>>117504431The camp had insisted that they never sent the letters. The police believed that if that were the case, it would mean Luz had been kidnapped. And the letters were sent so that no one would be the wiser.
‘Why would someone want to take Luz?’ Camilia often found herself asking.
Sitting at her kitchen table, with shadows beginning to stretch across the unlit room as dusk approached, she had a few ideas.
Luz was a gullible, naive kid. Camilia said this in the kindest way she could. Luz never had friends, at least, not for very long. Yet, she was always so cheerful in her weird Luz way. Any monster would see her as an easy target.
But that didn’t explain the texts.
Did Luz end up at a different camp by mistake? Did she lose her phone? Was she being forced to write those by God-knows whatever had her?
Camila sighed and shook her head, leaning on her elbows as she stared down at the card in front of her.
It didn’t make any sense.
‘She ran away.’ Whispered a small voice in her head. ‘She hated going to that camp. You knew she hated it. You sent her anyway. She ran away. And it’s all your fault.’
Camilia wouldn’t believe her daughter would run away from home. She wouldn’t...would she?
‘It doesn’t matter anymore.’ She thought numbly. ‘She’s gone now.’
Horrible thoughts had crowded her mind that first week. Things far worse than a simple abduction. She’d never wish any harm upon her child, but if forced to choose, she’d take Luz running away to be in the circus for all she cared if faced with the many, many worse things that could’ve happened to her.
She should’ve never sent her to that camp. She should’ve never made her leave. She should’ve taken her daughter, held her close, and said that she didn’t care how strange she was. She should’ve let Luz catch as many snakes as she wanted and make her own weird snake garden in the backyard.
She almost snorted at that thought. But she found she meant it all.
