January Challenge - "She vanished just as the year ended"

The story starts with a girl disappearing, but was she ever really gone? A bit sadder than your average challenge entry, but I hope you enjoy. This story is written in first and third person, in an unusual format that seems more poem than narrative.

Leaving in the Republic of Ireland, I created a story which involves the Magdalene Laundries, which existed in Northern and in the Republic of Ireland. I set the story in the year 1996, so no cell phone etc. existed, as we know it today. It is hardly mentioned what happened at the crime scene, ore what stood in the diary. All persons are fictional, so made up by myself. I do not know, if a similar case once happened, but I think it did not, so also that crime is made up.

What is not fictunal is, that the last Laundry did close in 1996 in Dublin. Also some other things which are mentioned, like, when another Laundry was closed, or how they could find some mass graves can be read at the internet, although I did not go too much into details, so it does not get too terrible for reading it. Yes it is a sad ending, but I also tried there to be as positive as possible. I have no clue, what I am allowed to write in todays world, but I tried to write so nice as I could. To be honest, every real news, for all when war is involved are more cruel, than what I wrote, still you will realise it is a crime story. I know, that normally you write a summery of the story, but I wanted to make clear, that this is not a true story, that only some places existed in reality, but none of the persons mentioned or the story itself happened in that way. The one or other thing I have from news-article of BBC and Co.

The Crimson Echo

Them. New Year’s Eve- New Year

"She vanished just as the year ended. I don’t know how else to put it." Annie’s husband was trying to explain what had happened to the police officer taking his statement, though he didn’t understand it himself.

A woman has vanished, but no matter how hard she tries, no one will tell Patience who the woman is, or what happened. Why is everyone keeping the truth from her?

On a frigid New Year’s Eve, Donna disappears, leaving behind only a faint trail of footprints in the snow that mysteriously ends beneath the old sycamore tree. The heart of her neighborhood and the glue of her family, her absence sends shockwaves through her husband, David, and neighbor, James. As fear and unanswered questions mount, the search for Donna grows desperate. With every passing day, the silence grows louder, and the freezing winter air becomes heavy with longing, guilt, and unspoken truths. As the snow blankets the town in stillness, those left behind are forced to confront not only the mystery of her disappearance but their own fears of what might never be found.

When my mother took her life the day before the winter solstice, five days before Christmas, she didn’t just leave me behind—she left me with an inheritance I couldn’t refuse. Darkness became my shadow, grief my companion, and every step forward felt like slipping further into her absence. But the body has a way of keeping score, and now mine has secrets it refuses to let me ignore. This is the story of reckoning with what we inherit, what we bury, and what refuses to stay buried.

"She vanished just as the year ended"

"She vanished just as the year ended."