August 14th, 2018 - Roughly 7 P.M.

The sun would shine brightly in the sky, beginning to take its place along the horizon. Orange and yellow rays would cascade down on the labyrinth of tight, twisting, neighborly roads. The breeze leaving a slight, silent chill in the air; It was a rather chilly evening for late August, but it had been a slight break from the heat everyone had endured all summer.

It was a normal evening for the citizens in the town of Waekford. Waekford was the type of town where everyone knew everything about everyone. If someone had passed away, nearly the entire town would show up at the funeral. If someone's kid was in trouble with the law? You better believe the town would know in under a day. Sometimes the gossip would get to others, but for others - this was just how the town operated. You fit in, or you don't, and everyone will know your business whether you want them to or not.

Families were settling in for the evening, including the Evan's family. Alan Evan had walked into his home, greeted by his wife Ella and two children, Abigail and Ethan. Ella had just recently put dinner on the table. The aroma of herbs and citrus filled his nose, making Alan's stomach rumble a bit.

"Hi, honey." Ella beamed, tucking a strand of golden hair behind her ear as she leaned in to meet her husband's lips for a small kiss.

"Hi, darlin'." Alan chuckled and set his leather briefcase on the floor beside him, unfastening his tie a bit. 

"Something smells amazing!" He chimed before joining his family at the dinner table. Reaching for the dinner rolls perfectly placed in front of his daughter, Alan stole a look at Abigail who was texting away on her cell phone.

"Abby, phone. Down." He raised his eyebrows a bit as Abby looked up from texting - only to let out a sigh of defeat as she slid her phone into her jacket pocket.

"Thank you! Now, let's eat." Alan smiled, speaking in a sing-song voice playfully. Abby, being the rebellious teenager full of angst that she is, rolled her eyes and picked up her fork, picking at the food on her plate. Only the sound of silverware tapping on ceramic dishes filled the air until Alan spoke up again.

"So, how were your guys' days?" He rested his chin on his knuckles with his fork still in hand, looking between his two children

.

"Mommy got me a new toy today Daddy!" Ethan grabbed the action figure sitting next to him, making Alan over-exaggerate how excited he was.

"Woah! Is that the Buzz Lightyear!?" Alan laughed at his son's dramatic nodding as the 6-year-old sat upon his knees.

"Ethan, sit right on the chair," Ella said in a quiet, but loving voice - making Ethan comply and set his toy back down.

"Mommy said I was really good today so I got Buzz Light-beard." Alan chuckled at the name and nodded in appreciation.

"That's so cool, buddy. What about you, Abby?" She looked up and exchanged glances between her parents before putting her eyes back down at her plate.

"Nothing new to report." She mumbled, sitting closer to her plate.

"You okay sweetie? You've barely touched your food." Her father responded.

"I'm fine, just not very hungry," Abby replied in a monotone voice. Ella let out a small sigh before setting her silverware down and folding her hands into her lap.

"Abigail," Her mother said in a stern voice, making her father raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Mom, please." She whispered, but Ella shook her head looking toward her husband.

"Abby got detention today and-"

"Mom!" Abby slammed her fork down and sat straight up, looking between her parents in a slight panic.

"Detention?" Alan set his fork down and wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin Ella set out.

"-And we have a meeting with her principal tomorrow morning." Ella took a deep breath and shook her head. "She was fighting with that Janet again."

"I was fighting?! Mom, she bullies me every day that I'm at school! She shoved me against the lockers and Mr. Landon only saw me push back, so I got in trouble!"

"Abby, you shouldn't be fighting violence with violence in the first place!" Ella immediately shot back at her daughter.

"Mom, you don't understand-"

"The only thing I need to understand is that you have detention for something that your school has a zero-tolerance policy for. You're grounded." Abby stared at her parents dumbfounded for a moment.

"I'm grounded... for standing up for myself?"

"No, you're grounded for trying to hide something from us and getting detention." Abby clenched her jaw and slammed her hands down on the table before pushing herself to her feet, the chair scraping across the wooden floor beneath her.

"Abby!" Ella proclaimed, about to stand up herself as Abby stormed off toward the living room.

"This is bullshit!" Abby screamed, making both of her parents stand up.

"Abigail Marie!" Alan said sternly. "Watch your language around your-"

"NO!" She screamed even louder. 

"This is why I never open up to you guys about anything in my life. Mom, you promised you wouldn't tell Dad and now look. You're both grounding me for being bullied. I fucking hate you!"

Abby stormed off upstairs to her bedroom as her parents tried to protest her running off.

