Chapter 1- Five Years Later

Munich, Germany 2023

Heavy rain pelted against the roof of the empty house situated just outside the town of Munich. The house was a quaint little cottage with flowered gardens and a plain, white picket fence. It was a place someone could easily keep a low profile if they needed, especially if the people thought you to be German as well. A small German family that consisted of a mother, a father, and a daughter had bought the house after they had moved from the bustling city of Berlin. The mother was a nurse at the local doctor's office, the father, a software developer for a company no one had cared to ask about, and the daughter, a twenty-five-year-old student studying by distance from a university in England.

A perfectly normal, mundane family who never turned any heads. They had not been seen for 5 years due to the blip, neighbors had assumed. The house had stayed dark and silent for five long years until one of its inhabitants returned.

Harlow awoke with a gasp while lying on her side in her kitchen, she blinked rapidly trying to clear her vision. She assumed she had fainted while entering her kitchen for a late lunch, she had trained so hard that day that she had forgotten to eat,

You're a right idiot aren't you Harlow?

She pulled herself off the ground slowly, her head spinning as she gripped onto the counter to steady herself.

"Mom!" she called out. Harlow looked around the kitchen, she could have sworn her mom was in the kitchen cutting up vegetables in preparation for dinner when she arrived home earlier. Harlow opened the fridge and took in a sharp breath, the food in the fridge was rotten and the smell was unimaginable.

"Mom! Dad!" she shouted as she ran through the house from room to room, shouting for her parents but all she was met with was silence.

Harlow had searched top to bottom for any clue as to where her parents would have gone. The car wasn't in the driveway which Harlow had hoped meant they had gone for a drive, but the rotting food and piled-up newspapers said otherwise. Every now and then Harlow would hear cheering coming from the streets, she decided to leave a note for her parents and set off towards the noise coming from the town to investigate further.

She found her way to the local pub, her family had been there a few times for dinner, it had never been as busy as it was now. Harlow entered the pub, it was roaring with laughter and all-around happiness as if the town's football team had just won a championship. She found an empty spot at the bar and sat down,

What was going on here?

"What can I get you?" asked a kind bartender who had stepped in front of Harlow,

"Um, I..." Harlow mumbled, almost forgetting the German accent she and her family had taken up when they were placed in this town.

"You okay there? Are you looking for your loved ones too Miss?" she asked,

"What?" Harlow asked as a confused look clouded her face,

"You know..." the bartender's expression changed to a saddened expression, "Oh you don't know, you're one of the vanished then," she stated,

"One of the vanished?" Harlow asked,

"5 years ago people vanished and today they just came back, just showed up in the same spot they were 5 years ago" she explained,

"So my parents and I vanished, but then why was I the only one home?" Harlow asked herself,

The bartender smiled shyly, "Miss, half of humanity disappeared and then all of a sudden today everyone came back so if that's not a miracle then I don't know what is, your parents are probably out there looking for you too, don't worry they'll turn up" the bartender said cheerfully while she poured Harlow a drink, "Are you 18 Miss?" she asked.

"Technically I'm 30 now" Harlow mumbled,

"Well that's one good thing about all this then!" she laughed, turning her back to serve the next customer.

Harlow stared down at her drink,

I need to find my parents,

She threw the liquid back, it burned on its way down, she remembered she still hadn't eaten anything today,

Or for the past 5 years as a matter of fact.

Harlow made a quick exit from the pub, she couldn't wrap her head around the fact that she had been gone for 5 years when it felt as if she had been gone for a couple of minutes. Harlow wasn't going to get any answers while everyone was celebrating the return of their loved ones.

"Excuse me, Miss?" a woman called out to Harlow in a deep German accent, "I'm not from this part of Germany and I am very lost, is there any chance you could help me?"

"No I'm sorry I can't, I am in a hurry" she huffed as she turned down one of the many alleyways in the town. The woman had followed her.

"Please you must help me I am looking for my family, I'm sure they're from this side of town," she called while she tried to grab at Harlow's arm,

"Please leave me alone" Harlow brushed the woman off again,

"Wait!" she called, the woman gripped Harlow's arm hard and pulled her close enough until the woman's mouth was at Harlow's ear.

"Hail Hydra" she whispered in a perfect American accent, Harlow looked at the woman with wide eyes and opened her mouth to speak but it quickly turned into a yelp as the woman plunged something into Harlow's neck.

Harlow's vision began to blur and her body slowly went numb in the woman's arms. She then took out a phone from her coat pocket, dialed, and bought it to her ear.

The woman smiled as she stared down at Harlow's unconscious body,

"Bring the car around, the traitors' daughter is back".