I've been thinking about this story for quite a while, and finally a chance to write it down, hoping this would be my OFFICIAL fanfic (not the two horrible ones I've posted a year or two ago.)

Wow. Something really long for a chapter 1. 0.0

"Sis! Can we play hide and seek?" My brother's cheeky face, splotched with a faint cover of freckles, decorated with a sweet grin and a flash of white teeth peeking from his thin lips. I looked lazily into the chilling blue eyes of his, and gave a small sound of laziness.

It was far too comfortable here, under the bed of moss, surrounded by flowers which carried a string of wonderful fragrance. Butterflies fluttered around, the color of the wings filtered into my sterling silver eyes by the seeps of sunlight that managed to escape the protective shades of the grasses, the sky a bright blue. The sound of the stream that carried crystal clear water flowed not far from me and my brother, placing a small touch of whole breathtaking scene was like picture stolen from heaven.

There was no lullaby audible, but I feel one. The one sang by Mother Nature.

"Hmm... can I have a rest first?" I knew I wasn't getting a merciful answer. My brother was only five, and who can blame him for being so energized?

"Aw, c'mon, Big Sis, we've rested long enough! Please please please?" He begged, giving me those irresistible puppy eyes again.

I stretched lazily, and snickered in defeat. "Alright, you. Just wait for me to get up..." I let out a abrupt grunt as I slowly got into a standing position, now my turn to tower my brother. "Who's turn to seek?" I looked down at him.

"Your turn!" He giggled, and zipped off to a place to hide.

I sighed. Finding him here would be as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. He knew every corner, every turn or swerve or dead road here, the do's and don'ts of the navigation in this mysterious garden he found a year ago.

Me? He dragged me here a week ago, and I decided to stick to this comfortable place, in case I get lost or anything.

I turned my face to the rough bark of the trees, and started dragging the counting so he gets more time to hide and not complain that I didn't give enough time when I find him.

As I finally landed on ten, I swerved back.

"HERE I COME, ALEX!"

No answer.

I started creeping around the corners of the lush world of nature, hoping to find a hint to my brother's location, a hair, some doodles on the soil path. I started to linger around, wave after wave of disappointment flushed over as I leaped sharply into a hole, bush, tree branch, I even went through the bed of flowers Alex liked to hide in and smell the natural perfume thoroughly.

No sign of him, nothing.

Finally, I pushed away the determination clouding the fact that I'm not having a chance of finding him, and went back to the normal place where I had counted down the time I gave Alex to hide.

"Alright, Alex, you win! I can't find you!"

Only the rustle of the leaves answered me.

A wave of confusion rushed in. "Hey, you can come out now!"

Still nothing had heard my yell.

"Alex?" I yelled once more. "C'mon, stop it! I said you won already!"

"Alex! Oh Alex! You know your name, don't you?"

That was the last time I saw him.

I screamed for him again and again till my throat felt sore and dry, and even went back home to call mom. Mom freaked out, and called the cops.

There was utterly no sign of him in the garden, no sign that he exited the garden as well. There was only a string of footsteps of his crocs running along into a leafy corridor, and, at some pace, the footsteps stopped. The police even checked the walls, but no clue either.

But he wasn't the first family member we lost.

Papa had disappeared as well, six months ago.

We were having a family party, when a knock came interrupting the merry atmosphere, and dad went to get it. We thought it might be Ken, our neighbour.

An hour went, and papa was still not coming back. Mom decided to get him, but when she came back, she was weeping terribly, the mascara already dripping from her eyes. She never told us why, but when she called the police and told them about papa, I knew what was happening.

I locked myself in a room and cried as loud as possible, praying Alex wouldn't know it and wouldn't be allowed to touch the

Then my own brother disappeared, and I knew my family was falling down from a chunk of gold which radiated merry heat, to a pile of ash dampened with tears.

Now it was only me and my mom. There was no problems for the financial bills, but the hardship to resist the mysterious loss we had experienced was rough.

Seven years later, it was my turn to disappear.

"Class, are you even paying attention?" Mrs Scott's cane whipped on my desk, causing my heart to leap out of my chest. "If you're not, do it now, because I'm gonna say something really important now!" The emerald eyes of her was shining with pure seriousness, nothing joking or loose.

