Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-10502460-20190529070124/@comment-35711173-20190529204727

Child abandonment is a real horror for the little kid involved. I remember that panic well. It's more horrifying than seeing a bunch of strangers get eaten by a skating rink. You survived the hungry skating rink. You won't survive without a parent. This is a life and death struggle.

If the kid is used to being abandoned, then the emotion is far less.

Consider this idea: Mom and Dad are both on the ice. Kid is off to the side playing something electronic. The skating rink eats both parents. Perhaps another kid sees it, but the first kid's parents are still gone. Now we have a kid that is absolutely filled with terror. The center of his life just vanished, right in front of him. Nobody believes him or the other kid. They're just kids.