Prologue

“The world’s ending! Wake up!”

The cry jolted ten year old Aria from her sound slumber and sent her tumbling out of her bed as she attempted to stand up just a little too quickly.

“What-?” she exclaimed, her voice and mind still fuzzy from sleep. She blinked her eyes rapidly, while trying to calm her speeding heart. Her dark brown hair, a mess from being rarely brushed and slept on for six hours, was hastily pushed out of her eyes as she stared at the ceiling from her position on the floor. “What’s going on?”

It was then that she became aware of some very familiar laughter. One look in the direction of the offending sound revealed a brown haired boy leaning heavily against her doorframe in an effort to stay upright as he roared with laughter.

“Emir!” she shouted, picking up her pillow which had followed her descent to the cold floor and throwing it at him. “That was not funny!”

Her older brother easily moved out of the way of the incoming head rest, still shaking with laughter in an over exaggerated manner. His dark brown eyes twinkled mischievously as he clutched his stomach, half bent over, half leaning against the doorway.

“But you should have seen your face,” Emir gasped out, purposely stressing on the last word. “It was so funny!”

Aria sent him the best glare she could muster at the ungodly hour of seven in the morning. It had little effect other than amusing him even more. Not that many of the glares she sent his way at any time during the day had their desired effect. Emir was just too accustomed to his cute little sister and her methods of intimidation. He merely walked across the room, carefully staying out of reach of his sister, and cheerfully opened the dark blue curtains, allowing sunlight to rush into the messy room.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Aria snapped, pulling her blanket over her head to protect herself from the accursed daylight, not bothering to get up off the floor. Maybe she should have thrown the alarm clock rather than the pillow.

“But it woke you up, didn’t it,” he teased as he quietly made his way to his sister’s bed. He took a hold of one corner of her dark blue blanket, and in one swift movement, pulled it off of her. “Little miss Sleeping Beauty?”

“Hey!” she shouted, throwing up an arm to block out the sudden light. “Give that back!”

She blindly lunged for her blanket, but, as a result of keeping her right arm pressed tightly across her eyes and the sleepiness that every sane person would feel at that hour, she missed entirely and met with the cold, hard floor on the other side of the bed instead. Her brother wisely dropped the blanket and fled the scene of the crime, though not before hearing his sister’s cry.

“You are dead, Emir!”

Grinning madly, the soon to be deceased boy ran through the hallway and into the kitchen, not at all concerned by his sister’s threats. Aria was not a marathon runner, especially not this early in the morning. He could speed walk and he’d still be moving faster than her at her best hour.

“She’s awake, Ma” Emir said, placing a kiss on his mother’s check and swiping one of the oranges she had been squeezing to make orange juice. “You owe me five bucks. I take cash only, no credit or checks please.”

His mother’s lip twitched as she tried to glare sternly at her eldest son. “Do not call me ‘ma’. And I never said I’d pay you to get your sister out of bed.”

“That’s cheating, Ma-Mom!” he corrected hastily as his mother sent another glare his way. Her glares were on a whole different level than her daughter’s.

“That’s life, dear” she replied, letting the smile she had been suppressing appear on her face. “And that’s how the rich, stay rich.”

Her son merely rolled his eyes and seated himself comfortably on the kitchen counter. He’d never really expected to get paid, it was just fun having these debates with his mother.

“Really,” he said, in mock disappointment as he wiped the orange on his clean shirt. “Sometimes I wonder who the adult is here.”

“Definitely not you.” The words were followed by a pillow that reached its mark this time.

Emir scowled and rubbed his head. “Can’t you just forgive and forget for once?”

Aria smiled as she sat down at the table, content now that she had gotten her revenge. One of her greatest faults was that she held a grudge. For ridiculous amounts of time. Sometimes she got her revenge quickly, like now for instance, and other times, she waited, for months even, until no one suspected anything. But she always got her just deserts. A fact her brother was well acquainted with much to his displeasure.

