Chapter Two

       Where are you Dayna? That was the question on everybody’s lips the first two days of the search. The villages’ two police cars took turns patrolling “Main Street” – which is really the only street in Kirkleithen. A long, potholed road that spans four miles along the coast, a church at one end, the school at the other – with small stone cottages, a convenience store, the pharmacy and a pub dotted along it. The dusty, gravel roads that spiral off from Main Street like veins, lead only to farms and of course, The Breakwater Hotel.

The first day I helped with the search along the beach, checking rock pools and the long,swaying grass in the sand dunes. I had half expected to find a strung out Dayna sleeping off the night before, but the search turned up nothing. The second day, Jeannie Laird, the old dear who runs the convenience store, set up a search centre in the school gymnasium. There was tea, sandwiches, a map of planned searches and Dayna’s face plastered all over the wall. Of course, it wasn’t hard to get a hold of selfies to aid in the search of Dayna. Taking vain, posed pictures and plastering them online was her job, after all. As I stood staring at one such picture on the wall, on the second day of the search, I realised the question on everyone lips had changed. It was now “Are you alive Dayna?”

I knew from all of my hours watching crime documentaries and obsessing over True Crime podcasts that the first forty-eight hours were vitalin a missing person’s case. The forty-eight hours were almost up, and there was no sign of Dayna anywhere. I averted my gaze from the picture to Audrey Andrews’, the local police Sergeant and my mum’s best friend. She had puce,wrinkled shadows under her eyes and her blonde hair sat in a dishevelled ponytail.

She cleared her throat to gain the attention of the room. “I know we all have growing concernfor Dayna, but we have to stay hopeful that she is ok. We are going to splitinto two groups today – I want one group taking the East road up to Lindon’s Farm and through the fields. The rest of us through the woods up to the lighthouse.”

A calm voice whispered in my ear. “Shall we take the forest route?”

I spun around to face Sean, my boyfriend. He shot me asympathetic smile through his deep, brown eyes. A local farmer’s boy, Sean always had a faint whiff of hay and grass about him.

       I nodded, “It’s as good a guess as any.”

We followed the group that were heading for the forest, armed with torches and whistles. The abnormal heatwave seemed to have dissipated, as a light rain fell at our shoulders.

Sean scratches the back of his head nervously, “Guess that’s our Summer over already. Typical Scottish weather – four days of sun and then it’s gone.”

        I frowned.“You sound like my Granda.”

“I’m only trying to keep your mind off… things.”

“Well, thanks. But it isn’t going to work. We just need to find her.”

He nodded, “You’re right. I’m sure she’s out there somewhere, relishing in all this attention.”

“Sean! Don’t speak about her like that!”

“Come on, you can’t tell me the thought hasn’t crossed your mind too?”

I stared down at my feet, watching my wellies sink into the forest floor and shrugged. “Of course not.”

Sean sighed and began walking again, and I quickly followed. The sounds of the search party calling out Dayna’s name echoed around us. I knew it was a waste of time, though. She would never choose to be in the woods; they freaked her out. Whenever we had sleepovers, she would refuse to sleep in my bedroom that overlooked the dense mass of trees, opting to sleep in the living room that looked out across the sea instead. She said the sea view made her feel free and light, whereas the dark forest made her feel claustrophobic. Right now, as the ceiling of branches and thick leaves towered over us, I had to agree. Not even the torches did much to open up the area, as a dense fog was forming; reflecting the light back to us.

We had been searching for well over an hour when Sean stopped suddenly and grabbed my arm.“Hang back a sec.”

I stopped and let some of the locals go past. “Why?”

He lowered his voice to a gravelled whisper, “I was just thinking… have you told the police about the argument with Patrick and Hannah?”

I shook my head and frowned, “She’ll kill me if I say something Sean!”

“Not if they’ve already killed her!”

I flinched at his words. I was no idiot; I knew the most common outcome of situations like these. Hell, I spent my spare time recordinga poxy podcast discussing cases just like this to my tens of listeners. However, hearing Sean saying the words aloud felt like a horse had kicked me in the gut. I turned away, my vision growing blurry with tears and I stumbled over a rock. As I fell face first into the mud, a strange dreamlike vision flashed through my head. It was the other night near the hotel; someone had pushed me, which was how mum’s blouse had gotten so dirty.

“Are you alright?” Sean gasped, stretching a hand out to help me up.

I pushed it away, pulled myself up and fell back onto my haunches before letting out a sob. Sean knelt down beside me and placed w around my shoulder.

“We have to find her Sean,” I wailed, “We need to.”

“Shh It’s OK, I know. Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s ok.” His tone was not convincing, “But I really think you need to tell the police about the affair she was having with Patrick.”

I snorted. “Affair? Don’t be so dramatic.”

I stood up and wiped a mixture of tears, snot and muck onto the sleeve of my hoody. “You are right though. I’ll tell Mrs Andrews once this search is done, but you don’t really think Patrick or Hannah could have hurther… do you?”

He averted his gaze away from me, shifting on the spot. “They were pretty pissed off. Hannah really looked like she wanted to hurt her.”

“But they left. We would have seen them come back, we…”

        “There’s no use speculating. Come on, let’s catch up to the others.”

We carried on following the search party, the rain growing heavier. We were almost through the woods and at the lighthouse when I stumbledupon something horrifying…

Someone had spotted a cave amongst the trees. It was almostcompletely hidden behind drooping branches and a build-up of moss. Sean and I volunteered to check it out, trudging through the soggy undergrowth towards it. The smell of pine needles tickled my nose as we approached and I let out a sneeze that echoed through the caves entrance.

Sean shone his torch into the cave, “It’s tiny. Nothing to see here.”

I peered in. The cave was devoid of any signs of human life, save for some faded graffiti on the walls and the charred remains of an old Campfire.

“Spooky,” My voice echoed off the walls, “I can’t believe I’ve never seen this place before.”

       Sean shrugged,“It’s a big forest. Let’s go, this is giving me the creeps.”

I laughed, giving him a light-hearted push into the cave. “Ooh ya scared?”

“Blair, quit it!”

I laughed again, outstretching my arms like a zombie and pretended to chase him. As he hopped out of the way to avoid me, he stumbled over the old remains of the fire and kicked something out from it. The object shot across the ground towards me. I shone my torch down and the cave filled with the piercing sound of my screams, as a human skull stared up at me.