When a young girl vanishes, a haunted cop burdened by a past mistake finds himself entangled in the dark secrets lurking beneath Westville’s quiet facade. As the missing girl’s best friends embark on their own search, they uncover something malevolent and hungry stirring in the shadows of the woods. New installments of this serial by Lowell author Ryder Jones will be published each Friday, and you can find past episodes on the Westville Substack. Parent discretion is advised.
October 25th, 1996
Millie Thompson drowned out the shouts outside her door with the sharp edge of Alanis Morissette’s voice in her ears.
She paced in tight circles while her parents were at it again in the kitchen, words like knives bouncing off the walls. Her father was telling her mom to ‘just lay off’ and that he ‘had it under control.’
Millie knew better.
The sour stench of alcohol clung to her father’s breath most mornings when he dropped her off at school and said, “Have a good day, Millie girl,” as she pretended not to notice.
She lowered her headphones and set her yellow Discman on the dresser, pulling her blonde hair back as a thin-sounding chorus came through the headphones hanging around her neck:
“What it all comes down to is everything’s gonna be quite alright.”
She held on to that, wishing it were true.
But Millie could not know what was coming.
No one could have.
#
The Slate River stood placid, the last of a late autumn sun searing a red line over the shimmering current. Millie passed the old high school, abandoned and looking more and more like a haunted house by the minute, and ahead, the Westville Showboat sat steeped in shallow waters, looking like a relic incapable of floating, despite the sizable bright red paddlewheel on the stern.
She crossed Main Street, skirting through the downtown parking lot, then onto the train tracks, following them onto the trestles over the river.
She stepped out onto the trestles as water roared from the dam, spilling into the banks where her grandpa’s company, Prince Milling, loomed. In theory, her dad would take it over one day, but Millie wasn’t so sure anymore. The subject always seemed to turn into a fight between her parents.
She passed the big silos and grain bins as the tracks came back onto solid ground, then banked left toward the fairgrounds and the football field.
She saw Olivia leaning against the concession stand and teasing Kyle, who was in an apron grilling hot dogs, and when his mom wasn’t looking, Kyle flipped Olivia off, and she laughed.
“Mil!” Olivia grinned, waving her over. “I was just telling Kyle he’s found his calling.”
“Maybe,” Kyle shot back. “Or maybe I’ll get a job as a busboy down at Fischer’s.”
“So you can creep on my sister?”
“Why else?”
Kyle’s mom called him, and he trudged off.
“You love riling him up, don’t you?” Millie said, shaking her head.
Olivia shrugged. “Easy target.”
That was one of the things Millie admired about Olivia—how she just did what she wanted, said what she felt, no hesitation. It got her into trouble sometimes, but there was a kind of freedom in it.
“You like the CD?” Olivia asked, gesturing down at the Discman.
Millie nodded. “Yeah, it’s maybe just a little better than Amy Grant.”
“Told you.” She gave Millie a sly look, her voice dropping. “So, I’ve been thinking…”
Millie recognized that tone. It meant trouble. “We’re not ditching the game.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Come on, why not?”
“Because I told my parents this is where I’d be.”
“And what if I told you we don’t have to go far?”
“For what?”
Read the rest of The Vanishing of Millie Thompson on the Westville Substack.
Ryder Jones is the author of the ongoing paranormal mystery thriller serial, Westville, as well as the forthcoming Remnant Divine series of fantasy novels. He was born and raised in Lowell, MI, where he still lives with his wife Jessica, two daughters and son.
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