Emma and the minotaur

Phillip only nodded as he listened to what the Chief of Police was saying.

“Yeah,” Phillip said into the phone. “I guess you’d know about all the reports. Anyway, we’re meeting now. It looks like your plan is our only option.”

11:00 AM. Emma was sitting on the grass in her backyard with Mr Jingles, trying to talk to him. She was still too slow but over the past week she had managed to get her time down to a couple of minutes.

“It’s no good anyway,” she said to the jackalope, and that was as much as she could say in one go. It was much better than in the beginning when she had only been able to say one word.

“Don’t be sad, Miss Emma,” said Jingles. “There is hope.”

Emma was about to meditate again so she could respond but Will called her from the house.

“Emma! Dad says to come see this!” he said and ran back inside. Emma and the jackalope followed.

They went into her father’s office where he was watching something on his computer.

“Come look,” he said and moved aside to let them see. There was a video on the screen from the local news. Mr Wilkins clicked a button and the video filled the screen.

“For this reason I called an emergency meeting this morning,” the man on the screen was saying. Underneath him a caption identified him as Mayor Phillip Matthews. Emma had never seen him before. Beneath his name, written in big letters, were the words: “State of Emergency.”

“Last night,” the mayor went on, “the City of Saint Martin suffered an unexplained and horrible tragedy. Emergency lines were overloaded and this has continued throughout the day.

We ask that you refrain from calling about missing persons. Instructions about what to do will be given shortly.

“There have been reports of strange occurrences and disappearances everywhere throughout the city. There are, early counts show, hundreds of residents missing. The nexus of this activity appears to be Glenridge Forest.

“It is due to these conditions that I am now declaring a State of Emergency. Citizens are advised to stay home. Schools and public areas will be closed while we deal with this crisis.

“Please do not panic. You will be safe as long as you remain indoors. As we speak, there is a plan being put into motion to find the missing persons and to get to the bottom of this.”

The mayor went on to instruct those who knew of anyone missing to fill out a form at a page on the city’s website that had been set up specifically for this emergency.

When he was finished, he introduced the Chief of Police Doug Peterson. He moved off the screen as the new speaker took his place.

“What can they do?” Will said.

As if in response, Doug Peterson outlined a plan for a search of Glenridge Forest.

“We have put together a massive search party comprised of police, firefighters, army, and civilians. They are all armed and they are gathering at the Paigely construction site as we speak.”

“What do you think will happen, Dad?” Emma said.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We are close to the end, it seems. Emma, call Lucy and Jake then we’ll get in the car and pick them up. His mother too. We’ll be safer together. At least here we’ll have Domino to help us, if he will.”

“Won’t he help?” Emma said.

“I don’t know,” Mr Wilkins said. “He might have his own troubles. Soon we all will. Maybe we’ll have to leave town, though that would only delay the inevitable. Still, it would buy us