Authors: Tim Miller
Chapter 3
Crystal typed furiously on her laptop as sweat beaded on her forehead. She was writing a long response to an internet troll on her blog, “Texas Urban Legends.” Her latest entry had been one in a series she’d been working on about the urban legend known as The Country Club. According to the legend, there was some place somewhere in Texas where the super wealthy could ask for anything they wanted, usually a girl. And this place would kidnap one for them and they were allowed to rape, torture
, or whatever as much as they wanted.
She knew it sounded a bit like the film “Hostel” but she had some good reasons to believe in this one. In her college days at Austin Community College, she had first learned about the legend. Some girls had disappeared from the area
and she suspected they were victims of The Country Club. Everyone told her she was nuts of course, including this online douchebag with the user name “Cuntbooger.” However, before she hit the post key, her laptop beeped and the screen went black.
“Goddamn this motherfucking piece of cheap ass bullshit!” Crystal yelled.
“What is the problem now?” her roommate Sophie said from the couch.
“This piece of shit laptop. The battery fucking died on me. I only had it on an hour. Stupid thing didn’t even warn me.”
“I told you to get a Mac,” Sophie said.
“Fuck that. I’m not paying $1200.00 for a fucking laptop. This one only cost me $250.00”
“That would explain why it’s a piece of shit.”
“Blow me,” Crystal said. As she sat up and walked the laptop over to her desk and plugged it in. “Besides. Macs are all hype anyway.”
“Mine never goes dead after an hour.”
“You barely use yours.”
“Whatever. Besides, don’t big shot journalists use Macs?” Sophie asked.
“
I’m a blogger, hardly a big shot journalist.”
“Not a big demand for writers on mythical Country Clubs either probably.”
“Whatever. I’m gonna find this thing. I’m telling you, one of the missing girls from my freshman year. I talked to her parents. She thinks they took her. She had dated some guy from UT. His family had all kinds of money. He was the biggest suspect, but they didn’t have anything on him,” Crystal said.
“
They never found a body, right?”
“Nope, no trace of her.”
“How do you know she didn’t just take off?” Sophie asked. “Maybe ran off with some other guy.”
“Why the fuck would she do that? She had everything going for her. I mean, she wasn’t rich, but she was a good student, pretty, and smart. She could’ve done anything. Doesn’t make any sense she’d just vanish. Besides, I’m not the only one who believes this place exists. I have over five-thousand subscribers on my blog and ten thousand on my Facebook page.”
“Oh, well be careful. Maybe they’ll come for you next!”
“I doubt it
,” Crystal said. “Not much demand for a frizzy haired nerd with glasses and a big nose.”
“Your nose is not big. It’s distinguished.”
“It’s a fucking beak. Anyway, not that worried about it. I doubt those rich assholes give a shit what I am up to.” Crystal turned her laptop back on and waited for Windows to reload and go through ‘your-computer-did-not-shut-down-properly bullshit.’ Once it started up, she pulled up her browser and saw she had a new email through her website.
She clicked on it, and it filled her screen.
“Dear stupid whore,
Or should I say Crystal Ray at 4472 South 5
th
St apt 221, Austin, TX. We are sick and tired of reading about The Country Club and other bullshit stories. You seem to have grown quite the following, a following that seems to listen to you. We think it’s time you took down this blog and other stupid sites. Nothing good will come of them. No one believes you nor will they ever. Everyone already thinks you’re crazy, but it can and will get worse. Unless you take it down. Consider this your first and only warning.
Cuntbooger and friends.
”
“What the fuck?” Crystal said as she pushed away from the desk. “Look at this shit.”
Sophie sat down and read the screen.
“
So someone is fucking with you,” she said.
“I see that. But they know my name, my address? How would they know that?”
“It’s probably someone you know trying to scare you. And it’s working. Just delete that shit,” Sophie said.
“I can’t just delete it. It’s a fucking Yahoo account too. Could be anyone.
What if it really is them?”
“Who? The Club or whatever? Why the fuck would they send you this? Say ‘
Hey! It’s us, but we don’t exist!’ I think you’ve been at this for too long. Maybe you need a break.”
“Shut up. I’m gonna show this to Joel. Maybe he can see where it came from.”
“Joel? Not that dork,” Sophie said.
“Yes that dork. He’s the smartest computer guy I know. Let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes you are. This shit is freaking me the fuck out and I’m not leaving you here alone until I’m sure this is bullshit.” Crystal grabbed her hand and dragged her out the door. They walked down the stairs and got into Crystal’s car, a 2010 Toyota Prius and headed to Joel’s.
“I think you are way overreacting,” Sophie said.
“I’m not. What if Bob Woodward didn’t keep digging around about Watergate?”
“Yeah, this is a far cry from Watergate. It’s more like you chasing bigfoot or UFOs.”
“Hey, at least I have a cause
,” Crystal said.
“I have better than a cause, I have a job.”
“Which you hate.”
“It pays more than your damn blog does.”
Crystal didn’t reply to the last jab. After a few blocks, they reached a tiny house that looked like it should have been condemned. The windows were even boarded up.
“Here we are
,” Crystal said.
“Great. I think I’d feel safer at this Club place than here.”
“Be nice,” Crystal said as she got out of the car.
