I have often been asked if I've been lost to another world or another person. I've regularly been told that people thought I'd gone missing if I came late, but not once did I think that someone would actually mean it when they told me so.

It had been a usual morning; I stepped out to collect my newspaper when the old man next door looked shell-shocked to see me- as though he expected me to be gone. He asked me if I was feeling okay; I had assumed he was asking after my illness. When I replied in affirmative, he merely nodded and went his way. Meanwhile, it was time to restock my supplies anyway, so I casually made my way to the grocery store.

Unlike many others, I have the habit of actually reading 'missing' notices, which is why I froze after I read the poster on the bulletin board. Splayed across the red velvety background was a picture of me from a few years ago with embarrassing pigtails and an unabashed smile showing away my pearly whites. Captioning the poster was a single string of bold letters- 'MISSING'. The first emotion that courses through me was shock. No wonder the neighbour looked surprised. Here I was, hale and hearty, while the notice claimed that I had been lost and not seen for at least two and a half weeks- half a month. While it was true that I had been ill that week and stayed in isolation, that definitely didn't warrant such a notice. What was going on?

I continued on my way to the store and stocked up for an entire month. Enough to find no need to come back for the entirety of that duration. I was preparing for a worst case scenario. The cashier looked at me weirdly but he said nothing when he billed it all- he must have put it down to the notice too. I quickly paced back home and shut the door firmly behind me and bolted it shut. I switched on the news channels and scrolled though all my gadgets for any latest news on missing cases in the city. Every page, every news said the same. I was officially missing and no one seemed to find my recent presence unusual either. The whole locality was in on something I wasn't privy to.

Half the month went by with creepy rumours springing up but I made no move to walk out. The relief came as a huge tidal wave that swept me away when I went through my recent routine and checked the news that morning on the 15th of the month. My ex had been caught by the police for attempting to kill me. Every one else who'd once been in my place had already met with a gruesome end. The poster was a warning that I had unintentionally heeded: I had to go missing or I would really go missing in every sense of the word.