The girl who lived next door

Carla

As I sit across from my mum I can sense the growing awkwardness in the room. My younger brother Calum is sitting peacefully in his high chair to young to speak - although right now I wish he could as nobody else is and I have no idea why.

I watch my dad as he scrapes his knife across his plate - which is still half covered in food - and notice my mum is doing the same. Time for me to find out what is going on. Family dinner at my house is never quiet!

"Can someone please tell me why everything is so quiet? Has someone died?" I ask trying to force a laugh to make the question sound less serious.

"Carla.. today is a...special day. You know our neighbour Hannah well unfortunately today is the date her daughter was taken five years ago same age as you - sixteen. The whole town is quiet today when she was first taken we didn't live here yet but when I would drive to work in the morning the roads would be crowded with people searching for her. She was never found nor a body that was hers." My dad said in a quiet voice.

I looked over at my mum as she slowly looked down at the floor. I hadn't spoken to Hannah much but I can understand why when we moved here a year ago she never thought to bring up her missing daughter.

The thought of someone going missing at such a young age so close to me sent shivers down my spine. Does this mean we the town isn't as safe as I assumed?

I began to wonder if she was dead or alive? Was the person who took her still here or had he/she fled the country with Hannah's daughter? I had so many questions that I desperately wanted to ask Hannah without upsetting her - although I couldn't quite figure out how to do that as her daughter is still missing.

I decided to use the internet as everyone's business gets posted there nowadays which can sometimes be unfortunate. Pictures of Hannah's daughter appeared on my screen and posts on social networking sites of Prayers being said for her. I looked at the dates, after a year of people posting things the amount of posts gradually died. Only on the anniversary date she went missing the number of posts increased again.

Some people may have given up hope but there was something about this that made me want to take a further look - not that I was an expert - but knowing people have given up on Hannah's daughter saddened me. I had to find out what happened to this poor girl.