Displaced

Chevelle - Twelve

"Courtney is living with new parents too," Lara said as she sat down in the living room with us.

The "sun" had gone down and we were getting ready to settle in for the night. Our little obscure, new, family was starting to actually feel like one. Then again, I'd always found something homey about everyone spending the evening together. All we needed was a fire in the fireplace.

"Does she miss her real parents?" Timber asked.

Lara shrugged. "She said her new Dad is nicer than her old one. I'm not sure if that means she misses her parents or not."

"Do you miss yours?"

"Yeah, I miss Mommy. But I always do."

Nodding, Timber sat next to her on the couch. "Then I'm sure she does too."

"Do you think my Mommy misses me?"

I gave her a rather weak smile. "Yeah." I certainly hoped she did at least. Maybe it would teach her how to be a better mother.

Timber cleared his throat and lifted the remote off of the end table. "How about we find something to watch? I bet we get a million channels here."

The big screen TV came to life and I was greeted with a brightly-colored image of good old-fashioned cartoons. I never thought I'd be so happy to see something so childish and stupid ever again. The channel changed and some popular teen drama was on the screen instead. Instead of just picking something and sticking with it, Timber must have wanted to surf through all of the channels because they kept changing. When the news appeared, he stopped.

I'm pretty sure we were getting the signal from another country because an Asian woman was on the screen speaking a language I didn't understand. The headlines scrolling across the bottom of the screen were done with the Asian characters as well, so my guess was it was from Japan or China or somewhere over in that area. It could have been anywhere, really. I don't know what it was about, but Timber was frowning, so it couldn't have been anything good.

"W-what's going on?" I asked.

His frown deepened. "I don't understand all of it, but from what I'm picking up there have been a number of mass disappearances. So I'm wondering if something like what happened to us at the mall has happened elsewhere. Maybe these Achlivans have kidnapped more than just one area of people."

That sent chills down my spine, but it made sense. If these Achlivans were truly acting in humanity's best interest, then they would want to take as many people from all over the world as possible. The mall in Minnesota wasn't a selective case. Were there other Americans taken from other parts of the country? How many places around the world were hit? Timber changed the channel.

"Where was that report from, anyway?" I asked.

"Japan. I know just enough of the language to get by, but I wouldn't call myself fluent in it."

"Are you fluent in any other languages besides English?"

"German and French. I vaguely understand the other romance languages of course since they're all kind of similar. Maybe now that I have some free time, I can study up some more." He sighed and changed the channel again. More news, and this time it was in English.

I waved for Timber to turn up the volume so we could hear it better.

The man was anchoring on one of the major news networks. On the screen next to him was a picture of the mall.

"One hundred and fifty-two people are estimated missing from a mall in Minnesota today from what authorities are calling a possible terrorist attack. Very little is being said about the incident, and officials have not given out all of the names of the missing just yet. However, ten people are confirmed as taken, one of them being teen heartthrob Timber Hudson." And of course, Timber's picture came onto the screen in place of the mall, followed by a lovely package involving his personal life. Where he grew up, what he was known for, all that stuff. Then a picture of his family came up, along with one of him and Talia.

I snatched the remote from his hands and changed the channel. More news, and sure, it was fascinating and I was curious about what was going on back home with the aftermath. At the same time, it was torture to be stuck up here and unable to do anything. Seeing pictures of my family and the person I was in love with would probably send me over the edge too.

The next channel wasn't any better, however, because on it was some kind of security video. Perhaps it was even real time. On it were massive, tall, people, like the guy we had seen with the gun at the mall. These people were whipping and beating normal-looking-sized individuals. Achlivans that were beating humans.

Immediately I put a hand over Lara's eyes until I could change the channel back to the cartoons. One thing, or rather one person, kept me from doing so, however. The shaggy dark hair, the shape of his face, I even recognized the chiseled abs on his body.

I gasped. "Wicken."