MidReal Story
Vanishing Shadows
Scenario: The mysterious and sudden disappearance of millions across the United States throws one man's life into turmoil as he searches for his missing wife. Through his journey, however, he uncovers a conspiracy more vast and sinister than he could have ever imagined.
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I wake up to the sound of my alarm blaring.
Sunlight streams through the window, casting a warm glow across the room.
Rubbing my eyes, I look over at Emily, my beautiful wife of ten years, who is still sound asleep.
I give her a gentle kiss on the forehead before heading to the bathroom to get ready for work.
I shower, get dressed, and head downstairs to make us both some breakfast.
As I sit down at the kitchen table, something feels off.
Then I realize that Emily isn’t sitting across from me like she usually is every morning.
I furrow my brow, thinking that maybe she got up early for something and forgot to wake me up.
But as I listen closely, I don’t hear any noise coming from upstairs.
“Emily?” I call out tentatively.
But there is no response.
I try to shake off the feeling of unease creeping up my spine and start making breakfast.
Maybe she just went out for a run or something, I think to myself.
But as I get ready to leave for work and still haven’t heard from her, I start to get worried.
What if something happened to her?
Leaving everything behind, I quickly search through our house, calling out her name.
But there is no sign of her anywhere.
Panic starts to set in as I realize that her phone is still plugged in on the nightstand.
And her jewelry is still on the bathroom counter where she left it last night before going to bed.
There’s no way she could have gone out without these things, I think frantically.
My heart pounding in my chest, I turn on the news as I try to calm myself down and figure out what to do next.
But what I see on the screen makes my blood run cold.
There are reports of millions of people disappearing all across the United States without a trace.
Families are torn apart, with some members vanishing while others are left behind.
It’s total chaos, with people screaming and crying for their loved ones who are nowhere to be found.
With trembling hands, I pick up my phone to call our friends and family, desperate for answers.
But one by one, their phones go straight to voicemail.
As if they had just disappeared into thin air.
I’m about to call the police when I hear a knock on our door.
Rushing to open it, I am met with two police officers standing on our porch.
“Are you John Smith?”
one of them asks.
“Yes, that’s me,” I reply.
“Sir, we need you to come down to the station with us to answer a few questions.”
“But what’s going on?
Where is my wife?”
I ask, my voice breaking.
“Please, just come with us,” he says grimly.
As we drive to the station, they explain to me that they don’t have any answers yet for what’s happening.
They’re just as confused as everyone else about the situation.
I can’t believe this is happening.
It’s like something out of a bad dream.
But as we walk into the station, I realize that this is all too real.
There are dozens of people crowded in the lobby, some of them crying and others trying to get information from the officers about their missing loved ones.
The television in the corner shows a live broadcast of the national news.
And the headlines continue to report on the crisis that has suddenly befallen our country.
Millions of people have disappeared across the nation in what seems like the blink of an eye.
There’s no rhyme or reason to those who have vanished, with everyone from celebrities to everyday citizens gone without a trace.
The President has declared a state of emergency and asked all citizens to remain calm and stay put while they try to figure out what has happened.
But as hours pass with no new information, nobody knows what to do next.
Some people choose to stay at the stations, hoping for answers or at least some kind of sign that their loved ones are okay.
While others decide to go back home, unable to handle the stress or fear any longer.
Desperate for any clue about where she might be, I decide to leave the station and head back home to look for Emily.
Maybe she went for a walk or something and was caught up in everything that’s going on right now, I think optimistically.
The park near our house isn’t too far away, so I decide to start there first.
Maybe she’s sitting on one of the benches reading a book or walking our dog like she usually does every morning.
But as soon as I arrive at the park, I realize that it’s much quieter than it usually is during this time of day.
There are no kids playing on the swings.
No dogs running around and barking at each other.
I walk through every inch of the park, looking for any sign of her.
But she’s nowhere to be found.
Feeling defeated and on the verge of another panic attack, I finally give up and head back home.
The moment I walk through our front door, I know that she’s not here.
Every room is eerily silent and empty.
Our dog is curled up on her bed downstairs looking sad and confused.
I sit down on the couch next to him and wrap my arms around his small body.
My breath catches in my throat as I realize that I might never see her again.
The tears start to flow freely down my face as I think about all of the things we’ll never get to do together.
The vacations we’ll never take.
The children we’ll never have.
I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting there crying when I finally decide to get up and make some dinner.
I’m not really hungry but I know that I need to eat something soon or I’ll get a headache.
As I finish cooking myself a small meal, I try calling a few of our friends and family members to see if they’ve heard from her.
Surely someone must have seen her or talked to her this morning and can tell me where she is.
But no matter how many times I call them or how many different people I reach out to, no one has heard from her today.
She’s just gone without a trace and no one knows where she is or what happened to her.
After dinner, I go back upstairs and sit down on our bed.
I don’t think that I can ever sleep in it again without her here with me but I also don’t want to be alone right now.
So instead, I lay down on top of the covers with a picture of us from our wedding day clutched tightly against my chest and try to close my eyes for a few hours of sleep.
Emily has been gone for over 24 hours now.
And I still haven’t heard anything back from the police about where she might be or if she’s even okay.
I couldn’t bear the thought of sleeping in our bed all alone last night so I moved to the couch instead.
When I woke up this morning, the first thing that I did was check my phone to see if she had texted me at all.
