ran up her arms.<\/p>\n
Danny began pacing the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow this is creepy. What the hell is this place?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mia\u2019s heart was beating faster now. She followed the line of watercolors to the corner.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when she saw it.<\/p>\n
Right there, in the back of the room, a tiny mobile hung from the ceiling. Little stencils of people holding hands were looking downwards.<\/p>\n
Down into a small, empty cradle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is insane.\u201d Danny stomped around the nursery. \u201cWhat were they doing in this place? Keeping people hostage?\u201d<\/p>\n
He stormed across the mildewed carpet towards the cradle. Next to it, as if it had just fallen out, was a miniature toy rattle. An old-fashioned ceramic one, its fragile surface painted with muted pink roses.<\/p>\n
Mia took a stilted breath.<\/p>\n
In an instant, before she could even exhale, Danny\u2019s boot smashed down, splintering the rattle into a thousand pieces.<\/p>\n
His booming laughter spilled out of the nursery.<\/p>\n
She couldn\u2019t take it anymore.<\/p>\n
Without so much as another breath, Mia found herself throwing the entire weight of her small body at him, pounding closed fists into his chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cFuck you, Danny! Fuck you!\u201d She could barely scream through the shaking. \u201cYou can go to hell!\u201d<\/p>\n
He was stunned, standing there drained of color, unable to comprehend what was happening. Ethan and Kelsey were frozen too, their mouths open, eyes wide.<\/p>\n
She tried to control her tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a fucking asshole, Danny. You\u2019re a son-of-a-bitch.\u201d She pushed him against the wall, ripping the flashlight from his hand. \u201cI\u2019m going home. Seriously, I\u2019m fucking going home you asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n
They called after her but she wouldn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n
She ran down the hallway past the overturned bench and back downstairs to the factory. She ran across the rotting bridge into the forest, back to the foot of the cliff.<\/p>\n
Finally, she turned to the mill.<\/p>\n
Through the mist, she could trace their flickering light as it wandered behind broken windows, from the nursery back into the office, down to the factory. Their light, like her thoughts, searching for a way out, trying to vacate the depths of some unrealized fear.<\/p>\n
A gust of wind rustled fallen leaves along the riverbank. Mia placed her hands on her stomach. Then, turning away, with the cliffs high above and the river racing behind, she took a step forward, disappearing into the fog.<\/p>\n \nA.E. Milford was born and raised in Delaware. A graduate of Berklee College of Music who is now based in Los Angeles, Milford has written for various film projects and has had fiction published in Philadelphia Stories, <\/em>the Schuylkill Valley Journal,<\/em> and the Broadkill Review<\/em>.\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever since the principal had banned texting, Mia barely talked to her boyfriend during the day. Sometimes she didn\u2019t see him until lunch. That morning, though, he was standing right outside her classroom, a smirk on his face, his dark hair framed by the brown and orange poster for the fall dance stapled to the [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[313],"class_list":["post-5795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prose","tag-the-bancroft-mill-by-h8rfish-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5795"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5862,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions\/5862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}