Nothing but a small croak escaped parched lips, as a young girl crawled into a dimly lit gas station. A man stepped out from behind the counter, his face stamped with creases like a paper bag, covered by his long black hair that fell over his eyes. He reeked of beer and had stubble across chin all the way up to his ears. “What’re ya doin’ here?” he slurred, raising a green bottle up as if he had just said a toast, and clumsily placed it back onto the edge of the counter.
The girl gave one desperate look at the man, her brown eyes cloudy, and then crumbled to the ground as if she had just ran a marathon. Well, it did look like it. Her entire back was drenched in sweat and dirt, her face was glazed over with the look of exhaust, and her shoes had were torn at the bottom. He slowly walked over, a suspicious expression plastered across his face, sighed like he was use to it, and placed his large hand above her mouth. A small breath greeted it. It looked as if the Grim Reaper had not pulled her into a tight hug yet.
A gold glint caught his eye. He reached for the long chain that slithered around the girls neck, and weakened. Inside a little heart locket connected to the chain was a picture of a young woman, smiling at the camera with her hair tucked behind her ears and shades above her head. He flipped the locket over and read “Love Mummy”. Tears ran down his wrinkled cheeks. It was the same locket he had given his daughter that had wound up on the front cover of the newspaper under the title “Missing”.
