Background:
She used to wander as a child. She'd disappear into the woods for hours at a time, but she'd always come back when we called. One day though, she didn't come back. We called and called for her and I sent my husband to look for her. We found a piece of her dress and a sandal lying in a large mud puddle.
I remember the fear that settled in the pit of my stomach and the anger at myself which knotted behind my breastbone. I shouldn't have let her go out and I should've kept a better eye on her. Who knows what could have happened. I remember sobbing to the authorities, desperately begging them to find my baby. Her father, my husband, wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kept me tight to his side, his face set in an emotionless expression. I knew for a fact that inside he was screaming.
Her older brother, Noah, was the spitting image of my husband, though he clung to my hand. Having been fourteen at the time, he didn't fully understand what was going on. He knew she was missing, but he had no idea where she had gone. He was outside with her and they were playing some game of hide-and-seek. Noah had been it and when he went to look for her, he couldn't find her. That's when he ran into the house, hollering at the top of his lungs for me.
My husband tried looking for her. He spent hours in those woods, calling her name and nearly tearing up the woods. That's when we contacted the police. They promised they'd start a search and try to find her, though for some reason a nagging feeling in my gut told me that they wouldn't find her. That she hadn't just wandered off. That my daughter was Kidnapped.