“Nope,” she replied bluntly, yawning as she rested her head on her arms. “Morning, Mom.”

“Morning dear.” Her mother replied, placing a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice onto the table. “Emir, off the counter.”

Emir jumped off, pouting.

“What, no good morning for me?” he asked, sitting down across from her.

There was no reply from his sister who appeared to have fallen asleep again. Man, that had been quick; usually she lasted until the end of breakfast. His gaze landed on a cup of cold water, and a mischievous look appeared in his eyes. Well then, he’d just have to be a good older brother and wake her up again. After all, if she slept too much now, she’d stay up all night, and sleep the next day, in an endlessly repeating cycle.

Emir glanced quickly at his mother, making sure she was preoccupied, before he picked up the cup. He positioned the cup over his target, preparing to tips its contents onto the unfortunate head of his sister.

“Don’t you dare,” Aria muttered suddenly from under the mess of arms and hair. She shifted slightly so that her right eye was visible enough to glare at her brother. “Or you will pay.”

Unfazed, he quickly pulled the cup away from her and took a sip, innocently blinking at her. She growled softly, annoyed at the lengths her brother was willing to go to keep her awake. Why couldn’t he just let her sleep and face the day at a more sensible hour, like eleven? Surely that wasn’t too much to ask.

“Honey, you really do need to be awake in order to eat.” Her mother said, setting down a plate of pancakes and taking her place at the head of the table. Her eldest son immediately snatched two pancakes from the pile, placed them on his sister’s plate, and stole three more for his own plate. Aria jerked her head up just a second too late.

“Wait! Just one—” she broke off with a groan when she saw her plate. Her mother would not let her leave the table without eating everything on her plate. That was one of the few things she stressed on, never waste food. Aria turned towards her brother with narrowed eyes. “You did that on purpose.”

Emir was spared from answering as his mouth was conveniently full of pancakes. Their mother merely ate her own pancake as she read the newspaper, content with letting her children sort out their own troubles. Aria growled, and stabbed her pancake viciously with a fork. She was not a morning person, and sometimes, she couldn’t help but wonder if that smirking, annoying twelve year old boy was responsible for that. Either him or the fact that she had a habit of staying up watching the stars and daydreaming. She’d rather lean towards the former.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, aside from the repeated attempts made by Emir to add more food to her plate when her back was turned and Aria dumping spoonfuls of strawberry jam onto Emir’s plate in retaliation. It was only when she started dumping grape jam, a fruit Emir loathed even more than strawberry, did he leave his sister in peace.

Aria was halfway done with her second pancake, Emir with his fourth, when their mother set down the newspaper with a sigh. Brother and sister exchanged a glance, both recognizing the weariness and worry present in that exhale of breath.

“Bad news?” Aria asked softly, not really wanting to hear the reply. Please, please, please do not let it something bad, please.

“Did they get rid of the comics?” Emir asked, making a poor attempt at a joke. No one at the table cracked a smile, not even him. All were too tense about the prospect of things taking a turn for the worse to smile.

Their mother sighed again, and leaned backing her chair, suddenly appearing to look much older than she really was. Aria was surprised to see the worry lines so vivid on her mother’s pale drawn out face. When did her mother get so…old?

“Yes, Aria,” Her mother began, closing her eyes, taking a moment to compose herself before addressing her children again, this time with a determined glint in her eyes. “More bad news. Six more disappearances, another war started Asia, and Evergreen Park was completely torn apart last night.”

Aria’s blood ran cold at the news. She saw Emir stiffen in the corner of her eye, but she focused her attention on her mother. Evergreen Park was merely a few miles from their home. So close…

“Torn apart?” Emir asked in an oddly strained voice. His pancakes grew soggy on his plate, forgotten, as had Aria’s.

“Even the trees,” Their mother replied, rubbing her forehead in an attempt to lessen her headache. “Were torn out of the ground by their roots. There was scorch marks everywhere, vegetation not even native to this country growing out of the ground, strangling the slides, even some blood, staining the grass. No bodies though, thank heavens.”

