"Who are you talking to," i obnoxiously said aloud.
"Are you sure? You think they will come?" Mitths was talking into his phone loudly, there must have been static on the other end.
"Tell her? Mr. Hartford, sir!" He was shocked, and so was I. That was MY father, and I wanted to yell at him, and hug him, and ask him all the questions in the world.
"Yes, sir I understand! Here," he seemed disappointed but I didn't care. He handed me the phone.
"Hello? Dad?"
"Sofia, I'm boarding a plane. Listen We are in great danger, some people are looking for me, for you, for all of us. Your body guards, babysitters, are gone. I need to talk to you later." The phone fuzzed, "honey, remember," it fuzzed out his voice again. "IRIM" his voice fuzzed out for the last time, the line shut down.
" what does Irim mean?" I asked aloud.
"It's an acronym. International Range Identity Machine" he sounded more matter- of- fact, than upset.
"So, what's that gotta do with me?" Every thing confused me at the moment. Marci and Max finished eating and payed down on the couch across from Mitths. He eventually allowed me to throw his bloodied things into the wash, and we settled down in the living room. I didn't like how my fathers shirt looked on him. It reminded me of mother, why hadn't he mentioned her? Iowa tired, we all were. After be reassured that Mitths would stay awake, I curled up with Max and Marci.
'9,7,5,8,4,3,7,8,4,6,5,3,7,2,5,9,5,6,2,4,3,6,7...' I saw the green screen again, the numbers were slow enough to read. 'Where's the 1's?' I questioned. The sequence had no pattern, they were entirely random.
"Sofy, Sofy. Wake up Sofia. I'm home," I thought I might of mistaken the voice for my fathers, the I woke up to see him.
"Dad! You alive!" I immediately sprung up to hug him, but right before I could even reach his puffy coat, he vanished. Disinigrated into thin air. Marci Max, Mitths, and mother all vanished. The green screen formed the shape of an evil looking man, after squinting long and hard I saw that it was my Neighbor, Thomas. Beside him appeared Mathew. They slowly gained on me, and I ran. Sweating, my breath howled.
"Sofia, sofy! Wake up! Come on, your shaking!" I heard my fathers voice, opening my eyes I saw only Mitths. Scolding myself for feeling disappointed, I sat up.
