(2)-The Disappearances.
Earlier...
Clare jolted awake after having a horrible dream about Tommy and millions of people around the world disappearing out of their clothes and going to Heaven, and saw that the TV was on, realizing that she had fallen asleep on the sofa in her out-door clothes while watching the news.
The reason she was doing this was to see if the news about her kidnapping Tommy had made it here to Los Angeles. Even though it had been a year since it happened, she knew couldn't let her gaurd down simply because a year had passed with no word from the news concerning Tommy's abduction. Just because there had been no news about it here in L.A. didn't mean that there ever would be. If or when that day came, she would get Tommy and head off to either Canada or Mexico. Except she didn't know if the news had broadcasted her crime, because she had dosed off while watching it.
Clare sighed with relief as she leaned her head back. "It was just a dream." Knowing that the news had gone off for the night, as well as seeing that the TV was playing commercials, Clare got the remote off the sofa beside her and turned off the TV, placed it on the sofa's left arm, and got up from the sofa, deciding the turn in for the night. But first she would check on Tommy and see how he was doing before changing into her sleep-clothes.
She walked out of the livingroom and went up the stairs that led to the door of the attic. Clare walked up to the door and quietly opened it and looked inside the dark room to check on Tommy...only to find that he wasn't in bed.
"Tommy?" Clare called...but there was no response. She then turned on the lights and instantly got her answer as to why Tommy wasn't in bed and hadn't responded to her call. In front of the round window laid Tommy's white short sleeve t-shirt and blue plaid shorts in a pile on the floor. But Tommy was nowhere around. Just like in her dream. "Tommy?" Clare called again. Nothing. "Tommy?" She called once more as she entered into the room. Nothing still.
The 35-year old CPS worker looked around for Tommy, but he was nowhere in sight. She got down on her hands and knees and looked under the bed, hoping to find Tommy hiding under there naked. "Tommy?" She said as she looked under the bed, only to find that there was nothing there.
Clare stood back up. "Tommy?" She called. Still no answer. Clare started to wonder what was going on. This made no sense. Where was Tommy? His sleep-clothes were still here, but his body was gone without a trace. It was as if he had vanished into thin air.
Clare ran her hands through her dark brown shoulder-length hair as the worse case scenario began to play in her head. Could someone have broken into the house while she was asleep and kidnapped Tommy? If that was the case, then why were his sleep-clothes still here? Was it possible that his abductor had stripped him naked and then took off with him? No, no, no, that didn't make sense. She was so confused. She really didn't know what to believe at this point. But she knew one thing though: Tommy was missing.
Just then, there was a loud ring from downstairs and Clare rushed out of the room, ran down stairs into the livingroom, and answered the ringing housephone that was resting on a table beside the sofa.
"Hello?" Clare asked.
"Clare?" Came a male voice on the other end of the phone.
"Rayford? Why are you calling here in Los Angeles? Are you in the area?" Clare asked.
"No. Actually, i'm on a flight to London, England that's heading back to Chicago." Said Rayford.
"Heading back to Chicago? Why, what happened?" Clare asked.
"I've got a situation here i don't wanna talk about." Said Rayford.
"Well, so do i. I can't find Tommy, he's missing. And i can't-Wait...how did you know i was here in L.A.?" Said Clare.
"It was just a lucky guess. The Chicago police had been looking everywhere for you and Tommy for six months. They'd been broadcasting news reports about you kidnapping him since the day his Dad reported him missing last year." Said Rayford.
"I figured that. Do the police know where i am?" Said Clare.
"No. And at the moment, i don't think they're even trying to find you anymore. And not just because the case went cold last year. After what's happened, i'm pretty sure you're the last thing on their mind right now." Said Rayford.
"What are you talking about? What's happened?" Clare asked.
"You mentioned that Tommy was missing, right?" Rayford asked.
"Yeah, but what's that got to do with why you called? What's going on?" Clare said.
"You don't wanna know." Said Rayford.
"What do you mean i don't wanna know, of course i wanna know! Tommy has vanished without a trace and i'm scared out of my mind!" Said Clare.
"If you think you're scared now, just wait until you hear what i have to say." Said Rayford.
"What does that mean?" Clare asked.
"You remember how i mentioned earlier that i was on a flight to London, England and had to turn around and head back to Chicago?" Rayford reminded.
"Yeah, what of it?" Clare asked.
"Well...there's a reason we had to turn around." Said Rayford.
"Name it." Clare stated.
"I don't think i should." Rayford said.
"Look, i don't have time to play these guessing-games with you, Ray! Tommy is missing and i-"
"It's not just Tommy." Said Rayford, cutting Clare off.
"What?" Clare asked.
"Tommy's not the only one missing." Said Rayford.
"What do you mean?" Clare asked.
