SEABROOK / NORTH ATLANTIC COAST
A local teenager named Alice has disappeared. The town would like you to know that everything is fine.
Read the open fileExplore the message board — 27 threads, 163 posts01 / THE QUESTION
In Seabrook, it is easier to find a postcard than a straight answer.
The available material describes Alice only as a local teenager. A first name on a notice. A space where a photograph should be. Enough for people here to recognise; not enough for an outsider to understand.
There is no reliable account of her last movements in this file. No confirmed explanation for her absence. The person following the questions through Seabrook has not identified themselves either.
Someone has collected photographs. Someone has marked a map. Whether they were finding a route or leaving one for somebody else remains an open question.
Start with what you can see. Keep what you suspect on a separate page.
02 / THE PHOTOGRAPHIC FILE
The original photographs are here. Browse 18 additional archive items.
Select any image to examine it at full size.
A missing notice and the July 12–14 festival share a shop window. The notice says June 14. The portrait area is damaged; its cause is unknown.
A yellow Toyota on a sandy coastal road. The handwritten question asks whether it is Alice’s car. No ownership is established. A cassette rests on the rear shelf.
Police tape across the lighthouse gate. A handwritten note questions an apparent reassurance. Neither the date nor the reason for the closure is recorded.
A brick pumphouse beside the marsh. The handwritten note asks whether Alice walked here. In the search account, an older woman recalls Alice walking beyond the boundary; the pump house is passed over. The photograph does not confirm her presence.
NEW ACCESSIONS / THE FILE IS GROWING
A blank motel register. A light at Town Hall. A festival that went ahead. Eighteen more pieces of Seabrook, and no agreed order to put them in.
Filed with the Room 17 material. No one in the image has been conclusively identified as Alice. The location where this print was found is reported, not established by the photograph.
Compare notes on the board →A boardwalk payphone has been circled. No call record, caller or time accompanies the photograph. The annotation is a question, not a recovered conversation.
Compare notes on the board →03 / PLACES TO ASK
The map circles five locations. The annotations ask about records, ownership and visitors. They do not establish a route taken by Alice.
A locked gate, police tape and an unanswered question. The marked location and the photograph agree on a place; neither explains what happened.
Discuss the lighthouseThe recorded account names the Seabreeze Motel. Its register skips Room 17; its clerk says nobody stayed there Tuesday. Alice’s presence is never established.
Who is in Room 17?Records, permits, incident reports. The annotations ask what might be found here, not what has been found.
“Abandoned?” “Who owns it?” The map-maker is asking questions too. The dashed line could be an intended route rather than a remembered one.
Read the map threadRed circles mark the lighthouse, town hall, police station, Seabreeze Motel and Old Mill. The writer’s identity and the order of the annotations are unknown.
04 / SIX RECORDINGS
Six recordings follow an unidentified person through Seabrook. Read the accounts together; remember that a narrator can notice something without understanding it.
Tom stops talking when his manager calls. Writing is painted over. A missing poster is torn down and replaced by morning.
READ THE DISCUSSION02A question about Alice becomes an answer about tourism. The sheriff looks at the mayor. The search has stopped.
READ THE DISCUSSION03The name at the centre of the file. Rika Kurosawa joins Mika on the title track.
READ THE DISCUSSION04A register skips from sixteen to eighteen. Warm television, fresh towels, a changed lock. The room is supposed to be empty.
READ THE DISCUSSION05The volunteers follow flags. The marina is crossed out. The flags stop at the dunes. The narrator keeps walking.
READ THE DISCUSSION06The visitors leave. The case remains “active and ongoing”. A photograph lies face down beneath the seawall rail.
READ THE DISCUSSIONFIELD ACCOUNTS / EXTRACTS FROM THE SIX RECORDINGS
The narrator gives no name. These are their observations, not independently verified findings.
01 / MAIN STREET
“He stopped talking in the middle
And never quite came back”
Tom says he knew her from high school. His manager calls him into the back. Elsewhere, a flyer is torn down each day and replaced by morning. We do not know who removes it, or who keeps putting it back.
READ THE DISCUSSION02 / COUNCIL ROOM
“Then why did the search stop yesterday?”
The recorded press conference includes questions about Tuesday night, the tracks and the service road. The sheriff says appropriate areas have been examined. The mayor moves to the next question.
READ THE DISCUSSION03 / THE SHORELINE
“Then changes half the story
When somebody else gets near”
A boy places Alice near the old amusement pier, then revises his account. Fresh tyre marks appear on the road behind the dunes. A boat leaves without moonlight. These observations have not been tied to a single event.
READ THE DISCUSSION04 / SEABREEZE MOTEL
“None of it says Alice
None of it says she wasn’t here”
Towels, a warm television, salt on the floor, sand under the sink, two lipstick marks on a cup and a receipt with half a date. A photograph beneath the bed shows four people by the pier. One is turned away.
READ THE DISCUSSION05 / THE SEARCH
“The flags stopped at the dunes.
I kept walking.”
Section five ends at private property. The marina and service road are marked checked; the pump house is passed over. An older woman says Alice walked there. Someone beside her says “Don’t start.”
READ THE DISCUSSION06 / THE SEAWALL
“I put the photograph back
Where I found it”
At summer’s end, the narrator finds a familiar picture face down under the seawall rail. The mother’s porch light has gone dark. Neither detail establishes a conclusion. The official case remains open.
READ THE DISCUSSIONTHE SEABROOK DISCUSSION BOARD
Fans, night owls, map readers and people who only came here to identify the synthesizer. Mika has been answering some questions. This has not necessarily helped.
Enter the discussion board