Valeria barely got up. Changing clothes was difficult, her everything hurt, and she would rather stay in bed, but stuff needed to be done. Sleep, library, a visit to one of her many neighbors, and a stroll. Repeat. That’s how most of her days had gone past for the last few decades.
Sometimes, smaller children would come to library to listen to stories. They were nice. Some of them ended up reading a lot, a few achieving great things once they turned into adults.
“I wonder if Olek would be kind enough to visit. Oh, who am I kidding, he’s probably busy with his reelection.”
Not like she wouldn’t vote for the kiddo. After all, his views of local politics were mostly shaped by herself.
“Maybe I should have drunk no alcohol yesterday. But man, It’s Janek’s fault for toasting…”
She was glad she didn’t get herself drunk. Hangover takes ages to cure when you’re eighty.
Valeria finished preparing, and headed for the library.
As usual, several kids were already there. They would probably leave to play somewhere else once their entire little group gathered.
Before that happened, Valeria snuck some candy into their pockets, greeting them with a smile. The kids greeted her and smiled back, of course.
Just as she was getting ready to hole herself up in a corner to read another novel, the doors opened violently, slamming into the rubber door stopper.
A small silhouette was gently stopped before it slammed into Valeria.
‘Unusual for Maria to be in such a hurry. Did something happen?’
One look at Maria’s face was enough for Valeria to summon a tissue. But before she could use it, the girl caught her breath.
“Auntie! Listen!”
Valeria didn’t order the child to turn her volume down, even if she completely disregarded all of the library’s rules.
After all, little Maria looked scared out of her mind.
“Calm down, and tell me what’s going on. Is there an emergency?”
“Yes! David was… David got vanished by a haunted basement!”
“Hm?”
“Vanished! By a haunted basement! David!”
The normal response would be to dismiss that statement as a stupid prank. But Valeria knew a truly terrified kid when she saw one.
How strange. Maria was a smart child. And she was definitely old enough to know words like ‘kidnapping’ or ‘a collapsed building’, so why would she use this particular choice of words?
“Did you report it to the police? Or to his mother?”
“Yes! Jarek and Rafi did!”
“And?”
“Police entered the basement, looked around, but left it.”
“Did they secure the scene?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I heard one of them say something about pranks, but David really is gone! They are searching for him now, but in a wrong place!”
‘Alright. Tell me exactly what happened, from start to finish.”
The following story really did sound like some childish delusion…
“We were going places for tests of courage. The rules were like this: Whoever dares, enters a scary place alone, and marks it with their own, personal drawing. After that, we all enter with flashlights, and see if the drawing is where the contestant claimed it to be. David went into a basement of a haunted house, but didn’t respond for some time, so we went inside to check up on him. But he was nowhere to be found, his wet footprints ended right where the dead end started, like he walked into a wall. We ran right out of there, and went to ask for help, but the police didn’t believe us.”
“What of the footprints?”
“They vanished.”
‘The water most likely evaporated, making wet footprints go away. I wonder if the police considered that option.’
They would have to be stupid if they didn’t.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Show me how his drawing looks like.” If they were lucky, and that kid was still around, then maybe he would mark stuff, leaving a trail.
‘If he was kidnapped, that might just become the one way to track him down.’
“Right!” Little Maria grabbed a pencil, and a piece of paper, and started drawing.
She showed her finished work. Depending on how you looked at it, it might’ve resembled a whale on a ladder. Or a yacht and birds. Or dancing, fat people. Or a naked woman riding an elephant.
Yeah, it was kinda trippy.
Valeria looked at it closely, memorizing the thing, folded the piece of paper, and stuffed it inside one of her vast pockets.
She got up from her chair, the sounds made by her back vaguely resembling a bag of popcorn in the making.
“Alright. Lead me there. We’ll see what’s going on.”
“Yes!”
Valeria excused herself, leaving the Library, told the rest of the kids to not go after her, and followed the girl.
Her long stride made her walk just as fast as little Maria, even though the girl visibly did her best to hurry as much as possible. Yup. This couldn’t be a prank. No kid would be able to feign fear, concern and desperate need for help this well.
After a while, they arrived at the ‘Haunted house’. Truth be told, it was just a typical abandoned suburban house, with a lot of vegetation, smell of mould, and a look of an absolute ruin.
Valeria actually didn’t remember this place ever being a home to anyone, at least not in the last fifty years, but she knew the location well. Brats went there for exploration generation after generation, but She didn’t remember this house ever swallowing someone.
And definitely not in a literal sense.
She entered the place. She knew the way to its basement, it wasn’t the first time she was there, after all.
And indeed, there was nothing. Just a corridor, and a dead end.
