“What?” she groaned in confusion as a firm pressure on her right shoulder gently shook her, jolting her from sleep. Her brain scrambled to understand what could have woken her when the shake came again, harder this time. Cordelia rolled ft onto her back. And the hand that had been on her shoulder pulled away. She blinked her eyes several times, trying to make sense of her surroundings. No one had ever woken her in the middle of the night before.

  Staring up at the ceiling, she realized that the light cutting into her room was from the hallway. She could hear movement from the other side of the house, where her parents’ room was located. Sensing the figure standing over her on the right, she turned her head and realized it was her father, Robert. He was a tall, hulking shape in the dark, and Cordelia heard his uneven breathing as if he had hurried into her room. Blinking a couple more times, “What is it?” she questioned, not sure if she was awake enough to talk.

  “I need you to get up, sweetie,” his voice sounded strained, not the usual easy-going voice of her father.

  “It’s the middle of the night!” She sat up, causing him to take a step back. She gnced at the nightstand for her phone, pnning to check the time, but before she could do anything, a suitcase thumped on the bed beside her.

  “We need to leave. Tonight,” she looked at him in confusion, but then saw the worry move over his face. “I don’t have time to expin. I promise it’ll all make sense soon, but we only have about twenty minutes to get on the road. I need to go help your mother.” He turned to leave, and she watched as he walked away, still processing what he had told her. He paused at the door, looking over his shoulder at her, and that is when she saw it - fear in his eyes and tightness about his mouth. His wavy blonde hair was not as neat as usual, looking as if he had run his fingers through it a time or two in thought or worry. “Pack enough for about two weeks. If you forget anything, we’ll buy it once we get there.”

  “There?“ she croaked, sliding her legs over the side of the bed, bumping the suitcase as she did so, and had to grab it quickly before she knocked it off the bed.

  “Later,” she thought she heard him say, but when she looked over at him, he was already gone.

  Stretching her arms as she stood, she arched her back, feeling it crack slightly. Because sleep attempted to lull her back to bed, she shook her head and walked toward the bathroom, located across the hall. Cold tiles on her feet greeted her as she flipped on the switch and shut the door carefully before going over to use the toilet. As she sat there, rubbing her eyes, she pulled her thoughts together. Was this all a dream? A minute or two ticked by as memories of this night pyed again and again in her mind. Mumbled words drifted in; her mother whispering to her brother, Kai. There was an edge to her mother’s voice, confirming this was not a dream. Something was terribly wrong. She finished up, flushed, and went to the sink to wash her hands and then her face.

  She stared at her exhausted blue eyes in the mirror and frowned at the bck smudge under her right eye. Normally, she was careful to remove all her makeup before going to bed. She grabbed the still wet washcloth hanging next to the sink to scrub at her eyes before examining herself further. Her long, thick auburn hair hung in knots around her oval face, her medium length shes now looked clean, but her full lips felt chapped even though they didn’t look it. Had she even been asleep for three hours? That wasn’t enough for her to function. She liked her sleep and didn’t care if that made her weird. Deciding that she would not worry about her appearance any further, since she’d only get more disheveled after the drive, she hung up the washcloth.

  Cordelia crouched to reach under the sink and pulled out her travel bag, which was slightly crushed from the many items she kept under there. She straightened, shutting the cabinet door with her foot, as she opened the bag and stretched it out. Looking around her sink, she took her nearby toothbrush and toothpaste throwing them inside the bag, followed by various hair items. Reaching over into the side drawer, she grabbed her makeup, first putting it in a smaller bag, and then grabbed her blow dryer and curling iron from the drawer at the bottom. In the medicine cabinet, she pulled out her deodorant, perfume, and other items she frequently used when getting ready for the day. Despite not knowing where they were going, she didn’t pn to be without make-up and everything else she needed. She had a reputation to uphold, even at fourteen.

  * * *

  Zipping up the bag with her toiletries, she went back to her room and dropped it in the suitcase as she headed to her dresser. Before packing further, she found her favorite sweatshirt and sweatpants, pulling both on quickly over her pajamas. She then collected clothes from all her drawers, first putting undergarments in the suitcase pocket before stacking blouses, T-shirts, a couple of shorts, a pair of jeans, and several leggings in next. In her closet, she picked up shoes, a light jacket - it was the end of April, so she shouldn’t need anything warmer -, a swimsuit or two, and a nice dress. The shoes were really the biggest problem, as she needed several pairs and wasn’t sure she could get them all in her already full suitcase. Shoes weren’t optional. They would have to fit.

