The Christmas wish

14

Mark's pov

"Dude it has been over a week and she has not shown up, we have not even heard anything about her. It is like she fell off the face of the earth." Tyler said to me as I walked out of the makeshift kids room and into the common area.

"I know, I am tempted to go find Amy but I don't even know where to look for her. Riley is not eating much, soon she is going to give up food all together and I will have to take her to the hospital. I put a missing report out on Amy but the police are not doing much to find her." I sat down on the chair in the lobby.

"You can't keep hiding out here, I know that this is the safest place for everyone but soon you will have to go back home, the kids need to go back to school. Our lives will have to go back to normal at some point."

"I have been home, I sneaked out and cleaned the fridge out and got our mail."

"Mark."

"I know what you mean." I closed my eyes. "All Riley wants is her mom home for Christmas. She asked for Santa to keep her safe in her letter to him."

"Where do you think she would have gone?"

"I asked around and found footage of the meeting with him, she had Riley go with you then they fought a little. Once Riley was safe she went with him. I saw which way the car went but after that no one wanted to help. One person even told me that they would call the cops on me if I didn't leave the store. It is like no one cares about her safely."

"She is smart, she knows what she is doing and she trusts you to keep Riley safe."

"There has to be something that I can do to find her. What is this monster doing to her?"

"Hurting her." Riley's voice came from the other side of the desk.

"Riley?" We looked over at the sound of her voice.

She peaked over the desk.

"Riley how long have you been there?" Tyler asked.

"He is hurting her! He always does but she hides it. I never met my dad but I know who he is. I have seen him, he hides then attacks." She walked over to me.

"Where does he hide?"

"I don't know. He is like a ninja and comes out and attacks. But momma always knows and is two steps ahead of him."

"Has momma ever had to hide you while you were here?"

"Once but it was a false alarm."

"Where did you hide?"

"There is a hide a hole door thingy in the woods. Momma took me there once, we stayed over night. She called it camping, I was told not to tell you, she was scared that you would  go and find him and attack him before he could find us. Momma is scared to lose you."

"Do you remember where in the woods momma took you?"

"It was by some water."

"There is a crick in the woods by the old church." Tyler said.

"Those woods used to be the way people traveled back in the day, I wonder if she found an old hideout and has been there." I looked at Tyler.

"When are you leaving?"

"I'll get a bag packed and head out."

"You're going to save my momma?" Riley looked at me.

"I'm going to try, but you need to go to bed, you need to be rested up for when momma gets back."