//TW
This story has strong themes of kidnapping, implied child grooming, multiple character deaths. If I need to add anything more tell me and if I need to put this as mature please tell me. Other than that, enjoy the story.//

A group of small children show an even smaller child with shoulder length blond hair around the neighbourhood, pointing to every house on their friendly, family-like street.

The small blond girl saw one house that didn't have the people living in it explained yet. It was wooden and painted gauntlet grey, the house was only one story high and all the curtains were closed, though there was a black and mud ridden pick up truck in the driveway so somebody definitely lived there.

"Who lives in that house?" The small girl pointed at the home with dried grass and dead plants in the garden. All the other kids looked at the tallest child of them all, his hair was a dark brown that many would mistake as black and he was obviously the oldest there, at 11 years old. His name was Tobias.

The boy squatted down and held her shoulders to make direct eye contact with her. "The man who lives there really likes children. I will literally get on my knees and beg you not to even step on the footpath near that house? Okay Daisy?"

Daisy nodded her head, not completely understanding why he was so persistent with it. After that was finished with, all the kids acted as if they completely forgot about the conversation they had just mere seconds ago.

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Daisy was bored, all the other children were at school considering it was a Tuesday, but she hadn't gotten enrolled into the school every other child on the street went to.

The small blond had gone around giving every person on the street daisies and telling them her name while giving them the flower, getting many 'awe's and 'cute's. The 7 year old eventually got to the final house on the street, the one she was warned of.

Tobias had told her something about the house, right? About how he really liked kids? So Daisy thought of the only thing she could.

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Go and talk to the man with the muddy, black pickup truck in his driveway.

She skipped over the dead grass and heard something crack under her feet, making her nearly trip over. Daisy looked back to see what she tripped on and saw a small Barbie dolls head that was now cracked and broken from her sneakers.

Daisy looked at the barbie and felt sorry for it before going back to walking closer to the house. She knocked on the door three times and waited, then she knocked another three times and heard heavy footsteps coming over to the door.

When the door opened, she looked up and saw a tall skinny and wrinkly man with white hair and a green robe smiling at her. He had slippers that matched his robe on and slowly looked down to see the small blond child, his only smile grew.

"Why hello, what do we have here?" The man looked her up and down before speaking again, "What's your name little girl?"

His words knocked Daisy out of the daze she was in while staring at him, she grabbed the very last daisy out of her pink bag and held it out to the white haired man, "I'm Daisy! Me, my papa and my mama just moved in on the street! We're the nice green house right there!" Daisy pointed her house out to him.

"I'm Mr. Roberts, nice to meet you Daisy." Mr. Roberts grabbed the flower off of Daisy and smiled at her, she then got a good look at his yellow teeth that had multiple holes in them. "Would you like to come inside? I could get you something to drink?"

Daisy nodded and just as she was about to walk inside, someone yelled out her name. She turned her head to see Tobias and his little sister just finished walking home. Daisy smiled at the man as a goodbye and ran over to Tobias, his little sister already going inside by the time Daisy had run over.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Tobias' voice held a mixture of worry and annoyance, "What happened while you were there? Did he touch you?" His eyes only grew as he spoke, grabbing her shoulders after squatting down just as he did the day before.

"Why don't you like Mr. Roberts? He's really nice! He invited me inside and" Daisy stopped there as Tobias looked at her, eyes the size of saucers, his grip on her shoulders tightening to the point where it began to hurt her.

"Daisy, no matter what he says or what he offers, I never, never, want you to go in that man's house. Do you hear what I'm saying Daisy?" He slightly shook her to emphasise his point when saying 'never'.

"Tobias, you're hurting me." That was the only thing Daisy said before the boy let her go and told her to go home.

Tobias stood there after seeing Daisy get in her home safely and stared at the house at the end of the street, as if expecting something to open or for some sign of life to come from it. Soon enough the house owner peaked through his curtain to meet his glare, only to just close the curtain again moments after, giving Tobias chills as he walked but into his own home.

