I Miss You

• Heidi Krause, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2021

“So, tell me what had happened that night.”
“I had just finished a soccer game so, my sister and I started walking home. It had just rained so I wanted to get to the house before it started again, however my sister didn’t want to walk the speed I was. Because of that I had gotten mad at her and started to walk ahead, slipping a few times, I had walked for quite a while and I didn’t look back because I assumed, she was right there behind me walking just as fast to keep up. I didn’t even notice how far behind she was; I just watched the trees above me as they swayed side to side. The sky above everything was eternally lucid however there was soft illuminations coming from streetlights, cars passing by and lights from houses surrounding the area. Everything was silent aside from the occasional car engine, until my ears started to bleed with the sound of a hysterical scream coming from behind me. I spun around and what I saw was atrocious; I saw my sister struggling against a man I had never seen before. It then clicked in my head, just like gears in a clock; the blood curdling scream I had just heard was from her. My mind started to race, what was happening to her? What was happening to my sister? I had started to sprint, pushing through all the pain I felt in my legs after practice. I was so far away; I was too far away. I wasn’t able to get to her, my sister was being taken from me, I couldn’t believe it. She was being pushed into a car, but I was closer than before; I thought maybe if I hurried then just maybe I could save her but when I looked up, all I could see was the horror-stricken look on her face, and her petrified eyes will always haunt me. When her eyes met mine all horror that I saw dissolved; she looked at me with such a calm expression. My sister’s expression might have been calm but her petrified eyes had turned into two emotionless orbs; she knew what was happening, she knew I wasn’t going to get there in time. It pained me so much to see that emptiness in my sister’s once joyful gaze. The men pushed her into a red Suzuki Ute, I didn’t get the number plate because as soon as they were able to close the door they went speeding off. That was it, they were gone. I had run after the Ute for a while; I was so scared for my sister that I didn’t even notice the pain I felt in my muscles, and I think it was because the pain I felt in my heart was way more agonizing than that of my limbs. My breathing started to fault, the tears started to blur my vision; I was unable to keep up with the Ute so, I had lost sight of it. Slowing to a stop, I had fallen to my knees and there was no stopping the salty tears that cascaded down my face. I was knelt there for what felt like hours but was more likely to be 10 minutes; when I had gotten off the ground my mind was blank, there was nothing, I felt numb. I then walked home and called my mother, once I had told her what happened she came home and we had called the police. We had looked everywhere, followed every lead the police could find. But nothing could change the fact that I had lost one of my best friends. Eliza was amazing I miss her so much, it hurts.”
“Thank you for coming in and sharing with us this terrible memory.”

As the years old interview fizzled away on the screen of the television, all that could be heard was the static of the TV, then a shallow voice belonging to a tired, bruised, and broken little girl who was huddled up in a corner smiling at the TV whispered, “I miss you to Lyla”. The little girl wished to go home; but after six years all hope was lost of anyone ever finding her; here in this dirty abandoned building miles away from the place she once called home.