A little over a week passed with the wind of a sudden cold front. The town did what it always did and did best, carry on with their lives as if there were never a scheme going on in the background. Terry’s Mom cooked, cleaned, and went to work up until seven o’clock every night. Sheriff Johanson drove around in his cop car giving tickets and warnings when needed, and whenever he had the time, he would dig around in one of the areas on the map while no one was looking. Mister Clines woke up with hangovers and would spend the rest of his day drinking and inspecting different areas of the town for more clues. He did this as hastily as his clogged mind allowed, he had less than a week left. He carried the crystal with him, hoping to find where it belonged. Terry continued to go to school on the weekdays. On his walk to and from class, he began to be accompanied by Bella, and they would joke around and run through the greenbelt, or along the bayfront. Michael would trail behind, bitter about his twin sister’s new friend. The days were colder, and not a soul noticed the oddity in a sudden shift of temperature declining to the need for a jacket, despite the fact it wasn’t very common in the southern coastal town of Trident Grove.

  Mister Clines carried what he needed in a small backpack. He wore a grey jacket which, like all the shirts he wore, was oversized for his skeleton frame. His cheeks were red from the cold, and he sat on a trunk surrounded by grayed trees and muttered and spit to himself. He emptied the liquor bottle he brought with him into his stomach

  “Fuck!” he yelled.

  He chucked the bottle against a tree and cursed some more. A little over a week of searching with help from the sheriff had brought no success. Only a depletion and waste of time. He could hear Cadence mocking him with harmonic echoes in his head. He put his hand on his forehead and stared at the ground.

  It was a Tuesday, and it was an early release day for the students. Terry didn’t realize it until halfway through the day when the bell rang, and everybody began to leave.

  He slowly drifted outside after using the restroom and shivered to the breeze. Everybody was running around the schoolyard, saying goodbye, or waiting on their ride home. He spotted Bella by the front gate. They waved to each other, as he walked up to join her.

  Bella and Terry made their way. They got to the road near the cemetery.

  “Hey. We got extra time ‘cause it’s an early release day.” Bella said.

  Terry nodded.

  She continued. “Wanna play a game of hide-and-seek?”

  “Sure. Aren’t we kind of old for that, though?” He answered.

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  She smiled, ignoring his question, and ran off toward the graveyard yelling, “you’re it!”

  Terry muttered in disappointment. Then closed his eyes and began to count. He figured fifty was enough time. When he opened his eyes, Bella was nowhere in sight. He strolled around, peeking around trees and rocks nearby.

  He was about to jump the fence to the graveyard when he noticed the old tree. It was dead, and decaying, but had been that way for as long as he had lived there. There was a large hole in the wide trunk. He walked up to it. There was a sound echoing. A whimper.

  He jumped around the tree and shouted “Gotcha!”

  But, it wasn’t Bella he had heard. Instead, a little girl, much younger than him sat against the tree with her head pressed into her arms. She sniffled and cried as quietly as the breeze through the trees.

  Terry was stunned and he stared for a second. He’d never seen this girl, not in school, or around the town.

  “You okay?” He asked.

  She lifted her head slowly. Her whole face was red, and the area around her eyes was swollen from crying so much. She looked in his direction, but could not see him. Terry could only see gray where her pupils should have been.

  Between sobs, she spoke in his direction. “I’ve lost something. I can’t find it.”

  Terry shook, and something in her voice crackled against his eardrums like the songs from an old record.

  The cold air around him started to feel still.

  He said, “What did you lose? Maybe we can look for it.”

  “It’s a key. It’s been gone for a long time.”

  Terry asked her where she left it last, and she pointed in the direction of the water a mile or two away. He stared in the direction and walked a bit.

  “Hey!”

  Terry jumped.

  He turned around to see Bella. “What’s taking so long? I’ve been hiding for forever.”

  “There’s a little girl crying. She said she lost something.” He explained.

  Bella looked around, confused.

  “Where?” she asked.

  Terry stood up and motioned around the tree. “Here.”

  Bella leaned around the tree. But, there was nobody. Not even an indent of where the girl sat and cried.

  She repeated. “Where?”

  Terry stood with his eyes wide.

  “There was a little girl here a minute ago!” He exclaimed. “She was crying, and looked blind.”

  Bella looked around, then raised an eyebrow at him.

  “I’m sure of it.”

  “I believe you,” Bella said.

  They two looked around. If there was a little girl, she was no longer around. The two continued their walk back home.

  After Terry said goodbye to Bella, he felt a bit of confusion and sorrow for the little girl who bawled her eyes out behind the tree, then disappeared.