The Edge of Paradise

Prolouge

It had started out as just another regular day. I awoke to the mechanic screeching of my alarm clock, the sunlight shimmering through the window blinds illuminating my poor maintained room. 7:00 AM exactly. 

7:15 AM. I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. My pale white skin contrasted with my jet black hair. My facial hair forming a slight 5'o clock shadow.  My emerald colored eyes reministent to those of a cat reflecting off the glass. I sighed and brushed my teeth.

7:30 AM. I made my way to school. The same old faces flashed before my eyes as they had for the past four years. Uninterested. Uncaring. Unconcerned. Everyone knew everything there was to know about each other, and the only thing they cared about was graduating so they could get out of here. Of course, in a small town like Solomon, things just aren't that easy. 

7:45 AM. Attendance. Mrs. Peterson took rollcall as she always does. "Alex Stainbrooke?" "Here!". "Susan Doyle?" "Present". "Max Bauer?" I lazily raised my gaze as she called my name and replied flatly: "Here.". "Luke Tansey?" she called. No response. "Luke Tansey?!" she repeated a bit louder. Again, no response. She raised an eyebrow but checked him off as absent and continued onwards. This was unusual. In all the years I've known Luke, he was never one to skip school. Always the perfect student. I shrugged it off. 'there's a first time for everything I guess' I thought to myself. 

12:35 PM. "Hey Max have you heard anything from Luke?" Jacob Swanstrom asked as he eagerly approached me. "I've been trying to contact him all day but he hasn't been answering his texts. I think he might be mad at me over what happened last night". I was never a fan of Jacob. Always acting so intelligent and proper when in reality he isin't as great as he like to think he is. I gave him an uninterested look and replied dully "not a word."

3:45 PM. Luke's parents began to make phone calls. At first they'd assume he had just slept over at a friend's house and forgot to check in. Although calm at first, they quickly turned desperate as the hours passed and not a single soul had reported seeing or being with Luke since the previous night. Panic started to take root, growing larger and larger with every passing minute.

7:00 PM. The people of Solomon began to whisper. Whispers turned to rumors, as neighbor after neighbor asked if they had seen any sign of the missing Tansey boy. In a community where most people knew each other from birth, any anomaly or differation from the norm rarely went unnoticed.

The days that followed, Search parties were organized. Posters were hung. Luke's face was plastered everywhere throughout the local news. The image they choose to display struck me as ironic. In it, Luke's ocean blue eyes gleemed vibrantly and his pearly white teeth flashed a million dollar smile. His slightly tanned skin complimented his well maintained chesnut colored hair. Such a pretty image for a tragic event. 

Despite it all, the search proved fruitless. Not a strand of hair, an article of clothing, or even a footprint. Countless questions arouse. "What happened to him?" "Where could he be?" "How did this happen?" and most importantly, "Why did this happen?". Indeed the people of Soloman were shocked to the bone over the events that had transpired. 

It all seemed clueless, until one night, a discovery was made...

A discovery that would change the people and face of Solomon forever.