I sighed, leaning on my chair in boredom. My heart returned to a slow pace, as if it was slowed by a small lullaby. My mind felt the cobwebs gathering around it from the lack of brainstrom. It was complete hell for the world of entertainment. Yeah, right. Whichever history teacher says it's important, it would be the same gibberish as the other things that she or he will say monotonously in class.

"Tomorrow, we will be setting off to the National Museum, where we will learn the orgins of World War two, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as other National leaders."

The urge to slump onto the desk, what you call 'facedesk', was irresistible.

Still boring.

When she finally finished listing the names and place we were gonna head for the next day, I just settle down and fumbled around with my pendant, laced by a chain from my mother. The pendant was from my father, before he disappeared. Before we started moaning about everything that had linked us together. It was made of pure gold, having the shape of a prism square with a six edged star surrounding it, and a diamond in the center.

I closed my eyes briefly, and reminisced the memory of my father's wrinkled smile, my father's bicolored eyes again, one hazel one green. It was odd, but it made him who he was, a fantasy lover, a strong believer of magic. I loved him dearly, so much I was hoping to sacrifice my life to save him from wherever he was.

When I opened my eyes, the ringing bell blared it's shrill cry once simultaneously, and everyone got up with bright cheers and their eyes gleamed in relief as the school came to its end.

I met Rachel when I was shoving my history notes back into my locker. She was flinging her ginger curls up and down her shoulder when she met me with a flash of her snow white teeth. She was already knew about the trip, and it, somehow, excited her. Then it was all explained when she started talking about one of the security guy there being 'hot', 'cute', etc.

I could just listen to her 'love talking' while I finished putting everything into the locker, and hauled my drab bag up, my face emotionless. "Hey, Rachel, I have to go now, talk to you later, and good luck getting that guy." I finally flashed a reassuring smile to her, and she blushed. before going off, whistling 'That's a Very Good Fellow Indeed'.

I know, weird for a girl.

There's always a trend for girls in high school. Whenever some gal gets addicted to girly stuff like nail polish, stuff like that, they get into boys too. So far, this is the first time I've ever came across a girl who owns a list of boyfriends she had broke up and dated with, it was so long I think if she wrote it all in small letters it might have touched the ground. Then you will ask how the heck did I get to be friends with a girl like this.

Me and Rachel came traditionally bonded when we were kids, and there's rarely a relationship between childhood buddies being broken up due to anger or indignity. Plus, she's a good, reliable friend I can trust with my secrets, including my bedroom went through a long term transformation into something sci fi.

When I opened the sweet caramel white door, I came face to face to Mom talking merrily to the phone, chatting and tangling her finger among the phone wires, like a teenage girl when she got to line with her crush or boyfriend on. I watched blankly as she called whoever on the line 'sweetie', which sent a punch to my heart. When she place down the phone, she barely acknowledge me, reading her newspapers until I spoke.

"Who's that 'sweetie'?" I whispered, and she jerked her head towards me, her eyes suddenly filled with panic. For the first second, she seem for a loss of words, then she finally cleared her throat, and rose from the couch. "You know which kind of person I'm talking to already, don't you, honey?"

"But what about Papa-"

"Papa have disappeared. I'm afraid we have to put the past away, and embrace the present. We cannot rely on the memories and mourn. Besides, I think you'll love Finn." She flashed me a big smile, the identical one as what Rachel flashed at me back fifteen minutes ago.

"How would I love Finn?" I asked with a tiny spark of incredulousness.

"He's a scholar, and a big fan of fantasy as well, and loves playing jokes." Her tone tried to avoid mine from exploding.

"How long has this gone?" I slumped onto a couch, waiting for a answer.

She looked down at the wooden tiles, and sighed. "Two years."

That hit me like a hammer once again. "Two years you've been keeping this from me?"

"I'm sorry, honey, but-"

"It's not me you have to say sorry to, but to Papa, who had been abandoned by you for two years." I slammed my bag down and stormed into my room, before starting my my research again.