Aria stared directly at the wall across her, attempting to calm her furiously thumping heart. She knew this was happening all over the world; strange explosion, disappearances from orphanages and homes, and areas torn apart as though a silent, invisible war had occurred. But never had it terrified her this much, been this close to her home, her world. The entire world was up against an enemy that no one had ever seen and escaped alive and they were losing so far. Quite horribly too, if the reports in the news were anything to go on.

“We’ll be fine.” Emir said suddenly. Aria’s turned her head quickly, just in time to see her brother look up at their mother with a determined, set look in his eyes. Aria blinked in surprise. She had never seen him look so serious before. There was no mischief or doubt present in his eyes, just pure determination and belief in his words. Even their mother was startled; her wide eyes focused on her son’s set face. They stayed like that for a moment as Aria watched them, feeling like an outsider. She had no idea what was going on, and she did not like it one bit. It was almost as if her only family had suddenly turned into complete strangers, speaking in a language that only they understood.

Finally, her mother turned towards Aria and offered her a smile.

“Alright” she said, putting on a false cheerful air. “Enough of that depressing talk, Emir is right, we’ll be fine.”

She crumpled the newspaper with one hand and tossed it skillfully over her back right into the recycle basket.

Emir let out a cheer, seriousness gone as swiftly as it had come. “Score! Mom one, newspaper zero!”

Their mother gave a real smile as she stood up from the table. “Besides, we have a whole list of chores to complete today, starting with shopping for groceries.”

Emir groaned, letting his head fall onto the table. “Shopping, always with the shopping”

Aria said nothing, merely watching with half lidded eyes. She was getting the feeling that she was missing something, something important. And she did not like being kept in the dark at all.

*~~ͽͼ~~*

Shopping was a horrid experience, even for Aria, who, according to her mother, as a girl should love it. Aria found searching for a specific item in an overcrowded building while attempting to avoid getting run over by shopping carts driven at questionable speeds by overzealous individuals to be an experience that she would not like to experience again, anytime soon. Emir wholeheartedly shared her views, though he did laugh himself silly when she got caught in the middle of a frantic rush for some disinfectant that had just been announced to be on sale for half price. By the time she had broken free of the crowd, she had lost her hair tie and was wincing from the pain of having a cart run over her foot or hit her back multiple times. She was not in the mood to being laughed at by an annoying quick twelve year old brother. She avenged herself by pushing him into a passing shopper and leaving him to apologize for the resulting collision.

Quite understandably, neither sibling was on the best of terms with the other when they left the store approximately thirty minutes after they had entered it. All were relieved to have managed to escape from the hubbub intact, more or less. Ever since the strange attacks had begun, shortages of food and other necessitates of life had been occurring, not greatly but just enough so that its impacts were felt everywhere. Prices had risen and people had to rush to get what they needed, usually very early in the morning, when the crowds were at their smallest. The family was just barely managing to get by, with their mother’s meager salary as their only source of income.

It’s not fair, Aria thought, kicking a pebble out of her way. Why can not the rich share?

“Called it!” Emir shouted suddenly, racing towards their car, and startling Aria from her thoughts.

“Hey!” Aria shouted, before running after him even though she knew she had no chance of catching up to him, especially since he had gotten a head start. “Cheater!”

Unsurprisingly, Emir reached their car first, stopping in front of the front seat on the right hand side.

“I win!” He shouted, punching the air in triumph. He stuck his tongue out at his sister who was still running towards the car. She reached her destination a full thirty seconds after her brother, gasping for breath and glaring enough to wilt grass. She did not even have enough breath to protest his win. Though technically, according to their rules, he had won the second he touched the front door. She had no choice but to go through with the punishment, transferring the groceries from the cart to their car. That did not mean that she had to do it with a smile though.

Aria was still grumbling when their mother reached the car a few minutes later, having chosen to continue her track at a saner pace.

