Pre- (Ivy League) School

Chapter 4
Sarah Sees a Ghost

Chapter Description: Emily's mother attempts to get a hold of the situation

At first, none of them believed it. Sarah herself didn’t believe it. Then another parent noticed a face they hadn’t seen for 17 years themselves. All in a matter of minutes a majority of these babies had supposedly been identified as identical to these people’s memories of their children. 

The paramedics currently responsible for this small horde of children, being people of science, thought that this was all a case of mass hysteria, and didn’t believe Sarah or any of the others. It would be absolute insanity for these people’s children, who are 17 to 18 years old, to have become babies again inexplicably. Anything that can reverse aging in that manner would be an almost unmatched scientific breakthrough.

The members of members of the crowd who had supposedly seen their little angels, began to become more unruly. The first responders hurried to load these kids into a number of ambulances and police squad cars before the crowd boiled over and stormed the people who were just trying to protect these poor, scared kids. They had few places to safely strap these infants in, so many of them just had to be held during the car ride. The vans and cars left the scene not long after, and the crowd began to discuss what they had just seen.

Sarah talked to a few people and discovered the crowed was not only made up of concerned parents, but also spouses and significant others of the faculty that had not been seen as well. The only people who saw anything in these babies were parents though,  the rest didn’t recognize anything special about these babies, but it might’ve been that they didn’t look to hard, thinking the same things as the paramedics.

Even some parents didn’t believe it, and continued to wait until their kids would emerge from the front doors of the school in some state or another. After some time, what remained of the crowd was dispersed by police who told them that there was no one left in the school, baby, teenager, or adult. Sarah then immediately informed the policeman that her daughter was missing. She wanted to make sure that they looked into this, not sure if she was delusional when she saw the ghost of her daughters face on that baby.

The missing children tallied 24, with missing adults making up six. No one remaining on the scene had an accurate count of how many babies were found so they continued under the assumption that they had ran away from the scene, with there being no casualties on site.

After they had finished describing their family members to the authorities, Sarah began to talk to some of the parents of Emily’s friends, who had become her best friends as well. One of the mothers couldn’t find her daughter as well.

Amy was one of Sarah’s good friends, and had spent many hours chatting in the stands of softball games and had grown particularly close in their friend group.

“I can’t find Kaitlynn.” She said exasperated and sick with anxiety. “I thought I saw her in one of those babies faces! I don’t know what’s happening!” She cried out. They had both seen other members of their group leaving with their teenage daughters when the large group of high schoolers was escorted out of the building. The two women asked one of her teenage friends if she had seen Kaitlynn and Emily anywhere, and were told that they were both in health class. They thanked the girl and let her continue, clearly shaken from her experience.

“I thought I saw Emily being carried out too, but I’m going to go to the hospital to find out.” She continued their previous line of discussion, more outwardly composed, but had felt her stomach flip every which way, which began when she was informed the school was on lockdown.

Sarah hurriedly walked to her car, and sat down in the drives seat, everything not quite having set in yet. She called her husband who had went to the middle school to pick up their son, as all of the school district had gone into lockdown. He immediately picked up.

“I have Mason.” He said with a hint of relief, “Is Emily alright?”

“She’s missing.” Sarah responded, which was met with unbelieving silence. “But I think I might know where she is. Can you go home and get a scrap book, one from right after Emily was born?”

More silence, and then one emotional word. “Why?”

“Meet me at St. James’s hospital, you’ll see why then.” She said calmly. She then told her husband and son that she loves them, and hung up.