Ah, now begins the background series of Castaway… So yeah, we have Chelsea's side of view in Castaway right? This will story will be showing a lot more back ground info (about Chelsea and perhaps some others too), and about Mark (MARK?)… but I won't say much more about that.

WARNING: You wouldn't have an idea what's going on though if you haven't read Castaway soooo… it's just a heads up.

Stowaway… Chapter 1: Who's Missing?

-x-

The deep sky was absolutely beautiful, blue, filled with jumping clouds that were relaxing to stare at as they malignantly passed overhead, taunting the lethargic mood of every surrounding of mine. I loved the sky during summer's days, fall desperately trying to fill the picture but still has yet to come around to it. It was such a warm day to just lie around and -

"Master!"

I closed my eyes and sighed, sitting up from the fresh green grass I was laying upon. I growled as my servant stopped before my feet and bowed with respect, "What do you need, Allen?"

"Ah, sir. My Lady wants to see you." He answered quietly. I sighed again, not really wanting to leave the peaceful haven, but no matter. Mama wanted to see me and there's nothing I could do about it. I stood up and brushed away some grass that was sticking on me. Slipping on my jacket, I asked as we walked down the garden aisle, soon to be entering the McAllister mansion, "What does Mother need this time?" The never changing guards took hold of the handles of the door and opened it widely, allowing my servant and I to go through. The large staircase came into the clearing and we heard the tapping of heels going down the stairs.

"Oh, Mark, dear. Mark!" I heard my Mother cry as she quickly came down the steps. I walked toward her and extended my hand, which she took. As I helped her to the leveled granite floor, she finally spoke. "Oh, my dear Mark. Didn't you hear?" She asked warily with a worried face. I studied her for a while - her curled blonde locks gracing her cheeks and my own green eyes seeing its own reflection. Some would say that I was the exact copy of my mother..

I wasn't one to care for what's going on, nor was I up-to-date on things since I just lazily lay around all day to my discontent. "No, is there something wrong?"

"Lady Loraine's daughter, Chelsea, has gone missing!"

'Who in the world was Chelsea?' was my first thought. "Oh, that's not good." I said apathetically "concerned".

"Yes, my best friend's eldest daughter. First it was her son… now her daughter!" My pitiful mother sighed and tapped her foot against the stone floor, crossing her arms with both frustration and sympathy. She was shorter than me by a head, so the image reminded me of those high school girls way back when and their attitudes.

But… I truly didn't care about this missing person. I had no heck of an idea who this person was anyway.

"Oh," I started. "That's terrible." I lied.

"Yes it is… She's such a wonderful girl and has been through so much." She kept ranting on and on. "We must visit their family as soon as possible." My mother turned to her personal maid and told her about the change of plans, which she crossed out the ones before and quickly scribbled in my mother's words to her little note pad.

Allen walked up to me and handed me a newspaper. "It's on the front page that Miss Chelsea had gone missing." He stepped back, watching me blankly like a robot already designed on knowing what to do and when to do it. Does the kid have a life?

I shook and looked at the paper not very interested. It told of her family background, of how they drowned in a pile of pitiful debt, and that she possibly had ran away by going on a ship… a ship that was shipwrecked by an awful storm. They said that teams all around found most of the Castaways… Chelsea being the only one left to not be found and heard of. Whereabouts unknown.

Then there was a picture of her towards the side. She was dressed like any other commoner (you know, t-shirt and jeans. The usual fad between commoners) and didn't look like the high and prestigious position as she was apart of… What a weird girl.

I tossed the paper back at my servant disdainfully and began walking away. "Change of plans, Allen. I'll be going along with my mother to visit the family as well."

"Yes, sir."

I didn't know where I was off to, but walking along like this allowed me to think. I passed through the many halls of the mansion… where I lived. Most who would look at this place would think that it was beautiful, those with much money and power could only live in such a place and that whoever were to live in such a place must be something. But when I look at this place, I could only think that I didn't like it the way that most would. It was annoying living in such a place. There was rules to follow and things you must do at such a young age. I couldn't help but feel jealous of commoners who are able to enjoy and smile even if they didn't have as much money. I can't help but be jealous of those who could run away, like this Chelsea.

The rankings of how much money you have affected how people looked at you. They say money brought happiness, but where exactly was that? All I found was hurt and greed, unlike those out there who share their helping with others around. And though they had such little money, they still had excitement and joy in their poverty lives.

I would say that it was pretty screwed up around here.

And I would say that I've always wanted to run away. I would tell Chelsea that I was happy for her to be able to run away from such a terrible standard, but then I just had the oddest feeling that I was jumping to conclusions on to why she had run away.

I rubbed my temples as I paused through my trek through the mansion. "I'm thinking too much…"

-x-

The Next Day…

I looked at the home. This was a commoner's home. Chelsea's home, apparently. It was much smaller than what I had expected. I guess I had forgotten that they were stuck in too much debt. I looked at my mother who stood beside me, her face also puzzled, but she did her best not to show it. It was a yellow, small house, on the bumpkin side of the city. It had flowers growing from the window sills and some vines crawled up the side of the home. An apple tree was on their green front yard and the stepping stones clearly showed the way toward the front of the house. I found it rather simple.

