Chapter 1

Hunter

    The house was a mess. Papers were scattered everywhere. It was like a hurricane blew through the kitchen and out into the living room. Hunter sighed and kept picking up the loose bits of paper. His knees hurt with the hard kitchen tiles slowly digging into them. 

    When his arms were full, Hunter stood to bring the paper to the recycling. He turned and was startled by the sight of a girl sitting crossed legged on the kitchen table. Alex. His child.

    “Get off the table and help me,” Hunter said. He couldn’t remember what had caused this mess, but he would be damned if he was the one stuck cleaning it alone. Alex stared at him blankly for a moment.

    “Alex,” Hunter said. “I’m not asking again. Get off the table.”

    Hunter watched as Alex moved awkwardly to the edge of the table and lowered herself to the ground. Once she was on the ground, Hunter went to one of the lower kitchen cabinets and opened it with his foot. He used the same foot to maneuver the blue hard plastic recycling bin out of the cabinet and on to the ground.

    Hunter dropped his armload of paper into the bin and started picking up more. Alex did the same while awkwardly watching him.

    “You okay there, kiddo?” Hunter asked.

    “Yeah,” Alex said.

    “You ready for school tomorrow?” Hunter asked. He remembered how hard high school could be, but he would be damned if Alex didn’t go to university. Hunter wasn’t going to let his kid squander her life away like he felt like he did his.

    Hunter was a father at seventeen. He stayed in his hometown and worked construction to raise his kid. He hadn’t done so bad, but it was hard and he didn’t want Alex suffering the same hardships. The two of them had endless conversations about what it meant to have the opportunity to get out of this town. For now, it sounded like Alex would take it.

    “No school tomorrow,” Alex said.

    “No school?”

    “Yeah,” Alex said. “Cancelled. Some kids went missing in the woods.”

    The woods were dangerous. It wasn’t the first time kids went missing there. It wouldn’t be the last time.

    “You know the woods are dangerous right?” Hunter asked. “I don’t want you messing around in there.”

    “Yeah,” Alex responded. She was picking up paper and dropping it into the speed at an amazing, almost superhuman pace.

    “When does school start up again?” Hunter asked.

    “I don’t know.”

    Alex somehow managed to not only grab the paper from the kitchen but the paper that had drifted into the living room as well.

    Hunter was putting the bin back where it belonged when he noticed the time. It was past midnight.

    “Kiddo, it’s late,” he said. “It’s time for bed.”

    Alex stood still, staring at him. 

    “Sweetheart, go upstairs to your room and get ready for bed. I will come check on you in a minute.”

    Alex slowly left the room, occasionally looking back over her shoulder at Hunter. He wondered about it. Was she scared, worried perhaps about the kids that went missing? Or feeling guilty perhaps? Did she know those kids?

    The doorbell rang. Alex froze in place.

    “I’ve got it kiddo,” Hunter said walking past her. “You go upstairs and get ready for bed.”

    Alex started up the stairs slowly, clearly hoping to catch a glimpse of who was at the door at this late hour. Hunter stopped and watched her and she seem to understand he wasn’t going to open the door until she had gone up. Once she turned the corner at the top of the stairs, Hunter went to the door. It was Tanya.

    “There’s a search party going out tomorrow,” Tanya said. “We’re meeting Sheriff Beckert at the high school gym to coordinate.”

    “What time?” Hunter asked.

    “Seven,” Tanya said. “We’ll coordinate and then search once it’s light.”

    “I’ll be there.”

    “How’s the kid?” Tanya asked.

    “I don’t know,” Hunter said. “Maybe a little shook up. We’ll talk in a minute here.”    

    “Okay, I’ll leave you to it.”

    Tanya kissed Hunter on the cheek and walked away into the darkness. Hunter waited until he saw the lights in her car turn on when she opened the door and followed her movements in the car until she started the engine and drove off. With kids missing in the woods, Hunter felt as if he needed to be extra vigilant when it came to the safety of his family and friends.

    Once Tanya’s car turned the corner, Hunter looked up and down his block and stepped back into his house. When he turned around, he saw Alex back at the top of the stairs.

    “Come on, kiddo,” Hunter said. “Let’s go to bed.”

    Hunter walked Alex to the bedroom at the end of the hall. He gave her a fierce hug goodnight. He knew something was wrong, he just didn’t know what. He thought about asking her now, but he felt suddenly and extensively tired. 

    Hunter couldn’t remember falling asleep, much less going to bed, but when he woke up, he felt someone watching him. It was Alex standing in the darkness next to his bed.

    “Come on, sweetheart,” he said. He scooted to the far end of his king bed. “Get in and go back to sleep.”

    Alex had nightmares as a child, but they had faded with time. Whatever this was with kids missing in the woods must have brought them back. After a minute, Alex climbed into bed and Hunter tossed some blankets over her.

    As he dozed back off to sleep, he could feel Alex’s eyes on him. Alex had always been scared that he would go away when she wasn’t looking. So Hunter let Alex watch him as he dozed back off to sleep.