Chapter one: A flash

Aquila and Kathleen stood facing each other across the small coffee table, strewn with various books, papers, writing utensils and long forgotten mugs. Their shoulders were squared; Aquila's arms crossed and a stern look on her face. Aquila was tall and thin, her hair was dark, like her eyes, and cut into a short style. She was wearing a white button up shirt and purple tie. She rose and accusatory finger at the other girl, fixing her with a sideways glare.

"Listen to me okay? No one is going to clean up your god dammed messes for you anymore!"

Kathleen smiled and glanced away from Aquila's eyes. She was shorter than Aquila, her dark, straight hair hung down to her chin, framing her round face. She had brown eyes and a light brow, both of which were in a stubborn set of rebellion.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She said snidely.

Aquila gestured to the kitchen over the back of the chair Isla was currently occupying, holding an open book in her lap, glancing up occasionally from between two curtains of mousey brown, dreaded hair, being held out of her face by her glasses to watch the fight that was transpiring.

"Look at that! There are literally noodles fused with the wall because of you!" Aquila shrieked raising her eyebrows she flailed her hands around in exasperation. Kathleen was still smiling and the sight of her, seemingly enjoying the outbreak, just made Aquila angrier.

"Who says that was me?" Kathleen chuckled.

"Well, I mean you are the only person that throws food at the wall to see if it's ready... Yeah. Not just noodles." Vicky chimed in, looking up at Kathleen with her almond eyes. She was sitting cross-legged on the couch, one headphone in, covered by her long wavy black hair, and connected to the Ipad sitting in her lap. When Kathleen fixed her with a don't-you-dare-take-her-side kind of glare, Vicky giggled nervously and went back to whatever it was she was doing on her little device.

"Come on you guys, help me out with this." Aquila said with a whine. She turned towards the two sitting comfortably on their separate pieces for furniture. Isla looked up slowly, still seeming to be half immersed in the pages of her book. Her disinterested, light blue, eyes moved between the two of them lazily, settling on Aquila with a questioning look.

"Hmm?"

Aquila sighed, hanging her head and motioning her arm towards Kathleen.

"Oh!" Isla exclaimed finally understanding. "Uhm, well I had to clean up the mess you made in the laundry room today" She said half halfheartedly, turning back to her book "I don't understand how it's even possible to get that much detergent outside of the washer machine."

"Yo." Vicky said, raising her hand. "You left your bowl of pasta under my bed that night we watched 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' in there. I didn't find until it was covered in fuzz and... liquefying... so, uh, there's that. Also why would choose to watch that movie in anyone's company is beyond me." She slowly lowered her hand again and looked away.

"Okay! Yeah, see? Kathleen, you're a mess! You know we have a list of chores, each one accompanied by a name, for a reason right?" Aquila laughed humorlessly, "It's right over there. On the fridge. Not just for decoration."

"Don't talk to me like a kid! You're no better than me."

"You act like a messy three year old. Sticky fingers and all. I clean up my crap, dude! "

"She even does dishes sometimes. Woah. Crazy."

"Shut up!" Kathleen picked up a pencil from the cup being used as a makeshift pencil holder on the table and tossed it at Vicky, hitting her on the side of the head.

"Ah! What the shit?"

"Don't throw things at the Asian!" Exclaimed Aquila.

"You're all ganging up on me!"

"Oh my god. I just remembered the half a dozen condoms you blew up and tossed around the flat." Isla had looked up from her book again, only to have to dodge another flying pencil from Kathleen.

"That was one time!"

"Can you stop with the pencils? You're gonna have to clean those up too you little shit!" Aquila shouted becoming more and more fed up with her friend by the second. She leapt forward and grabbed the cup of pencils from the middle of the table and cradled them against her chest protectively. "And I almost killed myself on one of those popped condoms, or maybe it was just one of the old ass black bananas you like to take out of your bag and leave all over the place. We pay for those, you know? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you chipped in for groceries like you were supposed to."

Kathleen's hands grabbed onto her hair on either side as she threw her head back and groaned dramatically.

"Why am I living with you guys?" She cried.

Kathleen was fairly spastic regardless, but when she hulked out, so to speak, she was definitely to be feared. She now swept a pile of papers off the coffee table and into the middle of the floor. They flew, spinning, twisting and fluttering to cover the hardwood of their living room.

"Oh shit. There goes the pile." Murmured Isla, still not looking up. Vicky broke her attention away from the screen and watched, ready to see the situation escalate further.

"You wanna see a mess?" Kathleen giggled, fixing Aquila with a crazy look.

Aquila held up the hand not cradling the pencil cup and pointed, glaring down her finger at Kathleen. "You don't fucking mess with my fan-fiction pile, you bitch. Fucking do not." Everyone froze waiting to see what would happen next. "All we want is for you to do your part, you cock!" Aquila brought the cup of pencils behind her head, aiming for Kathleen and screamed "How would you like to clean up our fucking messes all the time?" before hurling it directly at Kathleen's head.

There was a moment when Kathleen stood, ready for the blow; all eyes were on the fight. But in a fraction of a second Kathleen's expression turned from one of anger to complete confusion. She looked like something heavy had just hit her in the chest, knocking all of the wind out of her and throwing her backwards; she seemed to be falling through empty space in slow motion, though it all happened so fast. There was a flash of impossible blackness, pulling Kathleen into its center. The shocked on-lookers threw their arms up to shield their faces. Then Kathleen was gone, leaving nothing but the faint sound of air filling empty space. The pencils hit the ground across the room and slid, scattering across the hardwood floor.

No one spoke. They all stared in different states of shock and denial; mouths hanging open and eyes wide at the empty space where Kathleen had been standing just a moment before. Vicky slowly removed the headphone from her ear and Isla's book clattered to the floor, the only sound in the now silent apartment. As the shock started to wear off, their eyes darted to one another and Aquila started to hyperventilate. She looked desperately towards Isla, her mouth working, trying to form words. Isla and Vicky both gazed at her waiting and hoping for any kind of explanation or theory or something that they had missed that Aquila might be able to produce answers for.

She wasn't able to get any kind of anything out before her eyes went wider still as she too was thrown backwards, her arms seemingly grasping for something to keep her steady, her feet raising off of the floor. Isla broke out of the daze this time and jumped up trying to grab onto her, but too late. There was once again blackness, an unfittingly calm whoosh, and Aquila was gone as well. Isla fell back, landing hard, once again staring at empty space.

"What's happening?" Isla gasped. She turned and scrambled to her feet, moving quickly towards Vicky, who was still sitting, staring at where Aquila should have been. Vicky looked up and just managed to meet Isla's desperate eyes, as fear filled her own. Then Isla was gone too, making one final lunge to get to Vicky before she was pulled backwards, feet first, into the center of another void.

Vicky whimpered. A pathetically small noise in the massive silence and emptiness that now surrounded her. The door to their apartment opened behind her and she whipped around just in time to see a small woman enter.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you had any-" She froze, her question forgotten as she saw the fear and confusion in Vicky's eyes and her mind tried to make sense of it. "What-" she began to ask, but she was again cut short by Vicky's expression as it changed to merciless horrible shock.

Vicky managed to get three words out before she too was thrown into her own disappearance. The sight of which caused the woman to scream and flail, running wildly back to her apartment across the hall.

"They all disappeared-"