I walked into my living room to check if she was there but there was no sign of her. It was the same as how I left it last night. I started to speed up and quickly searched my whole house scanning every nook and corner but I still couldn't find her. I jogged towards my front door and swung the door open and then quickly slammed it back shut. “Maybe she's still at work” I whispered to myself, the slow-paced jog at the start became a sprint down my estate until I got to the road and ran with all my might down to the hospital where she worked after a few minutes of running full speed I was drenched in sweat and huffing but I endured and continued down the road passing by the museum and shopping center on my way once I reached the desolate parking lot of the hospital I slowed down and begun to grip my knees as I stopped to catch my breath huffing and coughing from the run. When I caught my breath I started to approach the big glass doors of the hospital. I swung the door open and looked around the reception area but it was completely void of all staff and the waiting area was empty as well. I looked around again and then began to scream

"MOM, IS ANYONE HERE!? Anyone at all" my voice quitened down a bit as i spoke

I felt my knees give out as I collapsed to the floor I gripped my head and began to wail finally realizing that I might never see my mom again. I stayed hunched up on the floor for a couple of hours as still as a statue with my hands still pressed firmly against my face which was a dark shade of red with dried-up tears sitting on my face.

Suddenly I heard a creak from behind me at the entrance of the hospital. It was now dark outside so when I turned around to see who was there I could only see a silhouette of a person who was slowly approaching me. As they came closer and closer they became clearer as the dim light that hung above the reception illuminated the room a little bit. As the figure came closer I was able to see who it was. It was the girl I ran into at the store earlier.

Finally when she reached me and put her hand on my back

"A-Are you ok," she said in a soft and caring tone with a hint of sadness in her eyes. She sat down in front of me with her legs crossed

"Everything's going to be ok" she whispered

"How do you know that... My mom is gone and I don't know if I'm ever going to see her again and you think a few words are just magically going to make me feel OK with that?" I retorted bitterly

"I lost my family too you know, but I know they wouldn't want me to just feel sorry for myself, they would want me to keep fighting and living, not just feeling sorry for myself".

Deep down I knew she was right. My mom would want me to keep living on, she loved me and always wanted the best for me but I just couldn't accept that.

I stared at the girl sitting before me as tears began to gush Down my face once again I didn't have anything else to say so I just sat down in silence with a stream of tears flowing down from my face. Before I knew it I fell asleep on the cold hard tiles that covered the hospital's reception area.

"Karl... Wake up" I heard this accompanied by a tugging on my shoulder I lazily opened my eyes to see what was going

"What" I replied in a groggy voice

"It's morning, how are you feeling today "

"I'm fine, sorry about yesterday" I decided I'm going to continue fighting on because that's what my mom would want and I'll keep hope that someday she'll return until then I have to keep living on

"There's no need to apologize by the way I just remembered I never told you my name I'm Vanessa," she said with a smile growing on her face

"I'm Karl" I replied slowly

Suddenly A huge growl began emanating from my stomach. The sound filled the cold silent hospital.

"we should go get something to eat" I had forgotten why I went outside, to begin with, a lot has happened in the past day, I lost my mother but I also gained a new friend

We began to walk out of the hospital doors and continued back until we reached the little store we met at. It had changed significantly since yesterday the doors were smashed open and on the inside food was strewn all across the floors and there were broken shelves just thrown across the floors

I stared in disbelief at the scene that was before us

"What would you expect from a bunch of kids whose parents just disappeared," Vannessa said bitterly

She began to rummage around the store looking for something to eat.

She went to the back of the store and picked up an empty bag which she began to fill up.

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She picked up cooking ingredients, sweets, and tinned food.

"I can cook if you want, I used to do home economics at school and I also cooked for my siblings so I'm not bad," she said with a proud smile

"We can go back to my house if you want" I replied almost devoid of all emotion, yesterday had taken a toll on me

"Lead the way my house is pretty far from here I was staying with my grandma for a bit before this all happened " she replied with a forced smile but her eyes showed how sad she was

We exited the store and I began walking towards my house with Vanessa following closely behind me.

When we got to my housing estate we noticed quite a few people walking around. They were all teenagers like us.

When we walked past they all looked our way but said nothing I quicken the pace until we arrived at my house I led Vannessa into the kitchen and she made herself at home and just began cooking

"Do you need any help I'm pretty useless in the kitchen though" I asked sincerely

"No I'm fine it'll be done in like 30 minutes," she said quickly

"Ok then," I said with a smile as I started to walk out of the kitchen and up the stairs to my bedroom, I walked over to my desk and sat down, and sighed in relief.

