My daughter Millie was always the light of my life. Her mom, my wife, died when Millie was only eight months old, and I never bothered to find anyone else. It was hard not being able to share Millie’s milestones with anyone, so I decided when she was three to make a video diary of all of her moments. Her dance recitals, her school talent shows, Christmases, birthdays, anything. I posted them all on social media- when she was 10, I gave her the passwords and started letting her post some of her own things on them. Now her choir concerts and swimming lessons were mixed in with videos of her singing in her room and playing with makeup. It was quite cute, and Millie’s personal touches gave us lots of more followers.
“Hi, this is Mike, Millie’s dad! And this is Millie’s first day of Kindergarten!”
“…Millie, aren’t you excited for first grade?”
“Millie is finally starting fourth grade…”
“Millie’s first day of middle school, doesn’t she just look so happy. Oh, Millie, don’t give me that look.”
“Hi, this is Millie’s dad Mike, recording her first day of high-“
“Dad, stop recording, I’m trying to eat breakfast. And I told you, it’s not Millie, call me Amelia.”
“Right. Sorry, Amelia.” I said, putting away the camera. “Alright! Have fun in high school. Don’t die!” I said, and Amelia rolled her eyes. “I love you.” I said as she walked out the door.
“Yeah. Bye.” She said.
I sighed, walking to my computer. It was only natural she didn’t want to spend time with her dad- I remember when I was around her age, the last thing I wanted to do was hang out with my parents. I just didn’t think it would happen so fast. I opened our shared account, Millie and Me, and sorted it from oldest. I tried to stop myself from crying, watching all of our old videos, but it was hard.
Just then, my phone started ringing. It was Amelia’s new school. I picked it up.
“Hi, is this Amelia’s mother?”
“No but I am her-.”
“Well we would just like to inquire why you didn’t mark Amelia as absent today.”
“She was- what?”
“Amelia isn’t at school today.”
“That’s weird. I sent her to school, she had all of her things.”
“Well I suggest-“
I hung up. I knew teenage angst was bound to happen, but skipping school? She was sure to get a stern talking-to once she got home.
When dinner came around and still no sign of her is when I got worried.
I called the police the next morning when she still wasn’t home.
Last thing I did with the Millie and Me account was delete all of the posts and remove all the followers as the police searched the area Amelia went missing in. I couldn’t bare to look at any of the posts anymore. Not when I had failed her as a father.
That was seven years ago. Amelia was never found, and barely any clues were ever discovered. They declared it a cold case only 18 months into the search. Lots of people assumed I was responsible, and I couldn’t really blame them. I mean, something like 43% of missing kids were found to be taken by a family member.
I didn’t go out much. Everything in the town reminded me of her. The playground I used to take her to, her old middle school, the diner we’d eat at every Saturday. It was too much.
June 11th was the hardest day for me. It was what would’ve been her 21st birthday. I could’ve taken her to buy her first ever drink, and baked my famous chocolate cake. Instead, I just sat at home, rethinking the day she went missing. I should’ve hugged her. Walked her to school, held her hand. Anything.
Suddenly, I heard a knock on my door. I opened it, half expecting Millie to be there, her arms outstretched for a hug. But it wasn’t her, or the cops, or even a person for that matter.
It was Amelia’s favourite teddy bear, sitting on the porch, waiting for me. It’s plastic eyes glistened in my porchlight. I picked it up, confused.
How did it get there?
I didn’t even bother calling the police, what would they do. It was just a teddy bear, I could only recognize it as Amelia’s because of the missing left ear. She had ripped it off during a temper tantrum when she was four.
Nevertheless, I carried it inside, cradling it like it was a baby, and placed it on the kitchen counter.
Months passed, and there it stayed. Staring at me with it’s never changing smile on it’s face, a constant reminder of my daughter. One day, when I was feeling extra lonely, I picked it up and gave it a hug, pretending it was Amelia.
Millie and me.
It said, and I dropped it in shock. That’s right, there was a voice box in it. But it never said Millie and Me. It said I Love You.
I hugged it again.
Millie and me.
Millie and me? For a second, I didn’t connect the dots. It had been so long I had almost forgotten about the account. I was so confused and had no idea why I was taking orders from a stuffed bear, but nonetheless I took it to my computer and logged back into the old forgotten account.
The first thing I noticed was a little dot on the DM button. That was weird, I never responded to any DM’s because I learned early on most of them were just scammers.
Cautiously, I opened the message.
It wasn’t from a bot, or a scammer. It was a message from someone named David Crowe. The profile picture was a boy, about my daughter’s age when she went missing, smiling at the camera. A boy from her school? No, we had a small town. I knew everyone in her school, and this boy clearly was not one of them. I read the message. It was from the day she went missing.
Can’t wait to see you! 🤗
That was weird. I remember Amelia telling me it was lame to use emojis, and that no kids her age used them.
I scrolled through the messages. It appeared David Crowe was a fan of hers. Millie and Me had about 3000 followers at the time I deactivated it, so it makes sense. They talked about a lot. Most of it was innocent, if a bit weird. At one point David Crowe mentioned that he noticed the stuffed bear in the background of a lot of the posts, and Millie told him it was her favourite childhood toy.
I’d love to see it in person. I bet it smells great, lol!
Odd.
After that, David Crowe kept on mentioning seeing her in person, to which Millie would always decline.
I don’t know, I think my dad would be mad. He doesn’t like it when I hang out with people he hasn’t met.
