The Abduction of Regan Emmett

Thurmond, West Virginia was an absolute ghost town. Nothing good came from being there. Not many people pay attention to it on the map, and not even urban explorers felt the need to pass through it. Only a select few crazy individuals came to reside in the small, five home town, if you would even call it a town to begin with.

The homes were constructed in the early 1900s, some were beginning to break down and rust away, but a couple still looked in mint shape as if they had just been built. The first house belonged to, John Dragan, a railroad worker who constructed his two story wooden abode back in the earlier years of 1900. He passed away in 1988 and since then, his great grandchildren took it over, trying to reconstruct it back to its beautiful posture.

The second home belonged to Marilyn Brown, whose home was also built in 1900. Although Marilyn Brown’s name was already the center of the town, she wasn’t born until 1907, named after her elder mother who was the mayor of Thurmond when it was more populated. Marilyn was still alive, well over 100 years old and living all alone in her tiny wooden home not to be bothered by anyone else, but was always such a friendly face whenever she would show her face every once in a while.

The third home belonged to Margaret Dalton, whose home was built by her own two hands in 1920, when it was frowned upon for women to do hard labor, and she was almost arrested in 1921 for working under hard laboring laws as a pregnant woman. She lived alone and didn’t want the pressure of having anyone working for her when she was strong enough to work on her own, but just after building her home she suffered a miscarriage and carried out three suicide attempts before being placed in an asylum to live out the rest of her days, she passed away in the asylum from an unknown illness in 1955. Her home is now occupied by her grandchildren.

The fourth home, deep inside the woods away from the other homes, belonged to a couple, Sid Childers & Margie Richmond. Their home was constructed by Sid’s father in 1900, but wasn’t completed until 1905, when Sid was born. Him and his wife Margie had the perfect life, away from everyone else to they could live privately without being bothered or had the risks or being robbed, as people back in those days were at large for always robbing and getting into small town houses. In 1930 however, Sid and Margie’s house had burnt down from the second and third story, and took months to be replaced, and at the end of the renovating, Margie had fallen ill with cancer and passed away shortly after her diagnosis, leaving Sid in a state of despair. He moved from Thurmond never to be seen again, and left the house abandoned, never to be found.
But reports have been made that two mysterious men had managed to find the home, and started reconstructing any broken down parts they could find, and illegally moved in, with no troubles at all, never showing their faces in the town, and no one knowing anything about them.

Lastly, and most importantly, the fifth home. It belonged to two families, none of which were related to one another. John Bullock & Roger Armandtrout lived on the second floor, while Amy & Douglas Littlepage lived on the first floor. The home was constructed in 1900, commonly rented out as a whitewater rafting holster. The Littlepage family often sold rafts to make some pocket money, which John and Roger crafted themselves. Both families got along quite well until it was learned that Margie and Douglas were having a nasty love affair which resulted in a brutal and twisted rivalry between the families. They separated themselves from one another and moved out of Thurmond forever, leaving the two story home to be abandoned until 2016, when a new girl arrived.

Regan Emmett moved into the John Bullock home in mid-2016, after a huge fight escalated in her old home in Atlanta, Georgia. She wanted to not only escape from her abusive home, but she wanted to escape the state of Georgia all together. She knew she was better off living alone, and being the anti-social person she was, she decided to find a place where she knew she wouldn’t get bothered. That’s when she found Thurmond. She scoped out the town, or whatever it was called these days, and knew it was perfect for her. It had an eerie feel to it, like it was taken over by demons and had a haunting background to it. Most of the people who lived here died, or had left it abandoned because of the bad things that happened in it. They left for a purpose, but Regan came here for a purpose. To get away from the negativity in her life, she couldn’t wait to make a new life for herself, to prove to everyone she was capable of living on her own. She was 22 years old and never lived by herself. She always had someone taking care of her, although her family didn’t mind. She was at one point incredibly close to her parents, her father was the chief of police and was very well known, therefore so was Regan. Her mother was a painter, a very successful one, who sold over millions of painting since her teenage years when she began. Regan had a sister, Sabrina, who was on her way to becoming a detective. She was older than Regan and much more educated, and was able to help her parents out when they needed it, something Regan longed for. She was tired of being the only person in the family with no lifelong goals. Her sister and her didn’t even get along, Sabrina had a good life, dreams and goals she accomplished, but was always jealous of Regan for getting her parents attention for not doing anything at all. She might have been book smart, but mostly, Regan was a bum. Regan and Sabrina often fought over their parent’s love, and Sabrina always wondered how her sister got away with sitting around doing nothing, and on the last night of Regan’s life in Georgia, Sabrina finally got through to their parents, and it was finally revealed that Regan was no longer allowed to sit around and do nothing.
She couldn’t believe Sabrina would try sabotaging her life, when she wasn’t even living with them, she had her own home, a boyfriend, and a beautiful step daughter. A proper family, and she decided it was in her best interest to ruin Regan’s life, but Regan wasn’t having it. She stole her dad’s wallet and everything in it, and ran away, thus arriving in Thurmond, never to be seen again, it was her time to shine, and she was about to show her family what she was made of.
When she arrived at her new home, she stood at the entrance for a moment taking in the new smells, it was nothing like Atlanta, it had a certain aroma to it that she fell in love with. Looking around at the other wooden homes, she felt like she was in Silent Hill. It was appealing to her to be in an almost abandoned ghost town, and it didn’t scare her at all. She was weird like that. She was always someone that people were freaked out about, she liked things most 22 year olds didn’t. She wasn’t accustoming to a normal life, and she liked it that way. This was her new way of living and she was damn okay with it, no matter what people had to say. She wasn’t a bum. She had dreams, it was only a matter of time before she put those dreams into full throttle.