I reached down beside me and got my sketchbook out of my black school bag speckled with blue, white, and red paint, and then I grabbed my pencil case which was beside my sketchbook once I had placed them both down on my desk I turned on the light beside me and began to draw, first I began with a little butterfly with a skull at the center of its wings I smiled softly as my pencil glide across the page. With every stroke, I felt a sense of relief. It reminded me of how things were before, back when everything was normal. I used to sit down for hours just drawing because I always felt at peace creating different things with my pencil. Finally, I was done. The butterfly was dark blue, its 4 wings each had a large white skull at its centre and the edges of the wings had little half skulls stuck across the edge of the butterflies wings other than that it looked like a regular butterfly. I stared at the page admiring my work as tears began to stream from my face

"Huh" I whispered as I wiped the tears off my face. I remembered how things used to be with my mom. she would always come in and look at my art and praise me. She would always say that I was destined for great things. She would always motivate me to do what I was passionate about and she always wanted me to be happy. I placed my right hand onto my sketchbook where I had just drawn the butterfly

Immediately after a pitch-black ethereal smoke began to wrap around my sketch and in my mind I heard a voice that almost sounded like a female ai or something "do you wish to give your art life" it asked in a monotone voice

"what's going on," I asked but there was no answer I looked around my bedroom with confusion and said

" umm yes I guess I do?" instantly as soon as I said those words the black ethereal smoke now hovering slightly over the page began to condense and take the form of a butterfly as the color began to change from the ethereal black to dark blue with white skulls at the center and edges of its wings just like I created it bzzzt bzzzt "No description found generating random details"

I watched silently as the butterfly came to life and fluttered its wings as it flew around my room, its dark blue wings contrasted by the white skulls etched into its wings, its body moving from to the roof of my room. I stared at the butterfly with disbelief and then stared at the empty page that the butterfly emerged from what just happened? I thought to myself, who spoke to me? And what did they mean no description was found as I was thinking I was interrupted by my bedroom door creaking as Vanessa walked in "Food ready" she said with a smile her smile soon turned into worry as she noticed my face "what's wrong" she asked in a worried tone "nothing" I replied still confused at what had just transpired but I wasn't sure if it would be smart to tell people about this she looked at me and just giggled “come on let's go down and eat" she said as she turned around and headed out my door and down the stairs, I followed behind her. As I walked down the stairs a familiar aroma filled my nose. "is that lasagna I asked still following behind her '' she turned around slightly and nodded when we reached the kitchen. The smell of lasagna was wafting throughout the kitchen and through the house. We both grabbed a plate and sat down at the dining table. There was already a fork and knife placed neatly beside my plate "dig in'' Vanessa said with a proud smile growing on her face. I picked up the fork and knife and began to slowly cut a piece for myself and then ate it. The lasagna melted in my mouth and the rich flavor of the food almost moved me to tears ``thank you very much" I said as I guzzled down the lasagna piece by piece. After a couple of minutes of guzzling down my food, an empty plate lay before me as I took the last bite. Vannessa watched as I ate her food with a great smile forming "did you like it" she asked shyly "it was delicious thank you" I said as I licked the fork clean "no problem" she quickly responded

"Now that we've eaten I think we should head out and see if anything has changed"

"Like what?" I said confusingly

"I don't know yet but I kind of want to know what's going on and we won't get any answers holed up here," she said passionately

“ok then let's go” I replied

We got up from the dining table and began to walk out the door, when we got out we immediately noticed that more people were walking out and about than before they all looked to be about the same age as us

Some walked in and out of houses and others just sat down on the grass with a vacant expressions on their faces. We watched as some walked in groups examining the area and others walked alone cautiously. Vannessa and I began walking down the footpath as we exchanged glances with several people then suddenly a boy ran up to us. He had short curly black hair with a tint of brown and Hazel eyes he was wearing a plain white jumper, black sweatpants, and slippers. As he ran closer and closer I could feel Vannessa move towards me more. When he got to us he looked both of us up and down as if he was sizing us up and then began to speak (Jake)

"We're having a meeting at the community college hall if you guys want to come, everyone's invited, we're just trying to figure out what's going on”

It's tomorrow at one pm if you guys are interested” he informed us while handing me a page and then walking off to talk to other people.