Prologue: The Vanishing

Sam gazed at the towering building looming over her. The style was sleek and modern, glass windows so large that they looked as if they could swallow you whole. Her mother not-so-gently urged her forward, right up to the huge, smooth black doors. She pushed it open and was unsurprised to see that the inside was furnished in the same black, white, and grey as the outside of the house. A few fashionably placed potted plants (likely artificial, her mother wouldn't stand for spilled soil or browning leaves) added the only pop of color.

The gleaming black marble counters and imposing black leather couch looked like they came right out of a magazine. Modern art graced the walls, and abstract light fixtures added even more light to the already blinding natural light from the windows. The whole place was beautiful and impossibly trendy, and Sam hated it. Her parents had always had gaudy tastes- gilded golds, polished knobs, murals, and vintage oak floors- but this was worse. The whole place seemed sterile, lifeless. No sense of personality or history. At least her previous manor looked as if it could have been haunted.

Sam's hand gripped her luggage so tightly that the plastic handle creaked threateningly, as if it might snap at any moment.

"Sammykins…why don't you go settle into your room while your father and I unpack our bags?"

Sam silently glowered, there was nothing to settle into seeing as how they had already paid for an expensive moving company to move their stuff in. Her luggage was just a month's worth of clothes from the trip to Tahiti they had taken while their house was set up for them. Nevertheless, she obediently headed towards her new room.

She walked up a spiral staircase- minimalist glass steps and an elegantly carved iron rail- up to her room on the third floor. Her grandmother would stay on the bottom, so she didn't have to bother with the stairs (though they had an elevator anyways). This floor also featured a state of the art kitchen, wine cellar and bar, two impressive living rooms, a grand formal dining room, and a small indoor gym. Her parents had the entire second floor to themselves, which contained their preposterously large master bedroom, separate bathrooms (each with their own closet larger than most people's bedrooms), her father's private study, and her mother's very own parlor. The third floor was guest bedrooms, a private movie theater, and Sam's room. A wraparound patio circled the third floor with a heated pool and small bar. While she was truthfully excited to swim at her leisure with a view of the New York City skyline, she also dreaded the numerous poolside parties that her parents would be hosting for their snobby friends, which would be taking place near her room. The house may still be egregiously large and extravagant, but it was less spacious and spread-out that her previous home which meant even closer quarters to her family's ridiculous socialite life.

Sam sighed, feeling guilty for being so angry. She knew that this level of luxury was only a distant dream for most people. She should be grateful. But she wasn't. Guilty for being born into money, and guilty for resenting her privilege. She silently vowed that as soon as she was eighteen she'd leave this lifestyle behind. She'd make something of herself, by herself. Everything she'd have would be earned from her own hard work.

She pushed her door open and walked into her new room. The floor was freshly waxed mahogany and her walls were exposed brick- the only room in the whole house that was so. She had insisted it stay despite her mother's protest. It added at least some warmth to the house's sickeningly sleek design. She walked past her record and comic book collection, and flopped onto her violet sheets, ignoring her unpacked bag. Sam missed her old life. She had loved Amity Park, and she had friends there…not many, but they had been true and dear to her. They hadn't cared about her family's money.

Now she'd be stuck going to some stuffy New York private school and her dad would be working more than ever, leaving her alone with her crazy mother way more than she ever had been in Amity. No more cozy suburban life, no more normal public school, and no more Danny and Tucker. Her eyes welled as she thought about them. 'Danny…' she thought miserably. She had never garnered the courage to tell him that she liked him, and it felt cruel to finally say something right before leaving. He and Tucker had started high school without her while she'd been dining in 5-star restaurants and forced into designer shopping sprees with her mother in Tahiti. She had begged to stay that extra month in Amity until the house was ready. But her parents insisted that it was ridiculous to go through the registration process for only one month of Casper High. And she had to admit, it probably would have been harder to get briefly adjusted to life there with Tucker and Danny only to immediately leave anyways. Perhaps it was for the better.

Sniffling, Sam reached for the remote -already placed neatly on her nightstand by the moving company- and flicked on the TV for some distraction. She flipped through the channels, not used to the new stations. Nothing seemed appealing, and she was about to just opt for a movie in the theater room when a snippet of audio caught her attention.

"-tragic explosion this mor-" her eyes widened, and she quickly flipped back to the news station.

"-live footage we will be playing is graphic, so viewers beware." Images of smoke and destroyed buildings filled the screen, clearly taken from a helicopter. The view wasn't great, and Sam's eyes strained to make out the hazy footage. Something seemed familiar…

"As you can see, the entire city is absolutely in shambles right now. Complete chaos, never before seen levels of radiation, a kind that scientists have been struggling to identify for hours."

Sam's hands went cold, how awful…but she began to shake as a horrible thought creeped into the back of her mind. She tried to mentally swat it away, because surely it couldn't be-

"The information we have now is indicating that the likelihood of any survivors within a 10-mile radius of Fentonworks is extremely low…"

'NO.' she thought desperately.

"The radiation exposure likely extends beyond the blast zone, we're hearing now that a quarantine has been issued. Absolutely no first responders are to enter the quarantine zone until more is known about the radia-"

Everything instantly became silent, Sam no longer hearing the anchor's voice as she read the words "Amity Park Disaster: Death Toll Unknown" scroll across the screen. The TV became unfocused in Sam's mind, incomprehensible as the room seem to vanish around her. She dropped the remote, the batteries loudly clattering out on the hardwood floor, sound flooding back. The world tilted on its axis and Sam screamed.

Author's Note: Hello, welcome to the first story I've published in forever...bear with me as I get used to FFnet's formatting again. I don't have a specific update schedule planned, but I'll try to be consistent. Pls feel free to favorite, follow, review, etc! :)