"Some of the passengers and crew members on my plane are...gone." Rayford answered.
"Wait...gone? Gone where?" Clare asked.
"That's just it, i don't know. No one knows. All we know is that the missing passengers and crew members just disappeared, leaving behind their clothes, shoes, socks and everything else that wasn't attached to their bodies." Said Rayford.
"That's almost like what happened to Tommy." Said Clare.
"Did you see him disappear?" Rayford asked.
"No. See, what had happened was i dosed off in the livingroom on the sofa while watching the news. I woke up and went upstairs to the attic bedroom to check on Tommy to see if he was still asleep. But when i got up there, Tommy was gone and all i found were his sleep-clothes lying in a pile on the floor by the round window." Said Clare.
"Clare...are you near the TV now?" Rayford asked.
"Yeah, i'm right here in the livingroom. Why?" Said Clare.
"Turn on the TV." Said Rayford.
"But why-"
"Just turn it on." Said Rayford, cutting Clare off.
"Okay." Said Clare before getting the remote off the left arm of the sofa and turning the TV on, revealing the news on screen with the words BREAKING NEWS, followed by two female news anchors. One was black and the other one was white.
"Breaking news happening right now. There appears to be a number of chaotic incidents taking place across the state. Witnesses are calling into the station, as well as notifying the police, that they're seeing vehicles colliding into one another on local streets and interstates. And a bizar thing is...vehicles have no drivers." Said the black female news anchor.
"Jesus." Clare swore before changing the channel, only to see that it was on the Mexican news station, with a male news reporter speaking Spanish. She changed the channel again and the next one was on a news station in Brazil in the day-time, with a female news reporter on screen.
"We are still experiencing aftershocks of the massive earthquake that has devistated this entire region. From what i've been able to desifer, violent costal waters have flooded many of the cities aboard the caribbean sea and the atlantic ocean. We have just been informed to seek shelter to get to the highest alavation to cover ourselves from Flooding Streamers." Said the female news reporter with a Brazilian accent, holding a wireless microphone.
Clare changed the channel to yet another news report coming from Korea, with a female Korean reporter speaking in Korean
"For the benefit of my English-speaking viewers, there seems to be very horrible things going on. No one can explain more. Citizens all over south Korea were here one moment and gone the next. We cannot be sure if this is an alien attack or a terrorist attempt." Said the Korean news reporter in English translation.
Clare changed the channel back to the two news anchor women.
The white anchor woman began to speak. "We've been reporting over the bizar phenomenan that seems to be happening not just here in this country, but all over the world. The government officials of the United States have issued a nation-wide terror alert. And have asked that all Americans..."
Clare couldn't believe what she was hearing. People had disappeared all across the globe? What in the world was going on?
"We now go live in UK London, England with Lance Morison to bring us an update on what is happening." Said the black anchor woman.
A middle-aged man appeared on screen, replacing the two anchor women, reporting live from UK London, England in the daytime. "Thank you, Tia." Said the man with a british accent. "You have been reporting all night there are unexplained events going on seemingly throughout the world. Apparently..."
Clare was still trying to process what she was watching and listening to, but she could not. Because it made no sense. Sure, it was normal for people to disappear everyday, but all over the world in ONE NIGHT? It was un-natural. Did this global vanishing event tie into Tommy's disappearance somehow?
"There are people running from their homes and office-buildings into the streets, screaming in sheer terror that the world as we know it has indeed come to it's end." Said the middle-aged british man known as Lance Morison.
Now Clare was really scared. Even more scared now than she was when she found out that Tommy was missing. Was what this male news reporter saying true? Did this global vanishing act signal the approach of the apocalypse? The end of the world?
"...of epic Bible-related porportions. If this is to be the end...may God have mercy on us all." Said Lance before the two news anchor women appeared back on screen, replacing him.
"That was Lance Morison...reporting from London." Said Tia. "We now go in New York at the UN with several ranking officers from every branch of the military to address the nation." Said Tia.
Clare just looked on at the TV in bewilderment.
"Tia, we, uh, seem to be experiencing a technical glitch." The the white news anchor woman. "Let's go back to Lance Morison in London. Lance? Lance, are you there? Can you hear me?"
Just then, both anchor women disappeared out of their clothes, leaving them behind in their seats and the channel cut to rainbow upward-stripes, with the TV making a long BEEP sound.
Clare dropped the phone to the floor after seeing this. She was shocked by what she had just witnessed. She had just seen two news anchor women disappear out of their clothes on TV. This had to have been recorded during the global disappearances, as both women had been reporting the vanishings taking place.
"Clare? Clare, are you there? Hello? Clare? Clare?" Came the voice of Rayford on the phone.
Clare ran out of the livingroom, got her purse off the dining table, rushed out of the house, got in her station wagon, and drove off through the forest, heading for the city of L.A.
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