Chapter 1: The Incident

August 28th, 2015

The ball soared through the sky, the rubber red standing out against the brilliant blue. To the children, it looked like it must have been hundreds of feet in the air, when in reality, it only barely went over their heads.

“Run Cadi! RUN!!” the children screamed.

The eight year old felt her short black hair whip around her shoulders as she took off towards first base-second base-third base-STOP!! She jolted on the spot as one of the other kids finally got the ball and threw it back towards the field.

Safe!!

Cadi stood there panting and waiting as a larger kid with a baggy t-shirt and spiky white blond hair stepped up to the plate.

BONK!!

The sound of his foot making contact with the ball resonated within all of the children, and this time, it went higher than any of them had seen. The kids stood transfixed in their spots and watched as it flew through the sky and into the copse of trees in someone’s backyard, disappearing into the green branches.

“Now you’ve done it Jeffrey!!” a girl whined as Cadi made it back to home base.

“What are we going to do?” the little african american boy named Lamarr asked.

“That’s the house of the mad scientists!!” One of the younger ones said a little fearfully.

“What if some of their experiments come out?!” Juno, one of Cadi’s friends interjected.

Cadi rolled her eyes.

She didn’t really believe in crazy mad scientists.

“I’ll just go knock on their door and ask them for it.” she told them bravely.

The other kids gawked at her.

She raised her eyebrows and strutted off across the field towards the line of houses blocked by trees as the rest of the children watched from a safe distance. With confidence, the eight year old pushed her way past the bushes and walked around the fence to the front.

The house on 555 Danbury street was said by all of the kids Cadi’s age to be run by mad scientists like they would sometimes see on cartoons. At night, eerie blue lights would flicker in the windows and odd electrical noises would echo down the dark leaf blown street. A crazy man and woman who created monsters and did experimenty sciency...stuff…

They didn’t know exactly what.

But it creeped all the kids out nonetheless.

Well, all except Cadi of course.

Bursting with confidence, she pushed past the gate and walked up to the door while the rest of the children peeked their heads around the corner.

“Do you see any monsters yet?” a kid yelled in a poor attempt of a whisper. The other children shushed him.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Cadi waited patiently on the porch, looking over the poorly kept up posts and siding. She jumped slightly as a weird booming sound came from inside the house. She heard one of the kids waiting behind the fence let out a squeal of fear. Determined, Cadi knocked on the door again.

Nothing.

Hesitantly, she put her ear to the door, which muffled the weird noises that were happening inside.

Maybe they really were mad scientists?!

Beginning to lose her confidence, Cadi started to back away off the porch. She tripped on the way down and landed hard on the concrete. Angrily wincing and rubbing her elbow, she suddenly stopped as she noticed that the ball was up in a tree that towered up next to the two story house.

Maybe she could just climb the tree really quick and get it…

With a quick glance at the door, Cadi jumped up and quietly ran towards the tree.

“Cadi! What are you doing?!” the same bad whisperer announced.

The rest of the kids shushed him.

Cadi bit her lip and jumped for a branch that was just out of her reach.

Missed.

She jumped again, and then grabbed onto it, pulling herself up into the sycamore.

The other kids watched in awe.

Branch after branch, the eight year old climbed, all the while getting closer and closer to the ball and sweet victory. She paused as she noticed that one of the windows next to her was flashing some blue lights behind a drapery. She decided to ignore it for now and focus on her task. Her hands had barely gripped the ball when…

BOOOOM!

Something similar to an electric shockwave happened, causing Cadi to tumble out of the tree, still holding onto the rubber ball. The other kids screamed and fled from the scene, while Cadi lay on the ground dazed, her hair frizzed and slightly smoking.

For a moment, there was a commotion inside the house, and a moment later, two very odd looking people wearing lab coats dashed out onto the lawn, looking around.

The first person, a man, was wearing weird goggle type things, which was causing his messy brown hair to stick up in odd places. The lower part of his face was covered in stubble, and there were little charred marks all over him.

The other person was a woman, who kept her blond hair in a tight bun in the back of her head. She had been wearing a welding mask, and she lifted it from off of her face to look around.

“Oh my gosh Harry! Over here!” she exclaimed, sounding concerned as she ran over to Cadi. “Sweetie-are you alright?”

Cadi felt dizzy as the woman helped her sit up.

“Uh… y-yes.” she stammered, still clutching onto the rubber ball in surprise.

“I told you that reactor needed work Harry!” the woman scolded, giving the man behind her a very stern look. The man’s face looked pale.

“Is-is she fine? Is she ok? We won’t get sued will we? They’re already wanting to cut our budget-if we get sued for toasting a little girl-.”

“Harry! Calm down!”

Cadi blinked, and then shakily stood up with the help of the woman.

“What’s your name honey?” the adult asked sweetly, taking off her welding mask.

“C-Cadi.”

“I’m Emille. Are you ok? Sorry about the commotion. We’re building a machine and it got a little out of hand.”

She shot another look at the man behind her, whose face had gone rather red in what might have been embarrassment.

“Cadi!!” a familiar voice yelled out.

Cadi turned to see her older brother standing outside the gate, his hands on his hips with a disapproving look on his face.

“What have I told you about going into stranger’s yards?!” he said, rather put off.

“To not to.”

“That’s right.”

“But Jeffrey kicked the ball and-.”