Ringing the door bell, some loud stomping was heard from inside, some yelling to go along with it. The door suddenly jerked opened, followed by, "What do you want?"

I blinked at the eye bleeding sight. It was a fat woman, with baggy eyes and the puffiest cheeks I've ever seen. Her style of apparel was of the "trying to convince others that I'm an aristocrat" type, but the taste was horrible. She was plump and looked flared, but at the sight of us (possibly with light glowing in the background to add more dramatic affect that my mother normally brought), her face grew pale and she regained composure.

"Ah, I am so very sorry, My Lady.." She bowed, if it could be considered a bow since it more looked like piles of fat scrunching together for a moment then flattening out. "Forgive my rudeness, but what brings you here today?" The fat woman had a very puzzled and embarrassed expression on her face.

My mother shook her head and asked with the sweetest of her tones, "I would like to meet with Lorraine today, in regards of her missing daughter."

"Ah," The fat woman seemed disdained and disappointed by the mention of "missing daughter" which made me wonder. "Please come inside."

We both nodded and entered the house. It wasn't large and roomy as was the McAlllister mansion. It looked like any normal home that commoners would live in and it had that homey feeling that my "friends" explained to me. It was nice… well, everything except the plump lady. It was hard to ignore the wide woman with her taking much of the view.

"Auntie, who is it?" A soft lady-like voice asked. Coming down from the staircase was a young woman with long pale blonde hair that looked almost gray colored. She didn't seem that much older than me and she looked very beautiful indeed. Behind her followed a younger girl who held on to the young woman's sleeve. She was cute, with her hazelnut curls surrounding her face..

The fat woman turned to look at the young woman. "Erika, please take My Lady and her son to Lorraine. They're here to meet with them." Her voice was different than to how it was toward us. A very demanding and feared voice.

"Yes, Auntie." Erika nodded and gestured to us to follow her, guiding along the young girl before her.

We slowly followed up the small staircase and came to the second floor. There wasn't many rooms, but one especially caught my attention. Chelsea's room. Well, it was kind of hard not to miss it. There was a sign outside that clearly said, "CHELSEA'S ROOM", and the door looked battered, as if it could fall off its hinges at anytime, at the slightest touch. The other doors around didn't even compare.

"Melanie, please go inside your sister's room. You can sleep there." Erika had said gently and we watched the young girl quickly go behind the door to Chelsea's room, me afraid of the door and the danger that could possibly lurk from it and it only.

Erika continued to walk and stopped at a door at the end of the hall. She gently knocked three times then opened the door to reveal a lighted area, surrounded by white. Inside, there were white curtains that reflected the sunlight from the windows. All the room consisted of was a large bed with a woman laying upon it. The woman, I couldn't see…

My mother quickly went, joining the view and nodded to us. And with that, Erika and I stood outside the closed door.

"So… You're Mark, right?" She asked quietly… then corrected, "Excuse me. I meant -"

I shook my head. "No, it's alright. You may call me Mark." Normally, formalities would matter, but for now, I guess it wouldn't apply. "That woman in the bed was Chelsea's mother right? Is there something wrong with her?"

"She's very ill." She answered curtly. "Come, let's go get Melanie." Erika walked over to the door of Chelsea's room and knocked gently, creaking open the door. "Melanie?"

I peered within the room from behind her and saw that the room was quite empty. Normally, from what I saw in movies, I'd expect that it would be a girly and filled with things that were cute and pink, but the room was barely occupied, consisting of all things needed and important. The little brunette was laying on the fuzzy mat in the middle of the room, probably sleeping since her light snore was heard.

"This was Chelsea's room." Erika said to me in a whisper, sitting down and placing the little girl's head on her lap. "She wasn't at home a lot since she did so many jobs. That's why her room is like this…"

I nodded slowly and peered down at the little girl. "Who is this?" I asked, also sitting down on the wood floor as well.

Erika patted the girl's head gently. "This is Melanie, Chelsea's younger sister. She seems to be very tired today."

"I see." I looked around the room. Just being here gave me the oddest feeling. There was something I wanted to know since something finally gave me a little interest on this Chelsea character.

"I should probably tell you about Chelsea, judging by your curious face." She said, stroking the young girl's hair.

"Hmm… you are very good at this, reading me like a book." I replied with a smug smile.

"But in return, there's something I want you to do." Her voice was grave and her face changed. Though it was a very pretty face that could brighten up any day, able to replace the sun, it felt like all gravity just came down on us, the dark suddenly dimming.

I blinked, not expecting this response.

And suddenly, I got the feeling that things just got interesting for me.

-x-

Don't get too excited. I will say my updates will just be as random as Castaways…

- Do Jo