Mary's Bones

THIRTY-NINE

Wind crept in from the cracked window of their bedroom. But it hadn't bothered me much. Our eyes were glued to the black and white pictures on the screen, as we sat at the computer desk in their room, watching everything unravel.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. It all started with Evelyn entering her grandparents' home with Mary's hand in hers. The time stamp read 2:49 PM, March 3rd, 2016 when she did. After sitting Mary on the couch, we could only hear a bit of the conversation she had with her, rolling in the footage.

"Are your parents at work?" Evelyn bent to Mary's level. Mary shook her head, though she seemed confused. I couldn't blame her. She was only six-years-old and her babysitter was acting weird.

"Okay. Stay right here. I'm going to make a call and get you some help so they can take you home." Evelyn smiled and pulled out her phone, excusing herself out of the room. It was possible she was calling the cops. Only hours had gone by within the footage and there were no traces of Mary after Evelyn left the room. Not even inside the house.

"I thought you said Evelyn was last seen with Mary at the park. She was watching her, wasn't she?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, t-that's what we thought. . . Whatever nearby cameras that were angled at the park, caught Mary running out after someone. The camera doesn't show who though because they were walking too far ahead.

"At least, that's what I remember the police telling us all those years ago. We just know she left on her own. Someone could have lured her out and snatched her. So, that was where Evelyn should have lost her," Mrs. Gomez mumbled.

"Well, I think we know who Mary was chasing out the park now. . ." I sighed.

It sucked but it made sense. I could only assume Evelyn forgot she was watching Mary at that point in time. She must have wondered why she was in a park. All I could think was that she was leaving and Mary followed, because she assumed it was time to go home. I wasn't sure Mary would have followed a stranger if she hadn't known them. She didn't seem like a child who would.

No wonder Lucinda said what she said to Evelyn, about blaming herself. Evelyn must've felt guilt when she recovered from her memory loss. So guilty, she hadn't realized it was actually her fault. She took Mary from the park.

Can you play the footage back from camera six?" I asked, pressing the pad of my thumb to my lip.

"Yeah, sure thing," she mumbled. The videos started all over again.

I kept quiet, focusing on the footage. Something still wasn't adding up. As we played several videos from each camera—inside and outside the house—I couldn't help but notice the time frames were off at certain points. We had already gone through the entirety of the footage once.

This time, my eyes were basically straining. Just so I wouldn't miss a thing. Possibly something we had already missed.

"This doesn't make any sense." Mrs. Gomez huffed with annoyance, inching closer to the laptop screen. I ignored her and kept watching.

This was where things got even weirder.

We were at the time frame where Evelyn exited the house a few minutes after her and Mary entered, and talked. I thought Mary sitting in the living room by herself was odd enough. Not until I noticed there was at least ten minutes of footage, where Mary casually sat there before heading towards the stairs. Then, she was gone.

Vanished into thin air. Just like that.

"There's footage missing," the announcement hurled out on its own.