Missing Town

By Lacey Childs, age 13

The sun shone on her olive-coloured skin. Her brown, wavy hair was gently moved by the wind, elegantly swishing in front of her face. Her bright blue eyes twinkled as they looked across the view of luscious green forests surrounding her. Sitting here was a perfect place for her. A place to get away from her cares, her worries. Her tranquil surroundings made her feel like she finally belonged in the world. A deer was close to her, it was drinking from a sparkling river at the end of the waterfall. It seemed to sparkle like diamonds reflecting in the sunlight. Her dress blew softly as she rose up from her seat on a smooth rock and gazed into the depths of the infinite sky above her. But this peace wouldn’t last long. Suddenly, she heard twigs snapping from the forests around her. She jumped at the sound and swiftly turned to discover the cause of her disturbance. She screamed, and then darkness fell over her world.

When she awoke, a tall woman with short, black hair was leaning over her. The woman’s steel rimmed glasses were perched on the edge of her nose. She was saying her name.

“Lily! I’m glad you’re awake, we have been waiting for your arrival for months!” Her voice was unfamiliar and stern which didn’t make Lily feel any better.

“Who are you? And where am I?” Lily spoke, her voice shaking a little. She was flooded in questions, and she wanted them answered at that moment.

She took a second to look around the area she was in. It looked similar to a train station, but more modern and its halls were empty.

“So, to answer your two questions, I am Imelda Thorne. And we are in Missing Town. We are in the central crossing just after rush hour, that is why no-one is around. Missing Town is where things that aren’t loved anymore come here, to live a beautiful life but are not in any ones way in the future. Now don’t take this the wrong way, but who do you know that loves you? Friends? None. Family? Nope. Classmates? Zilch. That’s why you are here! Come this way and I will try to give you a life you might enjoy.”

Lily followed Imelda into the next hallway. She knew there was something wrong here, but she didn’t know what. She looked around and saw a boy, around the same age as herself, sitting on some nearby stairs. His hair was brown and messy and his clothes were dirt-encrusted. He looked shy but he waved at Lily anyway. “My name’s Isaac” he said to her. She waved back but Imelda turned her body to face the corridors again.

“Keep following, Lily. You don’t want to end up like him, a filthy Forgotten. If you keep coming, we will try to make your future as bright as possible!” She put her hand onto Lily’s shoulder.

“Don’t call him that! Every person deserves a future, a second chance!” Lily protested, she suddenly stopped walking and shook Imelda’s hand off her.

“Oh, Lily. Not everyone deserves a happy life. Especially not in this world.” Imelda said, grabbing Lily by the arm again and pulling her forwards near a wooden door which was bolted shut. Imelda unlocked the door and Lily was horrified. The room was completely black. She wasn’t even sure it was a room, just a pitch black, empty void.

“Now, I’m afraid you have to go now. Bye bye, Lily!” Imelda said, trying to push her into the darkness.

But Lily was too swift and dodged her. She ran as fast as a cheetah out of the mysterious room, back into the hallways. Imelda suddenly appeared in front of her, and Lily halted, knowing that her escape route was a fail.

“Don’t act like that Lily. You don’t know what you’re dealing with here.”

Imelda took her into the room again and told her that there was no escape from Missing Town. She was now a Forgotten, an outcast with no hope. Imelda bolted all the locks she could and then walked away leaving Lily with her thoughts until she would come back.

About 5 minutes later, there was a knock at the door and a note slipped through. Lily walked towards the door, staggering around. The only way she could tell where the door was there, was that light leaked through the crevices of the corners. She felt the note in her palm and clasped it. It was crumpled, and

the handwriting was legible. Lily held it up to the minuscule amount of light and read it. “I know a way to get you out of here” She thought about but how she could escape. The doors were bolted, and the room was pitch black. Before she could think of anything, another crumpled note that answered her question. “Look at the ceiling”

So that is exactly what Lily did. And to her surprise, somebody was standing on the ceiling. She heard a faint cutting noise and every few seconds the volume was increasing just by a small amount. After a minute or so, a ceiling panel fell and landed next to Lily. Two legs were dangling down into the room, then a torso, then arms. Finally, the person let go of the roof and jumped down to the ground. The recognisable messy hair made Lily smile. Isaac had come to help and escape Missing Town with her.

“How did you get in here?!” Lily asked, looking puzzled. Isaac pulled a pen knife out of one of his pockets and showed it to her. Lily smiled at Isaac and he smiled back. They walked towards the locked door. Now that one of the ceiling panels had been removed, sunlight shone through into the dark, dingy room. But the door was too noisy and would take too long for them to cut a hole in for their escape, so they had to think of a plan. They spent a lot of time focusing on their plan until it was perfect and ready to put in action.

“So, we’re ready. When do we start?”

“Now.”

Isaac hid in the corner of the murky room and waited for Imelda to slip Lily’s meal under the latch box at the bottom of the door. After she was gone, they got the knife and sawed it back and forth to cut the metal stopper on the door lock. It was loud and irritating to Imelda’s sensitive ears. She heard them and went to take a look.

“Well well… my new Forgotten is trying to leave. I’ll put an end to that”.

She unlocked the door and grabbed Lily. Isaac jumped out from they corner and cut Imelda’s skinny, bony leg with the pocket knife. She fell to the floor, and screeched in pain. Her leg stopped bleeding. Her eyes suddenly narrowed and gave a cold stare to Isaac. The cut was sealed like magic, but there was no traces of stitches or scarred tissue. Isaac grabbed Lily’s hand and pulled her along to the middle of the dark room. Imelda lunged at them but they moved out of the way. Isaac slashed at her with the pocket knife again to temporarily stop her. They both climbed on top of her back and Lily managed to get through the ceiling panel, but Imelda was getting up now, her leg once again healed. Isaac was struggling and struggling. He was too short to hang on to the next panel. Lily grabbed his hand. She tried to pull him up, but it was no use, she was too weak to get him up and out. He fell back down with a thud and Imelda grabbed him by his shirt.

“I remember” Isaac said.

Lily was gone. Almost like she vanished.

What felt like seconds later, Lily woke up next to the waterfall on the same rock, almost like she never left. The trees danced in the breeze daintily, and the deer was now close by. Close enough to hear it’s small breaths. It all felt unreal to her as she recalled what had happened with Imelda. She was alone when she left. She didn’t remember being with anyone else. Just then it hit her. How she escaped… someone helped her. But who? She gazed along the horizon. The calming sounds of the sea sloshing on the beach, turning into a white foam. The sun was setting in a rainbow of colours.

Just then she said, “I remember”.

Isaac was now sitting next to her on the same smooth boulder, with cleaner clothes than he was in before but still the same messy hair swishing in front of his eyes.

“Thank you for saving me, I’ve been in missing town since I was 7, it’s been very lonely there by myself” he said.

“Don’t forget it was you who risked your life to save me, if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be here either” she replied.

They sat in silence for a while and watched the deer eat some red berries from a nearby branch. Lily turned to him and asked, “Now what Isaac? What do we do now?”

“We do the same thing we did before. But this time, we have each other” Isaac said, still watching the deer. And with that, they sat down in peace, together. They remembered.