"Ella, what the fuck?." Alan spoke in a hushed tone, making his wife sigh loudly.

"Oh, don't you start with me either, Alan."

"Seriously, El?" He tried to protest but Ella put her hand up to quiet him.

"She needs to know when to pick her battles, Alan. This wasn't one of them." She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed softly, the sound of quiet sniffles catching the attention of both of them.

"Oh, Ethan baby.." Ella walked toward her son and picked him up, Alan wiping the few tears from his face.

"Let's just... call it an early night babe. We'll talk later." Alan shook his head, starting to clean up the dinner table as Ella took her son upstairs for his nightly routine before putting him to sleep.

The moment Abby entered her bedroom, she slammed the door shut behind her. The slam echoed throughout the empty hallway as she stood in front of her bed, balling her fists out of anger. Her knuckles began to turn white as her breath hitched in her throat. A moment later, she felt her eyes stinging with tears as she finally collapsed onto her bed facedown.

Abby screamed into her pillow and slammed her fists into her bed, feeling immensely frustrated for what had just occurred downstairs.

'How am I being punished for this?! What the fuck!' She thought to herself, wiping her eyes as she flipped around onto her back to stare up at her ceiling.

Sighing to herself, she reached over her bed, grabbing her headphones to connect them to her phone. Opening up her music player, Abby turned the volume up to drown out her sorrows with her music. Turning onto her right side, she stared out of her window, watching the sun begin to descend beyond the horizon, her eyes slowly closing as her breathing became steadier - eventually falling asleep.

~~The sun had gone to rest for the evening as Alan and Ella finished cleaning up the dining room and kitchen from dinner. The couple stood in the kitchen, drying off the dishes Alan had just washed and began to put them away, still talking about the conversation that came up at dinner time.

"Alan, you are not understanding my point at all!" Ella pleaded as she helped her husband put the dinner dishes away after drying them. The clinking of the dishes began to feel like pins and needles in Alan's head.

Of course, he understood his wife's point that Abby shouldn't be getting detention in school when it's affecting her education and learning. But he also understands the fact that his daughter told a bully to fuck off and stood up for herself. He was proud of that in Abby, knowing how much she struggled socially in high school.

"Honey, I do. But you can't be mad at Abby for standing up for herself at school. The Dwyers have always been shitty to our family, but you don't see that because of who Janet's mom is."

"Oh, that's bullshit. Jillian and I have been friends for years, Alan-"

"That's exactly my point! You know how shitty she was to us in when we were kids, what makes you think her kid is any different?" Alan shook his head as they put the last of the dishes away. Pushing his sleeves up his forearms, he crossed them and leaned backwards against the marble counter-top, staring at his wife with an eyebrow raised.

"Alan-"

"You know I'm right," He interrupted with a slight smirk on his face, making Ella roll her eyes dramatically. She finally let out a defeated sigh and walked toward him, her flats making a slight squeaking noise on the tile floor. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he snaked his arms around her waist, beginning to sway back and forth. Alan leaned in to plant a small, chaste kiss upon Ella's lips, making her smile against his own.

"Alright," She whispered. "I'll go try to talk to her."

"Thank you. I think I have a riot shield in the attic if you need it." Ella let out a hearty laugh and playfully smacked his chest.

"Where the hell did you get a riot sh-" Their conversation was immediately cut off by the sound of rattling dishes.

"The hell?" Alan said, turning around as he still kept one of his hands against his wife's back. 

They both stood in silence for a moment before a noise crashed through the entire house, nearly sounding like a freight train. They both immediately ducked and looked at each other terrified as the rumbling became louder with each passing second- only to be replaced by vibrations beneath their feet.

"Oh my god-" Ella whispered, looking at her husband.

"Earthquake," Alan spoke quickly, immediately dashing upstairs with Ella behind him. Alan bolted into Abby's room. She was already awake with her hands and face plastered against the glass as if she was looking at something outside.

"Abby! Get away from the glass! I think we're having an earthquake and we need to get downstairs NOW!" He demanded, running toward his daughter to pull her off her bed. She wouldn't peel her eyes away from the window until they exited her room and she began to plead with her father.

"D-dad I.. there-there was s-something outside.." She stuttered as Ella came out of Ethan's room, holding him tightly against her chest. Alan kept a hold on Abby's arm, ignoring her comment as they rushed down the hallway - the house begins to shake and vibrate even more.

"Mommy? What's going on?" He asked in a sleepy tone as the family made their way back downstairs.

"Guys, under the table now!" Alan demanded, making fear rise in their children's eyes. Abby kept staring at all of the windows as the sound of roaring thunder came - the vibrations feeling as if they would tear the house in two.

