Disappear

I panicked, thinking of ways to make Mom and Dad privy of the danger, but it was too late. I saw my dad smile as he got closer to my shed, before the armed men shouted at them, ordering them to drop to their knees as they turned on their lights at the expressions on my parents' face, my mom still visibly shocked by everything that's happening and my dad looking briefly at my direction, as if he could look through the tinted glass that my shed was made of. They were merely a few meters away from me.

The other infiltrators emerged from the back door of the house and pointed their lights at Mom and Dad as well. They all bore the insignia of the Tactical Entropy Security Team on their shoulders. The TEST was created due to Entropy Co. sometimes conducting sensitive and secret research, and of course, all sorts of nutters are after it, from as small as criminal organizations, to as powerful as foreign governments.

But why would they be here now?

Just then, a big, muscular man, apparently the squad's commander but lacking any insignia on him, suddenly emerged from behind the ranks of the troops. He was wearing less bulky armor than those of his subordinates, and only possessing one weapon, a pulse pistol, holstered in his belt.

He had his hands hidden behind his back, and his head wasn't being covered by any helmet, so his face took full detail from the scene's lighting. He had a square jaw, with a full beard that complemented his muscular physique to give him a threatening presence like a grizzly bear, and green eyes that radiated menace. He looked at my parents for a brief moment before speaking.

"Dr. Maysen, we've finally caught up with you." His voice was the same as the one commanding the people earlier. "We were looking for you throughout the facility, but you just disappeared, you know. We never even had a chance to talk." He raised an eyebrow and a small smirk formed on his lips, a smirk that I will learn to hate forever. "You really didn't think you could run from us now, did you?" he asked Dad.

"What do you people want?" Dad replied.

"Oh, you know exactly what we want, Dr. Maysen."

"No I don't, so please just let us go."

"You know exactly what we're after, Doctor, or else you wouldn't be in such a hurry to hide, right?" the man retorted. "Now then, let's get down to business, shall we?

"And before we start, I want to tell you that, honestly, I don't want any bloodshed here tonight, probably more than you do, but if you refuse to cooperate, then we'll have no choice." He stopped walking and dropped to one knee in front of Dad. "Now, Dr. Maysen, where is it?" He asked in a low voice that carried a threat in it.

"Where is what? What are you talking about?!" Dad was starting to sound annoyed, which suggested that he did, in fact, know what he's talking about.

The man stood back up. "I don't want to use its name, for I'm told it's a super secret thing, but I guess that's the only way that you'll tell us something." He took a deep breath, and continued. "Where is Project Nova, Dr. Maysen?"

My dad looked alarmed when the name was mentioned, but quickly changed his expression to defiance. "Never." he said.

"Never? Where is that? Is that a place?" The man laughed at his own joke, looked around at his men as if expecting them to laugh with him, some laughed reluctantly, but they quickly fell silent..

"I will never tell you where it is," said Dad in a stubborn way.

"Dr. Maysen, things will go much better for all of us if you just surrender Nova's location," the man said.

"I ain't giving you shit! It's none of your business, and you're not even supposed to know what it is!"

"We already know what it is, Dr. Maysen, and what it's capable of. That's why we're here for it."

"No, you don't have any right to it. It's my research!" Dad said loudly.

"From what I know, Dr. Maysen, it's you and Dr. Schwartz' research."

Dr. Schwartz is Entropy Co.'s founder. They met at a science exhibit a few years ago and he was the one who hired Dad to his company when he graduated, and they've been great friends ever since. His daughter, Beatrice, was a great friend of mine, too. We used to hang out a lot together whenever they invited my family to special occasions. We were both curious and mischievous kids, which was a bit worse than your typical hyperactive ones since we liked to tinker with a lot of things, making them do stuff they shouldn't be doing, like that one time where we reprogrammed an automatic lawn mower to follow one of their servants around the house during a birthday party. The mower wreaked havoc in their backyard full of tables and guests as it pursued the poor guy around. We were almost inseparable as kids that you could even say she was probably more than a friend to me, since my dad and hers were almost always working on something here in our house, and she always comes with him so we could meet.

Then I thought, is this what it's about then? Dr. Schwartz wanted to take back whatever the hell they were working on, because Dad hid it from him? Was it Project Nova?

But, why would he hide it in the first place?

"I'm not giving it to you". Dad said.

The man looked disappointed for a while, then said in an ominous tone, "Just tell us where the damn thing is, D- Dr. Maysen"

My dad didn't reply.

The large man sighed heavily. "I didn't want to do this…"

Suddenly, one of his men pointed its rifle at Mom's head.

Oh, no.

"...but you give us no choice, Dr. Maysen."

"Hey, now, don't you do it," my dad said nervously.

"Will?" Mom said to Dad, refusing to look at the gun pointed at her and looking terrified of what's about to happen.

"One." the man started counting.

