Dad Sees Neighbor's New Tree House And Calls 911

He snuck into his neighbor's compound in the middle of the night, unsure if what he was doing was okay. It was his gut that urged him to continue, promising that he would find what he was searching for. 

There was no reason for the dad to suspect his neighbor of wrongdoing. The dad had reached his limit after the third night without his daughter. The man he had called a neighbor for the past year would suddenly reveal himself to be very different from what he had thought.  

Seeing his neighbor's yard, the dad's heart pounded. During the night, there was silence. His neighbor's house was mostly dark. 

Slowly stepping across the grass, he listened to crickets chirping around him. His attention was drawn to one object at the edge of the property, a pristine-looking tree house. It was there that he knew he would find the answers to his questions. 

Police had spent hours searching the neighborhood. Assuring him that they would find a lead soon, they assured him they were doing the best they could. 

Despite their efforts, nothing had resulted in success so far, with every course ending in heartbreaking disappointment. Dad would eventually decide to take matters into his own hands. 

The low moans he heard sounded like those of a little girl as he hurried toward the tree house. As the October wind picked up, dead leaves were ruffled into the backyard, where the dad sat. 

Seeing guilt and sadness in his eyes, he stopped and listened carefully. He was responsible for his daughter's disappearance. The thought of not finding her made him sick to his stomach. He should have come to the tree house earlier. 

In an attempt to calm his thundering heart, he hurried to the tree house, sharpening his ears to listen for any sounds that may lead him to the right direction.    

As the wind built, the low moans diminished. Getting closer to the tree house, the father gritted his teeth. His shaky grip and steps warned him that he was about to blow open the case. Inside he would find something that would break him to the core. 

In fact, Frank Markowski, a forty-year-old Chicago single dad, was the last person he expected to spend the night searching for his daughter in the shadows. 

It had been a great week so far. It was the first time in his life that he and his daughter Hailey, then seven, weren't experiencing any downturns. Frank was sure that good things were waiting for him and his wife after years of heartbreak and tears. 

It had never occurred to the single dad that he would have to raise his child alone. Having thought he had found love, he had married young. He dreamed of protecting, providing for, and nurturing a big, beautiful family. 

Patricia, Hailey's mother, was seemingly up to something else. The two of them were made for each other, according to Frank. His world had revolved around her, after all. Trouble was not far away, as he should have known. 

An argument inside a divorce court erupted after Patricia received secretive late-night calls. Frank hated the thought that what he'd held dearest in his life was ending, but he knew he couldn't. 

Patricia wasn't the person she thought he was. Therefore, a heartbroken Frank had to say goodbye to her. Moreover, he witnessed Hailey's suffering in the aftermath of the divorce.

It had always been Hailey's nature to be bright and jovial. While she was born with autism, she never stopped laughing or smiling. Her acclimatization to her new surroundings was always made easy by Frank. 

In particular, the little girl needed to be protected from sensory overload, such as loud noises and flickering lights. Additionally, he always ensured that her environment was never changed. It was all good until the marital problems began. 

After the divorce, moving to a new neighborhood was extremely expensive. Already, Hailey had endured many hardships. Although Patricia didn't care about her, she was used to having her mom around. 

She had even told Hailey to her face that she regretted having her, treating her as if she were broken. Additionally, she called Frank a failure for having fathered such a child. However, Frank didn't think the girl would ever be able to recover from her absence. 

Their previous home, which was supposed to be full of love and acceptance, was suddenly a dungeon wrought with pain and rejection. Every corner the two looked at reminded them of what they’d lost. 

It was even more challenging to accept that Patricia had willingly left them. She didn’t feel remorse as she signed the divorce papers. She even pushed Hailey out of her way when the little girl ran to hug her, trying to stop her from the room. But the worst was still ahead of the father and daughter duo. 

Frank hadn’t thought of moving house before the divorce. But seeing how much pain it harbored, he called Hailey and told them they’d be moving. 

“It will be a difficult move, I know, but it’s necessary,” he said to her one night. “We need a fresh start, you and I.” She nodded attentively as she listened, her brows drawn close. What was her dad planning? 

By the start of the next month, Frank had already found a new place he and Hailey could call home. The house was in a gated community on the other side of their city, far away from all the pain they’d grown accustomed to.   

Frank called the moving company and moved houses, and before he and Hailey knew it, they were settling in in their new home. They thought this was a fresh start. But a year wouldn’t pass before something terrible happened.

Frank and Hailey had been residents in their new house for a year when it happened. Hailey, who attended a special school just outside town, didn’t make it home. 

Frank knew something was wrong the moment the clock ticked 5 p.m. and his daughter wasn’t at the front door. Hailey had never been late. She was incapable of it. Frank took his jacket and hurried out. 

Since her school was a few blocks away, Hailey usually walked home. She’d be in the house at precisely 5 p.m., and Frank, who worked from home, would receive her with open arms. 

The two had built a great dynamic, helping each other fill the void Patricia had left when she broke their hearts. But soon, that void was about to take over completely. 

Frank checked his watch again, seeing that five minutes had passed. His brows furrowed as he hurried off his desk, turning off his computer, and rushed downstairs. 

