Twilight’s veil: A tale of shadows and secrets in the forest

For this edition our creative writing brief was: Write a story or a poem in a genre of your choice to go with the title “The Missing Person”. This is one of our entries from partner school Robert Smyth.

The liquid dripped from the object. Her pale face looked as if she was just skin and bone, I mean she basically was. I grabbed the flashlight from her hand and replaced it. For when they find her, well let’s be honest, if they find her, it will look like an accident. My heart was pounding so fast. I don’t know whether it was the adrenaline or the sweet feeling of justice, but it felt right.

I ran to the creek and washed my gloves. The water turned a murky colour. I discarded the gloves and hers, along with the flashlight, then headed back to camp.

I unzipped her tent and placed her flashlight in. I grabbed my phone and played the recording of her saying goodnight to me. I zipped her tent up and walked over to mine. All anyone was aware of is that we went to the toilet and we’d both returned.

My smile when I woke up felt genuine, normally it felt forced and fake. Maybe I might appear as a somebody not knowing what I’m doing wrong, but I’m fully aware of what I’m doing is wrong.

I unzipped my tent and got out. The morning air got to me differently. Everyone was gathered round an empty fireplace. Their faces looked sad as if something had happened (well I guess it had).

“Liz, Olivia’s not in her tent and she’s not in the toilets.” Max said, “she definitely returned from the toilets with you?” His face had a desperate look on it.

“I heard her when they came back. Olivia had said night to Liz,” Daniel said.

I tried not to smile. How gullible do you have to be to believe that all she said was night? I mean in his defence it was the middle of the night. I tried to put a sad look on my face.

“What happened? I mean when did she go missing? I was with her last night, and she was fine. Maybe she was a little distant, but I thought she was tired. I mean we all are.” I added.

It must have been good acting, or everyone was swept into the drama, but everyone comforted me. I guess no one thinks a girl would have the strength to do this, especially me. Why would they think that anyway? All they know is that I was her little sidekick, always following her around and waiting for her every move. I guess the saying people closest to you can hurt you the most was true.

“I’m going to clear my head” I said.

I went to Olivia’s tent and grabbed her flashlight. I ran to the woods and smashed it. That way it’d look like she got lost in the dark. The glass shards hit my leg, but I brushed it off as an accident. I pulled my trouser leg down. Even if someone noticed, nobody would connect the dots. They’d think I was not thinking clearly and didn’t notice the glass.

I walked back over to my tent and had my head down. Blue and red lights were flashing at me. No one calls the police this quickly. Maybe they found her in the vegetation or maybe they just panicked and didn’t know what to do. Either way they can’t link me to her disappearance.

Please note: All articles written by young people are fictional in nature and nothing is to be taken as fact.