"No, NO! Don't you fuckin' dare do it!" my dad said with anger in his voice. He tried lunging for the guy pointing his gun at Mom, but he was held back by other soldiers.

"Two."

"Don't, dammit! Don't shoot her!"

"Three."

"NO! DON'T!"

BANG

My body froze as the sound of the gunshot reached my ears, and my mind started to panic as I realized what just happened.

"No...this isn't...can't be…" Dad's body stopped resisting and his captors let go of him, but he merely slumped forward, his eyes stuck looking at Mom's body.

They killed my mom. Those bastards actually did it.

"NOOOOO!" my dad shouted angrily.

And he took out his weapon.

A weapon that looked like a large angular scalpel formed into existence in Dad's hand. He stood up, spun around, and cut down the troop behind him. He swung his weapon towards the big man next, but the man caught the blade with his left hand, which was actually a metal bionic arm. He grabbed the weapon's handle with his normal right hand and broke the blade in half as he kicked Dad away and pulled the rest of the weapon from his hand. He threw the handle onto the ground as my father started to rush towards him, but was held back by two troops, who put him on his knees. The man's entire bionic arm, which was holding the broken weapon blade, started to emit sparks of electricity, intensifying for a few more seconds before he crushed the blade with his hands.

"You scumbags!" my dad screamed as his rage broke over them, "You heartless bastards!"

"This wouldn't have happened if you just told us where Nova is when we were still asking politely, doctor," the man said in a serious voice, looking down at Dad. There were no more traces of sarcasm in his voice.

"I'll never tell you anything! You'll pay for this, I swear you will!"

The man crouched down in front of my still-struggling Dad.

"Last chance, Dr. Maysen. Where is it?" the man asked again.

"Go to hell," my dad replied while looking directly into the man's eyes.

Suddenly, my dad's weapon with its ragged and broken blade, lying on the ground a few feet away, was pulled towards the man's outstretched bionic arm by electricity.

"Then I'm sorry for this," he said, and for a moment he really looked like it.

I already knew what's about to happen. I wanted to look away, but every muscle of my body seemed to be frozen.

The man drove the weapon's broken blade into Dad's chest.

And everything inside me just stopped.

"I really am."

He pulled it back and the troops holding Dad let go of him. He fell backwards to the ground, lethargic as his life slowly spilled out of him.

The man stood up, not moving for a few moments as if thinking. He and some of his troops looked at each other, as if waiting for something to happen. Finally, he ordered them to pack up and leave. He looked at the broken weapon in his hands, then snapped it in two with his knees. He held both pieces in his left hand as it started to sizzle with electricity again and the remnants of my dad's weapons shattered into a thousand pieces, when a troop walked towards him.

"Sir, what about-" the troop started to ask

"Move. Now." the man cut him off sternly, and the troop left the scene, as if no murder had just taken place. The man followed soon, but before he boarded their hover plane, he looked at the shed where I was, fury visible in his eyes as well as another emotion I cannot quite comprehend.

The plane took off. I waited for them to be out of sight, then I rushed towards my parents. I went over to my mom and turned her over, trying to wake her up, but she's already cold to the touch. I went over to my dad, and he's still breathing, though they were just slow, painful gasps. His stab wound looked horrible, and his eyes seem to be focused nowhere.

"Dad?" I said, tears starting to cloud my vision.

"Take the case", he said, but coughed up blood for a bit before continuing, "Take it. Follow the map. Hide."

"Dad, don't leave me." I replied to him.

"I'm sorry, son." He managed a weak smile, "I guess… this time I failed to come back…," he looked me in the eyes, and afterwards, his face became devoid of any emotion.

I tried to wake him up, slowly at first, until I only realized, after a while, that I was already crying on his chest. I went over to my mom but she wouldn't wake as well. I tried to convince myself that all this was just a bad dream, like most kids do, but this ain't no dream. This was real.

Oh, damn, it's real.

I looked at my parents as rain started to fall, and remembered all the happy fun times I shared with these people that now lay dead on the ground. My parents.

And I remember everything that happened tonight. The people who killed my parents, the thing they so desperately wanted, Project Nova, and the entity who ordered all this:

Entropy Co.

Dad was right.

They'll pay for this.

I'll make sure of that.

I went back to our house, grabbed as much stuff as I could and put them in our car's trunk. I took Dad's briefcase and covered their bodies with a large bedsheet.

At that moment, tears threatened to spill from my eyes again and a sense of longing from the back of mind told me to take the bedsheet off and try to wake my parents up, just in case this time, they will. But a new, stronger voice in my head blocked off all feelings of weakness and steeled my nerves, telling me that this was no time to be a kid anymore. They were never coming back, Entropy killed them off.

But there was one fatal mistake that they made.

They didn't kill me.

I climbed inside the car and input the destination on my dad's map. It led to the middle of the hilltop on the far side of Frontier City. I started the car, looked at my parents one last time, and drove as fast as I could to the place the map led to.

From that moment on, Vincent Maysen disappeared from the city.