The Vanishing (2 page)

“
I wonder if there’s a
surveillance tape in this place,” Alex said. “Maybe we can see if
someone entered this store and kidnapped her.”

“
But she’d still have on
her underwear.” At the very least. As it was, wherever Marianne
went, she was naked. And that was nothing at all like her sister.
Still, she followed him to the front where the clerk hung up the
phone.

“
I can’t get through,” the
young woman said. “The phone is busy.”

Alex grumbled but dug his cell phone
from his pocket and pressed the buttons. He frowned. “I’m getting
the same thing. Autumn, will you try yours?”

Even though she figured it would be
pointless, she obeyed. “Same thing.” She hung up the
phone.

“
Do you have a
surveillance tape?” Alex asked.

“
Of course.”

“
Can I watch it to see
what happened to my fiancée?”

“
Let me pull up the
system.” She fiddled with some keys on the computer.

He went around the counter so he could
watch what she was doing.

“
I don’t have anything in
the dressing room, but the rest of the store is covered,” she
said.

“
That’s all we need,” he
replied.

It wouldn’t do any good. Autumn already
knew that they wouldn’t get any answers from the tape. She
reluctantly turned her attention to the window. What had started as
a slight disturbance had turned into a full-blown panic. People ran
past the store, crying out for others that they couldn’t find. A
woman had stopped pulling her stroller and was weeping over an
empty seat with a sippy cup and toddler clothes hanging over the
belt strap. A fire truck and ambulance roared by, dodging a few
cars that remained in the street.

“
We interrupt this program
for another special report,” the TV news anchor said.

She rushed over to the television and
sat in front of it, turning up the volume.

“
Approximately six minutes
ago, there have been reports of people disappearing all over the
globe. We have footage of this phenomenon coming into the station
as I speak.”

The scene on the TV switched to a video
where a woman stood in front of a building interviewing a man. One
minute she was there asking him a question and the next, she was
gone. A chill raced up Autumn’s spine. They replayed the event in
slow motion, but there was no indication as to how the reporter
disappeared. The next scene was of a group of children playing a
ball game. One second they were there and the next, they were gone.
All they left behind were their clothes.

Autumn clutched her stomach. She was
going to throw up. Did that happen to Marianne as well? She put her
face in her hands and took deep breaths so she wouldn’t pass out.
Where did all those people go? Where did Marianne go? How did
something like this happen? And how was she going to get Marianne
back?

Chapter Two

In the blink of an eye, Autumn’s entire
life changed...and not for the better. What was she supposed to do
without her sister? Marianne was the one person who understood and
loved her through all the hardships in her life. It was their
parents’ deaths that brought them close. And now her heart ached
with an emptiness that even their parents’ passing hadn’t caused.
She closed her eyes and more tears slid down her cheeks.

The phone rang next to her bed. She
turned her head to her nightstand and mechanically lifted the phone
to her ear. “H—” She cleared her throat. “Hello?”

“
Girl, you aren’t going to
take another sick day, are you?”

She groaned. “Is it Tuesday
already?”

“
Yes.”

She lifted her head and saw the time on
the clock. It was midday. In the confines of her dark room, it was
hard to tell day from night anymore.

“
Look, I can’t keep
covering for you,” Alicia said in a firm but gentle voice. “You
know how Hampton is. With all those people disappearing, sales have
dropped and that means I have to bear the brunt of his foul mood
all by myself.”

Autumn rubbed her eyes and sighed. Her
friend was right. She needed to get back to work. She couldn’t
spend the rest of her life in bed. Easing into a sitting position,
she winced and grabbed the bottle of pain killers and plopped two
pills into her mouth before she washed them down with the bottled
water.

“
So...are you coming in
today or not?” Alicia asked.

“
Give me twenty
minutes.”

“
Twenty
minutes?”

“
I have to
shower.”

“
Are you kidding me? It’s
noon. You mean to tell me that you’re still in bed?”

“
Pretty much.” She glanced
at the calendar on the wall. Two weeks. It’d been two weeks since
her sister and millions of other people vanished. Every time she
went to sleep, she hoped she’d wake up and find out it had all been
a nightmare. But each morning she woke up and dialed her sister’s
cell phone only to hear that it was out of service. She’d given up
on going to Marianne’s apartment, and after talking to Alex, she
learned he hadn’t had any luck finding her either. She didn’t get
it. What happened to Marianne and the others who went with her?
“You’re lucky, Alicia. No one in your family
disappeared.”

“
I know.”

Autumn caught the sympathy in her voice
and appreciated it. “I guess life goes on, right? I’ll see you
soon.”

After she hung up, she stood, feeling
as if she were seventy instead of thirty-four. Trudging to the
bathroom, she flipped the switch on and ignored her appearance. She
didn’t need a mirror to know her eyes were puffy and her face was
splotchy. She looked like crap and felt worse. She spent five
minutes standing still in the shower as the hot water pounded
against her back. Everything seemed so mechanical. She was going
through the motions, simply existing. Each breath reminded her that
she was still alive and had to face another day without her best
friend.

She picked up the shampoo and worked it
into her hair. The tangles would never get out unless she applied
the conditioner, which she did. After she was done bathing, she got
dressed and slipped on her sister’s necklace. It was all she had
now. At least until Marianne returned. As foolish as it was to hope
that everyone who vanished would suddenly come back, she held onto
it.

When she got to the department store,
Alicia looked relieved. She asked the male customer to wait before
she ran over to Autumn and whispered, “It’s been nonstop ever since
people vanished. I mean, they all want to return items they bought
for their friends and loved ones. I don’t know what the price was
on the blouse when he purchased it three weeks ago. Do you
remember?”

