Going Home

Tonight was the anniversary of Adelia’s disappearance, and Lorelei’s reckless decision to go to the lake by herself was more out of homage to her friend than rebellion against her father. Standing behind the trees, Lorelei almost didn’t see a small beam of green light coming from the lake. She was thinking about her friend, frowning because she missed her so much. The light grew stronger, and Lorelei squinted to make sure she wasn’t imagining the light. Suddenly, she heard a voice. Faint, at first. Then louder. Someone was calling her name.

"Lorelei."

"Lorelei."

Lorelei stepped from behind the tree, walking toward the water’s edge, mesmerized. When she got close to the light, she heard the voice again, still calling her name. Slowly, a figure began to take shape in the middle of the light. Lorelei’s eyes narrowed, and her heart began to race.

"It couldn’t be," she thought.

"Lorelei."

The voice was clear now, and the shape was apparent.

"Farica?" Lorelei gasped. "Is it you?"

Farica was the last person to disappear from Lorelei’s village. It had been six weeks since Farica had vanished, and everyone in the village was waiting for the news that someone had found her body.

"You’re alive," Lorelei yelled.

"Yes, I’m alive," Farica said as her body danced above the water. "But I need help."

"What can I do?"

"Just reach out and grab my hand and pull me through," Farica said.

Lorelei reached out from her spot on the bank of the lake. She was too far from Farica, so she waded into the water, and when she was knee-deep in the lake, she reached again for Farica’s outstretched hand. When they touched, the light flashed brightly in Lorelei’s eyes, and she fell backward. But instead of falling into the water, she continued to drop backward, plunging deeper into a black hole.

She was the last girl to vanish and then turn up dead. No one knows what happened to Lorelei or why the killings stopped. Some maintained that the Hill People got another one. Others said that Lorelei ran away with a group of nomads, looking for excitement. No one knows for sure - except for Lorelei and me.

The rain poured down over Lorelei’s face. She looked toward the sky and welcomed it as it washed her tears from her eyes. If they knew she had been crying, it would only make it worse. It had been four months since she had been snatched away from her village, and she missed her family very much.

"Were they well? Were they even alive?"

Lorelei pictured her mother and father crying over their missing daughter every night, just as she had cried every night for her parents. Before Lorelei disappeared, her mother had gotten sick. She was old, and Lorelei always helped with the chores. Without Lorelei, maybe the work was too much. Lorelei shuddered and shook her head to clear away the bad thoughts. She walked back inside her hut, and looked around the tiny dwelling. In one corner was her bed. In the other corner were a table and two chairs. A cabinet stretched across the wall opposite the door, and there were four windows on each wall. A washtub sat at the foot of her bed, and a smaller basin with a pitcher sat full of water on the cabinet. It almost reminded her of home, and she had tried to decorate it like her room back with her parents. Memories of her friends and family and her life before that horrible night came crashing back. She remembered her garden. She remembered the beautiful robes she helped her mother make. She wondered what Adelia’s family was doing. She missed her brothers.