The walk back towards their home was arduous. Annabelle kept falling and stumbling all over herself, trying to comprehend the fact that her hometown was in such disarray. Thirty agonizing minutes passed, all the while the two children made their way through a cold, dark, city.
Having lost their sense of orientation due to the rainy weather and fog mixed with smoke that lifted to the sky, and the fact that they hadn't walked through town at night before without a guardian figure to lead them, it took the two thirty minutes to cross what should have been ten minutes of walking. Suddenly, Elliot dropped by with his fire engine and told the children to get in, that they were all going home.
The drive back to the house was short, and silent. By the time they got back, the lights had come back on, having been turned off by the power company earlier in the day to fix some damaged wires and poles. Maria, Annabelle's mother, was busy putting things back on shelves that had been knocked off due to the impacts while talking with someone on the phone, presumably her boss down at the news station.
Annabelle and Tom walked into the living room where Kelly was sitting on the couch watching the news. Annie, still shaken, sat down on the couch while Tom walked over to his cousin. "What happened?"
"Meteor impacts all over the town. Possibly all over the state. I don't understand this: I was watching the meteor shower's progress! I was doing it for a class project, why did this happen so quick and why did they hit? They were supposed to harmlessly pass over the city. It was supposed to be beautiful. Instead it was... this."
Tom looked at the news report. Having heard Kelly talk over and over about the meteor shower, he too had wondered the same: Why did it hit so early? And why did it hit at all? Tom thought to himself that if this happened, who's to say it couldn't happen again, and even worse. Suddenly he caught himself when he saw Annabelle watching the news. Having been exposed to the worst of the day, he decided she needed some sleep, so he helped her to her bedroom.
When they got to Annie's room, Tom made sure her bed was cleared off so she could get into it. After this, he turned back to her, and saw that she was seconds away from crying. Without thinking, Tom grabbed her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Please Annie, don't cry. It... it hurts me to see you like that. Please?"
"I couldn't do anything for those people. I saw the meteors coming, Tom. I saw them in the sky, I don't know how but I did. I saw them coming and I couldn't do anything for them. Maybe if I saw them earlier, maybe then I could have done something. My one chance to save people and I failed miserably! I failed Tom!"
"No you didn't!" Tom sternly said, "And the Annabelle I know wouldn't blame herself for something that she had nothing to do about. Besides, if you ran any further before I had stopped you, you would have probably been hurt, or worse."
"But... I am strong. I know I am. Please... pleas-"
"Dry those tears Annie-Belle."
Suddenly, Annabelle stopped crying, as though her tears automatically vanished the second she heard Tom's old nickname of hers. She hadn't heard that name since she was five years old, and had nearly forgotten about it in the six years that had passed since then, but it was obvious Tom hadn't forgotten it. This sudden realization caused the green girl to fall forward and hug her friend. "Okay, I'll dry them for you, Tommy. But can I ask you for a favor? One favor?"
"What's that?"
"Stay here, in this room tonight. Please? I don't want to be alone."
Tom instantly replied, within a nanosecond of hearing the request from the girl. "Okay, Annie. I'll stay here with you tonight. For as long as you need." Annabelle smiled and walked over to her bed to lie down on it. She didn't even change out of her clothes as she did so, with her energy drained from the shock of the long day. Tom sat down on a chair across from her bed and kept an eye on her, occasionally looking out the window at the pouring rain.
---------------------
At the same time, Elliot walked upstairs to his bedroom and sat down on a loveseat. Mei, who saw him enter, also walked into the room and sat down beside him.
"Are you alright hon?"
Elliot looked somber when he spoke. "I couldn't stay at the fire station any longer. I saw a house burned to the ground, the only one hit by the meteors, it was next door to... to Kathy's old lot. I don't know what happened to me. I just, I froze. I know I shouldn't have. I became a firefighter after Kathy died so no one else would lose a loved one the way I did. But fifty seven people... I..."
"It's alright, Eli. It's okay. I'm here for you. And you know what? I know Kathy is here for you too, and Tina. You can't see them, but they are here in spirit. No matter what, you are not alone, my love."
Elliot smiled at her, something he hadn't been able to do all day since the meteors hit. With the sadness broken, the two sat there in silence for a while, then finally went to bed.
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Meanwhile John and Scarlett were sitting in her room, never having left since John walked in there to check on her. The two had distracted themselves by playing with toys such as dollhouses and blocks, but the moment the power came back on the two ran towards the television and turned it on to cartoons rather than the news. Scarlett was already upset from hearing about the impacts and the lives lost and John didn't want to further those emotions by finding out exactly how many were lost. After some time, the two looked at each other and started talking, with John speaking first.