Chapter 4
Joel sat at his computer when he heard the car door slam. He stood and looked out the window to see Crystal and Sophie walking up. Holy shit! What were they doing here this late? Especially Sophie. She hated his guts for some reason. Though girls like her usually hated his guts. Girls like her being perfect girls. Sophie had long legs, long blonde hair and full lips that looked like they could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.
Crystal was short, wore nerdy glasses, had wavy dark hair and probably had a cute body, but she wore baggy shirts all the time. Her glasses were actual prescription too, so they weren’t just hipster glasses, which was common around Austin. He sniffed his armpit and noticed the sweat stain on the front of his shirt and immediately wished he’d showered that day. He was standing by the door when the girls knocked.
“Hey!” he said opening the door.
“Hey Joel. Sorry to bother you so late, but I want you to look at something. This has me seriously creeped out
,” Crystal said.
“Sure, what is it?”
She stepped inside, with Sophie following behind. Sophie looked Joel up and down and waved her hand in front of her face to let him know she could smell him. He gave her the finger as Crystal was setting up her laptop.
“It’s this weird email I got through my blog
,” Crystal said.
“Oh, the urban legends one?” Joel asked.
“Yeah. You know how everyone tells me that Country Club place doesn’t exist? Well take a look at this.”
Joel sat down and looked at the email
“Holy shit, that’s fucked up,” he said wiping a strand of greasy hair out of his face.
“I told her it’s probably a troll fucking with her,” Sophie said.
“Is there any way to tell who it is or where it came from?” Crystal asked.
“Let me take a look
,” Joel said as he wrote down the email address, then moved over to his computer and punched it in. His computer was no simple set up. He had custom built the whole system, which included four monitors as well as the top of the line processor and parts. He often referred to it as his “hot rod.”
“It’s a
Yahoo account, but I’m running a few things to see what I can find.” He sat there for a moment before turning around. “Well whoever it is, was using a Tor browser.”
“What the fuck is
a Tor browser?” Crystal asked.
“It’s a secure browser that hides your identity online. No one can trace you. All the hacker groups use it since they can’t be tracked through it.”
“So is it something really high tech? Like some stupid internet troll wouldn’t use that would they?” Crystal asked.
“Well they could. It’s not hard to set up, so if you’re a hardcore troll I could see using it. But unfortunately, I can’t tell who the account belongs to
,” Joel explained.
“So how did they know my address?”
“Through your ISP. If they were able to look it up through your blog, they could find your name, home address and such. It really isn’t that hard.”
“So it probably is someone just fucking with me?”
“Or it could be evildoers from the scary Country Club coming for you,” Joel said.
“Fuck you,” Crystal said as she sat down.
“What’s wrong? You almost seem upset that it wasn’t them. If it was, wouldn’t that be a bad thing? Like if they are as bad as you think they are, if they’re real that is.”
“I guess so.”
“Why do you want this to be so true anyway?” Sophie asked. “If it were true, it’s a horrible place. You should be happy it’s just a myth.”
“That’s just it. It’s not a myth. I know it’s there. And they are doing these things, taking girls and doing God-knows-what to them, and getting away with it. I want to find them and expose them.”
Joel and Sophie exchanged glances.
“Yeah, don’t look at each other like that,” Crystal said.
Joel wasn’t sure what to say. He liked Crystal. She was cute and awkward, much like himself. She’d never shown much interest in him and he was too chicken to say anything to her. Either way, he didn’t want to piss her off either. So instead he did what he usually does. Opens his mouth and says something stupid.
“I believe you, Crystal. Want me to help you find it?”
Crystal’s eyes lit up.
“Really? You don’t think I’m crazy?”
“Well I do, but we’re all a bit nuts. So yeah. I think you may be onto something.”
“Great!”
Before Joel could reply her email pinged. This was from a different address. When she opened it, there were two words.
Round Rock
“Round Rock? That’s maybe an hour or so from here,” Crystal said.
“What’s in Round Rock?” Joel asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe The Country Club is there.”
“Why would it be in Round Rock of all places?” Sophie asked. “If this is some kind of secret place for the rich. Wouldn’t it be in Dallas or Houston or something?”
“Round Rock is out of the way. Lots of open country around there. It would be easy to hide a place like that,” Crystal explained.
“Where would you even look?” Sophie asked.
“I don’t know, but we need to go. Come on!” Crystal jumped up and closed her laptop.
“What? Now?” Sophie said.
“Yes now.”
“It’s like two in the morning
,” Joel said.
“Yeah, so? You said you’d help me. Come on
,” Crystal said as she grabbed his hand and began tugging at him to get up. Her touch took him by surprise and actually gave him shivers. He couldn’t remember the last time a girl had touched him in any way at all. He stood, and followed her as they headed for the door.
“You guys are actually going?” Sophie said.
“Yeah. May as well.”
“You’re both fucking insane, you know that? And Crystal, Joel fucking stinks. Do you even shower, dude?”
“Sophie!” Crystal shouted.
“No, she’s right. I don’t usually get company, let alone invited on a road trip. I’ll go clean up then we can go. I won’t take long
,” Joel said as he headed to the bathroom. He was glad for the chance to shower. Mainly so he could rub one out quick while the sensation of Crystal’s touch was still fresh in his mind.