The Missing

One crisp fall afternoon a woman, Jane, and her 10-year-old son, Carter, walk the cobblestone streets of downtown Society Hill in Philadelphia. Posted along the sidewalks, among the streetlamps, are flyers. Each displaying faces of children ages 8-13 with the words “Have You Seen Me?”. Both boys and girls were pictured on the flyers, and they all appeared to go missing within days of one another. How odd, thought Jane, I wonder if it’s some kind of sex trafficking gang…but they are so young. Ugh. So tragic the world we live in. Jane tries not to stare at them for too long as she does not want Carter to pay attention, but after a few moments…

“Mom, why are there so many children missing? Aren’t their families worried?” Jane sighs as her attempt failed. Jane inhales a breath and says “Of course, I’m sure their families are worried. That’s why they have these flyers posted. In hopes that someone has seen them and will help them get back home.” “Oh”, her son says in an understanding tone, “So they are just lost and can’t find their way home? That’s scary. I remember when I got lost at the store once and I kept yelling for you to come find me. Maybe they didn’t yell loud enough huh Mom?” Jane, satisfied with Carter’s conclusion, replied, “I guess maybe they didn’t.” They both chuckled as they walked to the park.

It was a partly sunny day and the park was occupied by other parents and their children. While walking over to the park bench, Carter jerked on his mother’s hand and asked if he could go play on the swings. Jane nodded, then said “I’ll be over here watching you.” She set her bag down on the grass, pulled out her book, and began to read while Carter played. Jane sipped her coffee as she read, taking time to look up and check that Carter was still within her sight. As Jane read, she kept seeing the missing child flyers in her head. She battled the inner voices in her head. One reading the lines on the pages and the other remembering the words on the flyers. Jane looked up and was relieved to see Carter still on the swings. Smiling and laughing with a little girl next to him. The girl was about his age. She had freckles and long auburn pigtails.

“You’re crazy! Superman would totally destroy Batman in battle! He has actual powers!!”, Carter exclaimed while trying not to laugh at the girl next to him. “Batman has the cool gadgets and enough money to buy his own kryptonite to destroy Superman. So, YOU are the crazy one. NOT me.”, the girl retaliated. Carter found her point amusing, but chimed back “And how much do you think kryptonite costs? And how would he get it?” “Easy, he will send a team of astronauts to go fetch the kryptonite for him. Plus, he’s a billionaire so money doesn’t matter. So, HA!”, the girl smiled, proud of her comeback. Carter’s cheeks flushed and he said “Hmm...you’re pretty smart…for a girl anyway.” Carter laughed teasingly and the girl rolled her eyes. Carter then said “By the way, what’s your name?” The girl replied “Amy, what’s yours?” “I’m Carter”, he said, “Nice to meet you. I go to St. Peters School. Where do you go?” “I go to Christopher Columbus. It’s a Charter School.” Before they could get to know each other more Amy’s father called out to her, “Amy! Time to go home!”. “Okay!”, she called back to him, “I have to go. Nice to meet you, Carter. I hope to see you here again.” “Me too. Bye Amy.”, Carter replied.

Carter ran back to his mom and told her about the new friend he met. “You two looked like you were having a great time. Do you like her?”, Jane teased as she brushed the hair out of Carter’s eyes. Carter rolled his blue eyes, shook his head of curly blonde hair, and groaned “She’s just a friend mom.” “Okay, sorry I’ll stop trying to play Cupid.”, she teased again. Carter getting irritated changed the conversation to “Can we go home and eat pizza now?” Jane looked at her watch that read 5:00pm. “I guess it’s about dinner time already, so yes, we can go. It will be getting dark soon too.” Jane gathered their belongings and they headed back home. They only lived 1.5 miles from the park, so they often liked to walk. Especially on nice days like today.

Later that night, after they had their pizza and completed their nightly routines, Jane and Carter went to sleep. Jane lied in bed listening to the wind howl outside and the gentle tapping of a tree branch against her bedroom window. She reflected on her Sunday with her son and felt blessed. He was the light of her life. Always making her smile even when the world seemed grim. Deep inside of her, however, Jane felt a pit in her stomach.

She reflected again on the missing children flyers. I can’t imagine the pain those parents are going through. I couldn’t bare losing Carter…I hope the children are okay…and that they make it home safely, she thought. Jane then said a prayer for the families and the children that vanished. Praying they would be together again soon. But even after praying, Jane could still feel the cold pit in her stomach. Ugh…I have to go to sleep. I have that meeting in the morning. Carter is safe. He’s with me and I will protect him, she told herself trying to calm her body. After a few minutes of deep breathing and dreaming about positive memories, she drifted off to sleep.

