Another Gone

The silence of the morning was a heavy shroud, pressing down on us, thicker and more suffocating than the mist that clung to the trees. It was a silence that screamed. The crackle of the dying embers in the fire pit was the only sound that dared to break it, a fragile defiance against the encroaching dread. William was gone. Not just gone, but vanished. His sleeping bag, which had been a crumpled mound beside mine just hours before, was now empty. Not a trace, not a disturbed leaf, nothing. It was as if the forest had simply swallowed him whole.

Nancy stirred beside me, a soft groan escaping her lips. Her eyes, when they fluttered open, were wide and unfocused, still lost in the remnants of a nightmare. She blinked, then sat up abruptly, her gaze sweeping over the campsite, landing on William’s vacant spot. A whimper caught in her throat. “Sean? Where’s William?”

I swallowed, the lump of fear and disbelief making it difficult to speak. “He’s… not here, Nancy.”