The Girl Who Never Came Back by Amy Cross

exactly the same age that you were when you disappeared!"
    "She hasn't disappeared," Charlotte replied, stunned by the force of Ruth's anger. "She's just... gone... somewhere. It's perfectly normal for a little girl to want to -"
    "How would you know what's normal?" Ruth spit back at her, before turning and picking her way through the long grass that led into the cave.
    "Hold on!" Tony called, hurrying after her. "Ruth, you can't go in there! Sophie hasn't been this way! You're panicking over nothing!" He waited for Ruth to reply, but she was forcing her way forward. "Ruth, seriously," he continued, "you're not thinking straight! Why would Sophie go in there?"
    "I'll go back to the house!" Charlotte shouted after them, figuring that there was nothing more for her to be doing down by the river. "I'll see if she's there, and then I'll go and take a look at some of the fields!" She waited for a reply, but her sister and brother-in-law were still bickering as they disappeared into the shadows of the cave. "Fine!" Charlotte shouted. "You two go stumbling around in the dark, and I'll go and actually do something useful that might help us find your daughter!" She waited for a reply. "Great," she muttered, turning and heading back along the riverbank, "at least we all know where we stand!"
    She made her way slowly back to the house, constantly turning and looking over her shoulder in case there was any sign of Sophie. Trying to ignore the voice of doubt in the pit of her stomach, she kept insisting to herself that Sophie had merely wandered off, and that there was no way history could repeat itself, not in such a specific and cruel fashion. Nevertheless, with every second that passed, she became more and more worried, until finally she reached the house and breathlessly entered the kitchen, only to find her mother passed out at the table with one outstretched hand resting next to the half-empty bottle of sherry.
    "Sophie!" Charlotte shouted, hurrying through to the hallway and calling up the stairs. "Sophie, are you here?"
    Silence.
    "Sophie!" She waited again, but this time she knew there wasn't going to be a reply. That voice in the back of her mind, insisting that something was wrong, was getting louder and louder, drowning out all of Charlotte's other thoughts. She tried to think of all the places Sophie could be, all the places she could have hidden or fallen, until finally she began to contemplate the one possibility that she'd been trying desperately to ignore: the possibility that somehow, Sophie had ended up in the same place where Charlotte had ended up all those years ago. With trembling hands, she fumbled in her pocket for her cigarettes and lighter.
    "This isn't happening," she whispered. "Not again. The world is not this fucking cruel."

Twenty years ago
     
    Having played with Ruth for a few hours, Charlotte had finally managed to slip away. Now she stood alone at the side of the tow-path, facing the cave, and she knew exactly what she had to do.
    And why she had to do it.
    Placing a hand on her belly, where there was still a faint, fluttering pain, she tried to persuade her adventurous half to hold on just a little longer. She felt that there must be a chance she could revive that other voice in her head, if only she could prove to it that there was still some point in sticking around. It was quite obvious to Charlotte that the previous day's events had struck a mortal blow to Ettolrahc, and that her timidity in the face of her mother and sister had made her adventurous side give up on her entirely. Each tear that flowed down Charlotte's face had probably seemed like a dagger to Ettolrahc, cutting her again and again until she was struck down by death itself. There must have been a lot of blood, even if only a few specks had leaked out of Charlotte's body.
    "It's okay," Charlotte whispered, staring at the cave's dark entrance. "I'll show you." It felt silly to talk to herself, but she felt that she had to give some