The Day They Disappeared

Chapter 4

I walked at a rather slow pace because I was being weighed down. Who knew that this small girl would be so goddamn heavy? But her weight isn't my main concern right now. What I'm doing is beyond dangerous, much more dangerous than my previous activities. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit frightened of being caught but the voice in my head is telling me that I'm smart and sneaky and that everything will be just fine if I take it slow. They say slow and steady wins the race and I don't like to lose so I'll be slow and cautious. But the other voice is telling me to run, go faster because slow is bad. But I don't like listening to this voice because it's ideas are never good.

I'm still moving slowly with this heavy little girl trailing behind me when I see the clearing. I drop her ankle from my grasp and scope out the scene. It's pitch black outside but I see no lights on through any of the windows and I see no people or animals about so I once again grip onto her ankle and drag her out into the open from the comfort of the darkness and hidden woods.

It's now that I realize I have to put her somewhere. I can't just leave her in the cold, dewey grass. I look around me and spot a plastic lawn chair sitting on the patio. Perfect. With all my strength I pick up the girl and set her gently in the chair. Her body slumps over immediately and I have to rearrange her which means getting close to her. When I lean in to lift her head up I catch the faint smell that reminds me of a 12-year-old boy after he plays baseball in the summer heat for hours on end. I can't have that. This girl is far too precious to smell like a stinky little boy. So I pull a travel sized bottle of perfume out of the satchel on my shoulder and spritz a fair amount of the girl. I lean in to take another whiff. All better. I step back to take a look at her to make sure she's in place. After re-arranging her hair so it looked nice and neat I smiled to myself. "You are so precious. Your beauty survives through death. That's an accomplishment because those other girls didn't look as pretty as you do." I patted the girl's head and turned to leave.

"Goodbye Danielle," I whispered as I marched back into the darkness of the woods.