She had said at one point, and I felt a weird rush of both pride for her listening to her dad, and a sense of shame for some reason.
Come on goodie-two-shoes, live a little! First day of ninth grade is 2morrow rite? Well then tell your dad that you’re going to school and I’ll pick u up there! He’ll think you’re at school, and we’ll have all day to hang out. U should bring that teddy bear of yours ;)
He responded. I read the rest of the messages.
Pick me up? You can drive? You said you were my age, I’m 14. That’s not old enough to drive.
That’s not important ;)
OK….but you have to promise I’ll be back by the end of school. My dad would kill me.
Can’t wait to see you! 🤗
And with that, I was all caught up. I just didn’t get it. Did she run away with David Crowe? I ran all the possible solutions through my head as I exited the messages. That’s when I noticed something.
4 posts.
4 posts? But I deleted all of the posts the day after she went missing. That was weird. Unless…
when she was 10, I gave her the passwords and started letting her post some of her own things on them.
Amelia had access to the account.
I opened the first post, excited to see if Amelia had left us any clues as to where she was.
The first one was captioned, I LOVE meeting my fans!
It started with Millie walking down our street. She was dressed in the outfit she was wearing the first day of ninth grade. This must’ve been taken shortly after she left our house to go to school. I looked at the date it was posted. September 1st, 2016. It was the day she went missing.
“Hey guys, it’s Amelia from Millie and Me, I’m just getting ready to meet my friend Dave I met online. Don’t tell my dad. He’d freak if he found out. Oops, I forgot he runs this account. Sorry dad.” She said and winked at the camera. I missed her sense of humour.
“I’m waiting for him, but I can’t really find anyone who looks like his profile, and- oh, hey.” She said, looking off camera. It looked like she was talking to someone.
“You’re David Crowe? But you don’t look anything like- AH!” She said, and suddenly the video cut out.
You don’t look anything like him.
It was time I figured out who this David Crowe was anyway. I reopened the DMs and reverse google searched his profile picture. I was horrified at what I saw.
“David Crowe” the ninth grade boy she was talking to, was a stock image.
There was no David Crowe.
Feeling sick to my stomach, I opened the second video. It was posted September 2nd, 2016.
It was Millie, lying on a concrete floor. There was mascara running down her face, and it looked like her face was bruised.
“Daddy, I don’t know why we have no followers anymore, or why there’s no videos anymore, but please help me. This is Millie. My friend took me and he’s not letting me go. I’m scared, daddy, I want to go home. I know you said I wasn’t allowed to talk to people online, but I-I-I…please take me home, daddy. I’m sorry, please don’t be mad at me, daddy. I don’t know how else to reach you, he made me block you everywhere else. He doesn’t know I’m making this video. I hope you see this.” She said, sobbing. I sobbed with her.
As she cried I saw two feet approaching her. The camera was on the floor, and I couldn’t see anything above his ankles.
“Wait no what are you-“ Millie said before I saw a hand go into frame.
A hand holding a gun.
“I told you not to tell your dad.” He said. It was a deep, scratchy voice. This was certainly not a friend of hers.
“Please don’t!” Millie yelled, sobbing harder. “Nonononono please!” She shouted as I heard an unforgivable sound through the video, a sound I don’t even want to write down here. But I think you can get the picture.
After that video ended, I sat there, staring at the black screen. For a while I hoped it would come back on, revealing a prank video, and that Millie was safe and happy. But it didn’t.
Begrudgingly, I opened the third video, again from September 2nd, 2016. The caption was, Hello Millie and Me!
It was a video, taken at a bad angle, of an old man. There was blood on his face, but he had no injuries. It wasn’t his blood. He walked around silently for a while, the camera zoomed in on his face. Then he flipped the camera, showing my daughter lying on the concrete floor, lifeless. He then waved at her and flipped the camera back to his ugly face. In his other hand was Millie’s teddy bear. The video cut after that.
I didn’t want to open the last video. But I had to.
This one was from June 11th, 2023. Captioned, Millie loves her daddy!
Millie’s 21st birthday.
It was a video of this guy’s shoes, walking down a street.
My street.
I watched as the man walked up to a porch, my porch. He turned the camera to the front window. He recorded me crying on the couch for a while, which I had never noticed. Then, he pulled the bear into frame. He squeezed it, and it let out the familiar, Millie and Me, I guess he had programmed for it to say. He then placed it on my porch, knocked on my door, and didn’t turn the camera off as he ran away.
He recorded me from a bush as I opened the door, held the bear, and walked inside. He flipped the camera to his face, gave the camera a thumbs up, and cut the video.
I cried on my desk for a while. All this time the answer was hidden in plain sight.
All of the sudden, a heard a knock on my door. Just about then, I got a popup on the Millie and Me account.
Millie and Me is going live! Join here:
I clicked on the livestream, not knowing what to expect. It was titled, Millie’s Daddy Goes Away!
I looked at the video. It was that same man, who killed my daughter, the light of my life. He was standing outside of my door.
He was the one who knocked.
The camera panned down to his hand. He was holding a large knife.
I didn’t know what to do, I had to do something. But as I thought about what he did to Millie, I knew what I had to do.
I watched his point of view from the livestream, waiting to get to me. But as I opened the door and the livestream showed me, pointing a gun at that horrid man, it was clear.
Someone was going away today. It just wasn’t going to be me.