Heart of a Dreamer

The New Nightmare

It had been three weeks since Rowan Blanchard had gone missing, and everyone was getting skittish. If there was a kidnapper or a murderer on the loose, then who would be the next victim? No one really knew Rowan except her friend, Mya, and her family of course. Mya automatically knew that Rowan wasn't the kind of person that would run away, though she was acting a little strangely the last time she saw her.

She was desperately worried for her friend, and would watch the news and read every newspaper that she could get her hands on just to see if anyone found a trace of Rowan. No one ever did. There had been a few rumors, like she got eaten by a bear, got lost, ran away to California, and other stupid theories like that. Mya was getting tired of waiting. She wanted to help at least in the tiniest of ways, but she wasn't the adventurous, detective kind.

Mya couldn't stand waiting any longer. She pushed all doubt out of her head, put on a t-shirt and shorts, and her most outdoorsy shoes she owned: Uggs. Whenever her parents were occupied, she snuck out of the house and headed in the direction Rowan trekked three weeks before. She was the only other person who knew about their treehouse, and that was the first place she decided to go.

Mya hated the woods. She, unlike Rowan, was not very adventurous and was content not to be so. Every snap of a twig or chirp of a bird made her jump. She seemed to run into all of the spiderwebs in the whole forest! I hate nature, she thought. About a quarter of the way to the treehouse, Mya stopped. Something out of place caught her eye, a piece of blue fabric.

A piece of blue fabric that looked exactly like Rowan's favorite jacket!
She went across the sea of brambles, and plucked the fabric off of the tree branch it was clinging to. Strange, Mya thought. All of the bushes were trampled down in the area surrounding the cloth. As if something attacked Rowan from behind, and she tried to fight them off! I shouldn't have dissed Graham about the bear theory, she thought. I have to call the police! But, instead of calling the police immediately, she continued to explore the area, and search for other possible pieces of evidence.

She saw a trail of stomped vegetation leading from the area she found the cloth, it was leading in a completely different direction of the treehouse. The trail was also much wider than Rowan, which made Mya even more suspicious. She followed this trail cautiously, for she didn't want whatever beast that attacked Rowan to become aware of her presence.

Hours seemed to pass by while Mya followed the mysterious trail. She was getting extremely fatigued, but she kept going in hope of finding another clue to Rowan's disapearance. She found nothing for hours upon hours, and was about to turn around and head home. Suddenly, she heard a scuffle in the distance, and a soft cry for help! Rowan! she thought. She started to run through the bushes towards the sound.

The sounds of grunts, cries, and shuffling were getting louder and louder. Mya finally got to where she predicted the sounds were coming from, and hid in the brambles. She could faintly see the outline of a small person, and when the person turned around Mys immediatly recognised the face as Rowan's.

Rowan appeared to be bound at the hands and feet with thick rope, and was leaning against a tree. Apparently when she cried for help, her captor put a gag in her mouth to muffle the sound. She had pure fear in her eyes, and was looking around frantically for a way to escape. Mya had to restrain herself from running out into the open to free her, for she had no knife to cut her bonds. Also, Mya was not in any means fast, which would just lead to her being captured as well.

Well, Mya thought. Definately not a bear. Then, she remembered something. When she and Rowan were younger, they had certain noises for different things. A coyote howl if someone got lost, an owl hoot if they needed help, and a bird call just to let the other know that they were there. She desperately hoped that Rowan remembered all of these code noises, and decided to give it a go. She whistled a distinctive five notes, and then fell silent. Rowan's eyes widened, and looked to where the noise was coming from.