Prologue:

- A New Beginning -

A grey sky. A grey expanse of pebbles. The two joined each other in a straight line, where the horizon began.

The sky was the kind of grey that looked like a storm was brewing, but blew cool, dry winds that buffeted the hair and smelt like the absence of everything.

The pebbles were of the smooth sort. Rounded and honed by eons of being washed over and caressed by the salty sea.

Together, they were a world of grey, the wispy air a lighter shade than the rocky ground. The sound of pebbles crunching underfoot resonated where there were no people to hear it. And breaking the harmony between the two grey worlds, landed a foot. A striped foot.

A birds foot.

It stood upon the pebbles and a sigh of melancholy was lost in the winds. Winds that sounded like sighs themselves. A moment passed. Then the striped foot turned, and headed off, the sounds of pebbles crunching underneath fading away, seemingly into the end of the horizon.


Chapter One:

"KENNEDY!"

"WHAT!?"

"GET DOWN HERE!"

"WHY?!"

"WE'RE GOING TO GO TO THE PARK!"

"BUT WE JUST HAD NEW YEAR'S LUNCH AT THE PARK LAST NIGHT! AND NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER THE DAY BEFORE!"

"DOES IT MATTER?!"

Mordecai stood at the base of some stairs, yelling at his daughter. The stairs came from a house, handsomely owned by Mordecai himself. Himself, and his family.

"LISTEN TO YOUR DAD, KIDS!"

Mordecai turned his head to see Margaret appear next to him, fiddling with her earring. "EVERYONE'S GOING TO BE THERE! KYLIE, COOPER, WE EVEN INVITED SHANNON! JUST COME DOWN HERE!"

"WHAT KIND OF "COME" DO YOU MEAN?!"

"DON'T START MAKING INNUENDOS AT ME!"

"WHAT'S AN INNUENDO?!"

"YOU'RE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW YET, JAMES!"

"OH." was James' reply. "KENNEDY, WHAT'S AN INNUENDO?!"

"GUYS! DON'T MAKE ME COUNT TO THREE!"

"AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" came a harmonious duo of frustration from Mordecai's children. "AT LEAST LET ME FINISH THIS TEXT TO ETHAN!"

"NO! THROW SOME CLOTHES ON, AND GET DOWN HERE!"

The house was once again filled with the angry screams of kids. Stomping was heard above Mordecai and Margaret's heads, and the scraping of clothes hangers on bars and slamming of doors followed soon after. A grumpy purple teen bluejay marched down the stairs, her knees perpendicular with her waist with every step. Stopping in front of Mordecai, she "hmphed" and crossed her arms, turning her head to the side, chin up.

"Turn." instructed Mordecai. Kennedy spun around quickly.

"Slower." Mordecai added, with a darker edge. The younger bird found her father's eyes, and proceeded to try and blind them by glaring at them. She spun again, exhaustingly slow. Mordecai looked her up and down - squinting at her make-up, looking inside pockets - and generally scrutinised every nook and cranny. He started from the top, from the way her hair was presented (in the ever always double fins - styled like Margaret's) to her black Skullcandy T-Shirt, short frayed-denim skirt and black streaked-with-pink shoes. He tugged at the seemingly too small jacket that she wore, and finalised the quality of the clothes with a nod.

"Acceptable," he folded his arms. "Hmm-Hmm." Kennedy shrugged, then pushed her way through her parents to exit the house.

"Hold on, where's James?" Margaret questioned her daughter. Kennedy simply lifted her shoulders again and continued walking her way to the front door.

"I'm coming!" A red blur appeared, prancing down the stairs two at a time. "Here I am!"

"What are you wearing?"

"What do you mean, dad? You told me to throw some clothes on."

"I didn't mean it literally!" Mordecai picked a yellow sock off his sons hair (shaped liked Mordecai's hair). "Somehow, you've got your pants inside-out, AND back-to-front! I can't even tell if your legs are in the same pant-leg or in your shirt sleeves!"

