The day started out like any other, except Emmaline could feel a strangeness in the air from the moment she opened her eyes––something was going to happen today. Of course, she ignored that slight offness that for her usually heralded a not so great unexpected something as she dragged herself out of bed and began her normal routine. Mom would be all over Em if she were late for school––again.

  Emmaline went to her overstuffed closet trying to decide what to wear. All she could do was stare at the vibrant array of colors and options, silently checking them all off as a no. Why was it that she loved the clothes when she was trying them on at the store, but when it was time to actually pick something, she liked nothing she had? Or maybe she just didn’t like going to school.

  She let out a frustrated sigh and grabbed the first thing her hands touched. A pale lavender button-up and a dark jean skirt. She slipped them on with a pair of black leggings and turned about in the mirror, checking out her budding adolescent figure. Nothing really to notice though, her chest was still nearly flat. Em expelled a frustrated breath.

  “I don’t get it. Why does Megan Tyler get boobs and I get freaking apricots? Very small apricots at that.”

  Em turned to her gigantic stuffed bear, sitting between the closet and her mahogany dresser. Dad had gotten Mrs. Sparkles for her when she was just a toddler, and the bear had become as much of a fixture in Em’s life as each of the members of her family. And in fact, sometimes more than that, as Mrs. Sparkles was often someone Emmaline could share her deepest secrets with or just have a good rant at. Stuffed animals were good for that sort of thing.

  But the jumbo white bear splattered with pink sparkles that had earned the stuffed animal its name didn’t answer Em’s question. She just sat there, staring back at Emmaline with her black beaded eyes, like she normally did. Sometimes that comforted her. And sometimes, like today, it just pissed her off.

  Emmaline stomped to the bathroom. The fourteen-year-old swiped up her brush and ran it through her shoulder-length hair a few times, checked herself in the mirror to make sure none of her curly red hair was sticking up anywhere, and then declared herself ready for school.

  Now she just had to get downstairs before Mom started yelling. Em checked the time. She had maybe five minutes before the yelling started, so that was good. Emmaline went to her desk and quickly stuffed her backpack with her papers and books. She’d forgotten to put everything back in after she’d done her homework last night. Again. Crap on a cracker. Guess she shouldn’t have allowed herself to get distracted texting Helen last night.

  No time for neatness. Emmaline stuffed everything in the bag any which way it would go. She zipped up the hot pink denim pack and then slung one of the straps over her shoulder. She went to pick up her phone and noticed the low bar on the battery.

  “Fuck!”

  Guess she forgot to put it on the charger too. She ripped the cord from the wall and hoped to God she would be able to find a spot to charge it at school today. Maybe Mom would let it charge in the car on the way to school, not that it would get a chance to do much since the school was only a ten-minute drive.

  But still, any time would keep it from going dead that much longer. God forbid she had to go through a whole day without her phone! Nope, not going to happen! She’d find a way to charge it, even if she had to use the outlets in the cafeteria and stand there waiting like some of the other dorks in school.

  Em stuffed the cord in her backpack’s side pocket and made for the door. She was down the stairs and in the kitchen in a flash. She checked the time on the stove, three minutes to spare. Made it! Em felt a streak of victory shoot through her. Mom would be so sorry she had called Em irresponsible and unfocused last night!

  Sure she’d been upset that Emmaline had to hand over a letter from her teacher telling her parents that she’d not turned in homework again and had spent most of the class texting instead of listening, but hey, at least she hadn’t tried to ditch class this time to make out with Brad. That had earned her a whole month's worth of weekends grounded. That was so unfair!

  She looked around the kitchen, surprised to find it empty and dark. Mom should have been in here with breakfast waiting and with a stern look asking if she’d gotten all her homework done. But there was no one. Not a soul. The only sound was of the steady tick-tock of the analog rooster clock over the kitchen sink that nobody actually used.

  “Mom?” Em called out as if asking for her would suddenly make the woman magically appear.

  Tick.

  Tock.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Tick.

  Tock.

  Tick.

  Tock.

  Emmaline listened to the rooster counting the time away, and it caused her to shiver. Where was Mom!? Why was the house so silent?

  Sure, she knew Dad and her brother Michael had already left for work. They were always gone by the butt crack of dawn. But Mom always got up when they did. She should have been up for hours. She should be down here with the house smelling like a busy morning at the Waffle House.

  Emmaline shook herself out of her funk. Maybe Mom wasn’t feeling good. It happened. Not often, but every once in a while she would tell Emmaline to fend for herself, and then call a driver to take Em to school––her parents refused to let her ride on the bus because of that one incident back in third grade that everyone agreed would never be spoke about ever again. But usually, Mom at least came to Emmaline’s bedroom and told her to get going, or texted her. Em looked down at her phone.

