Season 1, Episode 3: In the Twinkling of an Eye

Four hours earlier…

At the Parker house, Ben Parker was feeling drowsy and somnolent.

Allison came to Ben's bedroom to wish him a good night.

"Ben, did you say your prayers?", Allison asked.

"Yes, Mom", Ben said. But this was a lie.

Allison smiled and hugged Ben tightly.

"Mom, do you think Dad is okay?", Ben asked.

"I'm sure he will be fine, honey", Allison said.

Ben was suddenly feeling slightly scared.

"Mom, can you tell me a bedtime story?", Ben asked.

Allison looked at her only son lovingly.

"Sure, Ben", Allison said. "Did I ever tell you the story about Noah and his sons?"

Ben frowned. "I don't think you have."

"Well", Allison said. "Noah was a follower of God and a good man. However, there were bad people living all around him. God warned Noah that he would destroy the whole world and the people living in it with a flood…"

By this time, Ben had completely fallen asleep and his mother kissed his forehead before leaving the room. Ben didn't believe that the story of Noah was true.

Ben had no idea that would be the last time he would ever see his mother before disaster struck.

In the present time…

Bill Parker was sitting in the cockpit of Flight 248, wishing he could get this flight over with. Though he enjoyed flying planes, sometimes the tasks given to him could feel exhausting.

In first-class, Rohit Sharma had fallen asleep after reading some verses from the Quran. He woke up after an hour, feeling slightly hungry.

Rohit turned to speak to Harold Irvington. "When do you think they'll…"

Rohit stopped speaking as he realized Harold wasn't in his seat. He noticed Harold's clothes were on his seat.

Maybe he's just using the bathroom or something, Rohit thought.

But why would he go the bathroom without his clothes? Something didn't feel right.

Rohit got up and walked towards one of the bathrooms on the plane. He noticed the door was unlocked. He knocked on the door, waited for a second, then said, "Harold? Mr. Irvington? I don't want to sound nosy, but you left your clothes behind. I'm sure that it was probably an unintentional mistake."

There was no response.

Rohit then opened the door. No one was inside the bathroom.

Now Rohit was confused.

Meanwhile, in second-class, Zoey Harper was sleeping. She had watched a movie for forty minutes before getting tired.

Zoey then woke up. She wanted to ask Wishy if he had a water bottle or some other drink to keep her hydrated.

Zoey turned to where Wishy had been sitting. But he wasn't in his seat.

That's strange, Zoey thought. She noticed her boyfriend's clothes were on his seat. But where was Wishy?

Zoey walked up to Eddie Exton. She woke him up. "Sorry to bother, but have you seen my boyfriend? I don't know where he is, and he left his clothes on his seat."

"I'm afraid I don't know", Eddie said. "But let me go see if I can find him."

Eddie walked down the aisle towards one of the bathrooms. It seemed strange for a man to walk on a plane, or in any public place overall, without proper attire. Eddie was sure that it was probably because of sleepwalking. Why else would someone go somewhere completely naked?

Eddie knocked on the door and noticed it was unlocked. He checked the bathroom and saw no one was inside. Eddie then ran to another bathroom in the second-class section and saw that no one was inside that bathroom either.

Eddie walked back to Zoey. "I'm terribly sorry, um, what's your name?"

"Zoey."

"I'm sorry Zoey, but I can't seem to find your boyfriend. I checked two of the bathrooms, and he isn't there."

"Aren't there any other bathrooms in this section?"

"Yes, there's two more", Eddie said. "I'll go check."

Pete Alessandra was listening to some music on the headphones he was given. Pete was clearly enjoying the sound.

Pete stomped his foot on the ground, feeling ecstatic. Then he felt someone's clothes with his shoe.

Pete then said, "Sorry, sir…"

Pete then frowned. There had been a passenger sitting next to him on his right, and he was nowhere to be seen. Yet his clothes were clearly visible.

Pete then woke up Kade Gordonhurst, who had been sitting on Pete's left. "Dude, have you seen the guy sitting next to me on the right side? His clothes are here, but I don't know where he is."

Kade shrugged. "I don't have a clue. Maybe he walked to the other side of the plane or something. How about this. You check to see if he's in second-class, and I'll check the first-class and third-class sections."

Pete nodded in agreement. Kade then ran to the first-class section in the hopes of finding the missing passenger.

Kade then accidentally bumped into Sally Graves when he was running in the first-class section.

"Watch where you're going!", Sally snapped. "The passengers are not allowed to run on the flight."

"I'm really sorry, Ma'am", Kade said. "I'm just looking for this guy that was sitting in the second-class section of the plane. I was thinking he might be walking in first-class or third-class."

Kade then walked through the first-class section, hoping to find the missing passenger. Sally was walking right behind him, probably to supervise.

As all of this was taking place, Sandy Comstock was busy trying to think of the proper words to write for Global Weekly. Sandy knew that his job wasn't completely easy, but he could use his creativity to really impress his bosses.

Sandy then decided to stand up and stretch. As he did, he noticed something horrifying.

There were eight empty seats. Yet, the clothes of the passengers that had been sitting in those seats were visible.

Sandy then turned as Rohit was towards him, looking worried and filled with trepidation.

"Don't mean to bother you, Sandy, but have you seen this man that was sitting next to me? He apparently walked out of his seat and left his clothes behind."

