• “People are disappearing all over the continent” The news woman said as pictures of the recent victims popped up on the screen. “The most recent victim’s name has yet to be released, but we do know that it was a male and he lived in south Chicago. He has been missing for 48 hours and so far there is no sign of the man’s kidnapers.” Pictures of the mans house flashed on the screen, there were large police choppers hovering around the buildings, K-9 units were searching the alleyways, the whole neighbor hood was in chaos. “What have we told you about watching these reports right before bed!” said my angry yet tired mother as she set her purse on the kitchen counter and walked over to where I sat on the sofa. “Oh come on mom, I’m not scared.” I said pleading, she shook her head “no Lalo you have school tomorrow.” She said walking around the back of the couch and blocking my view of the T.V. “Hey!” I said as she turned off the T.V. she turned to look at me, “Bed now” I sighed and heaved myself off the couch, my short gel spiked hair looked messy and unkempt. I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and I looked at myself in the mirror, I had bags under my eyes and a cut on my lip. ‘Must have been when Bruce punched me’ I thought bitterly. Bruce Tiffany, girly last name am I right? Well any way he bumped me in the hall and I pushed him back, and before I knew it we were flat out fighting. I smirked at myself, ‘it was too easy’ Bruce is bigger than I am, but I easily beat him, he’s like an ox and talks like one too, his bulky body doesn’t help the fact that one he’s overweight and two he’s uncoordinated. I picked up my toothbrush and put the overly minty tooth paste on it, I sighed as I began to brush. When I spit it out and finished up in the bathroom I looked back at my mom who was now lighting the candle at my fathers alter. My father died on 9/11, he was in one of the buildings and couldn’t get out in time, my mother lights a candle every night in mourning. I turned away from her “g’night mom” I said as I walked to my bedroom door, “good night Lalo” she said as I closed the door behind me. I folded my hands behind my head as I lay on my bed and sighed slowly drifting into a light sleep.

    I woke up when I heard the sound of breaking glass ‘Mom’ I thought as I got up from my bed and ran to my door. As I fumbled with the door handle I heard a scream “Mom!” I yelled as I finally ripped the door open and ran into the hallway. The cramped apartment hallway was cluttered and in my haste I tripped over bags and boxes. Kicking every thing aside I grabbed the bedroom door and pulled it open, I franticly looked around and saw nothing but a broken window, blood and the bed sheets on the floor. “No!” I screamed pounding my fist against the bedroom door. My eyes were clouded with tears as I slumped down to the ground and just sat there, murmuring “he left me in charge of her, and she’s gone, she’s gone, gone.” It felt like I was trapped in my own mind. My upper lip was covered in snot as I cried and huddled by the door, nothing would move me. My breath was still caught in my chest but I was able to crawl over to the bed and curl up there, in the middle like I used to, when my father was alive and my mother wasn’t kidnapped. Crying myself to sleep was the least of my worries, sooner or later Child Services was going to come around and I would be taken away from where I grew up. ‘There is no way I’ll let them take me, I need to save mom!’ I thought with such urgency that I jumped.
    I hadn’t left the apartment for roughly a week, how could I? Every thing I owned was here, and if the landlord realized we had abandoned our stuff he would sell it for all I know. I opened my eyes after a while, it was light out side and I was hungry ‘crying for that long will do that to a person…’ I thought bitterly. I scooted to a side of the bed and stood up. I hadn’t realized how cold it was in a Chicago apartment; I looked over at the broken window and sighed. I picked up anything that would remind me of my mother and left the room. Flipping on the TV to the news station I had been watching last night I grabbed myself some milk and Frosted Flakes, but the milk in a bowl and but the bowl in the microwave. I looked at the TV and watched as the police reported about another disappearance, but it wasn’t my mothers.
    Weeks or months had passed, I wasn’t very sure, and more and more people were disappearing, recently 6 people disappeared on the same night. I stared coldly at the TV every night waiting for at least a little bit of good news. When nothing came I became angrier and angrier, ‘the cops aren’t doing anything to help!’ I thought constantly. By New Years Eve nothing had changed, almost half the population of the United States had disappeared.
    I woke up again in the middle of the night, it had been almost a year since my mother disappeared and no one had noticed her or my lack of social appearances. I was fourteen when she disappeared and now I am 15. But when I woke up that night to more screaming and the apartment door being broken down, I felt like a scared child. The screaming came from the landlords wife, I knew that much, but I had no idea that what ever had scared her wanted me too. It stood over me breathing acid and pale as snow, and with no remorse at all, my mother took me, the same way she had been taken. She was one of them now.