Garden of Horrors

Ella

"Ella don't go too far into the woods sweetheart!" my wife Margot called from the porch as our daughter skipped towards the woods.

"I won't!" Ella called back as she disappeared into the woods. It wasn't abnormal that Ella went off into the woods alone, she loved nature and exploring, what better place for both than the woods just off of our back yard, it was safe and she never went deep into them.

"I hope she doesn't bring back more caterpillars for pets, I don't think we have enough mason jars for more." Margot sighed before sipping her lemonade.

"Well if she does I'll text David to pick some up on his way over tonight." I replied.

"What time was he coming over again?"

"I told him we'd start up the BBQ at 4:45, and you know my brother, he'll be here by 4:00"

Margot laughed, "your parents must have had some time, a son who's chronically early, and a daughter who's chronically late!"

I playfully swatted her shoulder, "I haven't been late since I met you!" I retorted. We kept up our loving bickering while watching the birds and small animals go in and out of the woods.

"Helen..." Margot said tentatively after what must have been over 2 hours, "Ella should be back from exploring by now."

"Yeah, she should be." I said getting off our porch swing. I walked to the edge of the porch. "Ella!" I shouted.

No response.

Margot got up and joined me at the banister. "Think we should go looking for her?"

"Yeah, she's usually back after a couple hours," I said. I grabbed my phone, "let's just start down the path she usually takes then go from there."

"Alright," she said, and we started down the path towards the woods. We searched the entrance of the woods for a while, calling out Ella's name with no luck.

"I think we should report her missing to the police." I said, turning to Margot. We had been searching for so long that we lost track of time.

"I agree," Margot sighed as she pulled out her phone and dialed 911.

Ding

I took my phone out of my pocket, it was David texting saying that he was at the front door.

'Come to the woods, Ella's missing,' I replied. I put my phone back in my pocket and scanned the area. We were standing in the woods' entrance, it was full of trees but there were enough of them to denote the start of the forest. This was as far as Ella would dare to go, deeper into the woods you couldn't navigate without extreme difficulty. Where I stood, where Ella should have been, your line of vision of course had trees but you could see between and around them. There was no reason a 7 year old would go deeper into the woods.

I waited impatiently as Margot spoke with the 911 operator. I didn't know where my daughter was and I was scared. I hugged my arms close to my body as I looked around again, searching for any sign of Ella. I spotted movement and got excited, hoping to see my daughter but instead my brother emerged from the trees. He must have seen the joy leave my face as the first thing he said was "I can start looking deeper if you guys want."

Margot shook her head, "no, the police are on the way, they want us to wait by the house, they don't want us lost as well"

"Alright," David replied, he wrapped his arms around our shoulders and walked us back to the house.

The police came and searched, there was no sign that Ella had been in the forest. Margot and I were heart broken. The next day they brought more people, and the next even more. By the end of the month they had completely grid searched the woods, and searched them with cadaver dogs, but no signs of our Ella. Life was not the same without Ella, but we never gave up hope. We searched the woods every day for almost three years, hoping, praying for a sign outside of our house that our daughter existed. David moved into our spare bedroom to help out as most of mine and Margot's focus and care was on searching for our daughter.