“Lost again?” she asked, smiling as she stopped the cart behind their car and began to search her purse for her keys. “Really, honey, you need to exercise more and beat your brother.”

“Not my fault.” Aria muttered, leaning on the cart and glaring in the general direction of her brother. And it truly was not her fault. No matter what she did, Aria could not run any faster than a regular person could walk. She wasn’t fat, only the rich were fat nowadays, as they were the only able to buy food on a daily basis. It was her legs’ fault; they just wouldn’t listen to her mind when she attempted to move them too quickly. She was slow. And the fact that her brother was as quick as the wind whenever he wanted to be did not help her come to terms with that fact at all. At least he was nice about that though, never rubbing her lack of speed in her face, though often using it to escape from her wrath.

“Do not ever give up, Aria” Her mother replied, sending her a smile as she headed towards the front of the car, to unlock the car. Their backdoor was broken, just like pretty much everything else on their car, and could only be open from the front. Aria was still amazed that the car could still start.

“Hurry up,” she called, placing her right hand on the back handle. It was cold out here, she just wanted to—

The explosion sent her flying backwards several feet right into the back of the car opposite theirs. Pain overwhelmed her senses, her vision obscured by a frenzy of white stars. She did not realize what had happened at first. The explosion had not been not been like the ones shown in movies and cartoons; there was no loud boom or dramatic background music. There was only a cold rush of air followed by horrific silence that was punctured only by the crackle of the flames. Aria could only stare in stunned silence at the burning debris of their car. Her brain just functioning as slowly as her legs for once, she just did not understand. What was going on?

People were running, screaming soundlessly as they either ran for their lives or ran towards the wreckage, hoping to offer help, though there was not much that they could do by that point. Her brain suddenly shook off its paralysis and began working overtime. Mother and Emir! Where were they!?

No. No, no, no, no, no. This can’t be happening, No, not to us.

She attempted to get up, leaning on her right hand, wanting nothing but to get to the burning car and save her family. The world tilted and she found herself lying on the concrete with her right check pressed soundly to it. What?

She used her left hand and the car behind her to pull herself up again before turning to see why her right hand had failed her. It was gone, ripped from her body by the explosion. Her entire right side was one bloody mess. She tried to move her right hand, feeling it move with her mind, but seeing only the terrible nothingness. No, no, no.

She tried to pull herself up again, using the car as a support, but her legs failed her, sending her in a crumpled heap on the ground. No, no, no. She had to get there, now, and find Emir and Mother. This was no time to be weak. Something was falling into her right eye, blocking her view. Was it blood? She tried to crawl towards the car. It took her a moment to realize that her body had stopped listening to her and she had not moved. No, no, no.

There was a strange smell in the air, the fire continued to burn angrily, consuming the car. It made an oddly pretty picture against the clear blue sky.

Someone was talking to her, or maybe it was to the other person who was tying a jacket around the mess that had been her arm. Someone was talking, she was sure of that, but she couldn’t understand why they were just talking and not going to save her family. Go help them, she was fine, find them first.

There was a strange, harsh noise invading her ears now, growing louder with every second. An ambulance? Good, they could help Emir and Mother. They would help.

But there was another sound filleting into her ears as well, an odd, broken noise. It was annoying, Aria found herself wishing it to go away and leave her alone. It wasn’t helping; she needed to get to the car, why did not they understand that. Why was no one helping Emir and Mother? Help them.

The world was growing darker, was it nighttime already? Odd, she’d only woken up a few hours ago, right? The noise grew more coherent and she recognized it as screaming. Why were they screaming? They should go help Emir and Mother!

A blurry face appeared in her viewpoint, blocking the horrible sight of the car. Aria felt a faint annoyance at the face, she needed to find her family and it was in the way!

Everything was growing darker and her eyes fluttered close. Tired, so tired. But she needed to help…..help them….

It was just before she succumbed to the darkness did she realize that the screaming had been her own.

*~~ͽͼ~~*