I live in Jackson, Missouri and when my cousin and me were much younger, we enjoyed going to Farmington Water Park. But ever since she started high school, we had really become distant. My cousin is only three years younger than me, so when she attended my high school, she saw the seventeen-year-old version of me that was not the sixteen-year-old version of me and that version died when I was 18.5 years old. I was wild.
I was dating a girl, drinking booze, going to dances and sneaking out to make-out with my girlfriend. So, she blended in with the snobs at Jackson High. I dropped out and went into home school, around that time, she had gotten in trouble with drinking at a party. Not with the law, but with a boy. They had a sloppy night together and now he would not leave her alone.
One day I saw him pestering her and chased him off, told him never to talk to her again, I may have hated the circles she was running in, but she was still my cousin. She was very thankful I had solved her problem and we grew closer together. We were not best friends, but we returned to talking to each other. One day, she asked if I remembered that water park.
She wanted to go back, probable was it was an hour away and our families didn’t much care for water parks. Pee Pools they called them. Her and I decided to hitchhike to Farmington, I knew what to look for in psychos and she was willing to listen to me. On the day we planned to go, we had gotten small rides that shaved 3 or 4 minutes off of our trip.
Until we met an odd man at the 52 mile mark. He pulled over. “Do you girls need a ride?” he asked us. We nodded. “I am only going as far as St. Louis.”
St. Louis was miles beyond Farmington. “We’re going to Farmington, can you drop us off on the way?” I asked him.
He nodded and patted the seat next to him. “As long as you guys talk with me all the way to Farmington, I can drop you guys off wherever.”
After the man dropped my cousin and I at the water park, we waved good-bye thanked him once again, and entered the water park. I headed straight for the big slide and my cousin took to tanning near one of the smaller pools. I dunno why she said she wanted to come back here; her phone and Instagram were obstructing her face. I had come down the slide and made my way over to my cousin.
She looked freaked out. She showed me a photo both her and I were tagged in on Instagram. It was my house! My living room! My kitchen! My bedroom! The photos of her were the same. He uploaded one of his face, the only source of light was from his phone. He had a knife, which was by his face. “Let’s play a game. Which house am I at?”