*Tap…tap…tap…tap* Carter awoke to the sound of something tapping on his window. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and walked over to his bedroom window. Down below he saw a hooded figure picking up small stone pebbles on the ground. From the bottom of her hood, below her neck, he could see pigtails. The girl looked up at his window and the moonlight shone on her face. From what Carter could tell, it looked like Amy from the park. How could it be? I didn’t even get to tell her where I lived…did…did she follow me?, thought Carter as he slid his window up to peek his head out and say, “Hello?”. “Carter”, she whispered loudly, “It’s me Amy. Can you come outside with me?” Carter replied in the same whispering tone, “I can’t. It’s a school night. My mom would have a cow if I snuck out. Plus, I’ve never done it before.” “Oh come on”, Amy nudged, “She won’t ever know you left. Plus, you only live once ya know.” Carter contemplated for a moment, but then looking down at Amy’s bright smile shining in the moonlight, he felt compelled to go to her. “Okay, I’m coming down.” Carter quietly put on his clothes from earlier, including his favorite blue sweatshirt, and headed down the stairs. He was careful not to step on the steps that he knew would creak and wake his mother. He gently opened the slider door and went around the backyard to meet Amy. Once he saw her he called out in a loud whisper “Amy over here!” She turned to quickly glance at him, giggled, and turned away. “Come this way!”, she called as she began to run away. Carter called out “Where are we going?”, and she replied, “I want to show you something.” Amy was running so fast that Carter could hardly keep up with her.

They ran all the way to where the field met the edge of the forest. Carter stopped abruptly. Somehow Amy felt him stop and called out “Come on don’t be chicken. Me and my friends do this all the time. I want you to meet them!” Amy didn’t turn back to Carter. She kept going until she disappeared into the darkness. Carter, afraid of losing her now, called out “Amy! I’m coming wait up!”. Carter began pushing past branches of the prickly pine trees, making his way into the forest. He could hear Amy giggling and say “Hurry up slow poke”, from a distance. Carter felt chills all over his body. He suddenly felt sick instead of excited. This doesn’t feel right, he thought. “Come on Carter, we’re waiting!”, he heard Amy call out. As he took a deep breath he thought, Okay Carter calm down. Don’t be a wuss. Carter could hear other whispers in the woods. They all sounded like kids around his age. He took a deep breath and began to follow what appeared to be campfire light. He followed the light, but as he approached the whispers grew quieter.

“Hello?...”, Carter called out. Silence. “Amy? Anybody? This isn’t funny…” Carter paused for a few moments, but all he could hear was twigs breaking around him. Each snap coming from a different direction, then giggling. “Seriously this isn’t funny! Show yourselves!”, Carter yelled out growing more uncomfortable by the second. “Okay, here…we…come.”, several voices echoed through the woods. All at once, Carter was surrounded by red hoods. All of them looking down and hiding their faces behind the shadows of their hoods. “You need to decide,” began Amy in an eerie tone, “will you join us or will you flee. You need to make your choice quickly.” “Join you?”, Carter asked, “What do you mean? What are you guys?” “We are the chosen few. We serve our Prince, and he selected each of us. He has selected you too. I was chosen earlier tonight Carter. I mentioned you, and he agreed to let me recruit you. You should feel special. Usually only one is chosen per night. He’s made an exception just for you.”, Amy informed him. To Carter, Amy didn’t sound like she had earlier at the park. She sounded cryptic and her tone sent shivers down his spine. At the park, her voice was sweet and soothing to him. “Who is this Prince?”, Carter asked. All the hooded figures turned to Amy and her smile flashed from under her hood as she said, “He is all knowing and all seeing. He can see you now and he is waiting for your decision. You don’t have much time to choose.”, then Amy left out a sadistic giggle different from before. “I’m leaving! You guys are creeping me out!”, exclaimed Carter.

The hooded figures all looked at him in unison and threw back their hoods. Black eyes. All of them had the blackest, soulless, eyes one could ever imagine. Carter screamed out of terror and charged back the way he came. He could hear the hooded figures chasing after him. Carter could feel the tears running down his face as he tried to push himself to go faster, feeling his stamina burning out.

