Escapism

Chapter 1: Where's Aspen?

“A frantic search is underway for a missing 14-year old girl who mysteriously disappeared in her own home over the weekend when her father was not around.

Based on their house's cctv footages, Aspen Perez was holding her phone as she was eating a sandwich in their living room at around 1:32 pm. A few minutes later she suddenly stood up, looking at her phone. It looked like she was shocked or excited about something and ran directly to her room. There was no camera installed inside and there were no records of her going out of her room.

They didn't get much help from the outside of the house either; there were no cctv cameras installed in their village's streets, and the blackboxes from cars who could possibly record her didn't show any sign of the girl. What puzzled the investigators more was the neighbours and guards were claiming they didn't see her leave the house or the village. It's as if she didn't leave her room nor their house at all—did she? The police officers are looking more into the mysterious disappearance of this girl.

Aspen Perez is described as brown, about 4ft and 11ins tall, 35 kilograms with deep brown eyes and long black hair which she was wearing in a low ponytail. The missing girl was wearing a v-necked, navy blue tank top, black sweat shorts, and a pair of indoor slippers when she was last seen.

According to the investigation report, Aspen didn't take any of her belongings with her; things a runaway could possibly get such as her wallet and a bunch of clothes were all inside her room, untouched. The only thing missing aside from her was her mobile phone. Possibilities of Aspen running away from her home is very low, the police suspects she was rather abducted by someone.

NBI investigators already joined the police from 12 departments to search through the night for any trace of the missing girl. A few number of local people organized search parties online and offline. They have been tasked to temporarily stay away from long grass fields so police trailing dogs could try to pick up the missing girl's scent.

Her 31-year old father, who has been raising her alone, Mr. Heston Perez told the news reporters: It's not like her. People have been out searching all day everywhere. All over this village, nearest malls, friend's house—every place we can think of. She wasn't the type of kid who always step out of the house so it should be easy to look for her but.. Please help me find my daughter, she's all I have.”

A smirk was plastered on the unknown person's face as that person put the local newspaper down. It was an article about a mysterious disappearance of a missing girl, an incident that person was very familiar with. An image of an unconscious girl, lying at the center of an intricate place, which can be considered as a maze, flashed on the screen of that person's laptop. Another smirk escaped. That girl very much looked like Aspen.