"Daaaaaadddd, you're overreacting. Look, I'll just get rid of all these clothes, and we can walk out naked together." James began to pull one of his many shirts off his arm. Mordecai sighed and helped his son take off his clothes. Once James was fully nude, Mordecai grabbed the first shirt he could and jammed it on James' head.

"Now get in the car. And tell your older sister to get in the car as well." Mordecai pointed to the red station wagon parked in the driveway. Margaret chuckled as she saw her son walk out pouting. She turned to her husband.

"You know, you could learn something from them."

"What?" Mordecai furrowed his brow.

"Clothes." she giggled, then she patted and pecked Mordecai's cheek. She followed her children out the door. Mordecai stared at his wife and smiled. He walked out, grabbing the keys that were in the bowl that was on the table that seemed to always be placed in the hallway right in front of the front door.

Margaret shut the door to front seat in the car. She angled the rearview mirror so she could see her children sitting in the back seat.

"You know how much the park means to your father."

"That doesn't mean that he can bring us there all the time. It's annoying."

"It's his home away from home, Kennedy. He practically lived ther-"

"It's annoying." she finalised with a dark note. There was a brief silence where everyone in the car watched Mordecai through the windows. He pulled open the driver's seat door and climbed in, turning the keys. Backing out of the driveway, he turned out onto the road and proceeded to try some small talk with his family.

"So I'm guessing something's wrong? The usual noisy stuff that gives mom a headache isn't happening."

"Uhhh…" James tried. "Hey Kennedy… You haven't told me what an innuendo is yet."

This immediately transformed the car into an enclosed area of pure sound.

"An innuendo is-"

"NO! Don't tell your brother that!"

"C'mon! Pleeeaaaaassseee!?"

"NO! Just stay quiet! I need to drive!"

"IT BASICALLY MEANS A-"

"QUIET QUIET QUIET!"

"I WANNA KNOW!"

"LOOK OUT!" Margaret pointed at the road, and Mordecai tugged a hard left, both hands white-knuckling the steering wheel.

"WHHOOOOAAAAAHHHHH!" the entire family screamed at once. The car swerved impressively, doing a donut before slamming side-first into a lamp post. The lamp buckled and bent over - nearly crushing the car - but thankfully it held.

"Is everyone okay?" Mordecai wheezed. He heard groaning and moaning from the back seat, but the cracked rear-view mirror confirmed the lives of his children. He thanked the stars that he was only doing a few miles an hour when he crashed, but the repair bills were going to be catastrophic for the poor car. "Great. Everyone out." He unbuckled his seat belt and tried the handle to the door, but the thing proved stubborn and stuck. He kicked it once, twice, and on the third kick, the door gave way. Dragging himself out of the car, he tried standing up and found that all limbs were in almost perfect condition, apart from some minor grazes.

"Dad? DAD!"

"Kennedy?!" Mordecai looked into the rear seat window where James was. "Hold on! I'm coming!" He brought his fist up to the glass and repeatedly punched it. His fist came through the window, and his fingers found the handle to the door. Wrenching the door out, he found James rubbing his head. Mordecai grabbed James, and pulled him out after unbuckling the seat-belt.

"Can you stand?" James nodded slowly, and Mordecai helped him walk to a tree. James sat down, leaning his back against the rough bark and Mordecai rushed to save his daughter.

"Dad! DAD! DADADADADAD!"

"Okay, okay, calm down what's going on?"

"I can't- My belt's- HELP! My belt! It isn't coming out!"

"Don't worry. The car isn't on fire or anything, so I wan't you to stay cool." Mordecai bent down on his knees and took a deep breath. "Okay, so I'm going to pull you out through the top of the belt. Good?"

"Ye-yeah… OK, OK, I got this…" Kennedy began hyperventilating.

"Hey, hey. Deep breaths. In. Out." Mordecai placed his hands under Kennedy's arms and started pulling her slowly. "In. Out." Kennedy immediately started to breathe slower. Her breaths were slowly starting to get back to normal, aside from the occasional hiccup. "There. See? All out." Kennedy was lying on the back seat and she picked herself up. She lifted herself out of the seat, but her eye caught something.

