Rosalie Thompson.
A beautiful and smart six year old little girl.
It was just her and her mother Candice.
She lived on the edge of the National Forest out in Sarclia Arkansas.
As she stood out in the yard, the grass tickling her toes, she stared up at the sky where the fireflies danced around her, making her smile and laugh.
The moon was full and the stars twinkled down at her.
Life couldn't be any better.
Candice smiles as she watches her daughter from behind the lens of her camera. She'd never once regretted her choice to be inseminated and going through life as a single mom. She found it to be a gift.
One of her biggest dreams.
She could stay home and work on her art and make memories with her daughter.
A perfect match.
She snaps a few more photos before setting the camera down. Rosalie cackles and rushes over to her mom, grabbing her hand and bringing her towards the light show.
Candice heads back over to the table, grabbing the bottle of water and handing it, cap off, to her daughter. She jumps when suddenly her glass full of juice falls to the ground. She looks down to where it now lay, scattered in shards, a mess. Their happy 3 year old gray cat named Luna meows up at her human, as an apology or a cry for food, Candice wasn't sure.
It wasn't long until the woods sang a different tune.
A song that didn't sound threatening.
It was soothing.
A wolf in sheep's clothing.
Everyone that lived around here knew that if you heard the sound of chimes, you stayed the hell out of the woods.
All those missing people..
The police had searched the forest over a hundred times in the past few years. There was never any evidence left behind and the people were never found. It became so common that the townspeople became unfazed when they'd turn on the news or hear word about someone new vanishing.
Eventually through the disappearances, the townspeople were able to add two and two together, realizing that people only vanished from the forest if the chimes were playing.
Everything that happened next occurred in mere moments.
Rosalie's sparkly blue eyes scan the trees as she listens to the sound carrying through the sky.
It had been ingrained in her since she was young that if she ever heard the sound she was to head indoors immediately and tell her mom.
It was the rule that Candice enforced the most.
Stay away from the chimes.
Simple, right?
But as the twinkling filled the air a little louder and the trees began to dance, Rosalie was drawn to the forest. She couldn't help it.
It was beautiful.
Unlike any other music she'd ever heard.
Candice, hearing the chimes, jerks her head up to where her daughter was just standing.
She's not there.
Candice's breath catches in her chest and her heart begins to race as she begins to panic. Doing her best to keep herself together, she looks around furiously for her child but Rosalie has somehow managed to completely disappear out of view.
Candice sprints over as fast as she can, pleading out into the unknown that Rosalie was okay...that perhaps she hadn't gone far.
Maybe she was just a few feet away...
The chimes are deafening now.
Candice can barely put her own thoughts together.
In full panic mode, she sprints out into the woods, phone in hand, shining the light out into the darkness, screaming for her child. She stumbles over rocks and shrubs, branches whipping her in the face as she struggles to find Rosalie. Candice would call the police while she continued to search and wouldn't exit the woods until more officers arrived.
She wanted to power through but began to suffer symptoms of a panic attack and was struggling to breathe.
Search and rescue would canvas all night and into the morning.
There was no trace of Rosalie.
The next few days were a nightmarish haze.
Moments of despair.
Screaming out into the woods for her baby girl.
For days it was silent.
The chimes began the night that the police took a step back from searching. They'd used search dogs, helicopters, and so on.
Still nothing.
Dozens of people showed everyday to help the heartbroken mother.
They would do their best to look in the deep woods or console her.
Each day would end the same.
Candice was struggling to hold onto hope as the days passed.
She searched as best she could every day, keeping clear when the chimes began to sound off. Each morning and night she would stare out into the woods from her porch, hoping her baby would return to her.
The chimes were always random and Candice grew frustrated, worried that she couldn't get deep enough into the forest before the chimes began. She had to have time to get out before whatever was in the woods took her too. Nobody ever saw what mysterious creature was lurking in the dark.
There was no evidence it ever existed.
Candice was Rosalie's only hope.
It had been two days.
Time was running out.
The blood in her body went cold once the realization hit.
She needed to go in when the chimes go off.
What if it led her to Rosalie?
What if it didn't?
She just had to take that chance.
As the sun finally sets, almost as if on cue, the dings and clings begin again.
Candice tenses and takes a deep breath.
Quickly making sure to grab her flashlight, some crackers and her handgun as well as a large water bottle.
Rosalie would need to hydrate.
She walks into the woods, immediately swallowed by darkness.
It wouldn't be until the following morning that Candice's best friend Janet would come to the door to return a baking dish she'd borrowed to cook her son's brownies in. She'd been asked to come to the house in the morning if Candice didn't contact her by 8 AM.
The house was empty.
Nobody was there.
Janet's heart sank more as she went from room to room. Normally Luna would run up to her and brush up against her legs in greeting.
Instead there was nothing.
The hours would turn into days.
Days turned into weeks and there would be no sign of Luna, Rosalie or Candice.
There never would be.