Day 104

Day 1: May 31, 2045

It was a beautiful spring day it was the end of May when it happened. It seemed like a normal day, just like any other day. My mother, Alicia, and I were sitting outside on our wrap-around patio as I eagerly told her about my new job offer working at an art gallery I had accepted earlier that day when she just vanished like she was part of a Houdini magic trick. At first, I assumed she just got up and went to get our family dog as I excitedly talked her ear off as she did many times before. I called out for her a few times and all I heard back was our light brown toy poodle, Esmeralda who we called Essie, barking back at me. As I was heading for the front door to get her and to find my mother, I heard my best friend and neighbor, Hope Lacey, yelling my name as she was running towards me.

“Chloe! Chloe!” she said winded, panicking,

“What’s wrong?” I said, worried,

“Mikey… he’s gone. He was just there and then he vanished.” Hope cried,

“What do you mean?” I asked,

“I don’t know… I just know he was here one minute and gone the next.” She said

I held in my breath as the realization hit me

“My mom…she’s gone too,” I said

Hope and I looked at each other as the rest of the neighborhood came calling out for their now missing loved ones.

Day 104:

September 8, 2045 12:39 am

I walk over to my dresser and take off the gold heart-shaped neck that had mine and my mother’s initials engraved on it, that my mother got me on my thirteenth birthday nine years ago and safely tucked it away in my jewelry box that sits on my dresser. I take off my bathrobe and hang it up behind the bedroom door and I start to place my satin head wrap on my head when I hear a blood-curdling scream outside my window which makes Essie run behind my feet.

“What the-, “ I say as I put my robe back on as I run downstairs

I open the front door and look around when I see dark red liquid making a trail from the front of my house to the sidewalk and I follow it when finally stops at the end of the cul-de-sac. There I see Andi Marie Stanley, the resident doctor and the neighborhood human encyclopedia who lives across the street from me

I bend down and pick up her blonde, blood-soaked head. Her now broken glasses laying beside her

“Andi. What happened to you?” I ask as I cradle her head in my lap, “Who did this to you?”

She fades in and out of consciousness as she looks up to look at me.

“Come on Andi tell me what happened?” I repeat

“I... I... I” Andi stutters

“Shh. It’s okay. Just try to stay awake. You got to stay awake,” I whisper, “Tell me something. Anything.”

I cradle her in my arms as she tries to fight her sleepiness while she mumbles nonsense.

I hear footsteps approaching us, and I look up and see Hope and Xavier looking down at me.

“We need to call a town meeting. Now!” I say

Day 104:

September 8, 2045 1:05 am

“Someone attacked and killed Andi Marie and I want to know who did it and why it happened,” I say

It has been twenty minutes since Andi laid dying in my arms on the sidewalk. Her blood is now forever a part of my bathrobe. Her last dying breath still echoing in my head. Seeing Xavier carrying her limp body across the quad to our makeshift city hall is now sketched in my memory.

The fifteen or so other members of our small community look around at each other, some puzzled looks and some with grieving looks.

It reminds me back on the first day when we were all confused about what happened to our loved ones, our family, and friends. The world around us changed so quickly we had no time to process anything when our first meeting was called. Back then, we used cars to get our city hall downtown and other technologies but we decided after day 50 that we save all the technology for extreme emergencies but at day 55 we decided we should make some of the houses in the neighborhood a hospital and a city hall and some other important places.

“Come on, you guys, someone must know something. Andi Marie didn’t bash her head in herself,” Hope says, “She’s laying in the basement dead and alone because of one of us.”

“We’re supposed to meet up. Andi thought she had a lead on the disappearance, and she was going to come over to discuss it.” Mackenzie Andi’s best friend says,

“Did she say if she was meeting anyone else?” Xavier asks

Mackenzie shakes her. “No. I just know she wanted to meet to talk about her theory.”

“Did she say what her theory was?” I ask,

She shakes her head again.