"Um... Hi." He said. John really didn't know what to say to break the tension from the day. "You doing okay? You need anything?"
"No." The girl in red said, "Nothing really. Just for you to be here with me." Scarlett then looked at him, changing the subject back to the events of the day. "I was scared when I heard those meteors hit. I was just sitting here and BOOM! I was so scared, I started crying! Then... you walked into my room. I knew you would, just to check up on me. I know I can always count on you, Johnny."
"That's because you know I'll always be here for you if you need me, Red."
Scarlett smiled. She loved the little nickname everyone had come up with for her, and to hear it sincerely from someone she truly liked, it made it that much better. After a few seconds, she stood up and walked to a different part of the room, where John followed.
"John, there's something... I don't know how to say this. I find it hard to talk to you sometimes because... I dunno. Remember when we were younger, and we always hung out, we still do. I always liked hanging out with... you... because... you're my friend and I like my friends. It's hard to say really."
"I understand, actually." John said. "It's hard to talk sometimes. Like right now... I should be... uh... going though. I'm getting tired and I need to get rest. You too."
Scarlett smiled, and said "Yeah. Rest. Goodnight Johnny." John left the room, looking back at her before he did, and she smiled even more. With that, Scarlett walked over to her bed and lied down, but not before changing her clothes first.
As she drifted off to sleep, she looked up and saw a picture of her and John, one they took at a photo-booth the day before at the festival. She focused on John, then said something she didn't even expect to say herself.
"I love you...."
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March 6th, 2013
The next morning, everyone in the town was awakening to the idea that the place was never going to be the same again. Fittingly, the day was dark, cold, and rainy. The first one up in the Kethrin/Coen household was Kelly. As she told her cousin the night before, Kelly was monitoring the meteor shower the whole time, and had expected to watch it on the night it was supposed to shine across the sky.
Something about this whole thing didn't feel right to her, and her detective senses were firing across the board telling her that. Hoping to outwit nature itself, Kelly got up, got dressed, and walked across the hall to the living room. While she was getting dressed, Mei had walked downstairs to watch the news, hoping that the preliminary count of fifty seven lost lives didn't increase, but at the same time extremely hoping it was less.
Unfortunately, while it hadn't increased, it hadn't decreased either. The dead included townspeople Agnes Crumplebottom and Jack Bunch among others, as well as a wealthy out-of-town couple named Gerald and Patricia Jones. When Mei saw Kelly enter the room, she quickly shut off the television and stood up to talk to her.
"Hey mom, can I ask you something? Can you drive me to the crater site at the park?"
"What?!" Me was shocked by the sudden request. "Why?!"
"I need to test a hypothesis. Please, mom? Please please?"
"Hypothes- Kelly, you're ten years old. Words like that shouldn't even be in your vocabulary, instead with, I dunno, 'cooties' or 'playing house'. Besides the park is too dangerous now, since the meteors hit."
"I am much smarter than that, mom. Please let me go? I know I will be careful! You know I'll be careful, and I'm sure if you'll ask dad he'll tell you the park is safe I think. And there might be policemen there that could help. Please let me go? Please please please please please please please please please please PLEASE!"
"Alright! You can go. But ONLY if there are police there who can keep an eye on you."
Kelly smiled. "YAY! Wǒ ài nǐ!", she said, speaking her mother's language. "I'll be in the car! Thank you! Thank you!"
Mei smiled, knowing Kelly was well and truly capable of keeping herself safe. She remembered when the girl was five years old, she almost fell down the stairs but used her a bow in her hair to wrap onto the railing, stopping herself. And that was just at five years, she could imagine how someone with five more years of ingenuity could help herself and others, and Mei realized that her daughter was far smarter than others her age, perhaps even Annabelle's brother John. After grabbing her umbrella, Mei walked outside and drove Kelly to the park.
"Be careful Kel." Mei said, again. "Be back before dark. And stay in the sight of those policemen! I mean it!"
"I will mom! Love you!" With those words Kelly got out of the car and walked towards the park. When she got there, she noticed others walking around looking for things, possibly looters but also possibly people who lost their belongings when the park exploded. Suddenly, she was stopped by a man dressed in a Police uniform.
"I'm sorry, little girl. I can't let you in this part of the park. It's too dangerous and the rain has made the ground unstable."
"I wasn't going to go in there, I'm just looking around." Kelly said. "I'm trying to find evidence of foul play, actually. I have a strange suspicion that this entire thing wasn't just a random accident."
"Say what?" The police officer didn't know if Kelly was playing some kind of game or a prank on him, but in any case he decided to keep his cool around her. "Look little girl, I don't know what you're talking about. This is a meteor shower, an act of nature."
