Oh, Cynthia

Oh, Cynthia

Dizzy,dizzy,dizzy. She was talking and walking like a maniac, saying unpleasant things about other people, this was surreal. We were all in downtown, picking up a taste of New York’s finest; grilled cheese sandwiches, after our 4 hour SAT class. It was 2 AM and we were all exhausted from listening about how to prepare for big tests like the SAT. This restaurant, Little Muenster, was open 24 hours and was our go-to late night restaurant, but they were famous for there alcoholic beverages. Cynthia, my best friend, couldn’t help herself and decided to order a glass of redwine. I told her not to,but all she said to each one of us is, “It will do no harm, don’t you worry.” We thought that she would like it right away and have more, and we were right. Soon enough, we were on our feet, while she was struggling to even sit straight. “Cynthia, we need to leave!”, I said. Then Cynthia answered, “Eh. I have another class get too, I’ll catch up with you guys later.” I did not know if she was lying or being truthful, she had too much alcohol, but she was still my best friend. I knew her so well, that I decided to have trust on her. Right when I got to my apartment, I went straight to bed not even talking to my roommates. Next morning, I had my normal routine. Get up, get ready to go to my first class, Molecular Cell



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Biology. Cornell University offered many senior science classes, but I knew right away that I would fall in love with this one. Anyway, as usual, I got up, had breakfast which is my favorite : scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and my favorite hawaiian coffee because you know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Once I finished breakfast, I right away remembered to text Cynthia. I texted her maybe 100 times, but she never answered and that is when I started to worry. Since, my class was starting I just decided to report and go to class, so they would at least know that she would not be here today. At roll call, they called my name, “Johanna Brooks” and then after some names called her name “Cynthia Peterson” and I didn’t know what to say, so I screamed with the least manners, “Absent!”. My teacher, Mr. Kavanagh, was furious, said that he was not happy with the respect I gave him and I had to tell him I was sorry. After my experiments with pituitary gland cells, I went to Mr.Kavanagh and told him the whole story. When I headed back to my apartment for my break, I decided to make some phone calls.I called all my friends that were with me at that time we were all at downtown really late: Morgan, Kris, and Heidi. First I called Morgan,

“Hey Morgan”, I said over the loud crowd.

“Hey, What’s up?” Morgan asked.

“I was just wondering if you had seen Cynthia” I crooned.

“Nope, sorry. Haven’t seen her all morning” She added.

“Oh, okay well I got to get to class.” I lied

“Okay bye!” Morgan concluded.



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I knew that I had to end the phone call, so I could talk with Kris and Heidi because typically Morgan can talk on the phone for hours! When I called Kris and Heidi, I got right away the same response. “Haven’t seen her!” Kris exclaimed. “No.... Have you seen her?” Heidi responded in a worried way. I knew that I had to report this to the police and called them right away. Then they asked what happened and I told them everything. So, here we are in Cornell University as senior students reporting a girl missing. Suddenly, something flashed in my mind. I tracked all of my close friends on my app “Find my IPhone”. With the help of this exceptionally helpful app, I found an unusual piece of evidence. I knew that when it said “Unable to open connection” that the phone was either destroyed or replaced. I decided that I needed to solve the mystery myself if the police could not help us and Cynthia’s family and other friends. I studied until around 1:00 AM and then headed back to the grilled cheese shop for more evidence. I found nothing there, but the same guy who worked there the night before. As I walked out of the store, that flashed in my head and I ran back to him. “Where is Cynthia?! She was the girl that was in this place yesterday with me, who was a bit unstable.” I explained to him.

“The only thing I remember is leaving off with a man who was dressed in black pants and a black beanie, with a blue shirt.” He described to me. That is when I knew that Cynthia had been kidnapped, but how would I know if this man is lying or not? I decided to report him to the cops on the phone:

“Hello, hi this Johanna Brooks.” I told him.





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Oh, hi yes the friend of the missing girl. What is the emergency?” The police officers words raced.