  Just a text from Helen about the late conversation they’d had last night. And some kissy-face emojis from Brad. Nothing from mom.

  Em climbed back up the stairs. She passed the floor where her and Michael’s room lay along with Eric’s before he moved out, and went up to the top floor. There was a small hallway with a reading alcove and a single door to her parents’ room. She went to the door and knocked.

  “Mom? I’m ready for school. I’m not even late this time!”

  Silence.

  Not even the sound of the rooster clock made it this far up. But Em could hear the slight muffle of city traffic from the skylight window just above the reading area. But nothing else. Emmaline knocked again. A little harder this time.

  “Mom? Are you okay? Do I need to get an Uber to school?”

  More silence.

  Em’s heart started to pound in her ears. She had ignored that feeling when she had woken up this morning. The one that usually forewarned her that something unexpected was about to happen. Sometimes the unexpected was good, but most often, it wasn’t. Like that time when Michael had wrecked Dad’s car driving them to work, or when they’d gotten the call that Eric had taken a bullet on one of his super secret soldier missions.

  A sinking feeling of dread filled Em’s stomach as she stood there trying to decide what to do. Something was wrong. She could feel it, and she was almost terrified to know what the wrongness was. There was no doubt that this day was bringing a bad unexpected. Emmaline wished she could just crawl back into bed. Maybe then the unexpected bad thing wouldn’t find her.

  But she couldn’t just stand there in the hallway all morning. She had to do something, so she reached down and tried the door, almost hoping it was locked. It wasn’t. The handle turned easily, letting her open her parents’ bedroom door.

  Emmaline didn’t often come up here. This was her parents’ sanctuary, and they protected it with stern looks and sterner words if any of their children tried to infringe upon it. She supposed she didn’t blame them. Emmaline certainly hated it when anyone invaded her room. So, usually, she gave them the same courtesy.

  As the door swung open wide, Emmaline hesitated on the threshold. She peered into the room. It was a large space, but tastefully decorated like the rest of the house. On the wall to the left, there were antique bookshelves in the corners, with two dark oak dressers framing a large bay window overlooking the backyard.

  Along the wall to the right were three doors. Two leading to his and her walk-in closets, and the other to the master bathroom. Across the back was the main affair. A massive California king decorated in maroon and silver bedding adorned the center of the wall with dark oak nightstands on each side. And on that bed lay her mother with her shoulders violently shaking like she was laughing––or crying.

  “Mom?” Emmaline said into the vastness of the room, but she found her feet frozen in place. She could not move. She could not breathe.

  The woman sat up as if startled. Emmaline’s belly clinched up when she saw her mother. She was a mess. The woman’s normally well-kept red hair was sticking up every which way. Her clothes rumbled. And her face… it made Emmaline feel like she might throw up. That was the face of someone who had just got news that someone had died.

  She’d seen it before. No one from her family, thank God. It had been a close friend of the family. Jack Rose, when he’d lost his wife to cancer a few years back. That was the exact look on her mom’s face right now.

  “What’s wrong?” Emmaline asked, this time in a whisper.

  Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t that bad. Nope. She wasn’t right now thinking of her brother Eric overseas and maybe dying in the line of duty. Not at all. And she absolutely wasn’t thinking about something very bad happening to Dad or Michael while they were at work or on their way to work this morning. Nope, nope, not even a little.

  “Oh sweetie, I––” Mom started, but she couldn’t finish. She just put her head in her hands and started crying––like the whole body shaking kind of cry.

  Shit.

  Em finally couldn’t stand it anymore. She stepped across the threshold and walked over to the bed. She stood there for a moment, not sure what to do. She finally reached out a hand and touched her shoulder. But her mother didn’t stop; she just kept going.

  Emmaline looked around for some sort of clue as to what had happened, because clearly her mom wasn’t up to telling her. The first thing Em noticed was Mom’s iPhone. It was lying in the middle of the bed as if it had been tossed there in a fit of anger. Right beside it was the TV remote.

  That’s when Em looked up to see that the television was on, but she hadn’t noticed because it had been muted. There on the opposite wall of the bed, her parent’s large flat screen showed a panoramic view of a large lake. And above that lake, was a black ship.

  Emmaline’s jaw dropped as she took in a vessel like none she had ever seen. Sleek and enormous with what looked like silver glyphs of some kind that dotted the black monstrosity––and they appeared to move like the weird symbols were somehow alive. And the ship was big. Like crazy big. It seemed to dwarf the lake, appearing much larger in comparison. Its shape was rectangular, yet both ends were smoothly rounded, lacking any sharp edges. It was undeniably clear that this colossal vessel was not crafted by human hands from Earth.

  Crap on a cracker.