Prologue
December 24. Lake Charles City, Louisiana.
“Found you!” I shouted, tapping on my little sister’s shoulder who was sitting behind our big black dumpster.
Shrieking, she looked back at me, before scurrying off somewhere else behind the white concrete wall of our house. She must’ve thought that I’m supposed to chase after her or find her again. I peaked over the wall and heard her laughter.
She probably knows where Axel hid since those two are inseparable and always team up against me whenever we play hide and seek. I quietly followed after her, looking over the other end of the wall, catching a hint of Axel’s black winter beanie peeking over the snow that covered our mother’s well-kept grass hedges.
I ran towards them, grabbing them by the neckline of their winter jackets. They shrieked and then laughed as they turned around to face me.
I stood straight and crossed my arms to my chest. “Okay, enough games. Let’s get back inside.”
“C’mon, just 2 more games please!” Axel constantly pleaded, tugging on my white shirt.
Pulling my shirt back, I answered, “Axel, you are already sweating so much."
“How can you sweat in such cold weather?”
Sweat beads trickled down my sweet brother’s face, his blonde hair was messed up and filled with fragments of snow. He then wiped his runny nose with the hem of his inner shirt which was white when we woke up this morning, now it’s nearly brown from dirt.
“Allie, she won’t play with us anymore,” he shouted and another pair of footsteps came up from behind the grass hedges, tugging on my arm.
“Oh please, Lara, just one more game.” Allie then started to plead.
She was just as dirty as Axel. Her black jacket was dusty and there were some spiderwebs that clung unto her curly black hair that is surely very tangled by now. Half her face was dirty from hiding under our family car and in tight unclean spaces inside our 6 by 7 meter garage.
There were even dead leaves stuck to her cargo pants and ice on her hem.
I sighed and pulled out a washcloth from my pockets and walked closer to both my siblings. I bent down, wiping the sweat and dirt off of their faces before tucking Allie’s sticky and tangled hair behind her ear.
“You two need to go back inside, wash up, and get ready for dinner. It’s starting to get dark.” I calmly said to the both of them.
“Please, Lara.” Axel knelt down, palms together, and looked up at me with his puppy eyes.
I kept quiet, thinking about it for a while. It’s starting to get dark but these two aren’t tired yet. These two will not let me sleep after dinner so I have to make sure that they are too tired to even be at the dinner table tonight.
I hate being the last to wake up tomorrow morning and miss out on unwrapping my own presents. My siblings get too excited and open up all the presents regardless of the names written on the wrappers. It’s been like that every Christmas.
I bent down on their level and said, “Okay, but just one more game and then we have to get back inside.”
The two jumped with glee imprinted on their faces and they showed me their biggest smiles.
“Thank you so much, Lara!” Axel happily replied, kissing me on the cheek.
Allie joined in and hugged me, tightly. “You are the best big sister ever!”
“Okay, now.” I stepped back from them, nearing the concrete wall behind me.
“I’ll count to 10 and you two hide.” I said to the both of them as they nodded.
I turned around and covered my face as I leaned onto the wall and started counting very slowly. “1.”
I could hear both pairs of footsteps running around behind me as my siblings scurry off somewhere else to hide. These two are the most predictable when playing hide and seek. Axel can climb trees and Allie is small enough to fit inside all the tight spaces around our parents’ yard.
“4.”
They always think I’m cheating but they fail to realize that they kind off suck at hiding places. I always find Axel up on trees around our house, and Allie in between small spaces. I even found her in one of our kitchen cabinets once, crouched and lying with all our pots and pans.
“10.”
“Ready or not, here I come!” I said, loudly.
I started to search, creeping up slowly towards my mother’s oak tree surrounded by her grass hedges. I stopped and looked up and only saw branches covered in snow. Axel wasn’t there. I searched for him on top of each tree around our yard and I couldn’t find him.
I also couldn’t find Allie. The inside of our house was off-limits since mom and dad were busy preparing, cooking, and wrapping up gifts for tomorrow. We, three, know better than go running around and wreaking havoc inside, especially in our mom’s kitchen.
After searching for almost 20 minutes, I sat down on the bench and took a deep breath. Where could they have gone? They’re nowhere in the yard, they know better than to go scamper inside, and they’re not in the garage either.
Looking around, I began to notice the woods 10 feet away from our house. They could’ve ran out there and hid behind some bushes and they couldn’t have gone that far. But why would they go there? Dad instructed us to never go out there since it was filled with dangerous monsters that can take us from them.
I quickly stood up. What if they’re in danger? I thought to myself, second-guessing if I should enter the woods or call for my parents first. I swallowed and walked closer towards the tall trees, walking further away from our safe space.
