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Gone: Part 4

After Caleb lost his job due to Covid-19, the family moved into a remote house surrounded by a forest. Caylin, fascinated by the thought of fairies and all things mysterious, preferred the dense wood to her parents’ continuous conflict. In the dark night she stumbled onto a puzzling man claiming to know a secret room where real-life fairies live. Naively she followed the man into an underground chamber, only to find five lifeless children who had wing-shaped branches protruding from their backs. Despite her fierce resistance, the stranger wants to make her one of his “friends”. Meanwhile, her distracted parents have realised that she is gone.

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Their raincoats didn’t provide enough protection from the hail, but Caylin’s parents obstinately proceeded through the forest. “Caylin!” they shouted, but their words were futile against the hail hammering the forest. Their fight was not against human forces, but against the onslaught of mother nature and soon they had to surrender – covered in mud and stained with defeat.

After an excruciating walk back, Caleb immediately dialled the police.

“Yes, my wife and I had a minor fight.” Caleb’s fingers clasped the cell phone like superglue. “No, she would not run away. Officer, you do not understand!” his voice pitched as he desperately pleaded for help. He stammered out the address and there was a moment’s silence. “What? She may be at a caravan park? Where the druggies hang out? No, I didn’t know there’s a caravan park north of the forest…” Caleb’s jaw dropped as Bianca lifted her head in terror.

“Thank you, sir.” Without her asking, he answered Bianca: “They’re on their way.”



***

Caylin woke up with an agonizing pounding in her head. Ropes cut through her skin and an evil-smelling cloth robbed her of her voice. Fear shackled her down onto the wooden chair.

“Hello, Little One. Don’t look so sad, now. You are going to be a fairy!” the man smiled.

Caylin tensed her feet so much they started to cramp, but she swallowed deeply, afraid to twitch a muscle.

“I’m sorry, a friend would not restrain your voice,” he said as he removed the dirty cloth.

Caylin gasped. A tear slowly crept down her cheek, but the man rubbed it away.

“Let me explain everything to you, Little One,” Caylin did not respond. She checked the metal table for a weapon, but it was empty.

The man merely shook his head and pointed to all the utensils scattered behind him. “Don’t worry. I have them safe with me.”

“Now where was I?” he murmured as he started to carve two big wooden branches. “You will love me. Not like my parents who only loved drugs…”

***

Not a word was exchanged as both parents fixed their eyes on the doorway.

The loud knock came at last.

“Welcome, Officer”. As their words filled the room, a beacon of hope arose, because every syllable being exchanged became a lighthouse that might bring Caylin back home.

But Caleb’s hope soon abandoned him. “Only tomorrow!?”

“The police are already on their way to investigate the caravan park and by tomorrow we’ll be ready with a large search team at daylight.”

Without uttering a word, Caleb showed the policeman out. As the parents’ eyes met, their tension exploded. Voicing their frustration and fear, they overturned tables and hurled the crockery, fighting a joint enemy instead of each other. But when Caylin’s favourite mug shattered, Bianca and Caleb stopped and stared at each other. Slowly, Caleb walked over to his wife and sat beside her as they both stared at the bits of pink porcelain.

The night passed like a snail and neither parents could close an eye, but with morning a slither of hope penetrated through the clouds. There were about fifty people joining them in the search, with dogs ready to take her trail.

***
“Please, I won’t tell anyone,” Caylin pleaded.

“No, no, Little One,” the man said wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I won’t hurt you. It’ll go by quickly and then we can be friends forever.”

Caylin snapped at him with her teeth, but the man’s instincts were too fast.

Dismissing her attempt to hurt him, he slowly stroked her hair. Goosebumps covered her arms. She wanted to scream but he had already closed up her mouth again.

After precisely marking the position for the perfectly crafted fairy-like branches, he lifted the branches, smiled at her distraught look and started hammering them into her back.

Caylin’s screams were muffled by the filthy rag.

***

“Officer Bruce, come check this out!” called one of the police officers when the dogs started barking hysterically at a patch of moss.

***

The blood flowed like a river on Caylin’s back as the branches started to penetrate. “I love you, you love me,” the man sung.

***

“Hello?” the policeman shouted.

No answer.

“We’ll have to force our way in.”

***

Loud knocks banged through the man’s hideaway. Shocked, he snapped back into reality. He hammered Caylin’s back one last time, kissed goodbye his fairies and briskly fled through a dusty, almost invisible to the naked eye, corridor.

***

“Police! Put your hands in the air!” But no one replied.

The policemen marched down the stairs, investigated every room and to their relief found Caylin, in a pool of blood, but responsive.

***

After three weeks of moving into their new home, the family had packed up and were ready to leave again. Caylin had finally come home from the hospital, and the police were hot on the heels of the murderer of the five children – cases they had been trying to solve for months.

“Imagine being abandoned by drugged-up parents,” Bianca whispered to Caleb as they were packing the last boxes. “And then stealing children to find love,” she hissed.

Later, the three of them snuggled up on the couch. “You are safe now,” Bianca muttered as she stroked her daughter’s hair.

Outside the sky was clear and the stars shone brightly.

But the night wasn’t empty. Staring at Caylin through their window, the man noted their every move.

His whisper faded into the dark night:

“Hello, Little One.”



Sareez Basson