Mia Smith was an average 15 year old girl, she was a short skinny blonde who did well in school. The problem with Mia was she had always gotten into trouble.
It was late Saturday night when Mia had gotten into a major fight with her parents. It had all started when Mia was angrily screaming and began shattering things.
It was that moment when her parents had enough, “Mia, I am tired of your attitude and bad behavior. Your father and I have talked and we have decided to ship you to boarding school, you will start on Monday!”
Immediately Mia was exasperated she was not going to let that happen, that’s when she came up with a plan.
It had finally reached midnight when her parents had finally fallen asleep. It was now time to take her plan into action. Mia quickly grabbed her things then rushed out of the house she had decided she was going to run away.
The plan was all going well till five blocks down the road when she had seen a strange man lurking in the dark.
The man had started to approach her with what looked like a shovel. Mia began to run but the old man was chasing her. It was in a flash of a second when a car came out of nowhere she almost didn’t see it coming. Within a blink of an eye it had been too late Mia had been hit.
The next morning Mia woke up disoriented with a scorching headache and blurry vision. Immediately Mia became alarmed “what happened, and why am I in so much pain?”
After a short while her vision had begun to return and she had realized she was in an unfamiliar environment. She began to panic as she shot up from the floor, instantly she rushed to the door.
Mia was shrieking with fear as she was pounding at the door “Help! Let me out! Somebody please help!” Hours had gone by but no one came, no one heard her.
Night had arrived and the old man had approached her again. Mia was so exhausted and weak she had no energy to run, so instead she decided to be nice to the old man, and maybe then he would let her out.
“Hello sir, how are you doing today,” Mia asked.
At first the old man stood in the doorway quietly, then his eyes lit up.
“I’ve been good darling. I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses and returned home. Enough with all that though, I’ve brought you some food because I know you must be starving.”
While the old man prepared the food for Mia, her thoughts returned to her home, thinking how scared and worried her parents must be about her location.
Sarah and Mike Smith sat at their dining room table staring at each other in disbelief. Finally Sarah broke the silence.
“I just miss her. I hope she returns home soon. I wish I wouldn’t have screamed at her.” Sarah then started sobbing and Mike told her that she was not to blame for Mia’s disappearance.
“We did the best that we could and we will find Mia,” Mike said reassuringly.
Back at the shed Mia’s Mind began wandering; she began to visualize a plan to win the old man over. Soon enough she was going to escape.
It was the next morning when Mia had decided to take action. Step one slowly gain his trust.
The next few days Mia had made sure to be extra good and do exactly as the old man said she was very careful not to make him suspicious.
After a while the old man had started to become less strict and more trusting, step one was now accomplished.
It was time to initiate step two: become familiar with the area around her. Mia knew this part of the plan would be a little tricky but she had already gained the old man’s trust. She didn’t want to act too fast and lose it so she knew she would have to take her time.
A couple hours later the sun had risen and the old man arrived, she decided it was time. “Good morning, I was wondering if I could take a short walk outside and get some fresh air. I promise I won’t run away,” Mia said.
The old man had thought for a few seconds then said “I suppose dear but I will be keeping a close eye on you I wouldn’t want to lose you again.”
Mia had made sure to closely scope out the area she was around without trying to look too suspicious as the old man followed nearby. As she walked farther along she had started to realize the area looked familiar she glanced around then noticed this was where she used to play as a child.
Her mind began to wander as her childhood memories flooded back. There was an old tree house where Mia and her mother used to play a few yards down. They had kept flashlights and paper up above along with writing utensils to communicate.
A few minutes later her day dreaming was interrupted when the old man had caught up and frightened her. “Are you okay dear? You look a little dazed, maybe it’s time for us to head back so we can walk some more tomorrow.”
Mia had agreed and started following the old man back. She had a feeling this plan was going to work, or at least she was hopeful. If not she didn’t know how long it would be until she saw her family again she really missed them.
Suddenly a burst of sadness hit her, it was as if that was all she could think of but she knew she would have to stay strong. The old man could not know what she was feeling or else he might get skeptical towards her; she didn’t want to make her situation worse.
A week later back at home the parents had started to lose hope. They began to really wonder what could have happened to their little girl.
