The Vervalst

Chapter 1

"Hey, Leah, can you grab a paper. We can browse the funny pages this afternoon after we pick up the yard".

"Sure thing, Dad!"

I go to grab the paper and there she is again. It is so weird seeing her like this, full of life, but there she is. The girl Bennie and I found down the lane by our field, the headline reads:

MISSING GIRL FOUND:The Unfortunate Discovery of Sara Newton.

"Pft, unfortunate is an under statement!" 

"What's that Leah?"

"Nothing Dad, they just ran a story over the girl we found out by the field"

"Really?" says Bennie while grabbing the paper, "Sara Newton, hmmm, it's so much sadder when she has a name. She looks so pretty here, are you sure it is the same girl?"

"Who knows, we aren't detectives, I just hope they have finally had the body removed! It is so unnerving to see a body from our porch." 

"Kids, come on, we are burning daylight! We still have chores to get done".

"Yay... Chores. Bennie, come on." 

*****

On the ride home I noticed that the girls body is still there. It has been a week now since we found her and reported it to the police. Men in uniforms have come and gone off and on but they just leave exactly as they come, empty handed. I just don't understand it. Driving by, you can tell that her body is in pristine condition, it's as if she is merely sleeping. I would assume a person who has died would look gruesome and gross but she just looks like she fell asleep. 

Our truck finally pulled up to the house and Dad kills the switch. 

"Alright kiddos, lets haul the groceries in and then I'll bring the mower up from the barn"

"Okay," says Bennie and I in unison. 

"So, Leah... Wanna go check out the body?", Bennie says to me as we carry the groceries inside. 

"Oh my gosh, Bennie! That is so rude!"

"What? I'm curious! I thought bodies decomposed faster!"

"Bennie..." I groan,  "that is so wrong!"

"I'm going!" Bennie exclaims as he hurries for the door with me following behind. 

"Oh jeeze.." I mutter as I plop down on to the porch swing and watch him scamper off. "Oh, to have the morbid curiosity of a ten year old". 

"Just don't mess with anything!" I yell after him.

I wonder what she was like, I think to myself. How long has she been missing? I thumb through the newspaper to find the rest of the article. 

Thirteen year-old Sara Newton, went missing on her walk home from school in 2006. A local family discovered her body mysteriously on their farm and reported it to the police. An on going investigation is underway to discover just what exactly happened to Sara Newton. 

She has been missing since 2006! That is ten years, but that would mean she was supposed to be 23 when we found her. There is no way she is 23 years-old. How is that even possible, how could that even be her!