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It was an eerie sight. There were newspaper pages thrown all over the floor, a hat was being carried by the wind. There was no sound other than our footsteps and the growing wind. We walked along the square looking for an open door or some shelter from the beating wind. We walked close together around the square’s buildings.

There was nothing, not a soul.

“I thought you saw people walk in here?” John asked.

“I did.” Mark was looking around searching for the masses of people he had seen walk to the center of the square.

He went ahead, looking, searching, and we followed. We reached the center of the square and sat on a bench outside the park’s gazebo largest gazebo. We sat there, none of us dare speak. We had gone through all of town, there was nothing here. It was somewhere around noon and the sun was scorching hot. Mark, who had given up sitting in the sun had gotten up and walked inside the gazebo.

“Hey Mark,” Tasha called out after a while, “Is it colder in there?”

There was no response.

“Mark?” She called out again.

John and I exchanged looks as we sat up and went to check inside the gazebo. He wasn’t there. He was gone. He’d left us. We looked around, no one; Tasha was looking at us with panicked eyes. I didn’t know what to say.

“Where do you think he went?” I asked after a few moments of silence.

“I don’t know,” John replied, “Let’s look around.”

I stared at him, nodded and then grabbed Tasha’s hand and started walking. We rounded the park, searching every corner and screaming his name every few steps. He was nowhere to be seen. We went back to the gazebo, hoping he’d been there waiting. Nope. It was as empty as everything else. The sun was burning on our backs and Tasha, who’d been complaining of the heat headed to the gazebo for some shadow. I gasped.

“What?” John asked pretty upset.

“I-She-uh” I couldn’t make out complete words. I was so surprised.

“What?” he asked again.

“She disappeared” I said breathless.

I pointed towards the gazebo, my other hand covering my sobs. I was just so surprised. He looked at me skeptically.

“What do you mean?” he asked, this time actually curious.

“I was watching Tasha go into the gazebo and- and she just disappeared. She’s gone!” I said my voice down to a high pitch.

He held me by my shoulders and shook me. I looked at him in surprise, my mouth hanging wide open. He smoothed my hair and hugged me tight; I guess he was as scared as I was. When he let go we looked into each other’s eyes and held hands.

“We have to go in,” he said.

I nodded. He led the way both of us as silent as the town around us. We breathed in deep with every step squeezing our hands tighter as we neared the gazebo. As we reached it we felt a strange pull towards it. Like a gust of wind was pushing us in. We held our hands tighter after a quick glance at each other and kept walking. The gust of wind felt stronger but when I looked around, not one leave was moving. This was unsettling me yet we had to keep going, we had to find Tasha, we had to find our families, our friends, anyone. We walked on, into the gazebo, the first step, it blew us of our feet and John held on me tight as the darkness seeped in.

Fin.