Far Far Away

Once upon a time there lived a tiny green imp who absolutely loved children. He loved children so much, in fact, he would capture them and bring them to his lair. But he wouldn't harm the children, oh heaven's no. They were his companions, his friends, his playthings to do with what he wished. To obey his rules, call him king, and keep him company for ever and ever. The kids that went missing were never seen or heard from again. That was until one day, when the foolish imp kidnapped the wrong one.

Marcus was a small-town kid with big time dreams. He wanted more than anything to be a superstar - Oscar-winning actor, professional ballplayer it didn't matter. Anything to escape his humdrum life as the son of chicken farmer.

Marcus’ younger sister Maddie was another story. Maddie was a daddy's girl through and through. She enjoyed helping her father run the farm and hoped daddy would leave it to her one day. The two siblings couldn't be more different. They often argued and bumped heads. In fact, it wasn’t until Maddie went missing, that Marcus even realized how much he loved his baby sister.

The day started off like any other. Marcus woke at 5 to feed the chickens, gather the eggs, and clean the coop. After cooking breakfast, Marcus went to find Maddie but to his dismay she wasn't in her room. Marcus searched all over the house, out in the backyard and even in the barn, but there was no sign of Maddie.

With great reluctance, Marcus woke his father and alerted to him to Maddie’s disappearance. As his dad pulled the covers back, the smell of alcohol was pungent.

“That's not like her.” Was all his dad said.

“Should we call the police?” Marcus asked.

His dad simply shook his head. “She's gotta be around here somewhere. Just keep looking.” With that, he rolled over and resumed his coma of intoxication.

Marcus called around some neighbors houses and asked Maddie’s friends about her whereabouts but no one had seen her since yesterday.

When Marcus goes back into Maddie’s room, something seemed off. Near the window, some of her school books had been shifted around. Upon further inspection, he sees the outline of a footprint on the window seal. Nothing appeared to be missing, no clothes or shoes, and the print looked too big to be Maddie’s. Her room was on the second floor, so climbing out the window seemed unlikely. Marcus also noticed an odd-looking gold dust sprinkled on the floor.

“Guess she must have flown.” Marcus joked.

Against his father's advisement, Marcus called the authorities. Unfortunately, the police proved to be no help whatsoever. Marcus and his dad were required to fill out a missing person’s report and child protective services came out to investigate. It was determined that Maddie must have run away and the police promised to call if they heard anything.

Marcus knew his sister wouldn't have run away. She was out there somewhere waiting for him to find her. And no matter what, Marcus was going to bring her back home.

Marcus waited for his dad to pass out drunk that evening before collecting a sample of the gold dust and snapping a picture of the footprint. He knew there was one person in town he could trust, the master of all things abnormal and unexplained, his best friend, Sam.

While Marcus was the son of the town-drunk, Sam was the son of the local nut job. When his dad was a boy, he claimed to have witnessed a short man in green kidnap his friend and tried to stop him but couldn't. The police never found any evidence to back up his story so the town labeled him insane. Everyone assumed his friend just ran away

“It's definitely him.” Sam insisted after examining the gold dust. “He took your sister. I'm sorry.”

Marcus paused for a moment. Then he headed toward the door.

“Where you going, Marcus?”

“I'm going to get my sister back.”

To be continued...