Chapter 1

Emily slammed the door shut, dumping her coat on the sofa and bag on the floor as she went by the living room.

"Mom! I'm home!" She called, before she remembered that her mother was out at gymnastics with her little sister, Rose.

She sighed and went upstairs to change out of her All Store uniform. She had wanted to talk to her mother about a certain person, but it would have to wait till later.

Emily pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She opened the window so that a fresh breeze lifted the curtain and whispered around the room, then picked up a book and bounced onto the bed to read. Homework could wait.

Her cat, Foxy, jumped up on the windowsill and meowed, loud and whining. Emily groaned and got back up to feed her. In the kitchen, she found a note taped to the refrigerator door:

Emy,
I'll be a bit later than usual. The gym is putting on a performance next week and they need me to help them with the set design. There's a snack in the fridge. See you later.
Mom XXXOOO

Emily opened the fridge and brought out the cat food. Beside it was a small bowl of strawberries with whipped cream. She took both up to her room.

Foxy was more interested in the strawberries than the cat food, and Emily had to keep pushing her cat's eagerly sniffing nose out of the whipped cream until she'd managed to finish it.

Foxy gave her an affronted look and stalked off to eat her own meal. Emily laughed. Her tabby acted so human sometimes, never happy with what she had.

She put down the bowl, picked up the book again, and tried to concentrate.

But her toes itched. She ignored them, hoping it would just go away. The itch got stronger. So she reached down, pulled off her socks and shoes to scratch them.

There was nothing there. Her toes were gone! There was only a shadowy pink mist along the edge of her foot where they should have begun. She tried wriggling them, but couldn't feel a thing.

She bit her lip to keep from screaming. Carefully she put her feet down on the floor. She tried to stand on her tiptoes. She was supported by thin air, as though her toes were still there, only she couldn't see them or feel the floor. She walked/floated over to the dresser and picked up an elastic to pull her streaked blond hair out of her face, so that she could think more clearly. Her head was spinning and she felt dizzy for a moment until she managed to get control of her thoughts.

Toes don't disappear. She looked down. Make that, feet don't disappear, she thought as part of her feet vanished before her eyes. So what's going on? Emily didn't have a clue, so she left that question alone. Since my feet are disappearing, where would they go? To another country? Another planet? Another dimension? Emily tried to stamp her foot. It didn't even make a sound. Another dimension, she decided. This was simply not something that would happen in her universe.

The next question was; what should she do about it? Emily didn't think she had time to figure out how to stop herself from disappearing before she was gone.

What do you do when you know you're fading away? What would you need in another reality? Would my things stay with me? She looked down again and noticed a bit of her pants had also faded. Should I pack? Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

Emily began to grab various types of clothes, since she wasn't sure what the environment would be like. She got her toothbrush and toothpaste as well as a sleeping bag from the basement and a compact pillow. She found a flashlight and some extra batteries. She got a first aid kit, sunscreen and bug-spray from the bathroom. It was about then she noticed she didn't have legs up to her knees. After grabbing bread, jam, water, carrots, and a package of sliced meats, she took a couple of apples, oranges and granola bars for good measure and snagged some instant noodles from the cupboard. She took the camp stove, a pot, a small tarp, and the giant pack for camping. She managed to stuff everything into the pack after a couple of tries. Emily was as ready as possible.

She didn't have legs at all anymore. She felt sick whenever she looked down and saw only the floor beneath a rapidly fading waist. She had also noticed that things touching her already faded parts didn't disappear as well. But what else was there to do? She had the pack on her back and it was already going. Not to mention she was disappearing much faster now. Even her fingers gone! What would her mother say about this?

Her mother! She wouldn't know where her daughter had gone! She'd be so worried. Emily had to try to tell her something.

She stared hard at a pencil while trying to get her invisible and unfeeling fingers to pick it up. She managed to get it and a piece of paper, and so began to write:

Dear Mom,
I'm disappearing, and not in the metaphorical sense. I don't know where I'm going but I've packed as best as I can. No Rose, it doesn't hurt. I can't feel a thing, though it is nauseating going about without anything below your waist. I'm sitting down right now and I can see the chair under me, but there's no indent and I can't feel it. It's so odd.
Anyway, don't worry about me. I'll get back to you as soon as I know how. All I can do now is hope that the other dimension (where I guess I might be going) doesn't run on a totally weird time system, so that when I get back, Rose is the same age as me! Just joking. Hope it doesn't take me too long to get back.
I love you Mom, and Rose, and Dad, and Foxy. Wait for me.
With Life and Laughter, Emily

Emily hoped that would be enough, since all that was left of her was her head. Her shoes and socks! She reached over and grabbed the items up with her mouth. And then she was gone.