To revive the ultimate idea of, that, most likely, will bring me to the first step of seeing the face of truth, and prove that Alex nor Papa isn't dead yet.

Ever since Alex disappeared, I've been fed up with the mystery disappearance thing, believed both of the disappearance were linked.

My determination had me into a devotion to academics and technology, hoping that I would know anything that can lead me to the center of the crisis. I won't study the heck out of me for nothing. My first step led me to deep exploration of the garden I last saw my brother. I've saw every corners of the room place, and found it really was a good place to hide, with every trap door and hidden passages, tunnels. Whoever who created it was a complete mastermind for gardening.

Unfortunately I can't find anything pretty cool that brings me to Alex.

I also checked everything that was near where the footsteps disappeared. The acidity value of the soil, the leaves, and even micro scratch marks near it. I even used my money painfully extracted from my piggy bank to track down secret paths down. But I can't find anything worth suspicious of. I've checked the whole garden as well, and nothing had been worthy as a result.

Disappointed, I moved to Papa's. I asked everyone in the neighbourhood, Ken, Mr and Mrs Joeseph, if they remembered anything suspicious or odd when it was the night that me and my family partied. I used my tracking analyzer again, and even used all my tracking skills and technology skills to buy a ACTUAL online lie detector for all of them, which gained hatred from the whole neighbourhood, and still found nothing.

Nothing.

It's like there was a portal in front of them and they just stepped in to disappear.

But that sounded barely rational I decided not to accept that belief.

Mom said there was absolutely nothing I can hope on, they had completely disappeared without a trace. I threw her words into a trash can almost immediately.

There is always a solution to something. I remember the old said.

And I'm going to find it.

Now, reaching the last resort of my desperate research, I'm starting to think if the satellites had captured something worthy on my doorstep, or in the garden. Nothing exposed to the air and sky can escape the sharp vision of the satellite, right?

I slammed down onto my desk and started typing away in my Mac, which was attached to so many devices and softwares it looked like a lair for a evil techie when you open the door and take a peep from my room. Carefully choosing a satellite symbol, I managed to transfer data into the icon and, somehow, the programme activated itself. Ignoring the fact and taking it as an advantage, I slammed the enter button, I could see the whole layers of security and the center of it, my target.

YES, I KNOW. I'VE BECOME A TECH FREAK.

Every single symbol and code streaming into sight was urgent to the long term project. Choosing the correct symbols, I linked them together, forming a anti virus to resist the security bond.

When doing the first attempt, I got a chip of the security code, and finally, managed to hack into the central satellite memory system, where all the trash goes and not really anything worth except for my father and Alex's disappearance, so I double confirmed there's no one who's gonna sack someone for rummaging around the useless pictures. Thrill rose as I connected the code of the memory chip, before typing in the exact coordinates of my house and the address, the exact time. It took me frustratingly long time to scoop the informations back, but eventually I got it all recorded into the head, and pressed enter.

The pictures blipped into sight, and my heart halted as I started to scroll in, then zoomed into a picture of the head of my dad standing in front of a man with a khaki hat resembling what detectives wear in the movies. A drop of sweat slicked off my face, unnatural silence hung, and my heart seemed to slow its beating as I went into another second of the picture, and another, then the next few pictures, showing the situation happening while we had waited for Papa to be back.

At first there was nothing, and they seem to just stand there and talk, then later, my dad bowed his head, and the two went into a red Honda Stream, and drove away from the parking lot soundlessly.

Panicking, I changed the coordinates of the satellite's picture, revealing them driving to somewhere. Slowly, I followed them by listing different locations until they came to a building with the big spider arcing on the entrance.

The National Museum.

I gulped, and my heart plummeted to bewilderment. Why in the world are they driving there? What has the National Museum have to do with my father's disappearance. My mind was too clouded with confusion to track down Alex. As I slumped on my seat, thinking about everything that I had desperately used to uncover everything.

Finally, I had dusted the first step to the crisis.

Finally, this had been to somewhere I can settle and analyze once more.

A plan formed in my mind, covering all the wise instincts of mine and was conquered by my rough personality of impulsiveness.

I'm gonna bring Papa back home, no matter what.

