Jeff felt his legs go weak and he started seeing stars. He was starting to hyperventilate. He dropped to a knee and took a couple of deep breaths. In and out, in and out. He didn’t have time for a panic attack, he needed to act.

"Hey," he yelled to the guy by the car. "You see the words in the sky too, right?"

The man seemed to startle out of his shock. "What? Oh, yeah. Is it aliens? What are System Pillars?"

Jeff decided to ignore the questions he couldn't answer and asked the most important one. "Have you seen two little kids around here? A boy and a girl? My kids just seemed to disappear."

The man blinked a couple of times then looked around finally realizing he was still in the middle of the road. "Sorry, no. Just my little one in the ba… what the hell?! Kimmy, where are you?!"

He could see an empty car seat in the back of the sedan and felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. The man was heading toward hysterics and clearly thought a child should be back there.

"Oh no. No no no no no," Jeff said, looking back up at the sky. He could see the same sky message repeated off in the distance in every direction.

Welcome to the multiverse. Your planet has been connected to the Boschyan System. Head to a System Pillar for more information.

The message was clear and precise, yet it left so many questions unanswered. What does connected mean? What's the Boschyan System? Where are these System Pillars? And, most importantly, where the hell were his kids?

Taken, was the answer that came to his head. Teleported out, or something… He needed answers. These System Pillars had them. But what if his kids were still here somewhere? He needed to stay here in case they showed up. He felt the need to search his house again.

"No, I've already done that three times. I need to see if other kids have vanished." He muttered, finding comfort in expressing his thoughts out loud. He looked up and felt his legs tremble again. "If my kids are taken then getting to a System Pillar is my top priority. If they are here somewhere then leaving to search would be irresponsible. So I need to keep searching and see if there are any more clues to be more certain."

With a plan set in place, he felt focus overcome his frantic fear.

He kept his eyes and ears out for his kids while he ran to his neighbors. He knocked on both the apartment doors downstairs and waited. Finally, a woman with wet hair came to the door.

"Yes? Can I help you?" She asked.

Jeff realized he didn't know any of his neighbors' names. Just recognized faces from the occasional time they passed each other by.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Uh, come out and look at the sky."

"What? Why?" She asked, clearly skeptical.

Cause aliens are invading, he thought. That would probably make her slam the door. "It's an emergency… “ He tried. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t move. “There are words in the sky." Her eyebrows dropped and she seemed at least curious. He had given her something she could definitively do to prove to write him off.

Clearly hesitant, barefoot and with her eyebrow raised even further she walk out to see the sky.

"What the… Welcome to the multiverse? Is this some sort of prank?" She asked, clearly skeptical.

It was time to drop the bombshell. "My kids disappeared around the time this appeared. Do you know where your kids are?"

Now totally serious she replied, "No, they are at school. Did they get taken?"

"I don't know, but I can't find my kids."

"I'm going to go call the school!" She said and rushed back to her apartment.

Right, he could call someone. He immediately dialed his wife Emily hoping to catch her at work. The call went straight to her voicemail. There were probably too many calls in the area. Not caring to leave a voicemail during a crisis he hung up.

Just then his neighbor burst back through the door. "They didn't answer, I'm driving there… now…" She trailed off as her jaw dropped looking up at the sky. Jeff whirled around to see what she saw.

Up above the words in the sky he could now faintly see little golden lights descending. They descended quickly but at a non-threatening speed. As they got closer he could see the long cylindrical shapes that descended.

There were dozens of them just around the words taking up a good chunk of the sky directly above him. He could see more of the lights descending in the horizon. He could tell the golden cylinders were descending in clumps near the other small towns around his rather than spread out evenly.

"These must be the System Pillars." He stated the obvious to his neighbor. Did I just man-splain? He wondered, but it really didn’t matter right now.

He watched as the golden lights descended the last several hundred feet. The lights shining from the bottom of the cylinder were bright enough that he had to shield his eyes as they neared the Earth.

The pillars were big, far bigger than any building in his small city in Northern Arizona. They were probably ten stories tall. So well taller than most of the ponderosa pine trees nearby, but not quite massive skyscraper size.

The ground rumbled as several pillars touched down on Earth. The light significantly decreased once they touched down, but the pillars still glowed with a soft golden light.

Looking between the apartment buildings he could see three pillars had landed near him. One by the high school, probably on the football field. One by the Baptist church a few blocks away. And one by a strip mall on the main road through their small town.

There was a silence after the Pillars landed that felt heavy and terrifying. That was interrupted by a ding of Jeff's phone. The woman standing next to him jumped in surprise and started hurrying to her car. Jeff checked his phone.

He read the text from his wife, Emily. 'Are you and the kids safe?'

What could he say? Responding with a “no” felt like admitting defeat. Not wanting to accept the kids were gone just yet he put the phone away without responding and rushed back to his apartment. He compulsively checked every room one last time, his heart hoping to see his two precious children.

His heart sank. They still weren't there.

Making his decision quickly he sprinted back out the door and toward the nearest pillar.