  When her father had told her to pack for two weeks, she assumed she should pack as if she were going to her grandparents’ house in Michigan for the summer. She and Kai usually spent two weeks each summer with her dad’s parents, where they would swim, fish, and hike, but mostly y out in the sun near the ke. It was an amazing way to spend the summer, and she loved it. Perfect memories! With only her dad’s grandparents remaining, she spent as much time with them as she could.

  A thought smmed into her, making her pause in the doorway of her closet, biting her lip. Maybe something had happened to her grandparents? Was that why they were rushing out in the middle of the night? Fear gripped her. With her heart racing, she hurried over to her suitcase, pushing the remaining items in wherever they would fit and zipping it up. It must be that; otherwise, why the rush?

  “Please let them be okay,’ she prayed. There could be no other reason her father would look so worried and insist that they leave in the middle of the night. He was very close to his parents and his two brothers. Cordelia loved whenever they could all get together, as they would py games and tease each other endlessly. She only had three cousins, and they were all under five, but they were fun to watch and followed her everywhere. Another frightening thought. Could one of them be hurt instead?

  Taking a breath to calm her racing mind, she tried to think of something else. Looking around at what items were near her bed that might be good to pack, her eyes fell on the backpack. It dawned on her that she was going to be missing school for two weeks, and it was the end of the year, so she had a lot of exams coming up. Surely an injured family member was more important than missed schoolwork, but she didn’t want to get too far behind. Besides, she may need the distraction. She plucked up her backpack that she had thrown beside her bed when she had come home from school earlier that day and checked to see what she had in there. Seeing most of her books, her ptop, and pencils at the bottom, she took her backpack over to her desk to grab a few other items and the charger for the ptop. Wrapping up the charger reminded her to also grab her phone charger as well as her headphones.

  Gncing around the room once more, she heard her father call out to her about getting in the car. It would have to be enough. She zipped up her backpack, shoved her phone in the front pocket, and then grabbed the handle of her suitcase, which thudded when it dropped to the floor. She flipped off the light switch, plunging the upstairs into darkness, and headed down the hall to the stairs.

  As she turned to go down the stairs, she spotted her mother at the bottom taking a coat from the hall closet. As a rule, her mother, Silka, was always well put together, but not today. Dressed in a sweatshirt with jeans and running shoes, her ocean-blue eyes, so simir to Cordelia’s, looked far off. The lovely, curly auburn hair that defined her mother stood up in pces rather than being styled. More telltale were her tightly puckered lips minus the happy smile.

  Cordelia’s heart raced as thoughts fshed again. What could be happening to impact her mother like this? She resisted the urge to ask; instead, she lifted her bag and stepped quickly down the stairs and straight out the open front door behind her mother.

  * * *

  An inky darkness engulfed Cordelia as she rushed out to the car, which was parked in its usual pce in the driveway. The garage was too full despite her father’s yearly promise they would clean it out so the SUV would fit. Tonight, there was a slight cool breeze causing goosebumps to rise on her arms, and she was thankful she had slipped on the sweatshirt and pants. Her steps slowed as she realized how dark it was outside, with only some moonlight falling through the trees and no lights turned on. Had her father not wanted to alert any neighbors? She went around the front of their bck Suburban to the right side to get into her usual spot, which was behind her mother. Her father was belting Kai in, who seemed to have fallen back asleep in the bucket seat beside her. Her dad gnced up at her with a reassuring smile that she didn’t acknowledge; rather, she dropped her backpack on the seat and rolled her suitcase to the back where her mother was now loading everything.

  “I got it,” her mom said, taking the suitcase from her and lifting it into the back to set it on top of the others. Just then, Cordelia heard the car door shut and guessed it was time to leave. About to get in, she realized she should have brought her pillow and a bnket to sleep.