I woke up with Mom already gone to work as a pharmacist in a international company, and I scrambled up, grabbing my jacket, jeans and sneakers, donning them on, and grabbed my bag before speeding to school by a hasty mount of my bike.

When we reached the Museum, which welcomed me with a imaginary deadly glare from the spider, and the memories of watching the screen yesterday streamed into my mind. Rachel was beside me, and her friends, gossiping to each other, and me staying silent, my fingers, shoved into my jean pockets, fumbling for the gears that were gonna be used for the plan.

There was the principal there, and Mrs Scott, with a few more teachers boring a watchful eye on us, and the unescapable bounds of security cameras. Oh, and workers looking around plus security guards carrying shotguns, batons. Getting information from the security cameras seemed hopeless, but there has to be a possible attempt.

I excused myself to the toilet, and sprang into action, slipping into the darkness and made my way into where I assume the worker's spot is.

Panic rose as I encountered twists and turns in the dark, and I feared that I don't really have the golden memory where I can remember every move I've made. But fate was feeling pitiful, because when I stumbled into a dark section, there was a light signal indicating (SECURITY ROOM. ONLY AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ALLOWED TO ACCESS ROOM)

I felt my heart lighten in joy, and I scrambled to get to the door, only to be stopped by a trip, one of the most fatal mistakes I've ever done in my whole life. As I collapsed, I grabbed a door handle that led to a storage nearby to support myself, only to open the door and get myself into a worse situation by getting flattened by many different objects that looked like minor artifacts.

Fear and trepidation dug a hole in my soul, before I tried to thrash out of my way to free myself before the guards spot me and I'm dead. I was in midway running frantically out of the mess, when a voice paralyzed me:

"Claire?"

I looked back to see Rachel holding a hand inches from her opened mouth, a complete sign of shock. I had the same emotion plastered on my face, but mine was even more confused.

"What are you doing here?" We said in unison.

"I saw you running off the opposite direction of the bathroom, and decided to follow you to see if you're lost or up to something. Why do you have to barge into a antique closet?"

"Closet?" I looked around, and realized it was filled with some rags and jewelry, already dull from lack of use.

"Whatever. What in the world are you doing here?" She exclaimed.

"I got track of my dad. The satellite memory files indicate he went into the museum with some stranger, and I have to know why is he in here!"

Before Rachel had the time to open her mouth to speak, the security door opened, revealing a guard armed with a baton. He stared at both of us, and his eyebrows arched into a nasty U, that means 'you're in trouble'.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting in front of the principal's room, away from the museum. Rachel has been excused for not being guilty, but boy, I am in BIG trouble.

The principal spent ten minutes yelling at a voice so shrill my eardrums could've burst, all the harsh words concerning about 'Privacy, vandalism, breaking into other people's area, not following the flow.' I sighed in disappointment. Not of the 'meeting' with the principal, but my failed 'mission'. if I haven't made that stupid token of haste, I wouldn't have been sitting here.

When he finally finished telling me off, he rose from his seat, and heaved a dull sigh. "I've wasted a lot of time on you, Claire Ryder. But it is my duty, so what can I do? Anyways, there is a package sent straight from school that wants you to receive."

He plopped a package no bigger than a ostrich egg, no smaller than a soda can, which fitted into both of my hands perfectly, shaped like a pear without the slim shapes. Overall, it looked like a thick icicle.

"Take it, and leave my office. Mr Prachett is waiting for you for detention."

Oh, goody. First detention ever. Whoo hoo.

When I got back from the dreary detention, mom was still not back from her job yet. Then I remembered she had three urgent meetings for the day, and relieved that she didn't disappear, like Papa and Alex did.

Settling down on my desk, I unwrapped the parcel, my heart skipping a beat to see a stone, glowing golden, having the same shape as the parcel, resting in my hands. A hole was punched a few centimeters away from the barely sharp tip, like there was something that was supposed to fit in there. There was also a pin that came with it, at the back having a symbol of two crescents with oddly bent edges circling two smaller dots and one bigger one at the center, on the front surface a empty space to place something with a little pin sticking out of the center.

