by Poppy Reid

Created on: May 23, 2010

Nothing much often happened in the quiet village of Little Eastway.  Every two years a small carnival was held, where the local children dressed as sunflowers to celebrate the upcoming of Spring, and that was usually the most exciting thing everyone could look forward to.

The McMullens were a well-respected family that lived in a small cottage on the South side of Little Eastway.  Mr and Mrs McMullen and their four children lived there with their tom cat, which none of the family could agree on a name, so he just ended up being called The Cat.  The four McMullen children were the nicest children you could ever hope to meet, and were friendly and helpful.

Behind the cottage was a large garden - rose bushes and twisted, knarled apple trees grew together, and a family of frogs lived in the small pond that was scattered with lily pads.  In the corner of the garden was a well, where Mrs McMullen often drew clean, fresh water from.

"There are scary monsters at the bottom of the well," the oldest child, Tom, told his brothers and sister, baring his teeth and raising his arms.  "And if you go near the well, one might grab you and eat you!" he roared, and chased his siblings round the garden, pretending to be a monster.

The McMullens led a fairly simple, happy life - that is until the disaster forty years ago when their youngest child, Annie, went missing.

It was a clear, warm day in Summer and Mr McMullen had just been promoted.  He was eager to tell his wife the good news, but as he parked his car in the driveway, he knew something was terribly wrong.  Police cars were parked outside his cottage and he could see Mrs McMullen standing outside the front door, sobbing into a handkerchief.

Mr McMullen ran to his wife and put his arms around her.  "What happened?" he asked the nearest policeman.

"Are you Mr McMullen?" the policeman answered sadly.  "I'm afraid I have some bad news.  Your wife called us about half an hour ago - your daughter has gone missing."
"Annie?" Mr McMullen whispered, as his wife cried harder onto his shoulder.  He felt numb with shock.  Children rarely went missing in Little Eastway.  Annie was only four years old.  Terrible possibilities immediately entered his mind as he felt himself start to shiver with fright.

She had gone missing earlier that afternoon.  All the children said that they hadn't seen her since breakfast.  "We thought she was with you," Tom said

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