Vanished

1- DysFUNctional

Elizabeth

"Kathleen, hurry up! Your not the only one who needs to get ready, you know," I exclaim as I pound on the bathroom door and wait for my twin to come out of the bathroom- which doesn't seem to happening anytime soon.

"Hold on, hold on, I got my brush stuck in my hair and I can't get it out," she yells back.

I let my head fall back against the wall and moan."Would you, let me in so I can help you."

There's a short pause followed by a sigh, "Fine," she mumbles before unlocking the door and opening it up to reveal a frazzled looking Kathleen holding a black brush that was tangled in her reddish-brown hair. She looks irritated and impatient, so I get to work right away.

And the bickering begins.

"Hold still!"

"Ow, your hurting me!"

"It wouldn't hurt if you didn't move!"

"I wouldn't move if you didn't hurt me!"

"Dad!" both of us yell as our father exits our parents bedroom.

"What?" he asks, giving us a bewildered look.

"Tell Kathleen to stop moving so I can get the brush out!" I huff, crossing my arms for an added effect.

"Tell Elizabeth that if she keeps on trying to get the brush out, there might not be any hair left for it to be stuck in!" she retorts.

We both stare at dad until he raises both hands in a defensive way and says: "Mom problem."

I roll my eyes before dragging Kathleen into our parents room towards the en-suite bathroom where our mom was spraying her hair. Before we even say anything, she turns around, sighs, and begins untangling the comb from the bird's nest of my sister's hair.

"Here," she says, handing Kathleen the brush. After Kathleen takes it, mom resumes fixing her hair. "Your father and I have an all-day business meeting two hours away. We'll stay in a hotel for tonight, so you're on your on for two meals. All good?" she asks, turning around to face us.

We both smile at her and nod. "Yep."

"Remember-" she starts but we both cut her off before she finishes.

"Call if we need anything, the emergency money is under the lamp, go to the Steven's if we need any help, and don't answer the door to strangers or guys from our school," we mock, repeating the same words forever drilled into our minds.

Mom puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head. "Well, you two are clearly going to be fine. Now hurry up and get breakfast so you won't be late, you already hit the snooze button enough times as it is."

Kathleen sent me a glare and I roll my eyes. "If someone hadn't been laughing at their book all night, I would have actually slept."

Kathleen just sighs and goes downstairs, and I follow not too far behind. After arriving at the kitchen bar, out dad comes up and ruffles our hair.

"Dad!" we both protest in unison.

"It took me long enough to get this way, don't mess it up," Kathleen whines.

"Love you too, girls. Call us, FaceTime us, just don't follow us. Got it? Marie will drive you today. See you tomorrow, maybe in two days."

"Bye, love you!" Kathleen and I say in unison.

"Daddy, wait!" squeals my sixteen-year-old sister, Marie. She jumps in to his arms like a toddler.

"I'm getting too old for this," dad grunts.

"Love you daddy," she says with a smile before kissing him on the cheek and jumping down.

Our mom comes down the stairs with to bags of luggage on tow. "Mom, aren't you only staying a day or two? Why so much stuff?" Kathleen asks.

"The suit cases are your father's. My stuff is in the car. Honey, what did you pack!" my moms huffs.

My dad laughs as he takes the bags from. "Just the essentials, you know how long I take to get ready."

We all laugh before helping take the stuff to the car. As we wave good-bye, I get a bad feeling in my stomach. It's just something you ate, don't worry, I tell myself.

But the feeling gets worse when I no longer see the car.

Kathleen

I watched from the front door next to Elizabeth as our parents car navy blue sedan pulled out of the drive way. I looked over to Elizabeth to tell her it was almost time to go and saw that she look unusually pale, even for her and the girl was a freakin vampire.

"You okay, Liz?" I asked, leaning on the opposite side of the door frame.

"Yeah... I'm fine," She said breaking out of her daze. I turned to walk back inside.

"Come on, we don't want Marie to get mad. Plus, I don't want to be late to school." I called as I grabbed my school bag off the bench. I walked out to our older sisters red beetle and sat in the front seat. Usually, Elizabeth and I fight over who rides shot gun, but hey, first come first serve, right? A few minutes later, Elizabeth wordlessly climbed into the back seat of the car and we took off for school.

At our school, the homerooms and lockers are assigned alphabetically by last name, so Elizabeth and I have lockers and seats in homeroom next to each other.

"Hey I'll see you in lunch," I tell Lizzy after Homeroom as I head towards Bio-Med, which is my first class of the day.

She doesn't reply, just wordlessly nods. What is up with her? I wonder to myself. She's acting really strange even for a girl who called herself a "potato faerie". I shrugged, figuring she would sort it out before we got to lunch, and moved on to my first block.