Missing Child

Waking up to the sound of her parents footsteps outside her door, she knew they were up to something. She tossed her blankets off and ran to her door to see her mother, Sophia, going downstairs. Peaking out her door, someone tapped her shoulder and frightened her a little bit.

“Come sweetie, mommy and daddy have to go to the office. So why don’t you get dressed and get something to do while we work.” Her father said, getting down in front of her on his knees.

“Okay, daddy!” Running back into her room she put on a pink dress that had a laced back and short sleeves along with black capri pants under it. She wore black flats and put on her locket that she never took off unless she had to. Once she was dressed she went downstairs and jumped onto her father as he was tying his shoes.

“Silly, girl.” Her father said with a chuckle. “You’re always full of energy.”

“Yes, I am a silly girl.” She giggled, getting off his back. She smiled at him, letting him up from the ground. As her mother walked in the room with two cups of coffee, one for her and one for Derek. Rose reached up and tried to grab the coffee from her parents.

“These are not for children Rose, these are for adults.” Sophia laughed, taking the coffee away from Rose before she drank it. Rose groaned as the cup was taken out of her hands and she took her mother’s keys from her. Without her knowing that she took them.

“Rose, give them back to me.” Sophia called out, chasing Rose out to the car to see her sitting in the driver’s seat getting ready to start the car. “Hey!”

Giggling as Sophia took the keys from Rose’s hands. Watching the little girl crawl into the back seat Sophia rolled her eyes playfully with a smile. Derek came out to see Rose sitting in her seat and Sohpia standing next to the open driver’s door.

“Trying to drive,” Derek took the keys from Sophia with a smirk on his face. Sophia smirked back and went in her seat as they all headed to the office. Rose sat there nicely in Derek’s office once they got there and she was pretty bored. She looked out the window and just wanted to go outside. She went to find Sophia who was sitting at her desk doing some work on the computer while reading a file.

“Can I go outside?” Rose asked, picking up a paper from Sophia’s desk.

“Yeah, sure. Go ahead.” Sophia took the paper and kept on doing her work, not really paying attention to what Rose had said to her. Taking the answer she was given, Rose went to the park which was just a little ways down the street. She played around when a boy with brown hair walked up to her. The child looked panicked so she stopped to see what he wanted.

“Help me! I need help!” The boy cried, running up to her.

“What’s the matter,” she asked, looking at the boy.

“I-I need you to help me! I messed up and I’m going to be in big trouble if I-,” the boy started. But there was an older man coming over with a black T-shirt and ripped jeans with a bandana in his pocket. His hair was black and his eyes were brown. He looked nothing like the boy.

“Come here right now!” The man shouted before looking at her with amazement. “What’s your name, little girl?”

“I can’t tell you. Stranger danger.” She replied, stepping away from the two of them.

“Why I’m not a stranger, I’m Danny and you are?” The man held his hand for her to shake but she just looked at him.

“I’m Rose,” she hesitantly said, refusing to shake his hand.

“Morgan?” He asked, “Is Morgan your last name?”

“No, it’s Shepherd.”

“I see, well would you like to play with my boy here?” Danny put his hand on the boy’s shoulder in hopes Rose would say yes.

“Well, I can’t just leave because my mother won’t know where I went.” She went to walk away from them, until a red cloth covered her eyes. She screamed when she got picked up and thrown over someone’s shoulder. “Put me down! Right now!”

She hit their back as they carried her away, not knowing what awaited her. She was carried for a while before being dropped onto the ground suddenly.

“Ouch….what’s going on?” She pulled the bandana off her eyes to see a boy walking away from her. She got up just to be pushed back down.

“Sit down,” Danny had carried her into the middle of nowhere and he had some rope laying on the ground around a tree. She did as he told and sat there quietly. He took one end and tied it around her wrist then went around the tree to tie her other wrist.

“What are you doing?” She asked, as he tied the last knot before standing up.

“I’m playing a game, you like games don’t you?”

“Yes, I do like games but I’ve never played this one.” She moved her arms just to fight herself.

“Well the game is to see if your daddy or mommy will come and get you. And if they do, you get to leave and if not…then you’ll be mine.” He got down on his knee to look her in the eyes but to be interrupted by the little boy.

“Maybe I don’t wanna play this game with you. Stranger.” Pulling herself up so she could stand up. Danny laughed at her before pulling her legs down, making her sit down again.

“But I need you to be here to play this game little girl.” Holding her cheeks in his hand, Rose just pulled away to free her face.

“But you don’t need her…you have me so you can play this game.” The boy just looked at the two of them before the man stood up. He gave the boy a glare before taking the spare rope from the ground.

