when the door closes

Mrs. Robins

—Madam, could you repeat to me from the beginning everything that happened? —the police officer politely asks.

—sobbing— we moved in six months ago, he was really excited to know his new home. When we arrived, he came in quickly and explored the house, until he met his room, that's when he ran down the stairs and said to me in a very serious tone and to some extent strange, it wasn't proper for him to speak so earnestly, until he said, "Mom, don't close my door at night," I thought I was just afraid of the dark, so I didn't take it very seriously. Every night he would come scared running into the room to sleep with us, he claimed there was something in his room and my husband checked his room every night, but we didn't find anything, they followed things like this until I told him I had to sleep alone in his room and so he would stay in his room, but with the door open.

—Did you see anyone hanging around your house? —the police officer asks with a monotonous tone of the protocol.

—No, the cameras didn't pick up anyone near the house —says the lady.

—Well, go on —the police officer sighs.

—At first, I accepted and liked it, I thought it was my age, you know the boy is very young, but every morning I went to school he would fall asleep in class for not sleeping at night and that was the end. I scolded him and told him I couldn't go on with that nonsense, so that night I took him off guard and closed the door for him because I thought it would help him overcome that fear. then he started screaming and scratching the door, but then his voice was no longer heard, just a long silence and I was so scared that I opened the door quickly, but he was gone —I assure Mrs. Robins.

—Was the window open? —the police officer asks.

—No, and even if he was open, his room is on the third floor, I mean that doesn't make sense because he would jump from there and I very much doubt that anyone can climb from that height —Mrs. Robins replied.

—Well, thank you for your statement, Mrs. Robins. We'll find your son —I assure the police officer.

Those people won't do anything to find my little Leo, and they don't even care because when I turned to see the agent, I saw that I kept the "statement" in a lost file drawer.

When I get home, I lie down for a while, I feel like my head is going to explode from so many thoughts accumulating, I wake up startled when I hear footsteps near the stairwell, you hear little feet running like Leo's and without realizing I approached the ladder in the hope that Leo is there playing as it always does, but unsurprisingly there was no one there, it was just my imagination making me a very cruel joke.