My eyes darted to the package wrapping, now lying in the trash bin of mine. I fished it out once more, and tried to find a return address, only to find none. There wasn't even a address from where it was sent. I cocked a eyebrow, throwing the wrapping back into the trash bin.

I widened my eyes my soul feeling itself rising and exploding to shreds. Could it be...?

I took my pendant chained to my neck, revealing a small hole punched at the center at the back of the symbol. There was a link. Carefully, I placed the two together, and they fitted perfectly with a click.

My heart skipped a beat, and I examined the pendant as it started to let out a strange glow, a yellow-gold light lining the outlines of the symbol adorning my pendant. It was like the things in the movies, how they actually make things glow, like there was something inside. When I tried to separate the two, there was no use, like they just superglued to each other.

Biting my lip in both anxiety, thrill and curiosity, I started to fumble around the pendant, before returning my attention to the rock. Then I widened my eyes at the rock's hole, then looked at the pendant. Taking it from my neck once more, I compared the size of the hole to my pendant, only, adding even more excitement, they matched perfectly.

I took a deep breath, and tried to link connect things together, into a obvious wrapper of information. The pendant was from my dad. Someone sent this, and it seems to go with the pendant. That means the sender of this knows who my dad is, and may be near him. If I press this inside, who knows, there might be some kind of sci fi holographic stuff projecting out, and my father's image will be there.

I shoved a finger to fit the pendant into the rock, and I widened my eyes in disbelief started to hover from the table, the light from it was intensifying, temporarily blinding me. My mind was screaming at me to get out, back into the world of rationality.

This was way too fantasized. This was way too much to be believed.

As the light faded to it's normal warm glow, I reached to take it down, and for once, I wished I didn't.

A electrifying sensation sped through my hand, contacting my veins and pulverizing them. Then pain, no, agony, flowed into the body, stinging every nerves, tormenting my mind, causing my eyes to shut close. The pain only grew, ignoring the protest my body was sending, my voice was screaming, my instincts tried to resist. My consciousness was on the verge of collapsing.

My knees buckled as I kneeled onto the carpet, and I had to support myself with my arms, which were barely in use, suffering from the sudden mass of pain.

Suddenly, all of them disappeared, and I was tossed into nothingness.

Little one.

I opened my eyes, and turned face to face to a sky of midnight black, adorned by millions of tiny sparks of stars, shining like diamonds. The sensation of floating was unimaginable, and that brought a combination of bewilderment and horror to my face.

There is nothing to fear, little one.

"Where... where am I?" I stuttered, flinging my arms trying to sustain my balance, which seemed really hard to.

"Where two of your paths separate." I blinked in confusion at the deep voice that gave the answer, and I tried to press my insanity down.

"What do you mean?"

"You have done things beyond a limit of a normal mundane girl could wield, thanks to the determination you have for your family. Now, I am here to grant your wish, but this require a price."

"Name it." My fingers balled into fists.

"This has nothing to do with the financial currency of your world. But a life, a devotion to it. If you choose to accept it, you will face a world of unimaginable secrets, adventures. Everything you take in will be hard to believe, rely on. You have to do more than saving your parents and returning them to your world. If you prefer not, your life will resume as a normal girl and the memory of this will be erased, your family remained lost. One is straight, one is twisted, rough and dangerous. Are you willing to risk this to save your family?"

I looked down, into the abyss of stars, the answer already clear in my mind. This was the chance that I can finally uncover the true face of my family's secret. This is the true step, where all my years of hardworking, devotion to my parents will be deserved. I will have the chance to uncover them all, and bring them back, and we can reunite as one again.

The the other hand, my mind was exploding from incredulousness. This was way too stupid, illogical, and out of the bounds of the limit of imagination.

I closed my eyes, and rewinded everything I've been through, so brief but real.

"I will choose the rough one. I will face everything that I need to, everything to do to get back with my family." I said determinedly.

The voice chuckled that vibrated through the universe. "I cannot sense any more determination as strong as this. Very well, your destiny will begin here."

The next second, my world turned pitch black, and I plummeted once more, into nothingness.

Critical reviews are welcomed too.

(CAN I HAVE AT LEAST ONE REVIEW? I'M BEGGING HERE!)