Penelope leaned her head against the diner table. She stirred the coffee in her cup idly, having barely taken a sip. Her eyes held dark circles around them, showing her lack of sleep. No matter what happened, her mind kept drifting to her lost daughter.
Detective Winebrenner sitting across from her sighed. "You need to get some proper rest and take care of yourself better. Would your daughter want to see you like this?"
Penelope groaned and lifted her head. She took another sip of her lukewarm coffee. "Did you find anything new?"
The detective shook his head and scratched at his collar. "I am sorry, Mrs. Myers. There were no signs of a break in as the preliminary investigation said, but the blood on the floor..."
Penelope swallowed. "Don't say it. My daughter is not dead."
"Mrs. Myers..."
The mother reached for her satchel and placed a couple of dollars on the table. "This is for the coffee."
Detective Winebrenner sighed again and reached out towards her. "You need to listen to me. We can't pull resources to look for a missing person anymore. The station is going to assume it's a homicide and try to search for the body."
Penelope nodded and gave a slight smile. "There is no problem with that, is there? It means more people to look for my daughter."
She didn't wait for him to answer and left the dining room. The bells chimed above her, and a cool breeze hit her fingertips. Penelope didn't bother to reach inside of her jacket pockets for her gloves. The cool breeze was simply another numbing agent to paint the outside with the same pain she felt inside.
In the morning light, there were hundreds of people walking along the sidewalk and heading towards their jobs. How many of them even knew about Ella? The missing person had reached the newspaper, and pictures of the girl hung up at the supermarket.
Penelope held the satchel close to her body and started walking towards the park. It was a cold spring morning, but at least the trees had started blooming already. The diner was not far from it, so she only needed to cross a block to reach it. She saw people running around the trail and people walking their dogs.
She saw a daughter reaching up to give her mother a hug.
"I did it, mommy!"
"You sure did," the mother said, hugging her daughter tightly.
Penelope fled towards a park bench as tears started to tug at her eyes. She sat down and reached into her pocket but not for her gloves. She found a pack of cigarettes. The woman hadn't smoked ever in her life until recently, yet here she was. She pulled the small white fag from the little red and white box.
She held it between her fingers and pressed it to her lips before striking a lighter in her other hand. Penelope lit the cigarette and took an inhalation of those toxic fumes.
It burned her throat, and made her cough up smoke. Inside of the white cloud, she saw an image. A memory.
There was a large two story house in a suburban neighborhood. Ella was finally starting to get used to her new school. The little girl was finally smiling again and running around their backyard with a plastic wand in her hand.
The little girl wore a cute white, sparkling dress and ran around. Penelope watched from the back porch swing. She was happy that Ella had the energy to play, but she wished the little girl had a friend to play with.
Ella ran towards the back porch, the pink ribbon in her hair fluttering behind her. She leapt up the wooden steps and wrapped her arms around Penelope. "Mommy, I know what I want to be when I grow up."
"What's that?" Penelope asked with a smile.
"I want to be a pink witch."
Penelope played with Ella's hair. "Why do you want to be a witch?"
"Witches are magic users," Ella said, lifting her little wand. "If I cast a spell, I can make all bad things go away."
"Oh? What bad things?"
"Like the mean people at school."
"You want to make them disappear? That's not very nice."
The little girl shook her head. "I want to make them witches, and then we will see who is the strongest witch. In a magic fight, nobody has to go away."
Penelope laughed and petted her daughter's head. "What about mommy? What would you do with me?"
Ella placed a playful, teasing finger on her chin. "Hmm, mommy would be the mommy witch that protects the witch kingdom."
"The witch kingdom?"
"Mhm, it's the place where all the magic people live. They have flying magic houses and dragons as pets."
Penelope's vision cleared, the cigarette smoke cloud blowing away from her. Tears flowed more freely from her eyes and dripped down her cheeks and onto her jacket. Ash fell away from the tip of her cigarette onto the sidewalk below. She looked up to the sky, a lump forming in her chest.
My little Ella, where did you go? Why did you hide from me?
Penelope remembered all of the times she tried to call Ella, but it wasn't enough. She should have been more forceful. She should have made Ella come to live with her, even if it was against what Ella wanted. I should have held onto her and never let go.
Her vision clouded over, and she used the same arm that held the cigarette to wipe away her tears. Penelope remembered what the detectives said on the day they stumbled into Ella's room. There were many cans of energy drink. It was enough to kill anyone, yet Penelope refused to believe that Ella died. She rejected suicide or homicide as a possibility.
She pressed both of her hands together in prayer. If there is a God out there, please let my little girl be safe.
Just as she had that thought, a chime sounded in her head. It was so loud and vivid that she leapt from her bench seat, dropping her cigarette in the same motion. She looked up, and the sky parted into a purple ray of light illuminating Penelope.
[Congratulations! You have been specially selected for travel between worlds by The Forsaken!]