Suddenly, he collided with someone in front of him. He landed on his back. His head felt fuzzy and he could feel the cold ground beneath him as he registered what happened. Suddenly he was straddled by Amy. She smiled at him and giggled again in her sadistic way while pushing him back to the ground once again. “Why are you doing this?!”, Carter cried out. “Because you have been chosen. We were going to take you either way. It just would have been easier if you were willing.”, Amy explained. “Take me? For what? Why?”, Carter begged for answers as he sobbed. “You’re going to help us serve our Prince.”, Amy then leaned in closer and whispered, “I’m sure you’ve heard of the Prince of Darkness. Our job is to spread the darkness. We welcome you to do his bidding, Carter.” The black-eyed children gathered around Carter. Two of them grabbed his legs and dragged him back to the campfire. Carter tried to put up a fight the whole way, but it was no use. These children had more strength than him, and more than an adult. They were superhumanly strong which was evident in the way they used one hand each to hold his legs. Suddenly, Carter realized he had seen the two boys that were pulling him before. In fact, he recognized ALL of their faces. They were the kids from the missing children flyers! The feeling of dread overwhelmed Carter’s small body and he went limp. “I love it when they make it easy for us.”, stated Amy. The black-eyed children gathered around and began to chant in Latin, a ritual from a satanic book, a ritual known to them as "To Inhabit The Innocent". I can't believe this is happening, thought Carter, as he listened to the strange voices and conversations around him. Carter noticed his vision growing blurry as he struggled to keep his eyes open. Within moments, before he knew it, everything went black.

By early morning, Jane was tossing and turning. She was dreaming about a pit of fire. On the edge of the pit, she was holding Carter’s hand, trying to keep him from falling in. “Hang on baby! I’ve got you! Carter wake up, help me pull you up!” Carter wouldn’t wake up, and she could feel him slipping. She began to sob, “Baby no. Baby please wake up and look at Mommy!”, she pleaded. Suddenly dark shadow figures swarmed them and separated her hand from his. “No!!!”, she screamed as she saw Carter swallowed up in black smoke falling down into the pit and disappearing. Jane woke up covered in sweat. Frightened she jumped out of bed and walked down the hall to make sure Carter was safe. She gently opened his bedroom door, and let out a blood curdling scream when she saw that his bed was empty. “Carter!”, she called for him, checking every room in the house. Crying and hysterical she called the police to report that her child had gone missing.

“911 What’s your emergency?” “Hello, I need to report that my child…”, Jane felt a lump in her throat as she tried to get the words out. “Ma’am? What do you need to report?”, she heard the dispatcher ask. “My child is missing. I checked his bed and he’s not there. I tucked him in hours ago. I don’t know what happened.”, her voice trembled as she tried to get the words out, “Can you please send someone over right now?” “Yes ma’am, right away. Please stay on the phone with me until they get there, okay?”, the dispatcher asked. “Okay.”, Jane replied.

The police were stumped. “Well ma’am, there’s no forced entry. Nothing broken. No signs of a struggle. Are you sure he didn’t sneak out to go see a friend?”, Officer Pierce asked. “No, he’s never done anything like that. He wouldn’t. Plus, I know all of his friend’s parents. They would have called me by now to let me know.”, Jane stated. “Well, my advice, call those parents. Make sure. Then give it a few hours. See if he turns up.”, Officer Rodriguez said, “If he doesn’t turn up by then we will file a missing person’s report.” Jane nodded. Feeling like the police had failed her, she went to her computer and began making her own flyer for Carter.

After printing hundreds of copies, Jane began walking through the neighborhood and stapling the flyers on every public surface. She even handed some out to passing pedestrians asking them to please let her know if they see her son. Hours later she returned to the street she had seen the other missing children flyers the day before. She remembered her conversation with Carter and began to cry as she posted his next to the rest. She stared at Carter’s picture. He looked so happy, and he was wearing his favorite blue sweatshirt. Jane hoped she would see his face again, but something inside her knew her boy wasn’t coming home. She then looked at the picture on the flyer next to his. It looked new as if it had also just been posted. It was of a young girl with freckles and auburn pigtails. She was reported missing the exact same day. Jane gasped and dropped the rest of her flyers, realizing the little girl was from the park she and Carter were at yesterday.

Several weeks went by and fall faded into the winter season. The sidewalks of Society Hill became flooded with more missing children’s flyers which were posted along every wall and fence. Some flyers were stapled over others due to the overflow of missing children and the limited space to place their respected posts. The city was beginning to look like a ghost town. Sidewalks, parks, restaurants, were all vacant most of the time, even in daylight. Parents were terrified to let their children leave the house. No one knew where the children had gone. Nothing ever turned up for the police to go on. It was hard for the community to accept that their children had vanished into thin air. The neighborhood that once boasted friendliness and warmth, had turned cold and everyone had distrust in one another. As for the children that disappeared into the night, they would all forever be known as The Missing Children of Society Hill.