Echoes of the Vanished Boy

Previously

…Miller pocketed the locket. A clue, perhaps. Or just a random discard. But in cases like this, nothing was ever truly random. He felt a familiar, weary resolve settle over him. The woods held their secrets close, and tonight, one of them had taken a child. The hunt had begun, not just for a missing boy, but for the truth hidden within the whispering shadows of Oakhaven. The town, usually a picture of quiet contentment, was about to be consumed by a fear that had no name, a fear born from a single, unsettling image: a small boy walking into the woods with a stranger. The echo of their footsteps, though unheard, was already beginning to reverberate.