"Dad…"

"What now?"

"The car really is on fire." she lifted a quivering finger. Mordecai's head snapped around.

"What!? Margaret!" and with that, Mordecai rushed around to the aid of his wife. Unluckily, the lamppost hit Margaret's door, driving her unconscious and rendering her trapped in her seat. Mordecai tried to see through the window, but try as he might, the door remained shut. Probably because a big metal lamp-post was in the way. Suddenly remembering, he went around to the driver's seat and tried unbuckling her seat belt, but the buckle proved to have the same problem as Kennedy's as it decided to jam. Going with his second tactic, he put his hands around Margaret's waist, and pulled her. Smoke began to pour in and rise to the ceiling of the vehicle, driving Mordecai to persevere and speed up. However, in his haste the seat belt wrapped around Margaret's ankles.

"NO!" he yelled, and pulled even harder. Popping out like a cork, his wife tumbled out of the car and on top of him. Getting up, he carried Margaret bridal style over to his kids by the tree.

"Oh geez…" Mordecai sighed. He looked over at his kids. He set Margaret down in front of his kids and kneeled down, reaching for his phone.

"Is she…?"

"No. She's fine. I hope. I'm calling an ambulance."

"What did we crash into?"

"I've no idea. It was sorta like it was floating, and blue and portal like. Do you think it's aliens? Like that movie? Skyline?"

"Quiet James… What the HELL is that?!" Mordecai and James followed Kennedy's eyes which seemed to be glued to something behind them. It was as James described it, blue, glowing and hovering. The ground shook, and slowly, the wind began to pick up. Tree's began to lean toward the blue portal.

"It's sucking us in! Dad! It's sucking us in!"

"I know James! Grab something!" James jumped and reached for a branch while Kennedy ran around to the back of the tree. Mordecai picked Margaret up in a piggyback and ran to the shelter of his car. Things were slowly being pulled in. Garbage cans, scooters, litter, debris from the car accident. James began to feel the effect of the portal. His feet were now pointing straight at the portal, and Kennedy was holding on for dear life, screaming her head off.

"Hey dad! This is sorta like the first time you worked at the park, with the black hole that wanted to eat your chair!"

"How the heck can you be thinking about that right now?!" Kennedy queried.

"Just hold on!" Then the tree was uprooted. It started with a cracking, the pavement gaining web-like patterns as the tree brought it's roots up with it.

"DAAAADDD!" The tree began to slowly lose grip of the earth, roots snapping and bark groaning. And the tree flew up into the portal, disappearing into oblivion.

"DAAAAAAADDDD!"

"KIDS! NOOOO!" Mordecai screamed himself hoarse, under the flaming wreckage of the car. He held on, ducking under the car. He waited and hoped the inevitable just wouldn't come. The car began to scrape across the asphalt, sparks flying from where metal met road. A dumpster flew from behind and knocked the car into the portal. Mordecai grabbed onto the lamp post just in time. Margaret flew from his grasp, but he reached out blindly and found her hand with his.

"Noo…" Margaret's fingers were slipping from his. "Please. Please hold on." Above the rushing wind and swirling leaves, he say Margaret beginning to stir. And she slipped out, out into the blue unknown. He watched as she fell into the portal, and everything slowed down. Then he felt the tears that wet his face. They came pouring down flowing like a steady stream towards the vacuum.

He stared and stared.

He closed his eyes.

He looked at his arms, straight above his head keeping him parallel to the ground. He looked at his hands, gripping the metal pole with everything he got. He gulped. Then he let his fingers unravel from his hold, and - almost too slowly for him - he fell sideways into the pulsating circle. His fingers reaching out, his feet reached the surface first. Then he was waist deep in. Then he felt the cold feeling of the portal obscuring his face. The last thing he saw was his hand, reaching out. His fingers vanished from the air.

And the portal vanished itself. Leaving no trace but the destruction it had created.