It was supposed to be just a small boat ride, one of those theme park jobbies with the plastic animatronic fairytales or what-have-you's. This one wasn't one I'd ever been to before and haven't been able to find again since.
This is going on for about twenty years or so ago, back when my Abbie was only 5. She used to love those boat rides - it was the only part of the theme parks she'd go on without fuss. Anything else was always full of issues for her like "the rollercoaster is too fast/high/slow" or "It'll make me feel sick" but somehow among all these little niggling things the boat rides were just right for her.
It turned out to be our last trip you know. Found this little carnival place near a roundabout on the way up to my parent's house in Inverness. I'd never heard of it before and I can't really remember the name of it now. You'd think with all that happened after and how Abbie... went, I'd remember such simple details like the name of the bloody place but no. That part's blank.
Maybe it's a mercy, not knowing quite where it is anymore. Less chance of me finding it again with Robbie, he's only seven and he's at that age where circus things are so very, very exciting. It's hard to deal with that after everything but he hasn't even been told that he'd had a big sister yet.
How can you tell a seven year old that he had a sister and the thing he loves is what helped kill her when she was barely older than he is now? We'll figure out how to let him know as soon as we can understand how she died in the first place.
It's still an open investigation you know, even though they never found her entire body and the place in question had apparently been "thoroughly investigated". It was all a shambles I say. Our liaison officer kept changing with no prior warning to us and every time they went to "meetings" with the park's manager they'd go off sick for a month or two and come back for maybe a week before retiring altogether!
The local media didn't run the story at all. We'd asked for publicity so we could at least find the rest of our little girl but nothing ever came of it. Last time I'd checked the newspaper company in that area had gone bust and withdrawn completely.
I know it's something about that little theme park but I can't remember it's name or exactly which roundabout it was near. I've gone to the area to hunt for it once a month every month ever since she disappeared.
I remember, we we'd been in the park for a good hour or so. I was so tired from having driven almost eight hours to get there so I closed my eyes for a few minutes. Next thing I know me and Abbie are on one of those boat rides based on local monsters. There were whole swarms of animatronic Puckwudgies that swooped over our heads laughing and looking so very real. There was even a large lagoon area where we saw a Kelpie rise out of the water, streaming red behind it only to turn into a black dog and run away.
I swear it never touched us, never saw it come back to the boat, never saw the black shapes below the water that looked like children caught in water-weeds.
I think I saw them reach out to her with tiny arms caked in mud and painfully thin. She looked so happy, calling them mermaids and reaching right back.
All the police found after a month of searching was her little hand.
Not much to bury and not nearly enough to keep the guilt away.
She was there though, at the end of the ride... but it wasn't quite her. Sure they had the same face but the way they used it wasn't like my Abbie. anyway, she ran off into the crowds before I could stop her and we haven't seen her ever since.
This is going on for about twenty years or so ago, back when my Abbie was only 5. She used to love those boat rides - it was the only part of the theme parks she'd go on without fuss. Anything else was always full of issues for her like "the rollercoaster is too fast/high/slow" or "It'll make me feel sick" but somehow among all these little niggling things the boat rides were just right for her.
It turned out to be our last trip you know. Found this little carnival place near a roundabout on the way up to my parent's house in Inverness. I'd never heard of it before and I can't really remember the name of it now. You'd think with all that happened after and how Abbie... went, I'd remember such simple details like the name of the bloody place but no. That part's blank.
Maybe it's a mercy, not knowing quite where it is anymore. Less chance of me finding it again with Robbie, he's only seven and he's at that age where circus things are so very, very exciting. It's hard to deal with that after everything but he hasn't even been told that he'd had a big sister yet.
How can you tell a seven year old that he had a sister and the thing he loves is what helped kill her when she was barely older than he is now? We'll figure out how to let him know as soon as we can understand how she died in the first place.
It's still an open investigation you know, even though they never found her entire body and the place in question had apparently been "thoroughly investigated". It was all a shambles I say. Our liaison officer kept changing with no prior warning to us and every time they went to "meetings" with the park's manager they'd go off sick for a month or two and come back for maybe a week before retiring altogether!
The local media didn't run the story at all. We'd asked for publicity so we could at least find the rest of our little girl but nothing ever came of it. Last time I'd checked the newspaper company in that area had gone bust and withdrawn completely.
I know it's something about that little theme park but I can't remember it's name or exactly which roundabout it was near. I've gone to the area to hunt for it once a month every month ever since she disappeared.
I remember, we we'd been in the park for a good hour or so. I was so tired from having driven almost eight hours to get there so I closed my eyes for a few minutes. Next thing I know me and Abbie are on one of those boat rides based on local monsters. There were whole swarms of animatronic Puckwudgies that swooped over our heads laughing and looking so very real. There was even a large lagoon area where we saw a Kelpie rise out of the water, streaming red behind it only to turn into a black dog and run away.
I swear it never touched us, never saw it come back to the boat, never saw the black shapes below the water that looked like children caught in water-weeds.
I think I saw them reach out to her with tiny arms caked in mud and painfully thin. She looked so happy, calling them mermaids and reaching right back.
All the police found after a month of searching was her little hand.
Not much to bury and not nearly enough to keep the guilt away.
She was there though, at the end of the ride... but it wasn't quite her. Sure they had the same face but the way they used it wasn't like my Abbie. anyway, she ran off into the crowds before I could stop her and we haven't seen her ever since.
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