The lights above them began to swing violently before exploding - the rest of the lights following suit one by one. Each pop was louder than the last before every light in the house was destroyed. There was a rumble from deep in the belly of the earth that struck fear into the Evan's family.

"D-daddy? I'm scared.." Ethan began to cry and Ella immediately pulled him tightly against her along with Abby. Holding onto her mother's hand tightly, Abby looked up from the ground at the windows - seeing the street lights on her street going out one by one, leaving the town in complete darkness.

"It's okay buddy, it'll be over soon- I promise!" Alan yelled over the rumbling and the vibrating as he took a hold of his daughter's free hand - praying to anyone that would listen to him.

Alan's heart began to sink as the thunderous roaring became louder as dishes and glasses began to hit the kitchen floor and dining room floor around them. Ethan and Abby let out a scream then the most unnerving thing had occurred.

There was absolute silence.

The deafening noises had stopped and there was utter stillness. Ella had lifted her head to glance around with tear-stained cheeks. They stayed silent for what seemed like minutes before Alan had broken the eerie silence with a whisper.

"Is everyone okay?" He looked to his left at Ella and the kids as they nodded, still feeling a bit fearful.

"A-alan? Do you think it's over-"

Before Ella could finish her sentence, a deafening ringing- almost like a buzzing, static sound filled the air around them. The sound was so piercing, it made the Evans immediately cover their ears and put their heads down.

"ALAN!" Ella screamed, trying to drown out the static noise, but there was no use. Abby squeezed her hands over her ears, screaming at the top of her lungs for the noise to stop. Alan couldn't hear anything besides the buzzing static as he tried to keep his ears covered as well. All of a sudden, the noise stopped; the same time the noise stopped, one last vibration was felt, but Abby, Alan, Ethan, and Ella could feel it course through their entire body - almost like an electric current.

Abby tried to call out her fathers name, but no sound would leave her mouth. She kept mouthing, 'Dad?' And looking at him terrified, but he was looking just past her at her mother. Ella had stood to her feet on the other side of the dining room, staring directly at the front door.

"Ella!" Alan yelled, his screaming only sounding like a slight whisper. Before he could react and stand up to reach his wife, every window in the house shattered - followed by the front door opening to reveal a blinding, white light.

Alan covered his eyes and so did Abby, feeling as if they were looking directly into the sun. When his eyes barely adjusted, Alan could see Ella's silhouette illuminated by this light as she began to walk toward the front door.

"ELLA!" Alan struggled to get up from under the table as he tried to run toward his wife. He immediately felt dizzy and fell to his knees, a stream of crimson cascading out of his ear and nose. The last thing he did before falling was he reached his arm out to his wife who continued to walk in a trance-like state out of her house.

Abby tried to get her eyes to adjust as she looked up with squinted eyes. She stared in horror as her mother's silhouette beginning to disappear into thin air. Abby immediately jerked her head over as she saw the movement of her little brother getting up, but she held onto his arm tightly, pulling him in. Something in the back of her mind said, 'Something isn't right. Grab him and do not let go.' And that is exactly what she did.

The vibrations began again and Abby could feel them deep within her chest. There was an immense pressure as if someone took a cinder block and just pushed it into her chest. She screamed out as she opened her eyes one last time, only to see what seemed like her mother disappearing as the bright light disappeared as well.

When the noises, the vibrations, and the light finally ceased to be, Abby looked toward Ethan and stern told him, "Do not fucking move from this spot, got it?"

Ethan quickly nodded, sniffling hard as Abby stood to her feet feeling her knees wobble beneath her a bit. Quickly, she ran toward the front door, stumbling. She gripped the doorframe and put her body weight against it as she finally caught a glimpse of outside and what she saw, she couldn't comprehend in her state.

The door had been ripped clean off its hinges and laid in the middle of the street in front of their house. Abby stumbled outside and looked around at the empty streets with a panic.

"M-mom?" She called out, looking around without a visual on her mother. "MOM?!" She screamed, stumbling down the front porch stairs. It took her eyes another minute to adjust to the dark as she frantically spun around, looking in every direction possible.

"MOMMY!" She screamed again, whipping around to see a couple of her neighbors stumbling outside in the same state she was in. Abby stood dumbfounded and in utter shock as the sounds of her neighbors calling out to their families and loved ones filled the air.

It took too long for it to dawn on her, but when it finally did Abby fell to her knees in hysterics.