But there was nothing.
Just like there has been for the last few days.
After getting dressed, I go downstairs to make myself some breakfast before turning on the TV to watch the news while I eat.
The network is covering the disappearances 24/7 right now so it seems like the best place to look for updates on the situation.
And so far, there haven’t been any new developments.
Millions of people are still missing without a trace.
And no one knows why it’s happening or where all of these people are going.
I must have lost track of time while watching the news because the next thing I know, someone is knocking on my front door.
I get up to answer it and find my friend, Brian, standing on the other side.
He has a concerned look on his face as he looks me over.
“Have you heard anything back from the police yet?”
he asks once he’s inside.
I shake my head.
“They said that they would call me as soon as they had any new information about her or where she might be but it’s been hours and no one has called me yet.”
“I’m so sorry,” he says sadly.
“I came over to see if you wanted some company today.
You don’t have to go through this alone, man.” I smile gratefully at him and wrap him in a tight hug.
“I appreciate that but I think that I want to go see my in-laws right now.
Maybe they’ve heard from her and can help me figure out where she is.”
Brian nods and follows me back to my car.
It only takes us a few minutes to get to Emily’s parents’ house.
When we get there, her parents are already outside waiting for us to arrive.
I can see the worry and fear etched into both of their faces as they come over to greet us.
“Have you guys heard anything yet?”
her mom asks as soon as we get out of the car.
I shake my head.
“No, not a word.”
Her father puts a hand on my shoulder.
“We’ll find her, son,” he says.
“Don’t worry about it.” I nod but it’s hard not to worry with everything that’s going on right now.
“It’s all over the news,” Emily’s mom says once we’re all inside.
“They have no idea why it’s happening or where all of these people are going.”
“I know,” I say, trying not to cry at the thought of losing my beautiful wife forever.
“I’ve been watching it all morning but no one has been able to tell me anything new about the disappearances.”
“Have they found anyone yet?”
her dad asks.
I shake my head again.
“No, there are still millions of people missing across the country right now.
No one has been found yet.” They all fall silent at this, not sure what to say next or how to comfort me in this moment.
After spending a few hours with Emily’s parents, Brian and I go back to my house to watch the news again.
I still haven’t heard anything back from the police about her whereabouts yet and it’s making me really nervous now.
I know that there are millions of other people missing across the country right now and that the police are doing everything that they can to find them all as quickly as possible.
But that doesn’t help me feel any better about not knowing where she is or if she’s even okay right now.
I need to hear something soon or else I don’t know what I’ll do next.
When we turn on the TV and start watching the news again, we see that there haven’t been any new developments in the case since this morning.
So they’re just rehashing everything that they’ve been reporting on for the last few days now while they wait for more information to come in.
The only thing different today is that they’re showing footage of some of the towns and cities where people have gone missing over the last few days.
Some of them look like they were abandoned in a hurry with cars still parked along the sides of the roads and front doors left wide open like everyone just vanished into thin air while they were inside their homes.
Others look like they were abandoned so quickly that people didn’t even have time to pack up their belongings before they left with laundry still hanging on clotheslines and bags of groceries left out on front porches.
It’s like something out of a horror movie or a bad dream but this is real life and no one knows what to do about it now that it’s happening all around us.
There are still no signs of anyone in any of these places either, which is making it harder for police and rescue workers to know where to start looking for them all now that they’re gone without a trace.
I’m about to change the channel when I hear a loud noise coming from outside my house and turn up the volume so that I can hear what’s going on out there better while I go to check it out for myself.
When I step outside onto my front porch, I see dozens of people running through my neighborhood with bags and suitcases like they’re trying to evacuate town before something bad happens to them too.
But when I try talking to them to find out what’s going on, they don’t respond to me at all like they don’t even hear me calling out their names over and over again as they run past my house without stopping to talk to me at all.
I don’t know why they’re acting this way now or if Emily is one of them out there somewhere among them but I feel like I need to go find her and make sure she isn’t lost or hurt out there while all of this is happening around her right now too.
I take off running down the street after her and call out to some of our other neighbors along the way to see if they know where she is or if they’ve seen her since this started.
But no one else stops to talk to me or help me find her like they have in the past when she was just a few minutes late getting home from work with everyone else that we know in the neighborhood now.
And when I stop to look around for her again and see that she isn’t here with me now like she should be, I scream out her name as loud as I can to try and get her to answer me if she does hear me calling her name right now.
But when no one ever calls back to me or answers my phone calls either, I start to panic and wonder what I’m going to do next if I can’t find her soon before it’s too late now.
I walk back home in shock and try calling the police again to report her missing like I did earlier today.
But just like last time, there aren’t any officers available to help me right now because they’re all busy trying to find other missing persons right now too.
So I sit down on my front porch and wait for someone to help me find Emily next time they have a break between calls in their busy day right now.
While I’m waiting for some help though, I see something strange happening a few houses down from me that makes me think there might be something more going on here than just a few missing persons reports like the news says it is.
When I see a woman walking down the street with a bag of groceries in each hand and suddenly vanish into thin air before she falls to the ground with them still in her hands while clothes fall off of her body and float away into the wind all around us too.
It reminds me of a story that one of my friends told me a few years ago about how he thought that there were government aliens abducting people from their homes and making them disappear so that they could take over the world later on after most of us were gone too.