It was actually a little weird.
‘Wait. Why is there no trash here?’
In any such location, there would inevitably appear teenagers. And with them, rubbish would arrive. You could never convince the ill behaved brats to clean up after themselves. Other than by gently knocking some sense into them, of course.
But there was nothing here. Even the spider webs were scarce.
‘Strange’
Valeria approached the wall, the one that supposedly ‘vanished’ little David, and looked at it closely. Nothing. If he were to mark this place, it would definitely be here, but the wall was pristine. Weirdly pristine.
She started checking the wall by knocking at it with a knife handle.
Knock, knock. Knock, knock. Knock, knock.
Nothing. The sounds were perfectly normal, and uniform.
Valeria got suspicious. This place was perfect. Too perfect.
She had a feeling there was something behind this wall. But no physical proof, just a hunch.
Valeria Leonova was way too experienced to dismiss her hunches like they didn’t matter.
When your only fully working sense is the taste, you learn to rely on the smallest things.
She straightened out her back with a crunch, turned around and climbed the stairs. Little Maria was still waiting on the surface.
“How is it?”
“Tell me, was there something unusual about David?”
“Not particularly, no.”
Very well.
“Was there something that was normal for him, but only for him?”
“You mean if he was different from other kids?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think so.”
So. A perfectly normal kid, in a perfectly normal basement. Suddenly vanishes, like it’s perfectly normal.
Great, case closed.
Not.
Maria sensed Valeria’s lack of understanding, and started getting nervous in response. Children can be much too perceptive sometimes.
“Let’s go over to my house. Nothing will become of just standing here, and hey, maybe you’ll remember something.”
Little girl nodded, and followed Valeria.
They passed the garden, and entered Valeria’s house. It was an nice place, and, to calm her down, Valeria served tea. They slowly sipped, but Maria fidgeted a lot.
“You don’t have to remember right away. Take your time.”
“But David…”
“Actively trying to recall memories will get you nowhere. Here, cookies. They go well with this tea, especially if you pour some milk in it.”
Valeria wouldn’t recommend anything she didn’t offer to her guest. The milk was quickly set on the table, and they both added it to the tea, biting down on cookies.
Valeria finished first, most likely because as opposed to little Maria, the older woman did not try to act courteously. The girl normally enjoyed these particular cookies, but was so nervous, she could only politely nibble on them.
Valeria sighed. She took her ring off, and started fiddling around with it in silence, as was in her habit. The silver shone brightly even in this dimly lit home of hers.
“Excuse me…”
“Yes, dear?”
“I remembered something.”
“Out with it.”
“David found a silver coin some time ago, and carried it everywhere.”
“I suppose my ring reminded you, but… Do you think it’s relevant to our case?”
“Honestly, it must be it.” Maria was suddenly full of confidence. “When you think of werewolves, ghosts, and other stuff, silver… things are practically a must.”
“An interesting thought. Do you think your friend was spirited away or something?”
“Do we have any other explanation?”
“Hmmm... I suppose we don’t. Decades ago, if the police just left the scene of the crime and stated that they can’t find a missing child, I would think they were simply bribed by human traffickers, or too scared to pursue. But the times have changed. I don’t think something like that would happen now, not after Janek became the chief of police.”
“So it must be it! Supernatural something took David away.”
It would be natural to dismiss such an opinion. But it’s not like Valeria never reached the truth by ghost hunting, even if she never saw an actual ghost.
“I don’t think we have eliminated every other possibility. But, you know what? Let’s not leave eliminating supernatural causes for last. I have an idea.”
“What kind of idea?”
“Let’s get you home first. I might not be around for some time. I suppose we can meet here in a few days.”
“What are you gonna do in the meantime?” Now that Valeria looked more confident than confused, little Maria looked less scared, and more curious.
“I’m going to have a little talk with some ‘ghosts’. Alone.”
The girl nodded, took out her phone, and called her big brother to pick her up. He arrived shortly, and they both went home.
The older woman grabbed her own device, and dialed the number to David’s mother, just to confirm the facts.
They exchanged some polite words, and the story checked out. David really vanished, his phone out of range.
‘Well, well. Of course it wasn’t just a prank. Not with my luck.’
Valeria opened her wardrobe, and started changing. Where she could be heading, half measures wouldn’t do. She grabbed her bag with equipment, food, medicinal supplies, and checked the sharpness of her “walking stick”.
‘If all of this isn’t enough to keep me alive wherever I’ll end up, then David is most likely already dead.’
Lastly, she approached her drawer, and took out a chunk of silver, one of her many financial insurances in case of another economic collapse, and headed for the ruined house.