She settled in to her new home, where most of the furniture from the former residents were still there. It was molded and disgusting and she knew she had to renovate, but with this new found feeling of being able to have her own home, it didn’t matter what the inside looked like, she was happy to renovate, and was happy to buy new furniture. She had it all, she even had a brand new car, which she bought as soon as she arrived in West Virginia.
She knew she needed to go into the city to buy some personal things to live off of, such as food, hygiene products, whatever she could get her hands on. She knew she had to get as many things as she could before her father’s credit card was cancelled from her stealing it. She dropped everything but her purse onto the molded bed, and her car keys before sprinting off downstairs and out of the house, so she could get to the nearest town as quickly as possible, not wanting to do much on her first day in Thurmond, she just wanted to rest, it had been such a long journey, a sad and angry journey. She still hadn’t heard from her parents, or her sister, but why would she? She was somehow always in the wrong when it came to arguments, and never had a say in anything other than the fact she was wrong and they were right. It was a big choice to move away, and an even bigger choice to run away with someone else’s money without going to jail for it. It was a good thing she was in a secluded ghost town no one ever heard of.
As she pulled off, she looked back to make sure she didn’t run into someone else’s mailbox, but as she was looking, she saw the house directly across from hers, the house that belonged to Marilyn Brown. She was sitting outside on her front porch drinking from small tea cup, and talking to two men, who were about middle aged and looked as though they hadn’t showered in weeks. They were talking and smiling with the old lady, maybe her caretakers? Of course she needed someone to look after her, living in a home by herself as a 100-year-old.
Regan backed out, and was now in full view of them. Marilyn waved at Regan with a large smile, as the two men were looking at her with glowing eyes, as if they never saw a young woman before, one of the men’s faces was scarred, maybe from something or someone scratching him over and over, he had shoulder length hair the color of coal, and wore dark clothing. He looked like someone from an industrial group. He had this wicked grin on his face that gave Regan a weird sensation, not too much of a worried one, but more of a weirded out one, she looked over at the other man. He was a little shorter than the other, more cleaned up, his hair was buzzed and he had tattoos on his right arm, from a distance you could still tell how blue his eyes were, his head was tilted up with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, as he crossed his arms, he winked at Regan, a tingling feeling ran down her spine, as she drove off quickly, attempting to avoid any more eye contact.
She made it to the main road, with that awkward encounter still echoing through her mind, were those the two men she heard all those rumors about? They didn’t seem too scary, at least from the description she was told, they seemed like two hobos living in the woods, who were helping an old woman get through the day, that didn’t seem so bad. She tried getting that off of her mind though, she was going to a city, Glen Jean, a more populated area but not as populated as some cities, if you could call Glen Jean a city at all. It was more of a small town, only 210 people lived there, but compared to some towns, where they hold over 8000, this was a ghost town too.
Thankfully it was only a 20-minute drive, it felt quick too, listening to music and just driving without any thoughts made the drive go by a lot faster as well. She saw people walking on the sidewalk with their children, some were at the park playing and screaming with laughter, it reminded her of Atlanta, almost a surreal feeling that she wasn’t there anymore, but that wasn’t what she wanted to think about. She had an agenda, she tried not to look at anyone, she wasn’t good at talking to people, or meeting new people or even making friends, she just wanted to be alone, she looked around to see if there was a grocery store or a market, but couldn’t see it in eyes view, she knew she had to walk some to find a place to go into, with a flash. She folded her arms tightly within each other and looked up at the store signs, not paying attention to anything else. She felt like she had been doing nothing but walking for ages, and realized that maybe Glen Jean wasn’t the right town to enter after all. But she heard a female voice calling out from behind her, and then a tap on her shoulder. Regan jumped than squealed.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.” In front of Regan was a beautiful blonde haired woman. She looked to be the same age as her. Her hair flowed from the wind and she was wearing a grey tank top and black skinny jeans with a dirty pair on converse, definitely something Regan would wear on a lazy day. She held her hand out for Regan to shake, but she hesitated. “I’m Ahniah. I’m a part of the town council. It’s my job to scout new faces here, and I’ve never seen you here before, you a new resident?” Ahniah looked genuinely interested in Regan, there was a never-ending smile on her face, and it was stunning.
“Um.. Yes, hi. Uh, I’m Regan. Sorry I didn’t mean to get.. startled like that. I’m not new here in this town, but I just moved to West Virginia, I live about 20 minutes down the road, thought I’d check to see if there were any markets around, but I’m having no luck.” Regan shook her hand gracefully but quickly let go. She was awkward like that. But she never took her eyes off of Ahniah, she seemed so nice. She needed a friendly face once in a while, to take her mind off the shitty things that happened in Atlanta.
“Oh than I’m glad I found you! I’ll take you to our market, I know it’s pretty confusing here, you’d think the markets would be right when you enter the town but no, it’s all in the back, clothing boutiques are in the front in case you need a new wardrobe. But I can see that’s not an issue, you look awesome.” Ahniah chuckled as she guided Regan to the nearby market.
“Thanks...”