“Honey what if she is gone for good what if something terrible happened. There has to be a reason they haven’t found her yet. Maybe they aren’t even looking.” Sarah continued weeping to her husband as the horrible thoughts had overpowered them.
While Mike held Sarah he had tried to think of ways to find Mia or at least a sign to where she had gone.
The next day Sarah and Mike had decided to help take actions into their own hands. The search began by finding some of Mia’s old things.
There was a box in the closet where Mia kept all her old drawings. Sarah began carefully examining them to see if maybe she had hid something within the box. A few pages down Sarah saw something that looked familiar: the picture of the tree house Mia and her had played at when she was younger.
“That’s it Sarah yelled, her old tree house, maybe she ran off there! Although how she got there was the question, the tree house was miles away. Let’s keep looking though there might be more clues to where she could have gone.”
Sarah and Mike looked for hours to find more clues after a while of looking they decided to drive to the tree house.
At first sight of arrival they had sensed something off about the area; it felt as if someone was watching them. Mike and Sarah carefully gazed through the woods on their way to the tree house looking for signs of Mia. After miles of walking they had finally found something that seemed like a clue.
There was a trail of footprints that Sarah and Mike decided to follow. The path went on for a couple steps until it seemed to have cut off. “That’s weird, thought Sarah, where could they have gone and what did they lead to?” Sarah began to lose hope until she looked up into the distant.
“There it is the Tree house, Mia must be in there!” They began to run as their hope had finally returned, they were about to get their daughter back or at least they thought.
The two of them began climbing up the tree but Mia was not there. They walked over to the window when they saw something had fallen onto the ground. It was Mia’s old coloring book.
“Mike! That’s a sign Mia must have been here. We need to call the police now we finally got something that might help us find her!”
Meanwhile, Mia was starting to return from her afternoon walk with the old man when she heard a loud yell. The old man quickly hurried Mia back at fear that they would be found.
Mia had begun to grow hungry of thought to escape but she knew there would be no chance. At least this time she got to leave a clue.
Mia thought back to earlier on during the walk she had finally convinced the old man to let her look in the tree house.
Mia quietly scrambled through everything searching for a pen and a piece of paper. At last Mia had found a crayon and her old coloring book. She knew she needed to act fast before the old man had gotten angry. Mia quickly wrote a message and dropped the book down from the back window. The message read “help me!”
A few seconds passed and the old man began to get impatient. Mia then shuffled down the ladder and hurried back to the old man. A look of fright arrived on Mia as the old man began to get a suspicious look upon his face. “
What did you find darling you sure took a while up there must have been something interesting. I heard a loud thud. Was that you darling?”
Mia knew she had to think fast or else the old man might find the book her whole plan was in the sake of getting blown. “Yes sir that was me. I accidently tripped upon the loose floorboard. Nothing to worry about.”
Mia’s thoughts returned back to the present as to what the sound was and why the old man had rushed her along. “Had anyone been there?” Mia wondered.
A few minutes later back at the tree house a policeman arrived with a search dog. Sarah and Mike led them over to the coloring book where they had seen the message in what looked like their daughter’s hand writing. The dog had started to seem alert as he began to lead the policeman down a path.
Sarah and Mike followed in curiosity as they had wondered what the dog had smelled and where it was going. A while after following a narrow trail they had found a broken down old shed surrounded by trees.
The dog immediately began barking intensely as they had gotten closer to approaching the shed. The policeman quietly turned the door knob in case of a threat but the door was locked. “Open up,” shouted the policeman.
The old man started panicking with fear as he quickly shushed Mia. Although that did not fool the policeman he used all his might and forced the door open. Mia was sitting in the corner with fear and relief as she knew she had been saved.
The policeman ran over to Mia and grabbed her from the old man so he could never hurt Mia again.
Afterwards the Policeman grabbed the man and put him in handcuffs.
A while after they had taken the old man down to the station and identified him as Fred Sanders.
Fred had been missing for years and the police were on the lookout for him. He was a known criminal with schizophrenia and had been famous for kidnapping young girls.
Mia was in shock as she heard the news she shivered over the thought that something horrible could have happened. She held her parents in relief and sorrow. Mia had finally learned her lesson and would never run away again.
The Islander 