Autumn glanced at the tall, slender man
in the dark suit holding an open box. “You’d think with the way
he’s dressed, he would have gotten his girlfriend or wife a better
gift,” she whispered. “That blouse was only $25.”

“
Thanks.” The pretty
African American woman hurried back to the register and took the
blouse from the man.

As Autumn made her way to the employee
lounge, the man glanced her way. A shiver ran up her spine. She
blinked and quickly looked away. There was something seriously
wrong with him. On the outside, he was as gorgeous as a man could
get—tall, dark and handsome. But inside... She didn’t even want to
think about it. She’d probably never see him again, so it didn’t
matter. Once she put her purse in her locker, she grabbed a quick
drink of coffee before clocking in.

By the time she returned to the
register, the man was long gone. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Is
there anything new I should know about?”

Alicia stopped flipping through a
catalogue and grinned. “There is a hot guy working in the
electronics department.”

She rolled her eyes. “I meant work
related.”

“
He is work
related.”

“
You need a
date.”

“
Don’t I know it! It’s not
my fault that men don’t know a good thing when they see it.” She
shrugged. “Their loss, right?”

“
I’d like to think
so.”

Alicia sighed. “We do have new jeans.
They’re the relaxed fit and they even come in petite. It might be
perfect for you.”

“
I’ll check them out. It’s
been two years since I bought a new pair.”

“
Oops. There’s Hampton
rounding the corner. I better look busy.” Alicia shut the catalogue
and hurried off to a customer.

Mr. Hampton made his way up to her.
“Nice of you to come to work, Miss Daniels.”

“
I took a
vacation.”

“
Without telling anyone in
advance?”

“
My sister disappeared
that day.” Why did she even have to explain this? “I didn’t have
advanced notice.”

“
Life goes on. Some of us
are still here and need clothes.”

She bit her tongue so she wouldn’t snap
at him. With the economy suffering as it was, she couldn’t afford
to lose her job.

“
Next time, plan it ahead
of time so I can fill in for your slot.”

As he walked away, she stuck her tongue
out at him. So what if it was childish? She’d just lost her sister
and best friend for goodness’ sakes! Some understanding would go a
long way.

Two women came up to the counter and
placed two shirts and a skirt in front of her.

Autumn forced a smile and took the
items. “Good afternoon. Did you find everything you were looking
for today?”

“
Yes, we did,” the blond
said. Then she turned to her friend. “It’s about time the truth was
told. I saw one when I was a girl. My aunt was even abducted. We
weren’t the only ones who had these encounters. Millions of others
have too.”

Autumn slowly rang up the clothes as
she listened to them. Were they talking about aliens? As in little
green men and UFO’s?

The blond’s friend looked apprehensive.
“Why would they wait all this time before contacting
us?”

“
They didn’t,” the blond
answered, obviously excited. “They’ve been coming down here since
that Area 51 incident. The government’s known about them all along.
They’ve been keeping everything classified.”

Autumn cleared her throat. “The total
comes to $50.35.”

The blond handed her a credit card. “Do
you think Area 51 was a hoax?”

Surprised that she was talking to her,
Autumn thought over the question. “I don’t know.”

“
How can you not know
either way?” her friend asked. “You either thought it was real or
you didn’t.”

She tore off the receipt and handed it
and a pen to the blond. “Well, if you’re asking if Area 51 is where
they conduct experiments on little green men, then I say no. The
government has technology that is years ahead of what we know
about, so it’s logical to assume that Area 51 is where they make
and test this technology. Now, if you’re asking if I believe in
another intelligent species, the answer is yes. It’d be ridiculous
to think that humans are the only ones in the entire
universe.”

The blond smiled. “That’s a good point,
but this is not the first time aliens have come to visit us. It is
the first time the government is allowing them to appear before the
entire world. They’ll be broadcasting live at the United Nations at
seven tonight. Isn’t that exciting?”

The eerie feeling was coming back to
her. Autumn waited until the blond signed the receipt before she
tore off a copy and gave her the card back. When Autumn said
‘intelligent species’, she wasn’t thinking of the Area 51 and UFO
type of phenomenon. She was thinking of something obscure that
would never make it to Earth. Something that would forever remain
in the far reaches of space. But having a debate about it was the
last thing she wanted to do. So she simply returned the blond’s
smile and handed her the bag full of clothes.

The blond’s friend shook her head.
“It’s all a hoax. There are no aliens. What we’ll see on TV is
going to be a holographic image.”

“
And why would the
governments of the world do that?” the blond asked.

“
To unite us into a one
world government. If enough people panic over this, they’ll
convince us the only way to be safe is to unite.”

The blond laughed. “Oh come on. You
need to stop listening to those crazy conspiracy shows.”

“
Well, we’ll see who has
the last laugh when big brother takes over, won’t we?”

The two women left in the middle of
their friendly argument, and Autumn was glad for it. She rubbed her
temples. A headache was coming on and if she didn’t take another
pain pill soon, it was going to get worse. She found Alicia talking
with a customer and motioned that she was going to take a break.
Alicia waved for her to go.

Grateful, Autumn left the store and
entered the heart of the mall. She got a quick bite to eat and it
seemed that everyone around her was talking about the aliens making
their first appearance in front of the world. After she finished
her muffin and soda, she went to make a purchase she vowed to never
make again. She bought a pack of cigarettes and headed for the
nearest bench outside the mall.