Disappearance

1

He took Hazel... My Hazel...

He stole her from me... from us...

She was only five, and I was eight at the time...

We were only playing in the park...

Now I'm twenty-five, I am going to get the answers I need...

Ten seconds changed my life forever...

The memory is everlasting...

The pain will never go... Will it?

"Come on Clara! try to catch me! Hehehe."

Hazel let out a giggle whilst running across the green grass, her short, light brown hair, which reached above her shoulders flew back behind her in the small breeze we got, with her arms out wide as she loved pretending to be an aeroplane.
The weekend had arrived and Hazel and I had decided to go to the park as it was sunny and only five minutes away from our home so we always knew where weren't far away.

"I'm going to get you, Hazel!" I shouted back with a smile, as I started to run after her. I also had light brown hair, but mine was a little longer, just reaching my shoulders. I caught her, and we squealed, laughed, tumbled and rolled around in the grass, no doubt getting grass stains on our dresses and ripping our stockings before we continued to play on the swing and slide down the slide together, we did this most weekends, with or without the company of the other children in the street.

It was another day filled with adventure and excitement. After we were out of breath from playing in the park, we decided to go and look through some of the small snacks mum gave us to nibble on before lunch.
'I'm so hungry Clar!" Hazel said, exaggerating on the So.
We opened the bag to find sweets and carrot sticks. Hazel's eyes lit up at the bags of sweets, grabbing one and opening it immediately. After eating our sweets, I dove back into the bag to grab the water bottle.
'I am going to play on the slide a few more times before we go.'

Whilst I sat down and started drinking the water, parched after eating the rest of my sweets we brought to the park, I thought Hazel was with me when I smelt something strange, like nothing I'd smelt before, and I couldn't explain it at the time, but it made me feel drowsy. I turn towards the smell, see a man's face and hear him say something so painful

This man was aged around his late 40s with fair skin, you could see grey hairs starting to grow around the deep brown short-cut hair.
Between the seconds of my eyes fluttering shut, I saw the brown overcoat he was wearing one thing that scared and scared me most about his appearance was his eyes. His dark brown eyes were glaring at me for what felt like hours before his face slowly created a somewhat kind-looking smile and his eyes softened, and once his face completely changed, he then spoke to me, "Hello, I was wondering, is there a sweet shop around here? I must pick up some sweets for my niece, she looks a lot like you." I couldn't say anything, I was too scared, so all I did was shake my head slowly, and with that, he gave a small head nod as he slowly walks away.

My body jolted awake at the thought of being back in time, being back in that position. The panic and pain still felt so real seventeen years later. Mum only had us two girls, and dad left just after I was born so it has been just us for a very long time, which in a way was the hardest part. Leaning on one specific person your whole life can take a toll, and make you feel like you cannot fully express your emotions without antagonizing the person you are leaning on. In saying that though, we have managed to work through the pain we share and grow up learning to be vulnerable with one another, learning to navigate the emotions only we share, being able to trust each other, like best friends in a way.