Having cropped, chestnut-colored hair and a slim, athletic body often made people think that she was a boy. On top of that, she usually wore jeans, an ancient hooded t-shirt, and a scowl on her face. Playing with her rings aimlessly she sat in a taxi and arrived in the most quiet, abandoned, and moderately guarded area of the town, the Town Fair. Most of the children who were abducted had last been sighted at the Town Fair. The night was still and humid, the moon shown on the embankment and the wind whistled over the softly rippling waters.
Wearing a sinister mask she sneaked her way into the Town Fair. Halsey reached the Ferris wheel and started feeling the rim of its metal base until her fingers rounded on a cold knob. She tugged it open to reveal irregular stone stairs; feeling relieved that the police did not think to search this area properly. Opening the door, she sidled downwards and reached a room. Looking at the pale faced children, she gave herself a creepy smile. Their starved faces were riddled with fear, holding their breath as she smiled at them.
Leaving all of them to die, she sidled back upwards and locked the door. Bidding them farewell, she closed the door and started sneaking her way out. A security guard, bored and exhausted, was keeping a watch on everything at the fair. He heard a click somewhere near the ferris wheel. He caught someone wearing a sinister mask trying to run away. Halsey ran at a speed of a mile, a minute. She ran so fast that her shoes came off and got into the hands of the security guard. She dropped her mask too and afraid of revealing her identity, ran straight into the bushes with her hood up. The security guard caught the footprints with U.V light, put the shoe in an evidence bag and sent it to the lab for inspection.
It had been a month since the first incident of the missing child occurred. The cases marked a reduction in the number only to leave scarcely any children in the town. Once the results of the test from the lab came in, they were matched with the ones on the cycle which was handed in, and indeed they were Halseys! Her cover was blown. Where she had plans of exchanging continents and being a free bird, the law had plans of trapping her in a cage for the rest of her life. When the inspector of the case contacted her parents, they were asked to come to visit her mother, Amanda. As soon as Halsey found out her picture was being put up in each and every store, garden, newspaper, and being circulated around, she was distraught. She immediately made plans of leaving the country as soon as possible as once she crossed that border, not even a mosquito could ruin her plans. She decided to change her look completely which is why she wore a black trench coat, black pants and boots. She piled up her hair and wore a wide-brimmed ebony hat.
***
Visiting Halsey’s mother, the inspector was asking her questions about Halsey.
“So what was she like, Halsey ?” asked the inspector.
“Well, she was a beautiful girl. Loved playing with dollhouses and was kind to everyone.” said her mother, brightening her face as she said it.
“Why did she move to Lockwood ?” asked the inspector.
“I’m sorry but I do not know what you’re talking about. Halsey has been dead for a very long time.” Having a startling expression on his face, the inspector got a wee bit of a shock.
He said, “I’m sorry I don't quite understand what you are saying, could you be a little more elaborate ?”
“Halsey was best friends with her friend named Estele. They used to always hang out together. Estele never liked Halsey, Estele had a paranoid personality disorder. It is a mental health condition marked by a long-term pattern of distrust and suspicion of others without adequate reason to be suspicious. She always thought that Halsey was plotting against her and which is why, one day before her wedding she had a huge fight with Halsey and pushed her off the roof, resulting in Halsey’s death.”
The inspector broke into a sweat, removing his handkerchief, he wiped his face. Lifting a cup of water, he drank nervously. “Later on, Estele got plastic surgery done to the face of my Halsey. She was gone long before anything could be done.” getting all teary-eyed, Halsey’s mother left the room to catch fresh air.
***
The next day, all social media platforms, newspapers, electronics, fax machines. Everything had a picture of Halsey. There was no escaping it. After booking her flight to a destination far away from Lockwood, Estele packed her bags in haste, made a fake passport and changed her name to the original Estele. She walked down the road with her suitcase, finding a taxi. She wore her long black trench coat, so black that it completely melted into the night. It gave people the feeling that there was a face floating disembodied in the darkness. They couldn’t make out if it was a boy or a girl as Estele wore a wide-brimmed ebony hat. She reached the airport and was in the queue for loading her suitcase onto the plane. All modes of transportation were sealed. Estele felt apprehensive. She boarded the plane to France. As she sat in her seat, comfortably hundreds of children lay underground a Ferris wheel, waiting to be found.
The plane took off. She got to France and was happily let off the plane with a pair of handcuffs in her hand and a flight marshal who sat right beside her. She was then escorted to the worst prison in France, La Santé Prison to enjoy a lifetime's worth of confinement.
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