The Collectors - V

Isoline and Evander stepped out of the dressmakers shop and into the cool night air.

            “We’ll find her.” Whispered Isoline, her arm around her friend. “We’ll find her.”

            The streets of Pattersby were deserted. All residents were now sunken deep in their extravagantly cushioned beds. Only the cries of the wind could disturb them now.

Isoline had invited Evander over as soon as he informed her of Mandy’s disappearance. His pale countenance at her door had tugged fiercely at something inside her. She had to help him.

No children had ever gone missing in Pattersby before. This was a shock to everyone. The police were over at Evander’s house now, questioning his family and preparing their own search.

            Evander couldn’t wait for that.

Losing a member of your family like losing a limb. For him, Mandy’s disappearance was just the same as his leg vanishing or his arm falling off its joint. He felt punctured, wounded. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t cry. The fear, the tears, they built up inside him an insurgent tornado, moving further and further up his throat. He forced it down.

Now they searched the streets. The cold mattered to neither of them, their aching hunger mattered even less. Isoline held Evander’s hand as they searched, calling out the little girl’s name. Sometimes they ran, petrified that she had come into danger. Sometimes they walked. Sometimes the fear was too much. Sometimes Evander just let the cold numb him.

Neither could remember why they decided to check The Trout’s Tail. Neither could remember why they had gone to seek warmth from a newly opened, greasy pub. Neither could remember why they had walked right in, despite the “CLOSED” sign above the door.

But they did.

They were greeted in there by a woman. A stout little woman, with a very round, flat face. She had grinned at them, before suggesting they follow her.

She took them through a door, into the restaurant room, currently dark and emptied of all beings and cutlery. Through there, they met another door.

Behind this door was an enormous play-area. So large, it must have been impossible for it to fit in that building, never mind the room. It was like a whole world in there. It couldn’t be possible for it to exist at all.

The woman led them inside the play-area. She took them to the left.

There stood a dark curtain, and from behind it there arose the sound of silent bubbling.

Neither Isoline nor Evander questioned the woman when she held the curtain aside for them, revealing the tiny, dark space containing a pool of some gurgling green substance.

Neither of them protested when she pushed them in.