GRAPHIC | Tara Espinoza
Previously… Everyone in town was questioned by the police, but all alibis checked out. Maelee’s case, however, wouldn’t be the last…
Nighttime grew scarier each night as kids disappeared from their beds. Parents installed security cameras, but that didn’t stop this from happening. The cameras would go static at 2:47, and by 2:48, the child in the room was gone. No signs of foul play. For the first week after Maelee went missing, the police decided that she had run away from home. Then more kids started to disappear; there was an odd pattern to it. At first, it was once a week, then twice, then three times, then four, five, six, and then nightly, soon it would be two kids a night, and now three. Different households, but all the kids that disappeared in one night, would be the same age. There was no pattern for when a specific age was targeted. Parents started to pack up and move to the next town over, but something always made them move back. No one could leave and stay gone. It was as if the town was controlled by something bigger than themselves.
*THUD*
The door opened and slammed shut as another kid was thrown into the room. Their beds lined up along the walls; three more would appear each night as the kids slept. Maelee had the most enormous bed in the room; she also got to leave more than the others but never remembered that she had ever left.
“Hi! My name is Maelee; what’s yours?” Maelee smiled and asked the new kids
“M- My- My name is Kristin; I… uh… What is this place?” The first new girl responded; her voice shook as she quivered with anxiety.
“Why are you scared? It’s fun here!” Maelee said, a smile never leaving her face. The door creaked open, and before Maelee could introduce the kids to the room, she was escorted away by two men wearing bright purple marks that fit their faces perfectly…