Diane got home feeling hassled and tired. Rose was in the back of the van complaining she was hungry and wanted candy. The props had been a nightmare and she still had to help sew up the costumes. She had a splitting headache.

Diane gave Rose a cookie as soon as she got in the door so that she'd be quiet. Rose ran upstairs to her room with the cookie, and Diane went to flop on the couch with a nap in mind. Emily's coat was in her way. She shoved it onto the floor beside her bag.

"Emily! Come get your stuff!" She yelled in the general direction of her daughter's room. Nothing was going to make her get up. "Emily!"

No one answered. The girl probably had her nose in a book and her head in the clouds.

"Rosy!"

"Yes Mum?" Her little head came around the door. Her face was covered in crumbs.

"Go poke your sister and tell her to pick up her things in the living room."

Rose scooted across the hall and into Emily's room. "She's not here Mum!"

"What!" Diane jumped up and ran upstairs. The bedroom was empty except for Rose, who was holding a piece of paper in her hands.

"What does this say Mum?" She asked.

Diane read the letter. Her hand began to tremble and she had to sit down on the bed.

"Rosy, get me the telephone book please," she said, trying not to let her voice shake.

"Why? Where's Emy Mum?"

"She's not here right now. I need the phone book, Rosy."

She spent half an hour calling up Emily's friends. She wasn't at any of their houses. Diane asked the mothers to keep a look out for her daughter.

As she dialed the last number, trying to think frantically of any other places Emily might have gone, in the calmer part of her mind she reasoned with what had been said in the letter. There was a pack missing downstairs, and some camping supplies. Perhaps she wasn't planning on going to someone's place after all. Maybe she had just run away.

"Hello? Marten residence."

"Hey Judy, have you seen Emily lately? Has she come to your house?"

"No, I haven't seen her. One moment, I'll go ask Maria," a moment later she came back. "Sorry, Maria hasn't seen her either. They were planning on going out to the mall tomorrow, though. Why? What's wrong?"

Diane told her everything. "And she went to her afternoon job, at The All Store, I phoned them and they said she'd been there. I don't know where else to look!"

"I think you're going to have to phone the police and get them watching for her. I'll keep a sharp eye open."

"Thanks Judy, I really appreciate the help."

"Not a problem. She'll turn up, don't you worry."

Diane hung up the phone and paused for a moment before picking it up again. The police had been her last choice. She wished she didn't have to phone them, that Emily would burst in the door any second now saying; "Mom! I'm home!"

But she didn't, and Diane dialed 911.


"Maria, are you sure you haven't seen her lately? Did you talk to her at all in the last few days?"

"No," Maria said, near to tears. "She just called that one time to confirm our shopping trip tomorrow. But she's not like that! She talks about everything, even to her mother. Especially to her mother! She wouldn't have left like this!"

"Who wouldn't have left?" Tom came in.

"Shut up Tom, it's nothing a stupid big brother needs to know about!" Maria shouted and ran to her room.

"Emily's run away," Judy explained.

"Emily Parker?" Tom frowned.

"Yes, have you seen her?"

"No," he said quickly and went to his room.

He slipped Battle Knights into his CD drive and began to play. He hadn't seen Emily, not really. He'd passed her a few days ago after school, but that was it.

She'd run away? Emily didn't seem like that kind of person when she came over to play with Maria. She was funny and good-natured and liked to talk. Running away wasn't something she'd do, he was sure of it now. It bothered him a lot, for some reason.

"Tom! Maria and I are going to go out for a walk. We'll be back soon!" Judy called.

"Ok," he half-called back, as he became absorbed in his game.

Fifteen minutes later, he paused to go get some juice from the fridge. He felt a tremendous itch in his fingers as he pulled the fridge door open, and reached inside for the orange juice.

He froze. His fingers were gone.

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Next Chapter: The Chapter Two

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