Nobody ever mentioned Amber and Lily Donovan's names in public. The curious schoolchildren dared only whisper it into friend's ears. Their names were like a taboo in Havenstone. Even the slight accidental mention meant a glare or two and resulted in people becoming uncomfortable and perturbed. Any words about the girls were spoken behind closed doors in the small village. They were simply ghosts haunting the deserted streets at night. There would be a flicker of a streetlight, a smashed window; an incident which there could be a logical explanation to. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Havenstone pointed the blame on Amber and Lily.
Her parents had become strangers to themselves. Withdrawn and dejected, it was a rare sighting to see Mrs Donovan leaving the safety of her home. Once or twice, neighbours would gossip about a sighting of her, emaciated, walking resignedly past their homes, bags under her eyes, her whole body falling into a skeletal mess. Mr Donovan, however, solemnly trudged to the newsagents occasionally, always clothed in his baggy pyjamas and floppy, old slippers. It appeared that he had long given up on bothering to dress himself in proper clothing. Both appeared to have shut out the public and it was clearly evident that their beloved daughters had shattered their lives. Their remaining daughter, Ruby, had strived to persist with her life. She appeared exuberant and bubbly, not the least solemn like her parents. But that was on the exterior, inside was a different story.
6-year-old Lily and 8-year-old Amber had disappeared without a trace on a glorious summer's day the previous year. They had both been so happy and carefree; her parents saw no reason why they would possibly runaway. Their innocent faces with joyful smiles; Lily with her flowing chestnut brown hair and laughing hazel eyes, Amber with her wavy blonde locks and sparkling forget-me-not eyes, had dominated the front pages of newspapers for weeks. Once the first newspaper had been purchased and posters had been attached to lampposts and pinned into notice boards, children's hands were clutched tighter, mother's anxiously supervised their beloved offspring playing in the streets, people scarcely loitered in the streets at night. But after apprehensively waiting for months for any evidence and sightings of the sisters, police surrendered their scouring and Lily and Amber gradually evaporated from the public's minds. However, in the minds of the local schoolchildren in the girl's classes, the girls were always present. They regularly produced drawings featuring the girls, dedicated the school's new nature garden to them and even protested against the headmistress' decision to remove the poster demanding any information about the girl's, from the lobby. There was rarely a day when Lily and Amber didn't feature in some aspect of their lives. Teachers dismissed the behaviour as temporary grief; parents however, were slightly more concerned.