“Axel! Allie!” I called out to the both of them as I stopped close enough to the woods.
No one responded and I began to feel a sinister breeze as I stared at the tree line now only 5 feet away from me. Something is wrong, I can feel it. Where are my siblings?
“Axel!” I shouted, louder this time.
“Allie!”
“You two won! You can come out now!” I continued as desperation slowly crept up my nerves.
I stomped around. “Allie, Axel!” I yelled, tears welling up in my eyes.
Suddenly, there was a noise coming from the distance. I was about to turn around and make a run for it towards my parents to call for help but then I realized that it wasn’t just some noise. It was Axel. And he was crying, wailing, and running.
“Axel!” I almost screamed as I saw my brother’s figure running towards me.
I ran and hugged him so tightly. He was sobbing as he buried his dirty face in my clothes, his sweat seeping in on my shirt. I looked around and saw no sight of my sister. She wasn’t with him. She was nowhere nearby. I couldn’t hear her voice, no footsteps, there was no sign of my sister.
I pulled away, kneeling down and holding my brother by his arms. “Where is Allie?” I asked.
“Someone took her,” he answered in a shaky voice.
“Someone took her,” he repeated. “He took Allie from me.”
“Who? Who took her?” I added.
He shook his head and kept on repeating the same words, disregarding my question. “Someone took her. He took Allie.”
I hoisted my brother up and carried him home, back to my parents. I opened the door, put him down, and went straight to the kitchen where mom was baking Christmas cookies.
“Mommy!” I shrieked and she jumped, shocked at my loud voice.
She turned around to look at me. “What is it, darl-”
She stopped when she saw my face. I was also crying, tears ran down both my cheeks, and dirt and snow was all over me from carrying my brother. My mom ran towards me, bending down at my level and wiping my tears with her hands.
“What’s wrong, baby?” she asked with worry.
“Mom.” I held unto her hand. “Someone took Allie.”
Her brows furrowed, “What do you mean, darling?”
She looked down at my shirt and screamed, taking a step back away from me. Dad almost jumped down the stairs as he ran towards the mom and I. He froze as he looked at me.
“Wh-what’s wrong?” I asked, confused.
I looked down at my shirt and saw it. It wasn’t sweat that soaked me when I pulled Axel in for a hug. It was blood, and it was a lot of it. I couldn’t scream, I stood there, staring at my shirt and feeling the blood stick to my skin.
“Axel!” Mom yelled and walked out towards the door where I left Axel.
Dad bent down and looked at me in the eyes. “What happened, my sweet girl?” he asked me, trying to keep a calm.
I could only mutter two words. “Dad. Allie.”
He shook me. “What happened? Where is your sister?”
“Someone took her.” I cried out, repeating Axel’s words.
The rest of the afternoon was blurry. I remember being carried by my dad towards Axel, and Axel just repeating the words he said to me. At that point, it seemed like Axel and I were echoes of each other.
Police came, and they searched. I stood outside, listening to the sirens as I stared at the cold ground. They searched the snowy woods but they couldn’t find any sign of Allie. She was gone, vanished into thin air, leaving nothing but her footsteps behind.
The police came back with just one of Allie’s pink shoes in a ziplocked bag labeled as ‘evidence’.
“Just this, officer.” the tall man in uniform said to the one with his blue cap on.
"Please, officer," My mother pleaded, "She couldn't have gone that far, for God's sake, she's a little girl."
"We are trying the best that we can, Mrs. Bozzelli." The police officer replied before turning to his co-officer.
"We've got to find her before the snow storm comes, or else, the chances of her being dead will be most likely," he whispered but loud enough for me to hear.
They tried to ask Axel after patching up his forehead, but all they could get was ‘He took her.’ over and over again. Mom was crying into my father’s shoulder as he tried his best to comfort her, caressing her back. But even he was on the verge of tears.
Allie was gone. Missing, or worse, dead.
December 25.
The next morning was the most silent Christmas I ever had. I woke up not from my siblings banging on my bedroom door, or by Axel shouting at Allie for opening his presents, or by their loud feet running down our staircase.
I woke up from the deafening silence and dread in our home.
There were no screaming, or happy shouting this time. I went down and the presents were left untouched. There were no kids sitting beneath the Christmas tree, no mom or dad on the couch sipping hot chocolate, no cookies or milk on the living room table, no Christmas.
I climbed up the stairs and sneaked into my siblings’ room. There were no more Axel and Allie now. It was just Axel, alone, sleeping on the bottom bunk where Allie used to be.
