Elliot Carson was six years old when Marrowell stopped breathing.

He wasn't the kind of boy people expected to vanish. He liked banana milk, lined up his toys by color, and never crossed the street without looking both ways. He was quiet, but not shy - just the sort of quiet that made adults say, "He sees more than he says."

That Tuesday started like any other. Sunlight spilled across Main Street like warm honey. Elliot's mother, Mara, kissed his head three times before letting him skip down the sidewalk toward the corner store. He had a dollar in his pocket and a mission to buy sour tape.

He never made it.

Surveillance footage showed him leaving the store at 3:16 p.m., candy in hand. A man outside tipped his hat as Elliot passed. The footage blinked - just one skipped frame - and he was gone. No one saw him cross the street. No one saw him walk away.

Mara Carson called the police at 3:43 p.m., her voice barely holding together.

By sunset, search parties swarmed the town. They checked roofs, drains, locked doors. People shouted his name until it hurt. But it wasn't like losing someone - it was like he'd been lifted out of the world without leaving a mark.

Marrowell changed that night.

The bakery didn't turn on its neon "Open" sign anymore. School bells rang off-beat. And every clock in town - digital, analog, even the rusted one in the courthouse - froze at 3:17 p.m. exactly one minute after Elliot was last seen.

Then came the letters.

Folded slips of paper found in strange places: coat pockets, glove compartments, between the pages of books. Always written in a child's hand. Always unsigned.

"I can hear her crying."

"Tell her I'm okay."

"The light is different here."

Some were stained with what looked like juice. Others smelled faintly of chalk and dust.

Mara received her letter two weeks later, tucked beneath Elliot's pillow, which she hadn't touched since he vanished.

"I didn't mean to go."

"I thought it was a game."

"I love you."

That was when she stopped eating. Talking. Sleeping.

But she never stopped waiting.

And then - on a quiet Thursday - she heard the door.

Not a knock. Not the creak of hinges.

Just the gentle click of a brass handle turning somewhere inside her house.

She stood in the hallway, every light off, her breath caught in her chest. Slowly, she walked toward Elliot's room, her hand shaking as she reached for the doorknob.

Behind it, silence.

And then, from the other side, a whisper. Small. Familiar.

"Mom?"

-TO BE CONTINUED-