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Daisy didn't mind the warnings Tobias gave her and visited Mr. Roberts home every day for the rest of that week. Soon enough she went inside his home and walked to tell Tobias that nothing was wrong with this skinny old man, and that his home looked just as any other. Though she didn't fear of him yelling at her for entering his house in the first place.

The blond spent the weekend with the other children hanging out on the street, kicking a ball around or skipping or playing hopscotch. One child got a small circle to gather around her as she told a story she made up about herself to get attention, though the way she told it had every child in that circle hanging onto her every word.

The following Monday was also spent at Mr. Robinson's home, although this time he acted differently. Once Daisy finally asked what was on his mind, he asked a question, "Daisy, would you like to come with me and see my secret hideout?"

She had a feeling as if she had to say no, but curiosity killed her and she caved after him asking the second time. The young girl got into the pickup truck with him as he drove down the road and kept driving for what felt like forever. At some point in the drive, Daisy had fallen asleep, and by the time she woke up the sun was going down and they were at their destination.

"Won't my parents worry about me?" The girl asked as she held the old man's hand so he could lead her to the final stop. They soon began trotting a trail in the woods.

"I called them when you were asleep," replied Ms. Roberts as he moved a branch out of his way. "they said you could stay with me for as long as you wanted." After a few minutes of walking, they finally got to a small wooden cottage in the dead centre of the forest.

Daisy could just barely hear voices coming from the house, all of them sweet and high. It gave her chills, though she shook them off. When she entered the house, those same voices greeted Mr. Roberts as their 'father'. All of them looked different, from their skin to their hair to their height, and none of them looked like Mr. Roberts.

One had bright orange hair and tan skin and was hugging Mr. Roberts, looking nothing like the white haired man whose skin was ghostly pale. Another had dark brown hair and he also looked oddly older than the other children, he was standing a bit off from the group and behind the man they called father, closer to the door.

After a while Daisy went off to play with the other children, she wished to talk with the one child who looked older than the others so she could understand what was going on, but he disappeared.

Mr. Roberts looked around quite frantically, and then asked if the children would like to play a game. All of them agreed and were asked to sit in the middle of the lounging area with their eyes closed until he said to open them.

After a while Daisy began smelling something off and hearing something like water in a jar. Then she felt oddly hot, then she felt an immense amount of pain. She quickly opened her eyes to see the room completely engulfed in flames. The children yelled for Mr. Roberts as the man they called their father wasn't in the room with them. Some of the older ones looked around as if to find a part of the cottage that wasn't set aflame.

19 missing children cases were closed that day, all of them counted as dead. A 9 year old boy named  'Asher Knot' who was presumed dead, finally came home to his family after 4 years and told his story.

"4 years ago, a man named Carl Roberts took me to his cottage in the woods and forced me to stay there. Through my years there he has collected more and more children. I figured out his plan for if  kids got out a few months ago, though I realised I was kidnapped about 3 years ago."

His interview was long and he was shaking the entirety of the way through it, plus his elder brother Tobias was there to help him get through it.

"As I can guess you heard on the news - if he had already gotten to doing it -, Mr. Roberts burnt down his home after I got out." The woman interviewing the boy looked questioningly at him, then asked, "How'd you get out?"

Asher's head fell as if he was too guilty to say, although he felt if he didn't tell them he'd never be able to forget it nor could he forgive himself.

"Mr. Roberts brought a new child in. She had blond hair and was short,  when he came in with her, I asked if my friend Jesse could cling onto Mr. for me so I could sneak out the door. She also realised we'd been nabbed so helped pretty easily. I thought if I hid the gasoline cans I could stop him from setting the house on fire for long enough to get the cops and fire department but I wasn't quick enough."

There were 19 empty coffins buried that week. Loved ones crying over each individual child stolen from their homes and burnt alive. Most of them stayed on the street but there were also those who couldn't stand the memories of their children and moved, just to have another buy their home.
No one ever bought the wooden and painted gauntlet grey house at the end of the street, it's said if you got close enough you could hear the voice of an old man in that home, as if he wasn't even burnt away in the fire.