“Whatever her theory can wait. We got a murderer among us, and we need to figure out who it is,” Xavier says, “We will not be sleeping until we find them, so prepare for a long sleepless night.”

Day 104:

September 8, 2045 1:17am

Xavier and I walk into Andi’s house, and it’s a chaotic mess in here. Papers spread out everywhere. Drawings on the wall that looks like puzzles that only Andi could understand with yarn that connecting to other drawings that look like a murder board.

“What did she find out?” I say looking at Xavier

“I guess that’s what we have to figure out cause it seems that’s what got her killed,” Xavier says “let’s split up and see what we can find.”

“Okay,” I say,

I make my way up the oakwood spiral staircase with more red yarn leading me to a closed bedroom door. I open the door and trail of yarn and more of the mystery drawings as well. It’s just as chaotic as the rest of the house. The room smells like a mix of bleach and freshly burned out candles and a hint of sandalwood perfume. I turn on the side table lamp, which reveals pieces of papers splatter across the bed. I pick up one of them and I read it over.

“No way…” I gasp

I neatly stack the papers and sandwiched them between my hands and I head downstairs

“Zay. Look at these,” I say handing him the papers,

He looks at them and then at me. “I guess we know why she was killed.”

“You don’t believe this, do you?” I ask

“We know Andi was smart and was probably the only person who was this close to cracking the mystery of the disappearances while the rest just gave up,” Xavier says

“We didn’t know,” I sigh, “how could we? The people we love had just vanished. We all grieve in different ways. This was Andi’s way.”

“And she helped us. Now we need to help ourselves.” He says

“Yes, we do,” I say

Day104:

September 8,2045 2:32 am

After discovering Andi’s work, Xavier and I head to the end of the street where Hope is.

“Find anything?” I question her

“Not much,” Hope says shaking her head

“We did,” Xavier says handing Hope the papers

She reads them as we walk towards city hall house

She’s quiet for a moment as she studies the papers. She sucks in a breath and she breathes again

“Are we for certain?” Hope asks,

Xavier shrugs.

“Who could’ve killed her? Someone in the town must’ve known about this besides her right?” She asks,

He shrugs again.

“We need to get everyone in city hall,” I say,

We look at each other realizing we know more than we ever had.

Day 104:

September 8,2045 3:42 am

The medium-sized living room that we made into the main meeting area for our city hall in a vacant house that hasn’t been used for over a year is filled with even more grief and confusion than there have been nearly three hours ago. This time, there’s anger mixed in with the other two emotions. Everyone’s emotions are running sky-high right now since we told everyone about Andi’s discovery.

“Everyone calm down,” Xavier says,

“How the hell are we supposed to be calm?” Travis, one of the neighbors, asks, “We don’t know how Andi died and who killed Andi.”

“I can’t even figure out what her theory even means or if it’s even true,” Mackenzie says,

“Andi was one of the smartest ones here. She knows what she was talking about, there's no way she didn't, she wasn’t killed for no reason.” Hope says,

“Andi made a map and I think we should follow it. It might give us more answers.” I say

Day 104:

September 8,2045 4:30 am

The town meets in the middle of the quad in the center of the city. I look around, trying to figure out what Andi could’ve seen and how she figured out that there are three alternative versions of the disappearances. In the version I’m in, the older adults like my mom and the teens and kids like Mikey and Xavier’s sister Ashleigh vanished. Supposedly there’s a version where our parents and grandparents and the older adults are at. The last version is where the kids and teens are at.

I sigh and think about my mom and how she must be dealing with everything. I touch my heart-shaped necklace that is back on my neck and I look up into the orange-violet dusk sky when I see something odd.

“Guys… look up,” I say as I point to the sky

“Holy shit,” Hope says

“It can’t be,” Xavier says

I hear some gasps and I hear Mackenzie scream.

Looking back at us are giant blue eyes, everything around starts to glitch and then goes black.