The Event

One day, all over the world, a strange phenomenon was reported by the press. Children were all drawing the same strange, unsettling image, over and over again - a smiling face, done all in black scribbles that suggested a gleaming smile and bright eyes in a face made of shadow. The pictures were unsettling, not just because of what they portrayed, but because all over the world, in every country and culture, children who were old enough to hold a crayon up to pre-teens were all drawing, stroke for stroke, exactly the same thing. Then, as night fell, the phenomenon stopped, as suddenly and inexplicably as it had begun.

It was barely more than a week later when what since became known simply as 'The Event' happened. It happened overnight, and for the most part, nobody witnessed it, because everybody was asleep. It followed time zones, so all over the world, in a kind of invisible wave, it happened – it is estimated, from the few who did witness something – at precisely 3am.

At 3am on this quiet morning in June, every child, from newborns up to the age of 12, disappeared from their beds. No doors or windows unlocked, no signs of struggle. Just empty beds and cots when their parents came to check on them in the morning, sheets turned back, pillows still indented with where their heads head been laying. No missing shoes or clothes, no missing toys except for the cuddly bears that some of them slept with. No sign that they had run away or been snatched. They were just gone.

The media went wild, working overtime to get as many details as possible, hunting down anyone who thought they had seen anything at all on that night. The police - completely swamped overnight and unable to determine where they should start, ended up following up on newspaper reports and social media posts.

A few parents or older siblings reported being up at the time, and experiencing something strange. One teenage boy said he passed his younger brother's open bedroom door on the way to the bathroom and thought he heard him talking to someone, but dismissed it as him talking in his sleep or to his imaginary friends. He spent the next several months in therapy trying to forgive himself.

One mother to a three month old girl said she heard whispering on the baby monitor, but by the time she went in to investigate, her daughter was already gone. She woke her husband and they immediately summoned the police, alerted the neighbours and tore the house apart looking for her, but to no avail.

One grandfather living with his children and their nine year old son was up at the time with an insomnia he feared was an early sign of approaching dementia. He swore to anyone who would listen until his death from a heart attack two years later that at 3am, that he had seen a shadow on the stairs, heading up. Not a person – just a shadow. He followed it and saw it go into his grandson's room, and when he went in he saw it standing over the boy's bed. He called out to it, and it seemed to look up at him ... and the next thing he knew, he was woken from a doze on the sofa by his daughter shrieking the boy's name.

In the days just before and after this, a few members of pagan and spiritualist groups on social media started to post about how they were 'feeling strange energies', or how 'the veil felt thin', and other things to this effect. Most of the replies to these posts agreed with them, some attributing it to the phase of the moon, others to the time of year (it being close to the summer solstice), others to the alignment of planets. After The Event, a few of these people voiced these opinions publicly, but they were largely ignored.

The police investigations around the world started immediately, with countries sharing information once it became apparent that it had happened everywhere. Special task forces were set up, with powers to invoke military aid if they needed it. They sent this aid out to raid known and suspected paedophile rings, people trafficking operations, groups who sold abducted children, and many arrests were made and convictions passed for very good reasons. However, none of them were linked to, or able to shed any light on, The Event. Rivers and swamps were dredged, woodlands combed, deserts searched. No children's bodies were ever found.

Weeks of hard work turned into months, and the public started to turn against the police, and their governments, for their failure to find their missing children. Elections came and went and new governments were formed, vowing to do more to solve the mystery, but they quickly found that there wasn't much more to be done.

Finally, they started consulting scientists and historians for some clue as to what might have happened. Folklorists spoke of tales of children being abducted en masse, like in the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and of whole colonies vanishing without trace, like the Roanoke colony. But these were fairytales and unsolved mysteries, and gave no clues. Eventually, in their desperation, they started listening to those people who had been shouting all along about strange energies on the night in question.

And slowly, an unbelievable picture started to emerge.

Shadowy creatures, sneaking into homes in the early hours of the morning, stealing away with children and leaving no trace.

Strange sightings reported by 'sensitives' of all kinds of spirits, orbs and phantasms, along with intense feelings of impending doom.

Pagans, spiritualists and astrologists across the world talking about the alignment of planets and incredible concentrations of psychic, stellar and astral energies, all coming to a head on Midsummer's Eve.

Folklorists uncovering old, obscure fairy tales and myths, citing forgotten prophecies and ancient pacts with mysterious spirits and otherworldly beings.

And finally, the revelation of a science experiment gone not wrong, but surprisingly right - succeeding it ways that had never been expected, opening doors to other dimensions, just a few short weeks before The Event.

They finally found out where their children were, but they had no way in this world to get them back.