Two days.
The Mayor had been gone for two days.
This was the third day. And sure, it was only 8.30 in the morning, and the Mayor was never up before 10... But that wasn’t the point; she had still been gone for two whole days.
Henry studied the calendar. Yep, two whole days since he had seen his best friend last...
He opened his wardrobe, and put on a fresh copy of his beloved ‘Kiwi shirt’ and went outside. It only took him a few seconds to get to the Mayor’s house as it was only a few steps away from his.
He knocked on the door.
He banged on the door.
‘Darling?’ He shouted, trying to wake up his friend in case she was sleeping.
‘Mae?!’ Henry was getting worried now. He turned the handle and pushed, the door wouldn’t budge.
It was locked. Mae’s door, was never locked. Never, ever, ever. And Neither was his.
So his best friend had not been around for two whole days, after coming outside every single day for more than two years, her door was locked, and she didn’t answer him.
‘Lolly?’ He asked quietly, trudging over to the bench outside the Mayors house. He sat down next to the cat.
‘Hey pretty kitty!’ Lolly said, Henry would have rolled his eyes at the ridiculous greeting his darling had given Lolly.
‘Have you seen Mae anywhere?’
Lolly thought for a moment. ‘No... Not in the last few days I’m afraid... Sorry, kitty cat.’
‘Weird, isn’t it? She’s here, every single day for two whole years, and now she vanishes? It’s the third day I haven’t seen her... I’m starting to get worried.’
‘Yeah... Maybe we should be a little worried...’ Lolly looked sad, before smiling cheerfully at him. ‘Then again, maybe she’s just tired; she ‘s had a lot of work. We might just be over reacting.’
Yeah.
Might.
But maybe not.
Henry tried again, he even tried picking the lock. He decided to go to Porter to ask if she’d gone anywhere.
‘Welcome to Paradiso station, what can I do for you today?’
‘Has Mae been anywhere?’
‘Yes, come to think of it. The Mayor went somewhere about three days ago. She wouldn’t tell me where, just that ‘I’m the Mayor, please let me on the train.’’
‘Ah... Okay... I’m going to find her.’
‘You are?’
‘Yes! She’s my best friend, I’ll pack some things tonight, and leave tomorrow.’
Henry called into the town hall next to tell Isabelle of his sudden departure. He then went back to his house and spent the next few hours packing.
He didn’t say good-bye to his friends the next day, for he hoped that he would be back soon- with Mae.
So he silently left.
{xxx}
Henry stacked his boxes onto the train, and boarded it. He didn’t know where he was going, and to be honest he was a little scared. That blue cat, Rover, his name was, that had greeted him when he first moved to Paradiso two years ago, was nowhere to be found.
‘Now arriving in Sakura.’ A voice sounded, Henry almost got off, but decided to wait until he found a stop that he thought was right.
‘Now arriving in Wisteria.’ It sounded again around half an hour later. Nope, one or two more...
Maybe.
‘Now arriving in Hunnybel.’ Nope. Still not quite right.
‘Now arriving in The Void.’ Hmm... ‘The Void.’ That sounded strange.
Strange, but oddly... Appealing. Henry decided that this was his stop. He took his suitcase and stepped off the train. He put it down, and turned around to get the rest of his things, but the train had already pulled out of the station.
Great. Fantastic. Brilliant. Marvellous. Terrible. Here Henry was, alone in a new town, with nothing but himself, a Kiwi shirt, a spare Kiwi shirt, a blanket, and a couple hundred bells.
Maybe there was a shop near by?
Henry stepped out of the train station, and looked around. He gasped. This was nothing like he had ever seen before. Not like Paradiso, not like the town he had lived in before. It was...
Dark... Scary... Wet... Dead.
Henry seemed a lot smaller in this big black world than he had back in cheerful Paradiso. He carefully made his way through a patch of weeds, as the rain poured down and crawled under a dripping leaf.
The inky sky rumbled and a shot of light flashed across the sky. Henry was scared. Surely Mae wouldn’t be here? No. His darling would be in a cheerful place, like that town ‘Hunnybel’ he passed, or maybe ‘Wisteria’ that sounded nice.
Why had he even chosen ‘The Void’?
Why had he even left Paradiso to begin with?
Henry heard a growl. His heartbeat quickened. He hardly dared to turn around, he saw a big grey bear. His teeth were bared, his eyes livid, his fur was matted, and sopping wet. He had a cross of white fur on his forehead, as if it was a bandage.
Hang on...
‘I know you...’ Henry whispered.
The bear narrowed its eyes, towering over the small frog.
‘...Curt?’
Curt’s eyes widened in surprise and he flopped down on the grass, looking inquisitively at Henry.
‘It’s me- Henry.’
‘Henry...’ Curt wondered aloud, as if Henry’s name was something foreign, and he was tasting the sound of it in his mouth.
‘From Paradiso.’
‘Why have you come?’
‘I’m looking for Mae.’
‘You won’t find her here. No one from Paradiso would survive here. No one could.’
‘You did.’
‘The Void changed me. It’ll change you. The Void waits for no one, it’ll rip you apart. You need to run, hide. You can’t survive. You’ll be alive, but you won’t, you can’t survive.’
With that, Curt sped off into the distance. It was safe to say he had scared Henry.
Henry didn’t mind the rain, he loved it. But the rain drops pelted down, hitting his skin, and each drop was like a tiny bullet. The leaf he had been under, had since collapsed, so Henry was to find different shelter.
He roamed through the weeds until he reached a lake. He saw a duck swimming, but didn’t approach it after his last encounter.
He climbed onto a lily pad and climbed into a lily pad for shelter. The duck soon swam over to him though.
‘I don’t remember seeing you around here before.’ She said.
‘I’m new...’ Henry replied meekly.
‘Well I’m Deena, you’ll understand The Void soon. But be warned, you won’t ever be the same as you were again. The Void changes you.’
‘So I’ve heard...’
‘Well, you can stay with me until you learn the ropes around here, I’ll make sure you don’t get, you know... Eaten or something.’
‘Thank you.’ Henry replied gratefully. ‘I’m Henry by the way.’
‘Nice to meet you Henry.’ Deena replied.
Maybe his stay here wouldn’t be too bad. If he at least had a friend, maybe he could survive until he figured out how to find his Mae.
(I have some pictures in my story, and I'm working on a simple set of silhouette comics! But I also did literature, too! However you want 
