Part 1
She’s lying there, in the middle of the room, stark naked. A dark red abrasion on her stomach. She’s alive, if, by alive, you mean that her heart is pumping on its own and she’s breathing. Then, yes. She is alive. The girl’s long blonde hair is spread around her head as though she is under water and her piercing blue eyes gaze upwards at nothing in particular. She seems so surreal.
It is sad to know that this girl doesn’t even remember that her name is Kattie. Nor does she know that she is in a country called Germany. Kattie does know that she can’t go anywhere. She can’t leave the tiny closet that she is locked into. The bare, whitewash walls- only interrupted by the outline of a bare, whitewash door, with not even a handle- is her prison. The cupboard is, at most, one metre by half a metre and the ceiling is just as low. No child would be able to cope in that cramped space, especially not for as long as Kattie has been cooped-up there for.
Kattie used to be full of life, so happy and energetic. It didn’t matter how horrible life was to her, she’d infect everyone with her contagious laugh. She loved bright colours and running and dancing. Kattie was popular with the other little girls and boys and with all the adults. Even the older children asked her to play with them. She was born to parents of the upper class in Celle, Germany at the start of spring in 1990. At least that’s when we think she was born. Her mother, Frau Kaltenbach, was a teacher at the nearby Gesamtschule and Kattie’s father, Herr Kaltenback worked in Hanover.
Unfortunately, things weren’t so fine and dandy, even then. Frau Kaltenbach was known as a very strict and harsh teacher, friendly to her students outside of class, but still rather formidable. At home she was even stricter with her own daughter: using a riding crop as punishment for anything less than perfect. Again, the details as to how bad things actually were are rather hazy.
Things got worse. On 10th June 1993, Kattie was reported as missing.
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MISSING
Kattie Kaltenbach
Contact the police.
3 Year old girl is missing in Celle, Germany.
She has blonde hair, blue eyes and is small for her age.
Cash reward.
