**First time reader? Start here: Part 1

When Detective Thorn went home that evening at 6 o’clock. He went into the kitchen to get a TV dinner. He heated it up and went into the living room. He turned on the TV to the local news. He loosened his tie and began to eat. The news was something he had been watching recently. Over the last week the town had grown strange. Businesses on main street closing. For some odd reason restaurants were the first to go. Less people seen on the street. Less traffic. And it really came home to Thorn early on that something was wrong.

As he sat there eating, his wife came downstairs in her nightgown. She came up from behind and reached over the top to hug her husband around the neck. She looked at the TV and back at John’s distraught face.

“Are you okay?” she asked

“No…” he replied. After a pause he continued with this, “Carl didn’t show up to work today.”

“Oh my god…” she said. “I’m so sorry…” 

“I just can’t figure out what’s going on. Stacy back at HQ is answering calls like mad and can barely keep track of how many missing person reports we have filed since last week. I need to get to the bottom of this.”

“I hope this all ends soon. I barely get to see you anymore. You are tired and this has all come down on Jack, too. He really wants to go see his friends and I don’t blame him. But I guess it’s a good call to stay here. Because I think all of the people that have gone missing are actually dead.”

“I think that too. There’s no other explanation.”

*  *  *

11:00 that night

There was a slight sigh as Jack Thorn’s bedroom door opened inch by inch. His parents had gone to bed at 10:00 and Jack had stayed awake until he was sure they were asleep. He wanted to get out of this house. Being cooped up in this house with nothing to do and no one to talk to is what led him to do what he was about to do.

He made arrangements with a friend of his that he could sneak out tonight and meet up. Little did Jack know he would never see his parents again… well… at least while he is alive…

**This story is continued in White Shadows (Part 8)