“Here.. This way sir.” 

The old man led the inspector toward the car parked near the edge of the forest.

Night had deepened now, filled with distant chirps of birds settling into their nests.
“Since when has the car been here?”
“Umm… I’m not sure exactly. This place is usually quiet and isolated. I only came to call the kids home.”
“Alright. Now send everyone back, except a few of your people.” 

The old man nodded.
“Sir & Ma’am, please don’t contaminate the area. Kindly return to your homes and let us work.” 

The crowd began to retreat, slowly fading back into the shadows, leaving behind only a few elderly villagers.

“Come’on boys…”

The police team pulled on gloves and approached the car. There was a silhouette inside the car.
“Can you hear me? Hello?”
“Sir, I think the person is either unconscious… or worse,” a junior officer whispered.
“We’ll need to break open the door. Where’s the mechanic?”
“Here, sir,” someone called.
“Be careful. Don’t harm the person inside,” the junior inspector instructed.
“Understood. Give me three minutes.”

The mechanic knelt by the door, working quickly but precisely.
“Done,” he said at last.
“Good job,” the senior inspector said, shaking the man’s hand before pulling the door open.

Meanwhile, across the city…

A man rode fast on his bike, his long hair spilling from under his helmet, eyes locked on the road, but his mind wandered somewhere far from this reality.
“Dylan…” A woman sang with a sweet melody through his memory.

“What happened, baby?” A man, Dylan asked, stepping out from the tree house.

“Bring me the lotus…” She said pointing towards the pond.
“Love!” Dylan laughed, hands on his waist.

“Please.” She made a face, she knew no one could deny, especially not the man in front of her.

“You are exploiting me!!!” Dylan said playfully.
“Am I?” Candice asked, feigning innocence., earning a fake glare from Dylan.
Suddenly, a bright light snapped him back to the present, headlights flashing past, his vision temporarily blinded.
Dylan clenched the throttle tighter.
He murmured under his breath,
“Hold on, my Baby Love… Your Dylan is coming.”

On the other side of the city…

Damien has searched out almost the whole city.

He knew something was wrong, the CCTV footage for the moment Candice vanished had been wiped.

How? 

Who is involved? 

Any one in the house? 

Who would dare?

He kept asking himself, sitting on the stairs, with a crinked shirt on, eyes bloodshot red, with a large photo of hers on the wall of their house.

She was laughing, out loud reading a book. 

A kind of laugh he never witnessed directly. 

“Buttercup!! Come back to be.” He whispered vulnerably, a tear rolling down through his cheeks. 

“I would provide you with everything you want.”

“Remeber the degree you wanted to pursue? I will enroll you into the top college for that.“

“You wanted a job? You can work at my company.”

“You wanted to do something for orphans? Today I have already adopted an orphanage”

“Say!! What else do you want?”

“Just come back!! Punish me if you are angry”

He kept speaking madly to her photo, tears continuously rolling down his cheeks.

Something struck in his mind, he ran upstairs, to their room, stumbling.

He rolled the knob, opened the door, a wave of unknownness rushed through him. 

Maybe because of her absence.

“Her diary.”

He opened her wardrobe, letting her dresses wave lightly on his face, sniffing them involuntarily.

He opened every drawer one by one, searching for her diary.

“Where is it? Where is it?” He kept screaming continuously.

 Suddenly got it inside one of her dresses.

“Here you are!!”

He opened the diary, caressing his fingers on her name written on the first page

”CANDICE DALE”

“My Buttercup” He smiled and muttered to himself.

Then flipped the page, trying to find a hint about her whereabouts.

Near the forest,

“Sir!! Sir!! Are you alright” The senior officer shaked the shoulder of the man.

The man inside the car, in the driving seat, was wearing a typical driver uniform.

His head was bleeding, most probably due to the accident.

“Call the medics” One of the juniors shouted as the senior one sprinkled water on the man’s face.

“Wait.. He is opening his eyes…” A voice of some officer sliced through the chaos.

“Sir.. Sir.. You okay?”

“Aa… Aa… Ca…” The man inside the car tried to say something…

“Yes?? Yes sir??”

The man opened his mouth a little more, then his eyes rolled back as he lost consciousness again.

“Hurry up boys.. What are you doing?” The senior official shouted at the medics, funnily he was the one who had stopped them. 

The medics started to take the man out the car, putting him on a stretcher, inside the ambulance.

As the ambulance slowly left the place, the police recorded statements of a few locals and they also left the place.

The chaos slowly settled down.

People closed their windows, which were open due to curiosity.

The night deepened more, letting the city sleep.

Maybe a few hours later, when the Sun started playing peak-a-boo.

A bike nearly crashed into the forest, where the car had crashed, but this time it's not an accident.

This time the man was in a hurry to reach the place.

He somehow balanced his bike, and laid it on the ground. And ran to the place where he was headed to.

Slowly the forest has started showing. 

Birds started chirping, indicating its dawn.

He ran deeper into the forest.

His breathing has started becoming shallow now.

Then he reached the place.

“The Tree House”

“Dylan…” He heard laughter or maybe a melody.

“Dylan noo” The voice laughed again, joyfully.

“You can’t run from me Rabbit.. Hahahaha” He heard his own voice.

Dylan jerked from the memory lane.

“This is not the time Dylan… Candice is maybe in danger” He muttered to himself and started climbing the house, hoping she was there, waiting for him, like always.

He was welcomed with the utensils they once used to cook her favourite dish.

The bed almost untouched, with few scattered leaves here and there, the pillow settled as per her choice of pattern.

The curtains have started yellowing, even though he always changes them to one of her favourite curtains.

“Candice??” He shouted into the house. 

But no one replied.

“Where are you Candice?”

He tried scanning the place, trying to find if she was there or came here.

But to no leads.

He got down and desperately started screaming in the forest.

“Baby!! Are you there?”

“Dylaann!! I am here” Again that voice, this time from the pool.
“Candice!!” Dylan ran to the pool. But in vain.

No one was there.

It was his imagination.

He started scanning the whole area,even after knowing how dangerous this place is at this time.

Tears rolled down his eyes.

In a nearby hospital, the driver was admitted while the police waited outside.

The doctor came outside. 

“Officer!! I am Dr Sameer Sen.” He extended his hand.

“Yes Doctor. I am Inspector Jack. Any update?” The officer answered, shaking his hand.

“Yeah.. He is alright. Not much injured. He will gain consciousness anytime now.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“Duty.. Sir Duty” The doctor started to go with a smile, when a nurse ran from inside.

“Sir.. He woke up.”

“What!!” 

The doctor and the officer exclaimed in unison, running inside.

Inside the man was trying to get up from bed, painfully detaching the saline and other things attached to him

“Sir, lay down sir..” The doctor held him down along with the inspector.

“NOOOO… Leave me!!! I have to find Ma’am.. Sir will kill me.”