Volume I Arc 1: The Past (Prologue)

"Why can't you just stay, dad?" Deep within these woods stood a little girl and her father looking for a place to rest. They were currently lost, met with the quick misfortune of having the map flew away from their hands because of yesterday's windy storm. But now that the blasted storm had passed, the father and daughter pair had the chance to move out in search of hopes to finding the remains of the said map.

"Dad, what are you doing?" The girl asked her father, trying to find out what exactly was he doing by grabbing the bark of the tree just to kick off of it in a repeating manner.

"Climbing a tree." The man huffed, repeating the same actions as he did earlier. This time, he continued grabbing upon several branches that he could easily reach once he kicked off from the ground. The indifference to his daughter's calls of warning him for safety easily fell deaf on his ears as he inched himself away from the bottom of the tree trunk.

The little girl then thought that her father would most likely be unresponsive for a while, so she gave up on warning him once again and carried their light bag of supplies near one of the tree's root with no questions asked. They were stuck in this blasted forest for two days. Something that wasn't planned at all when her father invited her to sneak out in the middle of the night of the remote village's festival- well, it wasn't a festival they say but more of a traditional event.

The girl didn't really understand why they suddenly left the city to visit a remote village from another country, but it's not like her parents would tell her what was really going on.

After a few moments of pondering, the little girl couldn't hear the creaking of branches above her anymore. Her father had probably stopped climbing now, thus, she tried to look for him by directing her eyes above. A large gust of wind then blew from the north, delivering dust in her eyes for a slight moment. The little girl had quickly rubbed them down clean as fast as she could but her father had already disappeared once she opened an eye to search for him once more.

"Dad?" She voiced out, rubbing her eyes clear to see if what she saw was true. There was no creaking, rustling, or heaving of bated breaths from an exhausted but energetic young man. The girl had gone up and circled the tree to see if there were holes that were large enough to fit a human, yet there were none.

"Dad?!" There was no traces, no sounds, no nothing at all. Her father was not there. He's done this once before, and now he's done it again.

"What…" The girl had reached another one of those harrowing puzzles that her father had always unintentionally given her every time she follows him secretly out of the house. It was something that she had just recently taken a habit on whenever her father was tasked to work the night.

"You'll be back soon, right?"

"I promise it won't take long."

"Alright, take care hon. Vanessa and I would be always here waiting for you."

"I know. I love you."

"Love you too." The familiar locking of the house gate rung and the heavy footsteps disappeared soon after. She peeked from a corner that she was currently hiding on and saw that her father was walking the other way that she came from. It left her pondering why he was always needed in the middle of the night but concerning that he worked as a detective for the police, it wasn't really much to think about any longer.

Carefully, she walked about fifteen steps away from her unsuspecting father and secretly followed him out of boredom in her own mind. It was all just walking, turning, and stopping to look at his surroundings before going back to doing those things all over again. It was strange. Weird even. But she didn't question anything and assumed that it was a habit formed on his day to day job at the station.

Just then, a cold harsh wind blew from their direction and momentarily blinded her eyes with dust. It hurt, and she momentarily stopped to wipe her eyes on the small pathway before opening them again.

"Dad?"

It was then and there, that she found her father's first disappearing mystery in the month of September. Something that had coincided with several other disappearances like today.

"Van!"

"Mom!" The girl was then hugged by a woman she called her mother as the villagers behind them went to surround the tree carrying makeshift shovels and flashlights with them.

"Where's your dad? Did he seriously leave you, his daughter, out here alone in the woods?! Is he out of his mind!?"

"Mom."

"Yes, honey? Did you need something? Are you tired? Hungry? Cold-"

"Mom!" The girl stopped her mother's ramblings with a harsh tug and pointed out the tree's roots that the villagers were currently digging around on. "It's dad."

"What?"

"Please stop them from digging around, please."

"Honey we can't-"

"Stop them? Why? Dad just went up there! If we don't stop them now, he might fall off underground!"

"What are you saying baby? Why would-"

"I said stop them or he'll never come back!" A voice mixed in with different pitches rang out, startling the locals around them. The girl's mother stood shocked, frozen at what her daughter was saying looking a lot like something had gotten in her head.