Emma and the minotaur

into her and resumed his snoring. She walked to the door, almost stumbling once or twice, and entered a quiet, dark house. The radio was still on and it was playing light jazz music.

Mr Wilkins was nowhere to be seen but she found Will sleeping on the couch in the living room. He was leaning on the armrest as though he’d fallen asleep without intending to.

Emma checked her watch and it showed that it was almost six o’clock. She went to her father’s office and saw him sitting in front of his computer, clicking his mouse to refresh the news.

“Dad?” she said, but he didn’t seem to hear. She approached him and touched his shoulder and he trembled slightly, startled.

“Oh, hey,” he said and rubbed his eyes. “Lost track of time.”

“It’s almost six, Dad. Where are Jake and Lucy?”

“What? Aren’t they in the living room? I guess I should get about making dinner. Why don’t you go look for them?”

Emma went through all the rooms in the main floor and even checked the bathroom. She went downstairs into the basement and turned on the lights but there was nothing there but boxes, old furniture, and spiders.

When she came back upstairs she reported that they were nowhere to be found.

“Do you think they went home?” she said.

“I don’t think they would,” he said. “Maybe Will knows what happened.”

Emma put Mr Jingles down on the couch next to where Sprinkles was sleeping and then went to Will. She sat down beside him and shook him gently and whispered his name.

“Oh,” he said. “Hey. I fell asleep.”

“I know you did, silly,” Emma said. “Did you see where Lucy and Jake went? They’re not anywhere here.”

Will sat up straight, suddenly very awake.

“What? Are you sure?”

“I looked everywhere,” Emma said and she became very worried because of his reaction.

“They wouldn’t sneak out, would they?” Will said.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What do you think happened, Will?”

“Jake was talking about going to the forest,” Will said. “I think Lucy probably wanted to also.”

William Wilkins came over to them and sat down heavily with his two children. He looked out the window into the darkening sky for a long while before hugging them both to him.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “But now we’ve lost them too.”

Emma felt like crying. Everything had gone so very wrong. She looked around her dark house and felt as though the shadows were closing in on them and the night was coming for them.

“No,” she said. “They can’t be lost, Dad.” Mr Wilkins held her closer.

“Please no,” she said.

When Lucy and Jake arrived at the Paigely Builders construction site, they followed the sound of chatter until they came upon a throng of people who were gathered around the portable security office there. The crowd was separated roughly into three groups. Off to one side, there was a group of men from the army. At the front of the crowd, there were uniformed police officers. Behind them, arrayed in a loose fashion, there were people dressed in plain clothes.