Several weeks had passed since the strange incident in the Rocky Creek neighborhood.
It was the talk of the town, and several local news stations for a short time, then it was forgotten.
Everyone had essentially agreed on these events:
Three local kids on River street were playing outside.
It was a slightly cool Saturday afternoon, and most kids were doing just that.
They were all in the 9-10 range, two boys, and one girl.
They checked in with their parents around two, went down the street to play, and didn't come back.
Several of the neighbors had reported seeing a FOURTH child walking down the street, though it was difficult to tell the exact gender, they assumed it was a boy.
He appeared to be wearing unusual clothes. 'Like something out of a cartoon' one had said.
None of them recognized the child.
It didn't take long before the parents called the police. And shorter still before they were tracked down to the large abandoned house.
It was a place teenagers would break into for mischief. Graffiti all over the inside of the walls, broken windows, overgrown lawn, bushes, and trees.
But the trail ended right there.
They found evidence of several people entering the side cellar entrance, but no further information could be gathered.
It was later confirmed that one of the boys' younger sister had gone missing as well, assumed in the same manner as the other three.
Three days, the parents worried.
Three days, they waited for the worst.
But the story became stranger after this::
On the third day, the children had emerged.
They were bleeding, tired, the girl dressed up in what appeared to be similar clothes to what the neighbors started calling the 'Pale Boy'.
Quickly, they were rushed to the hospital, and then asked for answers.
The stories were outrageous, about dragons, and freaky monsters, and other universes.
If it weren't for everything matching up so neatly, they would have been called ridiculous.
They were called confused, and many of the adults thought that someone had done something 'strange and sick' to the poor children. So they weren't lying, just under some sort of delusion.
Once enough time had passed that they were healed, they insisted on returning to the building, to 'prove it all'. The girl swore over and over, about the fifth child, still under control of someone they called 'The Master'.
Police assumed this to be a possible kidnapper. Though there was no records of a child by the description to have been missing.
When brought to the site though, no evidence of a 'spiral gate engine' was found.
No blood was found, nor fingerprints, or even weapons that could have caused the visible stab wounds.
Eventually, they were let go, and brought back into school.
They all seemed quieter than before, and teachers had a habit of paying special attention to the three of them.
The girl, as we all know by the name of Alena, had a habit of staring out the window.
She would doodle things on the sides of her paper.
All three of them did actually.
Upon further notice of course, and when the teacher actually paid enough mind,
she realized,
that they were all doodling the same thing.