Foundation of Youth

“Collins. You were seen in the old library during period two. Do not lie to me, with your lying it seems more is more! Look you know the rules about the old parts of the school. They are dangerous and off limits.”

Alan looked up at the headteacher. He wasn’t lying about not being in the library. He wasn’t there. But he also wasn’t where he should have been. He was hiding in the stairwell behind a broken floor buffer and saw Mr Latham the deputy head walk through the plastic sheeting that had been placed across the corridor to divide the old part of school that needed redevelopment and the active already redeveloped part. It must have been him that claimed to see him, but Alan wasn’t there, however if he told anyone who he actually saw there, nobody would believe him and he would blow his hiding spot.

From the stairwell Alan could see through the window across the yard and into the old library, in there he spotted Peter Finlay, the missing boy, walking across the room. He looked just like he did in the pictures his parents gave to the press. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen him do the same journey across the room. From his place in the stairwell he’d seen him walk past the window and he always looked the same.

He had also seen Mr Latham going in daily, he always looked different. Getting more tired, more sad, more worried. It almost looked like he didn’t want the builders to finish the work in this part of the building. But he never saw Peter Finlay. Only Alan did. Apart from that first time and the last time. The deputy head certainly saw Peter Finlay that day.