Sandy shook his head. "Rohit, can you explain what I'm seeing over here?"

Sandy pointed to the eight missing seats. Rohit looked terrified as he saw the abandoned clothes on the seats. Something serious seemed to be taking place.

Kade and Sally had approached them.

"May I ask why you two are standing in the aisle?", Sally asked.

"I was looking for this gentleman that was sitting next to me", Rohit said. "I can't find him, but his clothes were left on the seat."

"And I found this", Sandy said, motioning to the eight empty seats.

Sally looked at those seats, apparently looking shocked and terrified. Then she screamed.

Larry Levine was in a deep slumber while all this was occurring. He certainly did not think anything terrible or disastrous could be going on.

Larry suddenly woke up when Sylvester Coddmyer started shaking his shoulders.

"Dude, you might want to get up. Something weird just happened on this plane."

Larry saw that Sylvester was pointing to ten empty seats in the second-class section. The seats had the clothes of the people that had been sitting in them.

Larry shuddered at the sight.

By now, more passengers were waking up and noticing the empty seats and the clothes that had been abandoned.

Josh Grant had been walking to use the bathroom a few minutes earlier. As he was heading to that bathroom, he felt like he stepped on something.

Josh saw that what he stepped on was somebody's clothes. He picked them up, without any knowledge or understanding of why it was there.

Josh headed down the aisle to find the nearest flight attendant. He saw Marlene Kingston. He called out, "Mrs. Kingston? Do you know who was wearing these clothes?"

"It seems like a bunch of people disappeared", Marlene said. "But there seems to be no leads about how this whole situation happened."

String Becker had woken up to hear a loud commotion and shouting. String overhead some of the conversations being heard.

"His clothes are here, but he's missing…"

"I can see his glasses…"

"My boyfriend was sitting right by me", Zoey Harper said, sobbing.

"What's going on?", String asked.

"Terrible situation, dude", Eddie said. "Apparently a bunch of people on this plane disappeared right out of their clothes."

Perry Warden and Tony Cataldo then walked over. Of all the passengers, these two seemed to be the least concerned about the current disaster.

"Maybe you're all just imagining things", Perry said. "There's no way they could have just randomly disappeared."

"Then how do you explain all the missing clothes?", Sylvester asked.

Just then Rohit Sharma, Sandy Comstock, and Sally Graves had walked over. Sally was looking frightened.

Gordon Bernall then woke up. He heard all the arguing and shouting, and he then looked at the empty seats with the clothes. Gordon looked horrified at the sight.

"Dude, are you okay?", Eddie asked. "Do you need some air or…"

Gordon then swallowed. "No, I'll be fine."

Joyce Dancer had come over to the second-class section. "Guys, some people in the first-class section seem to be missing, but their clothes are still there."

"Already ahead of you there", Eddie said. "A bunch of people seemed to have disappeared."

"Why do you think this happened?", a passenger named Steven Johnson asked.

Eddie then took a deep breath.

"I remember one of the pastors at my church saying something about God returning to the earth to take his followers to heaven. If all the people that disappeared were Christians…"

Zoey gasped.

"My wife, Jozie, said something about that", Larry said. "Some apocalyptic event known as the Rapture."

"I recall Wishy talking about that once", Zoey said.

Just then Bill arrived to the second-class section to find these passengers talking after seeing all the missing seats on the plane.

"I counted the seats and the clothes", Bill said. "There's seventeen missing passengers from first-class, twenty-two missing passengers from second-class, and thirty-four missing passengers from third-class. In addition, one of the flight attendants is also gone."

"Was it Karen?", Marlene asked.

"Yes, it was", Bill said, trembling.

Perry snorted. "I think this Rapture stuff is nonsense. Idiocy. There is no way that can be true."

"Yeah", Tony said. "It's just a huge lie that preachers, evangelists, and theorists have used to spread their propaganda and scare people. It's completely moronic."

"But don't you think that theory has any relevance?", Rohit asked. "If the Christian rapture just happened, then…"

"Shut your mouth, you stupid Muslim!", Tony snarled. "Why don't you go to the Middle East and focus on blowing people up? That's all you religious idiots are good for anyway. Liars, Con-artists, jihadists, and terrorist scum, the lot of you."

There were times Rohit had heard racial insults because of his race and religion. Rohit had been easily angered by those taunts. Rohit's father had always advised him to not get into a fight. Rohit had been able to compose himself and control his temper on numerous occasions.

This was not one of those times.

Rohit punched Tony squarely in the jaw, causing his mouth to bleed. Tony then responded with a blow of his own, punching Rohit in the stomach.

Rohit then grabbed Tony and dragged him to the floor. He then kicked him in the stomach. Tony then hit Rohit's kneecap.

Bill and Sylvester then stepped in and broke up the fight.

"Break it up, break it up!", Bill shouted. "There is no way all these passengers just walked off of this plane. I'm sure there is a logical explanation. Everyone get back to your seats."

Everyone returned to their seats. Tony gave Rohit a nasty stare as he headed back to his seat.

But as Bill was heading back to the cockpit, he feared that the worst possible outcome had happened. All the Christians had been taken in the Rapture, and he had been left behind.

Which meant that Allison had been taken too.

Author's Note: And that was episode three of Season 1!