The Disappearing

They vanished from school one by one, as if evaporating into the tense, sparkling air filled with excitement, overcoming all obstacles. Textbooks, notebooks, and pencil cases were left on desks. Phones were in abandoned backpacks. Clothes were in the locker room. Teenagers left into the chilly autumn, not looking back, traveling light, taking nothing from their former lives. Without thinking that by stepping outside the careful circle of familiar routes, they become easy prey...