Marie Is Gone
Marie is gone.
I’ve looked everywhere- our school, her house, the park. Even the empty blind-alley out the back of her street where she goes when she wants no one to know where she is. But I know. I always knew, how could I not? She always left behind the most obvious signs. Though she didn’t always make it easy for me.
I should check the school again.
Preparing to turn around, I took one last look at the dingy hole at the side of the street. You couldn’t even call it an alleyway; it was cramped, hastily stuffed between two buildings that looked too tall and dominating to be friendly. My flashlight made it worse, throwing jittering shadows over the rough, cracked bricks. The ground was no better, strange vegetation pushed through concrete barriers and made themselves known by tangling in my shoes, their thorns catching me if ever I tried to move away. Whilst eyeing the rusty nails that held up the exposed cable wires to the side of the wall, an old thought crossed my mind: She really shouldn’t be coming here, I keep telling her she’s bound to get herself hurt.
My thoughts were repeatedly broken by the steady, ill-mannered drip of rainwater from a shattered pipe that echoed through the lonely night air. It was quiet. A threatening, lingering quiet. A peaceful, calm quiet.
I couldn’t deny her that; it was her own hideaway, carved out the side of the street, this snicket of hers.
Stumbling past the thickets, I made my way out and as I looked up, past the stand-still air my eyes lay on the stars. It was a clear and cool night, though the stars dimmed in comparison to the heavy city lights that were few and far between on the regular streets. Manoeuvring through this place seemed like a challenge even during the day, even when she was here. It used to be no trouble finding out where she could’ve gone and now I was out looking for clues as if we were playing some twisted game of hide and seek.
Damn it Marie, not again.
My pace quickened upon sighting the wire gate that led to the park trail. Its familiar carved flowers and vines strangled each other, every petal so razor sharp I thought I was sure to cut my fingers from just a graze. However, the only consequence of the opening entrance was the sound of a single nail across a chalkboard as the hinge let out a shrill screech that resonated into the night.
I couldn’t help but look back at what she had said to me yesterday, the conversation replaying in my head. She looked startled, rambling about some…thing. The descriptions were barely coherent; lanky, gaunt limbs, impossibly long and pale. Something out of a cryptid folk story. I assumed she had a nightmare or just didn’t know what she was saying. I dismissed her, thinking her imagination must’ve gotten the better of her again.
She must still be angry, why else would she avoid me like this?
A snap underfoot drew me back to my surroundings. Looking down, I noticed the wet, muddy earth squelching beneath each step, with sticks or branches breaking up the noise as well as the occasional crunch of gravel. It hadn’t rained all month.
My foot suddenly tripped upon a rock that jutted rudely out from the middle of the path, breaking the rhythmic steps and- no. That wasn’t me. Flashlight pointed to the floor, the revealed path was clear. Well, mostly clear. My gaze slowly turned to the broken treeline, covered by brambles and bushes and briars. Eyes searching for answers found no comfort.
My shallow, quick-paced breaths no longer lingered in the air but dissipated as quickly as the air within my lungs. Head darting back and forth, feet searching stable ground. I just had to calm down. It was just an animal.
Was that the thing that got Marie?
I forced the thought out of my head, Marie knew better than to go near dangerous animals, she just got lost or is probably hiding somewhere as she had always done, as she always will. The ground was muddier here, my feet slipping slightly with every turn, every step. The sticks crunched, the leaves squished. Catching spare glimpses of a bony limb in the vegetation, I knew my mind was playing tricks on me. I took a deep, steadying breath, as an abrupt, metallic stench infected my brain and turned my head, with my flashlight falling upon a broken scene of green and red tangled in the bushes.
I know one thing for certain; Marie is gone.