“Very well then, Allow me to.” Taking the rope, he tied it in a way and put it around the boy’s neck. He tightened it around his neck and pulled it. She watched as he tugged at the rope and tried to get it off. “You wanted this.”

The boy kept tugging at it as it got tighter on his neck. After a couple of minutes, Danny loosen the rope off his neck and the boy gasped for air. He dropped to his knees with his hands on his neck as he started to catch his breath.

“You were asking for it, kid. Now you go back to the house and if I find you…I’ll finish the job. Understand?” Getting down to the boy’s level, the boy just looked at him before nodding his head. “Good child. Now…GO!”

The boy jumped from the ground and ran away from them without turning around. As he ran away, Danny just smirked. Laughing before turning to her.

“What an idiot, am I right? That kid talks like that but he’s scared of his own shadow. Haha, what a fool!” He laughed some more, as Rose just looked in the direction the boy had gone.

“Why?” She said, turning her head nervously to face the man. “Why did you do that to that boy?”

“Huh?...oh, well you see a little one. That boy talks crap a lot so sometimes you have to do things.” The man replied.

“But you choked him…you could have killed him.”

“So what? If I left him with you, you two would cause issues together. Plus the boy is a pain in the butt and he’s going to hide anyway, so whatever.” He began to walk away from her, leaving her tied to the tree. He smiled over his shoulder and left her.

Back with Sophia, she had finished what she was doing and went to go find Rose. She went to Derek’s office and she wasn’t there. She started to wonder if she went to see Marissa to play games on her computers. But when she asked her Marissa replied with,

“You told Rose she could go outside when you were doing your work. She probably went to the park across the street.”

“Shoot! Thanks,” Sophia fled from Marissa’s office and ran outside to the park. Looking everywhere she had no sign of Rose anywhere. The only person she saw was a little boy running. The boy stopped and looked at her as Sophia called Rose’s name.

“Wait!” The boy called back to Sophia, as he went right up to her. “You’re looking for Rose?”

“Yes, have you seen her anywhere? She is a little taller than you with blonde hair and brown eyes.” Sophia explained.

“Yes, I have…she’s over there.” The boy pointed in the direction he had run from. “You go straight and you can’t miss her.”

“Thank you kid.” Sophia looked at the nervous little boy who just looked at her before Derek ran over to her.

“Sophia? What’s going on? Where’s Rose?” Running to Sophia, the boy fell silent and took a couple of steps back.

“She apparently went into the woods or at least in that direction.” Turning to face her husband, she could wrap her head around anything.

“Oh, and who’s this little one?” Derek turned his attention to the boy who just kept taking steps back from them. He just looked at Derek with wide eyes, and he moved his mouth like he was speaking, no words came out. “What’s your name, buddy?”

“I…uh…” The boy could say his name in fear that Derek would do something awful to him even though he wouldn’t. He kept backing up until he backed right up into a tree that was in the park.

“Kid? You okay?” Derek asked, holding his hand out for the kid to take. Watching the boy take more steps back, Derek backed down. The boy just stared at him before pointing in the direction he had before. Looking nervous, he stopped and just ran away from the two of them. Confused, Sophia and Derek let the kid go and went in the direction that the boy had pointed to.

They went into the woods just across the street, to see nothing. They started to second guess themselves, they began to wonder if the boy was lying to them. They kept looking around to see what the boy may have seen here. As they kept walking, they spotted some pink fabric that got tangled in the branches. Derek held it in his hands and held it for Sophia to look at.

“That looks like Rose’s, she was wearing a pink dress with laces. This could be hers but where is she now is the question?” Sophia kept walking around and even called Rose’s name a couple of times. There were faint voices that could be heard, one girl and one boy. As they followed the voices there was Rose tied to the tree, with a boy trying to let her go. This time it was a different boy than before, this one looked older, light brown hair, and bright blue eyes. He looked familiar to Sophia who had seen him once.

“Mom! Dad!” Rose shouted, with them coming over to her the boy just looked at them.

“What happened?!” Derek asked, helping the boy untie the knots.

“Uh…long story short a man picked me up and said that we were playing a game to see if you would come.” Having her hands free, she hugged Sophia so tight that Sophia couldn’t move her arms. The boy smiled at Derek softly, he went to walk away.

“Bud, come here.” Derek took the boy's arm and softly-spoken. “Thank you, thank you for trying to help her.”

The boy just nodded his head in response with a soft smile. Before heading out, Rose turned to see a man watching her from behind a tree in the distance. She held onto her mother before being ushered along with Sophia. She kept turning around to see him looking back at her. Once she was in the car, he was gone and stopped watching her. She was found but now she’s afraid he’ll come back some day.