Ellie--Genesis

I had finally gotten the chance to go on a much needed vacation to relax and unwind and
forget the stress of life. Or so I thought when I had chosen to go to Estacada in Oregon. I had gone once when I was younger with my parents in 1999. It’s scenic woodland and friendly people made it one of the most beautiful places I had ever visited. My parents and I stayed at the Douglas hotel. It was huge, old and in the middle of a forest. The windows were smudgy as if they were lazily cleaned. The exterior was in bad condition with cracks and ivory, peeling paint which at one point might have been bright white. It was in much need of a renovation. The hotel was run-down but its imperfections added character to the place that in a way made it look beautifly antique.
The time I spent at the Douglas hotel when I was younger was unforgettable. Although we were visiting family, I didn’t have any cousins around my age to play with. Luckily I had met Ellie. Ellie was nine years old just like me at the time. She had pale white skin, strawberry blond hair and always wore the same white dress dress that I thought looked odd. We had met on the playground of the hotel during day care. My parents thought I would better if I played with kids my age at the hotel’s daycare rather than tagging along with them doing whatever boring adult activities they were doing with my family. We were the only two who attended daycare, so we became best friends. Ellie told me the day care was created because of her, because her parents were to busy running the hotel, which they owned, to watch after her. I remember we played house by acting like husband and wife, played with the fish in the lake, and ran around the hotel playing tag. At night we would sneak out of our rooms to have a slumber party in the hotel library. She would tell me about the scary man with the mask she saw but but felt save when she was around me. She said the masked man didn’t like little boys and wouldn’t go near me.
We had grown very close, so when the time came that I had to pack and leave it wasn’t easy for the both of us. When I told Ellie I had to leave soon she begged me not to go, telling me I was the only friend she had and the only one who could protect her from the scary man with the mask. She became furious when I told her I had no choice and ran from me crying. I didn’t see her after that incident but I remember finding the clothes in my languages thrown out of them after they had been packed by my mother. I knew it was Ellie doing it because she could have easy access to every key of the hotel and only she would have done something like that. My mother would become angry thinking it was me who had done it because I didn’t want to leave, but when I tried to explain that it was Ellie she grew more angry and didn't believe me. My parents never personally met Ellie and thought she was my imaginary friend. The last time I saw Ellie was when we drove off to the airport. She was sitting on one off the swings on the playground looking down at the ground. I also noticed a figure standing a few yards behind her that looked like a tall man wearing a black sack over his head with holes for eyes to see through. He was standing straight up with his arms to his sides looking at our car drive off and as we drove further he got closer to her. I realized he was the masked man. I freaked out and screamed to my parents that I had to go back save Ellie. They, of course, didn’t believe me and demanded I stopped screaming. Knowing it was hopeless to convince them to turn back I cried the whole way to the airport thinking the masked man had taken Ellie forever. Now, that I’m

twenty eight I thought about that day and laughed at myself, thinking I had a wild imagination to imagine Ellie getting taken by a masked man she made up.
I mostly wanted to go back to Estacada not just for the beautiful scenery or the nice people but to find out if Ellie was still there and how she is doing I knew it was a little bizarre to look for a girl I had met many years ago when I was nine, but over the years I never forgot about Ellie. So I decided to search for her. When I first arrived at the hotel and got out of the taxi I was shocked because it looked completely different. The windows were so clean you could see clearly through them. There were no cracks or peeling paint on its exterior and looked like it had been fixed and painted bright white. It didn't look like the old antique house I stayed at as a child but there was still something about it that felt familiar. I had asked to speak with the owners but to my surprise it was not Ellie’s parents but instead a man named John Fade. I had asked Mr. Fade why the Douglas family no longer owned the Hotel. He said the Douglas family last owned the hotel in 1922 and had sold th hotel to move after their daughter Ellie was murdered by a killer known as the Black Masked Killer who lured young girls into the forest to kill them. I went to her grave sight and couldn’t believe my eyes when I read her tombstone that said she last lived in the year 1922.