“I don’t care what Jeffrey did. Mom sent me to come get you. It’s time to go.”

Cadi stood up rather sheepishly, dusting herself off.

“I’m sorry Mr. Harry and Ms. Emille, but I have to go…”

“But-.”

“Bye!!!”

And with that, Cadi ran after her brother, who had already rolled his eyes and started walking out to the car, leaving the scientists behind her.

Boy would the kids like her now! She had met the mad-scientists and lived to tell the tale!!

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“I found Cadi in another stranger’s yard today.” Rick said nonchalantly as he bit into his chicken quesadilla.

“Cadi!” her father said disapprovingly, fixing his thin glasses.

Cadi hung her head, her face growing hot as she nibbled on her quesadilla.

“I had to get our ball though…” she mumbled, wishing she could sink below the dinner table. Even though she was avoiding eye contact, she could still feel the look she was getting from her father’s piercing green eyes.

“Carlene, how should she be reprimanded?” Mr. Wille asked, turning to his wife.

“Well there was no harm done was there? Just don’t do it again sweetie.”

“But Carlene-we said that the last three times.”

“Oh yeah…”

Cadi and Rick’s parents were quite the strange pair. Mr. Charles Wille was very big and muscular with thin little glasses that he was always shifting on his face. Despite his appearance, he was quite mousy and felt uncomfortable in most social situations.

His wife on the other hand, was very down to earth with most things. Cadi had heard that in most families, the mom was the strict one, but she knew it wasn’t the case with their mom. Apparently her mom had been a bit wild and adventurous in her younger years, so if Dad never found out about something, Mom would usually let it slide. Mrs. Wille tossed her long light brown hair over her shoulder.

“Well I guess no tv then…” Cadi’s mom said a little distastefully. This seemed to satisfy her father, as he went back to his quesadilla. Cadi pretended to be sad at this news, trying to stop a smile.

Her mom knew that Cadi didn’t like watching television that much anyway…

Her older brother narrowed his eyes as he looked from Cadi to his mom.

“Wait a second… but I thought-.”

“Well! I finished dinner!” Cadi exclaimed. “I’ve got to do homework! Mom can I be excused?”

“Go ahead honey.”

When her parents weren’t looking, she stuck her tongue out at her brother obstinately for always trying to get her into trouble. In response, he stuck his tongue back at her in frustration. Cadi laughed at that.

It was always funny when she tricked Rick into doing kid’s stuff.

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Cadi woke up late the next morning.

7:59 am

As soon as she woke up and saw her alarm clock, she started to rush around in a panic, grabbing clothes and the sheets of paper that was supposed to be her homework. She had barely been aware of her dad knocking on her door to tell her to get up, but for some reason she had just been so tired and had gone back to sleep.

She was going to be so late!!!

Cadi slid down the hallway in her socks after pulling some pants on and throwing on one of her favorite shirts that had pineapples on it.

“Mom!! Where are my shoes?!” she yelled out, running around the corner and looking under the couch.

“Never mind! I found them!”

Cadi hurriedly tried to shove her feet into her dirty tennis shoes, and then ran into the kitchen to grab some breakfast, where her mother was at the sink.

No time for toast-she grabbed a slice of bread in a rush and shoved it in her mouth.

“K Mom! Love you! Byeeeee!!” the eight year old yelled.

She was in such a rush to get out the door, that she did not think it odd that her mother did not reply.

Cadi ran into the garage and grabbed her bike-a cool orange and black one that she had decorated with bug stickers. It was Rick’s old one, and her dad had wanted to get her a new one with pink and glitter, but they just hadn’t had the money at the time. Cadi didn’t mind though. As cool as a glittery pink bike would be, a Halloween bike was better.

Cadi jumped on her bike and was about to take off, when she realized that something was off.

In fact, something had been off all morning, but she had been in such a rush to get going, that she hadn’t noticed it.

Everything was eerily silent.

Cadi had never heard it so quiet before. Usually, she could pick out the electrical hum in the walls of her home, or the wind blowing through the trees, or… something.

But now everything was dead quiet.

Slowly, Cadi got off of her bike and looked around. Her mouth dropped open when she saw her neighbor, Ms. Calloway.

Standing in her slippers and nightgown, Ms. Calloway, Cadi’s eighty year old neighbor, was watering her flowers.

But she was frozen still.

As was the water coming out of the hose.

Cadi stared wide eyed as she came a bit closer. The droplets of water were suspended in the air, almost as if someone had taken a picture of her neighbor and then put that picture in 3-D and in real life. Cadi turned to then see her other neighbor’s dog Shishi, frozen in a mid air jump as he chased a squirrel, who was also completely frozen.

“MOOOOOM!” Cadi yelled, dropping her bike and running back inside. “Mommy you’ve gotta see this-.”

Cadi slid to a halt.

Her mother still had her back turned as she stood at the sink, but it was only now that Cadi realized that there was no noise as her mother washed the dishes. Hesitantly, she craned her head to see that her mother was frozen too.

What in the world was going on??

Then a thought came to the eight year old, and she ran into her room to check her theory.

Her room was as she had left it-stuff thrown around everywhere, clothes thrown on the bed and dresser, a couple of toys that had tumbled into awkward places.

Cadi slowly turned to her black and red alarm clock.

7:59am.

Cadi blinked in surprise.

Was this real?

Was this a dream?

Time had stopped.