Writings

Skeleton Bones

The day Lily Carter was kidnapped, she was walking to school. It was 7:20 in the morning and she could hear the leaves crunching under her feet.

She was sixteen years old— when all her friends and her boyfriend Erik were driving, she was stuck taking the bus. Her single mom couldn't afford a car. And Lily didn't have a job, either.

She could see the stop sign up ahead and groaned inwardly... that's where the big yellow bus stopped to let kids on.

She dragged her feet and coughed. For mid-October, it wasn't really chilly. But she was getting a cold. She always got sick when the weather changed.

Tires screeched behind her and she looked back hoping that it was Mr. Rogers with his friendly smile as he pulled up to the sign stop with the big yellow bus.

But it wasn't. A big, white van with no license plate stopped suddenly and before she could let a scream, the hooded figure threw her in the backseat.

The windows were blacked out; she couldn't see anything. She could feel the car moving and after a while, it stopped.

The hooded figure got her out and locked her in a room. She cried and wanted to be on the bus, even if it wasn't as fun as driving a car. She wished she was on the bus and being tormented by the first graders and asked by Mr. Rogers if she knew if her mom would like to go out with him... most of all, she missed her friends and Erik.

That first day, she was told to just sit on the bed in the corner and not to walk around. She did as she was told.

As the weeks passed by, she wondered if she would ever be found. Would anyone even notice her disappearance? Would her mom be worried?

The hooded figure kept her in the dark in the room. She didn't know a name, or even if it was a man or a woman.

Elsewhere, the seasons changed and snow marked the ground in South Carolina. Elyse Carter practically lived at the sheriff's station. She wanted her daughter back.

Time in the dark room seemed to pass slowly. The hooded figure never revealed an identity. Lily began to lose hope on being rescued.

One day, in the summer time, the figure let her out to explore. She found her way to the chain link fence that surrounded the property.

A woman on the other side was getting groceries out of her trunk. Lily called for help. The woman never looked up.

The hooded figure clicked something in his hand. Lily dropped to the ground in pain. She was bleeding out.

The last thing she remembered before going to the bright light was the sunshine shining down on her face.

It had been two years since Lily Carter's disappearance.

Erik Bentley was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Lily Carter.

Elyse Carter still sits by her daughter's grave all these years later, even in her old age. It had been fifty years since Lily's kidnapping and murder.

And sometimes, she sees her baby girl, smiling at her. Lily's ghost haunts the small town of Beaufort, South Carolina. She's waiting for her mom to be with her.