She was sure this was where he disappeared, but then again she hadn't been there. Not with him. It was deep in the forest where a clearing was overgrown with wildflowers and leaves littered the ground.
Unlike the police and the search party, the young girl took her lantern and went to search by the light of the moon. Sometimes the shadows revealed things that the light of day did not. As she went on her way a little voice inside her head kept asking how she could help. She was, after all, just a girl. She kept shaking it off until it got so loud she could no longer ignore it.
Stopping in her tracks she looked up through the tree branches to the starry sky above. "How can I help, you ask?" She said a loud to the trees. "Because this is where I, too, disappeared.
Refocusing, she stood directly in the center of the clearing, holding her lantern out looking for any clues. Placing the lantern near her feet, she knelt down and rummaged among the leaves begging the forest to talk to her. Her searching became frantic. She needed to find clues because this boy's family missed him just as she was missed. The wind shifted rustling the leaves. Just like that she saw it. A footprint beneath the leaves. Not just any footprint but that of a child.
Moving along the leaves she saw another and another. She stood and followed them to the edge of the forest where they abruptly stopped.
"No! No, no, no!" She cried out as she continued to search the surrounding area. Suddenly, something hit her. Why hadn't the police seen these before? Upon closer inspection she could tell that these prints were not fresh. So why hadn't they seen them?
Because footsteps of the dead could not be seen by the living.
With tears in her eyes she looked up to see him standing there motioning for her to come with him.
"Where are we going?" She asked taking a step towards him.
"Home." She took his hand and just like that they were gone.
