"nancy" route:
after the disappearance of their younger sibling's friend and a friend of their own, person a becomes worried about the cause of all these disappearances.
person a is on a mission to figure out what has happened to their friend, while also trying to navigate through a new relationship with people they wouldn't typically hang out with. this leads to going to the only other person they could think of, person b.
person b is the older sibling of the missing child that turned the town upside down. after allegedly being found, person b has to plan a funeral while their mother grieves in odder and odder ways. they're incredibly surprised when person a shows up to their front door.

"mike" route:
after person a's friend goes missing one night, person a and their friends are hellbent on finding them before anyone else does, despite the many search parties going on. that's their friend after all.
during one of these nights, person a stumbles upon something unexpected in the woods—another child all by themselves, person b.
seeing that person b is confused and scared, and around their age and harmless, person a decides to head home and figure out who this new stranger is.

"max" route:
moving across the country to a small town nobody would like to think twice about, person a isn't ecstatic about this new situation as they start their new school.
the kids are weird, they all look at 'a' like a freak, and they're just... weird.
matters turn for the better, however, when a group of kids keep getting caught around corners and ducking behind doors when person a looks.
this catches person a's attention and they finally confront the other kids.
this confrontation leads to person a finding much, much more about the unexpected mysteries of this forgettably small, freakish town.