"Mom...my mom.." She felt a heavy feeling in her chest before she finally felt herself collapse on the ground beneath her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

August 13th, 2019 - Roughly 8 P.M

"And as we all know, Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of The Lost 25 and the mysterious disappearance." The local news station was playing inside the Evan's home. Alan was sitting in front of the television, clenching his jaw with a glass of bourbon in his hand.

The shirt that he had previously worn the day before remained untucked from his pants with a few stains covering it. Swirling the alcohol around in his glass, he heard the commotion of Abby coming downstairs from putting Ethan to bed.

She let out a small sigh, seeing her father with swollen, bloodshot eyes staring at the TV. Abby hated seeing her father like this, seeing how much he wasn't able to cope with her mother disappearing that fateful night. Abby, in under a year, had to grow up faster than she anticipated she ever would. Not only did she have to take on the role of being Ethan's sister, but she also had to take over the role of 'mom' in some aspects to him. Abby made sure he'd get to school, do his homework, eat dinner, and get ready for bed - just like her mother would.

The first few months were the hardest. Ethan had asked nearly every day when his mommy would be coming back home. Abby and her father never knew what to say except that they hope it would be soon. She had tried so hard to move on, but she could never find a way to forgive herself for the last thing she had ever said to her mother before she disappeared forever.

"Dad.." Abby said, sitting next to her father on the couch while the news played in the background. She turned her attention toward the news station herself.

"- with zero traces. I have to admit James, this is one of those stories no one will ever forget. To the people of Waekford who have been affected, we stand with you and our prayers are with you in this time of need." 

"Yeah?" He answered with a scratchy, deep voice, not looking away from the TV. Abby shook her head and put her hand over her dad's as the sat together, watching the news as they began to list off the names of the Lost. Alan felt himself relax a bit as he looked over at his daughter that resembled so much like Ella. They had the same nose, the same baby blue eyes, and golden blonde hair.

"-Adrian Cook, Janet Dwyer, Ella Evans-" A stray tear fell down Alan's cheek as his daughter squeezed his hand. Just hearing her name on the news, knowing she was never found, nor was her body... Alan couldn't handle it. He broke down in front of his daughter - dropping the empty glass to the floor, shattering it completely.

Abby immediately moved to hug her father, feeling a wave of emotions wash over her as they held each other in a tight embrace. They held each other for a moment before Abby furrowed her brows.

An uneasy feeling in her gut, Abby felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she pulled away from her father. She glanced over at the tv and felt herself clench her jaw reflexively.The news anchors were still talking on the local station, but there was no sound coming from the television.

"Dad.." Abby whispered as her father reached for the remote, turning the volume up - but there was still no sound coming from the television. Alan turned toward his daughter as they made eye contact with each other, looking up at the ceiling as the sensation of vibrations began to course through the house subtly.

Alan immediately jumped out of the chair, ignoring the broken glass on the floor as he darted upstairs to grab Ethan out of bed.

"Daddy?" Ethan was jolted awake by his father grabbing him and bolting downstairs to hand him off to Abby.

"Get in the closet and do NOT come out until I saw so. Got it?" Alan spoke harshly, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. Abby stared at him terrified and nodded feverishly. Scooping Ethan up in her arms, she made a beeline toward the closet, throwing open the door and burying herself inside with Ethan in her lap.

"C-cover your ears, bubba." She spoke as she did the same to herself.

Repressed feelings and memories came flooding back to Abby as she squeezed her eyes so tight, they began to throb with pain. The vibrations started to happen faster and harder, making jackets and scarves in the closet fall on top of Abby and Ethan. She began to shake and held her brother tightly against her chest.

"We're going to be okay, we're going to be fine... it's okay bubba." Abby spoke with a shaky voice to herself, hoping in some way Ethan would hear. Suddenly, like a year before, the vibrations stopped. There was no static sound, so Abby slowly opened her eyes.

Peeking out through the cracks of the closet door were bright, white lights. Abby immediately felt a ping in her chest as she expected the worse for her father- having the same fate as her mother. Abby reached for the doorknob with trembling hands as she slowly turned the knob, only opening the door just a crack.

With her eyes squinted, she could make out two figures standing in her living room. After a few seconds, the lights disappeared - leaving more questions than answers for Abby. Just as she was going to call out for her father, his voice sent chills down her spine that shook Abby to her very core.

Alan's voice cracked, Abby was unsure of what he had spoken. Abby immediately threw the closet door open and stumbled out, only to be met with sheer shock and utter disbelief. Standing before her without a scratch or a mark were locks of golden, blonde hair. Tears fell down her cheeks as Abby stared with widened eyes.

"Mom?"