Into The Black

EIGHT

March, 2013

Shellie ran in the direction she thought the voice had come from. She was so focused on finding the little girl that she did not see the squirrel in her path until it squeaked out an angry cry and she tried to stop before hitting it. Instead her feet slipped out from underneath her and she smacked onto the ground cracking her head on a large tree root.

She had fallen so many times that day in her mad scrambling search, that her body couldn't take it any more, she fell into a hazed unconsciousness.

********

Shellie snapped awake when she heard a high pitched beeping noise, like a smoke alarm. She was still laying on the ground with her head against the tree root that had knocked her out. She leapt up and bolted towards the noise, assuming there could only be one person this far out on their property.

She was mistaken. As she ran it seemed she wasn't gaining on the noise, it seemed almost farther away. Stopping she tried to locate it. The noise was undeniably coming from in front of her but she could see nothing, even now that she had cleared the patch of trees. The longer she stood still the farther away it sounded, as though the sound was moving on its own. Slumping to the ground she cupped her hands over her face. It had been a long, tiring day and she had had next to no real luck through out her search.

Suddenly the sound blipped out of existence. Shellie raised her head, where had it gone? Where even had it been before? She stood up catching a second wind. Turning around she focused on finding her way back to the house. Never had she wandered this far into their property without her father, she didn't even know it went this far. Mustering all of her energy she set out at a quick walking pace, holding one hand to her head in an attempt to calm her raging headache.

The sun had long since started to set when she was nearing her home and her feet had barely hit the path leading to their house when the front door banged open. From the house came her father, a man she didn't recognize, and a woman dressed in the uniform of the local police force.

"Shellie! Where were you? And where is the little girl?" Her father had ran up to her ahead of the other two adults, but when the man reached them he started yelling. Shellie tried to tune it out and her head pounded. Then, however, she heard a name, a name she didn't know.

"What? What did you say?"

The man growled in exasperation. "Alaleh, my daughter?! Where is she? What have you done with her!" Her father looked her in the eyes and whispered a single word, "Buttercup."

"I-she got lost." Shellie mumbled dumbly. The man went into a rage and after numerous failed attempts at calming him the police woman went to her car and radioed the station. Shellie and her father were then escorted back into their home and the woman seated them in the kitchen along with the man who was apparently Alaleh's father. Now that they were inside and had better light to see by Shellie noticed the man was ragged looking. Dark crescents had settled under his eyes and the shadow of an ill sculpted beard lay on his face. His clothes seemed as though they had once upon a time been expensive and clean cut, but now they were hardly more than rags.

"Shellie, dear?" The police woman's voice snapped Shellie back into reality.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I asked where you last saw Alaleh."

Shellie closed her eyes before responding, "In a field on our property, a few dozen metres from the house I'd say." It carried on like that for a while, the woman would switch between the three of them asking questions, often having to repeat them for Shellie. When the woman was done she told Shellie and her father that the police force would be in contact and that they could call at any hour if they had any more information. Then she asked to have a word with Shellie's father, alone.

Shellie dragged herself up to her room and sat glumly on her window seat. After a few minutes she heard the freaky front door shut and watched the police woman helping Alaleh's father into the front seat of her patrol car before backing down the gravel road and off of their property.

********

June, 2013

Several weeks later the posters plastered around the town were torn and dirtied. No one had sent in any new information in ages and Alaleh's family had all but given up hope that she was still alive. They had a small mourning session and invited Shellie and her father as well as a few people close to them. It was held on Alaleh's birthday.

Shellie noticed that Alaleh's sister was beside herself with grief and when the girl's father and Shellie's own father were talking she overheard that Alaleh had ran onto their property when her sister was supposed to be watching her. Apparently the girl had gone into a sort of waking coma ever since, barely ate or slept, never spoke. Shellie had started to feel the same way after searching, hanging posters, and doing anything she could for almost three months.

But why did it still feel like Alaleh wasn't dead?