Then, I stated my observation and evidence (the restaurant cameras). Soon enough, the police started from that one small piece of evidence and worked there way on to something. A couple days later, they had reported to me that it was a security guard for Cornell University, who kidnapped her during his shift. The man’s name was Charlie Bucket. The only thing was that they couldn’t locate her or they couldn’t find a good reason why she was kidnapped. This job was up to me to figure out. I checked all the abandoned places in the university. I checked some graffitied allies, some unknown dumpster areas, and a closed hiking trail. In all of these places, I found nothing, but thin air. As I walked back to my apartment, I realized to track the security guard with his walkie talkie that all other University security guards have too. This system is just a walkie talkie that tracks other security guard too on the back GPS. I called the guards who are supposed to escort me to my apartment late night, but instead I use them to ask if I can look at the security system. “Sorry, that is not your evidence.” They said exhaustedly. I then showed them the recorded phone call of me with the police officers and after scrolling through my phone for about six minutes, they finally agreed. I saw that he was inside an apartment with the address 144 East Avenue, Ithaca, New York. That was almost right next to the University hall! I wrote the address on my hand right away and I ran back to the apartment to gather my belongings. For all I knew, I had an adventure to do! My classes started right in the morning again, so this had to be quick. I ran as fast as I could over to the address with the great



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help of Google Maps. Once I found this residential area, I knocked on the door with the guards by my side I saw a crack in the window blinds, which let me see enough of the house. He was a tall figure and his skin as pale as light. After knocking several times, we finally just let ourselves in by kicking the door open (the house was really old). I saw something I have never seen before, the house was a lab! We tied up the man in one of the corners of the house and while the guards went to find Cynthia, I looked around the house. This apartment had nothing that a normal house would have. Every room I went to was part of this lab. When I was finishing up the tour of the house, I heard a shriek. I did not know which room it was coming from and it turns out that she was in the room next to me. I ran over the room and the guards had told me she did not know where she was or who she was. She had just woken up from this coma she has been in. Then she wailed, “Where am I? How did I get here? Where are my friends and family? What are you people doing here? Help me!” I got worried for her and then sighed, “Oh, Cynthia. It’s just me. Remember, Johanna?” We paused for a moment and then right away I saw a light in her eyes. “Johanna, yes my best friend! Where is everybody else?” She asked silently. “That is a long story which I will explain to you later, but for now we have to figure out why this guy kidnapped you.” I said to Cynthia. “Kidnapped?” She asked again. “Shhh!” I said to her. We all snuck up to him and finally untied him our guards surrounding him. As they called more police officers, we talked to him silently. “To avoid all this commotion, just tell us why you kidnapped my best friend?” I politely questioned. After a small silent moment, he said, “I have always dreamed of being a scientist, but this dream failed. I thought that if I tried an outstanding experiment, that they would put me in the science industry. However, I knew nobody would volunteer for this, so

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I had to take someone and Cynthia, my friend, was the perfect person to go after.” We sat there thinking, but we were glad whatever he tried, the experiment on had failed. “I’m sorry, but there are side effects. She will turn on and off with animal effects.” She screamed and panicked while I tried to calm her down. He tried to run, but the police grabbed him and threw him in the back of their car. The side effects had already started, but Cynthia did not know and we did keep it a secret. One night, fur started growing on her skin and her teeth became as sharp as knives. Charlie Bucket was right, each day by day it would get worse. Nobody knew this, but Cynthia and I and also the police officers there (they are sworn to secrecy). All of us knew we most definitely had to report this, but we did not know how others would feel. In a couple of months, we found Cynthia laying in bed. Her nose was wet (like a dog) and she was growing a tail of beautiful blond hair (like a horse). A couple days later, we had found that the pain was too harsh and she was about to die. Finally, since it was a matter of life and death we submitted her to the hospital. From that day on, the only phone call I got from her was to tell the University that she was not going to come back. We all wondered what happened to her and how her life turned out. No matter how many times I emailed,called,texted or even sent mail to her, she did not answer. I knew this would happen and I am sorry I gave you up, Oh Cynthia.