Liam stepped forward.
-------------------
One hour.
One hour of calling his name until her throat had turned raw.
One hour of running from ride to ride, past screaming kids and laughing parents, asking strangers if they had seen a little boy with dark hair and serious eyes.
One hour of Cheryl's confused "Mommy, where is Liam?" cutting like grass.
One hour of settling herself with the fact that her son, her Liam was... gone.
Rebecca's hands shook so hard she dropped her phone twice.
She had asked the security. She'd checked the lost and found in hopes that Liam only wandered off and a stranger had kindly kept him there.
She'd even begged a vendor to replay his CCTV footage, but the angle was wrong. But all of it amounted to nothing.
He was gone.
She sank to the ground at the swing set, Cheryl's small hands wrapped around her neck.
"Mommy, why are you crying?" Cheryl whispered. "Liam is just playing hide and seek, right?"