“Hailey?” he called, hoping his daughter was already in the house. But no answer came. The dad walked to the front door and stuck his head outside, craning his neck as he tried to get a better view. 

But he couldn’t see his daughter. “Hailey?” he called again, this time with a more authoritative voice. He hoped she was somewhere in the compound chasing butterflies. She’d always done that after coming home from school. 

But like before, no answer came. The worry building inside Frank was slowly taking over. He hurried off the porch, not even bothering to close his front door, and started for Hailey’s school.

Frank knew something was wrong. As someone on the spectrum, Hailey usually hated being late. She liked order to an obsessive point, something that Frank usually found endearing. 

In a year of living in this neighborhood, she’d never come home earlier or later than five. She was always on time. Sometimes, she’d arrive early and stand on the porch until her wristwatch read 5:00 p.m. Only then would she walk into the house. So why was today different?

It took Frank ten minutes to reach her school. But the teachers assured him Hailey had already gone home. They didn’t report anything out of order and insisted that the little girl was her usual self when she left the school grounds.    

Frank went up and down the neighborhood several times, looking for his daughter. As nightfall came, he called the authorities and reported Hailey as missing. If only he checked the tree house on his neighbor’s property. 

The authorities flocked to the neighborhood. They searched houses and backroads and checked restaurants, malls, and amusement parks. They even went to other local schools, thinking Hailey might have gone to them out of curiosity.

But the seven-year-old was nowhere to be seen. As the hours passed, the search party kept growing. Neighbors came to help, some holding vigils as others joined the numerous search parties. But things were about to go from bad to worse. 

The first night went, and the second day came. The anxiety and dread that had been slowly building was almost at a fever pitch. Frank couldn’t even formulate coherent sentences. 

He only stared wildly as the officers brought in report after report, with friends and family dropping by to give their support. None of it meant a thing if little Hailey was not home.

Frank almost lost his mind, thinking of what his daughter might be going through. He’d already lost count of the number of times he’d called Patricia, begging her to bring Hailey home if she was the one who took her. 

“You don’t have to do this to us,” he said. “Just bring her home or tell me where she is so I can pick her up.” But Patricia didn’t have the little girl. She was elated that Hailey was missing and said the girl wouldn’t make it past the week. 

Frank listened in silence. He ground his teeth, wondering what he and Hailey had done to his ex-wife that she should loathe them as much as she did. The second day came and went, with no word from the search teams or the authorities on where the little girl was. 

With the onset of the third day, people were already giving up. Most of the neighbors who came to help were returning to their lives. The authorities, too, broke off, leaving only two officers to help with the investigation. Would Frank ever find his daughter again?  

Unlike the people who came and left, Frank didn’t lose hope. Although he’d not been fully attentive as the authorities and search parties reported their findings, he’d internalized everything.

He analyzed the information, seeing that all the involved parties had turned their neighborhood upside down, searching for Hailey. He was almost losing hope when, that morning, something odd happened.  

Frank’s neighbor, who had barely been in the picture since Hailey disappeared, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He asked him if he’d found his daughter, apologizing for not being there to help with the search. 

But he seemed too on edge as he spoke, and he kept glancing at his backyard as if he’d hidden something there that he didn’t want anyone to find. His reaction set Frank’s bells off. 

Frank had lived next to his neighbor for an entire year. The man was your typical suburban middle-aged bachelor with a nice car and house on a large property. He wore expensive watches and had a different woman taxiing out of his house every Saturday morning. 

But among the most impressive things on his property was an old tree house nestled in the back of his yard. Frank had never seen it up close. But today, he knew that was about to change. 

He couldn’t wait for nighttime to come so he could investigate. His heart thundering, he snuck into his neighbor’s compound just as the clock hit midnight. The neighbor, Mr. Chris Hawshawn, had left in the afternoon, leaving the place unattended. 

Frank knew this eerie place had something to do with his missing daughter. With his heart in his teeth, he climbed up the treehouse and reached for the doorknob.

Frank had heard the strange cries as soon as he stepped into Mr. Hawshawn’s backyard. He knew something was off and had already called the authorities, telling them they’d missed one crucial place while searching for Hailey. 

Carefully and quietly, the dad opened the treehouse door. He blinked against the darkness before reaching into his pocket for his phone. He turned on the flashlight, and his heart sank at what he saw. 

Several tiny feet, dirty and bruised, appeared. The legs had chains and cuffs around them. Frank held back a retch as his eyes took in the sight. For a second, he thought he was in a horror movie. His stomach grumbled, and his knees turned weak. 

“Daddy?” a little girl whispered, pulling Frank back into the present. “Hailey?” he called, stepping into the treehouse. And that’s when he saw her. 

Among several others, his daughter had seemingly been kept here for days. They scurried away from him as he neared, clearly spooked. To them, whatever walked through the treehouse door was dangerous. “It’s okay,” Frank whispered as he stepped closer. 

He lifted both hands, hoping the children would trust him enough to remain calm. “Everything’s gonna be fine,” he said. “Are you sure about that?” a gruff voice asked behind him. And someone slammed a heavy metallic object into the back of his head.