Vanished

I had this feeling before, not too long ago. I glanced around anxiously looking for my watcher, but there was none to be found. The streets were deserted and silent except for the sound of my sneakers hitting the pavement. I passed store after store with gates pulled down to ward off intruders and signs hanging warning of alarm systems.

When I climbed to the top of the hill at the intersection of 5th and pine I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. I knew it was foolish to be out walking so late alone, but I had to get to the safety of my home. People had been disappearing for the past six months or so, it was all over the news. Family reported missing loved ones, and employees stopped showing up for work. There was no known connection between the victims. I had been doing some research of my own on the subject which was why I was out so late.

Her name was Elmira Sully, and she lived across town in a ramshackle apartment that was barely standing. I had waited there for her, and by the time she returned from her errand it was nearing dark. She was courteous and told me everything she knew about the disappearance of her grandson Blake.

A loud growl ripped through the sky and I turned quickly to look behind me. I noticed an ominous black mass hanging eerily near the tops of the buildings below me. It looked like a storm cloud but I had never seen a cloud so low in the sky before. I stood frozen for a moment, and then the smokey mass began to move toward me and I ran.

My feet slapped hard on the pavement as I kept my eyes glued on the landmark ten blocks in front of me. Although it was barely distinguishable from a distance, I knew the building to be an abandoned apartment complex that now housed vagrants and run away kids. As I ran I remembered how Elmira had told me her grandson was not missing, he was dead. She knew he was, she could feel it in her soul. He had stumbled across some information where he worked as a research assistant. The paperwork contained seemingly useless descriptions of weather patterns and equations he was unable to decipher. He would have thrown it away immediately had he not noticed that the project had been authorized and paid for by the federal government, and the seal at the bottom of the paper marked it confidential.

I was still bounding ruthlessly toward cover when the black mass growled once more, only loud enough to make me glance back in fear. It was nearly on top of me and when I looked up I slowed my pace involuntarily, for what I saw mot only frightened me, but also took my breath away. The smokey mass was glowing as streaks of white light crackled and popped. I fell. I lay on my back looking up at the shape shifting, electricity throbbing cloud and realized that I had discovered what could be the perfect murdering machine. Should that thing strike me down, incinerate me, no one would ever know, no one would have a clue.