  “I’ll be right back,” she called, scrambling around the front of the SUV and down the short sidewalk to the front door that was still open since her father’s suitcase sat in the entryway. She climbed the stairs two at a time. Ran to her room, picking up her pillow from the bed and the violet bnket that y at the end, a gift from Christmas that was currently her favorite. Her mind fshed to her father putting her brother in the car, and she realized Kai didn’t have a pillow either. Going next door, she grabbed his pillow and pulled the bnket from his bed.

  “Cordelia! We have got to go!” her father called up to her just as she got to the stairs.

  “Sorry,” she panted as she scurried past him out onto the walkway. Her mom now sat in the front passenger seat, and Cordelia walked around and slid in behind her, shutting the door with a click. As she dropped the items in her p, she fished out her brother’s pillow and carefully leaned over to put it between the door and her brother’s head. He grumbled but didn’t wake up, rather rexing into the pillow. She dropped his bnket on him and then reached for her seat belt, locking it in pce before arranging her own bnket around her legs.

  The driver’s door opened, and she looked up to watch her father get in. Would he expin now?

  Instead of starting the car, he turned slightly to look at her and her mother as the SUV fell into darkness. “I need both of you to turn off the location services on your phones.”

  Cordelia’s brow turned down in a frown, “Location services?”

  “Yes, do you know how to do that? Shut them off?”

  She knew how to do that, but was completely confused as to why that was needed. Turning off location services usually meant losing functionality on your phone. Cordelia realized she had pulled out her phone when he’d made his request, but she just stared at it, trying to make sense of this test request. “Cordelia - it is very important that no one can locate us. I’m not asking you to do this. I’m telling you to turn off the location services or give me your phone.”

  The sharpness of his voice stilled her heart, and unease filled her further. Her father had rarely talked to her so forcefully. Her hand shook as she put in her pin code and went to the settings on her phone. She fumbled around until she found the right one and clicked it off. Tears filled her eyes, and she squeezed them tight to stop the flow. Do not cry! She looked over at her father and studied him as he worked through disabling his own phone. His blonde hair had a bit of a wave to it as it was getting longer than he normally kept it. His square jaw was clenched, and his gray eyes squinted at the screen.

  As if sensing her gaze upon him, he looked up. “You got them off?”

  She nodded, still unsure if she could speak without crying.

  “Did you bring your ptop?”

  Staring at him with a question in her eyes, she heard his sigh, “Also, turn off location services on your ptop.”

  Of course. Pulling her backpack onto her p, she unzipped it, finding her ptop and pulling it out. It took a couple of minutes for it to power up, and during that time she noticed that her dad now had a paper map out and was examining it using the light from his phone. Where could he have gotten a map? Can you even buy maps anymore? Her computer beeped, alerting her to log in, and she focused her attention back on the task at hand. Clicking the wi-fi button to turn it off, she hoped that would be good enough for disabling location services until she had more time to figure it out. Having logged off, she leaned over to put her ptop back into her open backpack at her feet.

  Finally, she settled into the seat to look out her window at the night outside that shadowed the neighborhood where she had lived her whole life. There wasn’t much to see as they sat in the moonlit driveway, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, only peacefully quiet. If only her thoughts were that. Thinking of the past hour, she felt tears flood her eyes and blinked them away. Her family had always talked about everything. They didn’t keep secrets. They shared pns. Worry overwhelmed her about what was causing her father to act this way. This was not her father. She closed her eyes, her dark shes settled on her cheeks, and then a tear fell down her face before spshing on her right arm.

  A sigh came from the direction of the driver’s seat, and she heard her father folding up the map. “I know all of this seems scary and confusing. But I can’t expin yet.” Cordelia turned to look at him and saw her mother do the same. “Please trust me. More importantly, please work with me.” He looked pointedly at her. “I need you both not to contact anyone until I tell you it’s okay. We need to be off the grid for the next few days and perhaps even longer. Also, you both need to make things as normal as possible for Kai and allow me some grace to work this out.”

  “Of course, Robert. We love you and we’ll help in any way we can,” her mother said, reaching out to touch his arm in the gentle manner she often used.

  His head swung around to look at Silka, and a small smile touched his lips with the same look of love and gratitude that Cordelia had seen him give many times before.

  Cordelia wanted to agree. Yet the words stuck in her throat. She had always trusted him. She still trusted him. But tonight a small voice questioned whether she should.