Kelly S -- Blogmeister

There was once a girl named Caroline. Seventeen years old and in her junior year of high school, she was excited for school to end. The end of the year was but four days away, and she was overflowing with energy for the start of summer and for her senior year that was so close in her future. She lived in a small town, where you could walk just about anywhere, and it was here she could be found on this bright, sunny day, four days before the end of school. One of the last days of school had just ended, and she was walking home, keeping to the sidewalks. Caroline lived on the edge of town, so a fair portion of her walk home, she walked alone. As she walked, sometimes dancing down the sidewalk, she didn’t realize, never being one to pay close attention to her surroundings, that a small car was following her slowly down the street. She still hadn’t realized this, when all of a sudden it stopped, the car still running, and a man stepped out.

He ran up behind her and tackled her, pulling her to the ground and covering her mouth. Caroline was stunned, stricken with panic, frozen with fear. She could do nothing, paralyzed with shock as she was. Then her instincts kicked in and she started to kick and squirm, dropping her bag and attempting to yell. The man had clamped her mouth pretty tight however, and she made no more noise than a muffled grunt. He dragged her into his car, forced a wad of cloth into her mouth, and slammed her onto the floor in the back of his car. He threw a large blanket over her body, hiding her. The man then proceeded to drive on calmly; a fairly short time did he drive. Caroline could tell that he wasn’t taking her much farther than the town limits. She wondered what he would do with her; if she would live to see anyone else again. He then stopped the car, got out, opened the backseat door, and yanked her out of the vehicle, still keeping her head covered. She felt a sharp pain to the back of her head, and then everything went black.

Caroline was missing for days. Search parties were sent out; friends were questioned, attempts were made to seek out witnesses, everything possible was done to at least find out what had happened to her, but no one knew. Time went on, years passed, and Caroline became old news, just another faceless kid on the long list of missing children in the country. She became nothing more than a statistic, remembered most only by her parents and other family.

No one knew, that just outside of that small town, a short walk into a small area of woods, a hole had been dug, and in it, laid the body of Caroline, seventeen years old forever. Although she was presumed dead, her body was never found, even though her remains deteriorated not even a mile from her town.

Missing children are a serious issue. Everything possible should be done to find them. Should you ever see a poster, news article, or any such thing alerting the public to a disappeared child, give it more than a passing thought of pity. What if that child was you?