They finally arrived at the market, it was small but it was still suitable for anyone’s needs, obviously for the amount of people living in the town it was up to par. Ahniah greeted some customers than turned her attention back to Regan.
“I won’t follow you, but I didn’t want to run some things by you when you come back out if that’s okay? I’ll wait out here, I HAVE to know about the mysterious Regan.” Ahniah winked, the same type of wink that guy gave her back in Thurmond. She didn’t think much of it however, she nodded and disappeared inside, trying to avoid everyone running into her, it was a small market, and dozens of people pushed their way past isles to get to what they needed to get.
Regan only needed a couple things. Shampoo, conditioner, hair brush, toothbrush, things in that nature, and some food. Before she knew it she was done and hustled her way out of the store before more people came busting in like mad dogs.
She looked around in search of Ahniah, and saw her on the corner street, in front of the sheriff station, talking to what looked like two policemen. Was Regan in trouble? She couldn’t help but wonder. Did her father find out where she was, and tip to the policemen that there was girl walking around with stolen cash? She had a knot in her stomach, but before she could sneak off, Ahniah waved her down. Regan rolled her eyes, always wondering why things like this happened to her.
She paced herself slowly, making her way over to Ahniah and the two men who were eyeing her down good. Not again...
“Regan! That was fast. I want you to meet these two fine men right here.” Ahniah pointed to two very handsome police officers, who were all smiles.
“Regan this is Officer Duval and Officer Andrews.” She looked at the both and shook their hands firmly, not wanting to come off as shy or disrespectful.
“Hi Regan, no need to be scared we’re not here to arrest you. We love meeting new faces. Especially beautiful ones.” Officer Duval kissed her hand, but was pushed back by Officer Andrews.
“Stop, you fuckin’ idiot. No need to bamboozle someone like this, you’re always doing this!”
“Am not!”
“Ya fuckin’ are so shut it!” Officer Andrews looked back at Regan with an embarrassed look. “Sorry about that, he loves to flirt.” He gave a snarky side eye back to Duval who couldn’t help but laugh.
“They do this all the time don’t worry, it’s nothing you won’t get used to.” Ahniah patted Regan’s shoulder and sat next to Andrews before placing a kiss on his cheek.
“You can call me Giuseppe, and this is James.” Officer Andrews and James sarcastically bowed before bombarding her with questions. “Where are you coming from?” Giuseppe continued.
“I’m living in Thurmond.”
“What?” All three asked in different tones. Regan backed up.
“Why, Thurmond? It’s a fuckin’ ghost town, haven’t you heard the rumors?” James got off the brick wall he was leaning on and walked closer to Regan, who was starting to get nervous. “Apparently two crazies live there, their known for being a little stalker-ish…” James folded his arms, staring deep into Regan’s blue eyes.
“Leave her be, I’m sure she is brave enough to handle her own, right Regan?” Giuseppe side grinned before looking back and seeing someone in handcuffs being taken in. “Duty calls. James you better get the fuck outta here before you get in trouble for being here on your day off.”
James nodded without looking away from Regan, he noticed there was something off about her, and knew he had to keep a close eye on her from here on out. Regan saw Ahniah and Giuseppe passionately kiss for what seemed like hours before he headed off inside to do his job. Ahniah walked over to them and sighed. “It’s getting late, curfew is soon, better get the intercom set. It was nice meeting you, Regan, I hope to see more of you soon, feel free to come say hi anytime.” Ahniah shook her hand once again before running off into the counsel office.
“You better get going, we have a curfew here and no one can be outside past 6:30.” James backed off and held his hand out for Regan to shake, but she didn’t take it, instead she smirked and walked off without so much of a goodbye. She was good like that, she loved playing hard to get and could see James showed interest, but she had none. But he also knew he’d see her again, even if he had to take a trip to Thurmond.

When Regan arrived back to her home, it was already dark out, you could barely see the homes, there were no light posts, just her small porch light, and the inside light of Marilyn’s. She noticed Marilyn was back inside and the two dirty men had left. She rushed inside and turned her lights on before plumping down on her bed and letting out the biggest sigh. Closing her eyes, she imagined life back in Atlanta, is this what she really wanted? Only one way to find out, she was going to tough this new life out for a few days and get her life on track, this was it. This was her time to be a real adult now. No parents, no family, just her.

Welcome to Thurmond, Regan.