All of the Stars Have Fallen Out of Line

Chapter 1

I always thought the end of the world would look something like big heaps of bugs and enormous waves of lava descending from the heavens; ready to drown every living thing in its' path. I figured my will to survive was infallible, and I would lead my four siblings and two loving parents to safety. Which now I understand the whole idea itself was pretty stupid and far fetched.

I never imagined the end of the world, well at least the end of my world, consisting of my mother being kidnapped off of our front lawn right in front of me.

It hadn't even been two years since that day, her birthday specifically. Red, my older sister, had been fidgeting with a blue velvet cake in the kitchen, while my dad prepared the barbecue and my mom on radio duty. My younger sisters: Olive, Mauve, and Topaz were dressing up our hairless cat Picasso, all for mom's special day. I was on camera duty, the most important and respected position on holidays and special events, so I could capture every moment and so we could look back at the video to laugh and reminisce.

However the celebration didn't last long, as I remember I was filming my mom dancing to the rhythm of the radio, when a dark blue SUV pulled up right behind her. A man jumped out from the vehicle, and before my mom could turn around, he had pulled her into the dark car and the driver sped off. I only remember standing there in shock, the camera crashing against the pavement right next to my ankle. My mom's expression of terror as she looked at me for the last time made me fall to me knees like the wind had just been knocked right out of me. The girls hadn't noticed yet, but standing to my right was my father looking in the direction my mother had just vanished in.

He had seen everything. And had done nothing.

I remember looking up at him, desperate to make out what had happened.

"Save her! SAVE HER!" I pleaded in my thoughts. Complete silence. Shock had taken over my entire body.

"Dad," I was finally able to find my voice. "Mom's gone. Someone just took her!" My throat was closing up again.

My father looked down at me, and I couldn't make out his face as it shadowed with the sun's rays shining on his back of his neck.

"I know, little one." Was all he said.

Sometimes to this day I wonder if I had heard him wrong. I wonder over and over why he didn't seem startled, worried, concerned, or confused. He didn't look for mom, talk about mom, or even acknowledge her existence after that very moment.

That was the day my life had changed for the worst. Since mom had vanished, I had spent every waking moment of last year looking for answers. Red and I came up with theories every night, we had a whole book of assumptions where most of the lines were crossed out after evidence proving that specific theory was impossible. We gave up on questioning our father, and I think Red even began to hate him.

Olive, Mauve, and Topaz missed mom dearly. They were young and looked up to her, depended on her. I couldn't bear to see them cry every night wondering what happened to her, so Red had told them that she needed to go help children in Europe, but she'd be back soon.

We planned on finding her before Olive had turned 11, but we haven't had a single clue or breadcrumb leading us in the right direction thus far. Now Olive was 12, her thirteenth birthday nearing; while Mauve 8, and Topaz 6.

Our father was holding up the best out of all of us. Hell, he'd even moved on to a woman named Emma last fall. She's been nice and all, but she's no mother. Emma is probably only 27 at most. She's a fit, excited, and an ignorant excuse for a woman but she tries her best to seek comfort for me and my siblings.

Ever since the incident, we relocated to a terribly ugly and always pungent smelling town in Wichita, Kansas. It was a far stretch from Alexandria, Virginia, but my father claimed we needed a fresh start. However the freshness of the start, was debatable.