"My name is Kelly Coen actually, not 'little girl', and I've seen stranger things, Officer...?"
"Cambridge, Davis Cambridge."
"Officer Cambridge. Okay, yeah I know at the back of my mind that something is wrong with this. If you'd kept an eye on the trajectory and speed of these meteors for as long as I did while they were in space, you'd know something was up as well! Please let me just look around for a couple minutes, that's all I ask."
Davis could see the sincerity in Kelly's eyes, and finally relented. "Alright. But stay close to me. Be careful around the craters, the soil's loose from the rai-"
"Hey what's this?!" Kelly asked from a short distance away. She was standing over a small device on the ground, one that Davis hadn't seen in his initial sweep of the area.
"I don't know. It wasn't here this morning." Davis said as he picked it up. "Maybe one of these people dropped it." Davis looked around, ready to ask who may have dropped something, when his finger pressed a button on the device accidentally. The object was aimed at one of the impacted meteorites, and when his finger slipped accidentally the device came to life and made a small noise, causing the meteorite to lift off the ground. Kelly and Davis' eyes widened as they looked upon the space rock hovering off the ground, and when Davis turned off the device it fell back to Earth making a small *thud*.
After standing there in the rain for a couple minutes, in complete shock, Kelly turned to her older companion. "Still think this was an act of nature, Mr. Cambridge?"
With the police station not too far away, Kelly and Davis walked over to it and turned the device in to the officers working there. While there, Kelly overheard two police officers talking about a destroyed house, saying it was odd that of all the houses in the town, only one was destroyed by the meteors. Since finding the device that could have pulled the meteors down to Earth, and realizing that it could possibly be used to target individual areas, Kelly took the opportunity to slip away and run down to the aforementioned house, which thankfully was only a couple blocks down a hill.
When she got there, her stomach churned. Something was very off about this place. Never mind the fact that it was completely destroyed, but something else was seriously wrong with it. She looked around and noticed that there were surprisingly no police around. There were a few caution signs that she ignored, but no actual human presence.
'Maybe they found what they wanted to and left', she thought to herself. As Kelly walked around, she felt something in the back of her mind, a thought that conveyed itself into strange feelings. For some reason she felt drawn to the bookcase, and when she ran her fingers across the spines of the half-burned books something else came to her mind.
Finally, she saw a book at the end of the case and picked it out, for what seemed to her no other reason than the simple fact that it was one of the only books untouched by the fires.
Kelly took the book and walked over to a burnt chair under a piece of the roof. She didn't want to get the book wet and it was nice being dry for a bit. Kelly popped open the book and glued onto the front page was some kind of letter, addressed to someone whose name was illegible due to damage to the paper, either intentionally or accident.
"While we commend you on your recent completion on Project Gravity, we are unable to proceed with development, and as such must cease all production on the device.
Your recent test in Sunset Valley resulted in the destruction of a home belonging to a single mother, and after a short deliberation we have decided that, while it would be rather advantageous to be able to direct space debris to hit a target, it is just too dangerous for use, military or otherwise.
We deeply apologize for the inconvenience, but are compensating you for your losses.
Commander Tho-"
Kelly felt like she was hit with a train, but in a good way. Not only did she discover the fact that the meteor shower hitting the town WASN'T an act of nature and was in fact an act of violence, she also found what appeared to be a motive for the crime, or at least a solid piece of evidence. She then realized she knew exactly what to do: Kelly had to figure out who was responsible for "Project Gravity" and figure out who "Commander Tho-" was. She put the book back in the bookcase and ran off to her home, she knew someone who was capable of finding out things on the computer.
------------------------
Back at the house Annabelle was just waking up. She looked over to the chair and didn't see Tom, which made her think he left her in the night. She was about to start crying again before she heard a distinct snoring sound from across the room.
Annabelle smiled and stood up, walking outside the bedroom but not before turning off the light so her friend could sleep easier. As she walked into the living room, she overheard her mother talking to Elliot and Mei in the kitchen.
"Do you want to stay here? This place was hit my meteors, who knows how dangerous it could be." Maria said. "Besides, I got a job offer in Bridgeport, the film studio there saw a clip of my report from yesterday and they want me to come audition for a film. They know my parents were high-class film stars and they think I got what it takes to be one myself."
"Yeah, but... this is where I've lived my entire life." Elliot protested, "....but you're right. I don't want to split up our family here, and with all the dangerous things going, I think it would be best to pack up and move."
"When do you want to go?" Mei asked.
"My audition is next month. That gives us plenty of time to figure out where we'll live, and to pack and move. It's for the best, guys."
