The Traveler

Skye and her family's lives change forever when a trip to the Museum is interrupted by a theft...

Art by Gemma Tabet (Yes, I wanted to try drawing too)

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"Mom, I'm pretty sure we're lost." said a girl with curly brown hair and caramel skin.

"Of course not. Tell her, Robert." answered a motherly woman who looked very similar to the girl if not older.

"Listen to your mother, Skye. I'm sure it'll be fine." replied a tall happy man in a condescending tone.

The family had been walking for half an hour, following an app on a phone that brought them through a labyrinth of dark alleys and sunny roofs. We've been walking forever, thought Skye.

"I must agree with Skye. I believe that the red tape and cones we saw indicate that we shouldn't be here." said an eleven-year-old boy, called Tom.

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Art by Gemma Tabet

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"The museum's probably closed for construction or something." added Skye, who was fanning herself with her hands, desperately trying to find a cool breeze in the suffocating heat.

A little girl, who walked behind Skye, started moving her hands and the family stopped to look at her.

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Art by Gemma Tabet

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"See," said Skye with a satisfied grin"even Vi wants to go back to the hotel." The small girl nodded, her braids swinging.

"Oh, shush all of you. Let's go." commanded the woman.

The kids grumbled but followed their mom who was staring at her phone as if it gave te answers to all her questions. Finally, after a few more minutes they stopped at a tall, imposing building. A sign near them proudly presented them with the words "The Museum of Forgotten Historical Gems".

"We're here!" cried excitedly Skye's mom.

"And by the looks of it it's closed. Also, I'm sure that ignoring all the red tape from before was not a smart move. Look at this place. It's empty." said Tom.

They all looked around, and confirmed what Tom said. There was no one.

"Everyone's probably inside escaping from this heat. Smart move." said Skye, who had found a tree with glorious, absolutely glorious shade, she thought. The rest of her family quickly followed her into the shadow of the great oak tree.

As the family contemplated going to the Museum, which did indeed seem closed, an alarm started blaring. The silence around them shattered, as the piercing wails of the alarm sounded (much like the sound of a strangled cat). Before the family could react, seven men and women dressed head-to-toe in black jumped out of the old windows of the museum. They landed on the floor on their feet, as if they were part cat, thought Skye.

The men and women ran towards seven black motorcycles and one of them tied down a bulgy, suspicious bag to his vehicle. The family just stared, in shock, as they witnessed tomorrow's headline "The Grand Theft: Museum Loses Precious Artifacts". They all whimpered slightly, because the men and women had an evil aura about them. Something didn't feel right and they all moved closer to the tree's shadow, huddling together, hoping nobody would notice them.

That movement cost them everything.

At once, as if controlled by something, all seven men and women turned their heads towards them at the same time, their eyes flashing. Their eyes, thought Skye, their eyes change color. It was true. Their eyes changed subtlyw, from brown to blue to green.

They approached the family, one man stepping up to them. He observed them for a few seconds, in silence, until with a shaky breath Skye opened her mouth. "Go away. We didn't see anything. Please." she said, hoping they would take the hint, that they would just leave. Her parents kicked her foot. Oooops, Skye thought, guess I shouldn't talk to... whatever these men and women were.

The man grinned slowly, revealing white, pointed teeth.

"Take them. They saw everything." he barked with a gruff voice similar to what a bear might sound. Before anybody could move, the men and women grabbed the family. Skye, Tom, Violet and their parents were handcuffed and gagged and were forced to walk towards the motorcycles. A woman tied down Skye to her motorcycle and as Skye looked around with fearful eyes she saw that her family were getting the same treatment.

Then with a zoom, they were off.

An hour later, after a long grueling drive through streets, highways and a forest, the motorcycles came to a screeching halt in front of an old, shabby, abandoned house. The windows were broken and the wood smelled rotten.

The men and women jumped off their motorcycles and untied their captives. Skye tried moving her arms, but couldn't do much with the metal cuffs around her wrists. She looked up at the house, at its sagging roof and something familiar stirred inside of her. Not now, she thought.

She almost tripped as the woman holding her arm with an iron grip started dragging her up the broken stairs and into the house. She was pushed towards a corner where the rest of her family was, their faces pale with fear.

Not one person spoke.

The leader, Skye assumed, the man with the shiny teeth, approached a wall of the house. He seemed to press something and with a swoosh, the wall crumbled to the ground, revealing a door and... a metal detector? thought Skye.

It looked like one, a rectangle of metal that each man and woman passed through before going through the door. But it glowed strangely and a low humming sound filled the air.

Finally, it was Skye's turn to pass through it. Her heart thumped and her breath shortened, why am I so scared?, thought Skye, it's just a metal detector. But not one man or woman had removed the guns strapped to their waists and the machine didn't beep like it would normally in an airport.

A man pushed her roughly, and she walked through it.

Silence.

And then the machine went crazy.

Lights started flashing and an alarm screamed as if Skye had just walked through it armed to the teeth.

Skye shouted in surprise, but the gag around her mouth blocked the sound and she choked on her own voice.

The man in front of her, the leader she realized, turned quickly in surprise and looked at her.

"She has it. Take her and the kids to the exam room. You know what to do with the parents." he said in his gruff voice.

Two men and a woman approached her and grabbed Skye's, Tom's and Violet's arms forcefully, pushing them through the metal detector and into a dark room on the other side. Skye looked back, and her parents stared back at her, panic, fear and confusion in their eyes. Be brave, the eyes of her mother told her. The door swung shut and their kidnappers led Skye and her siblings through another door.

If she had listened, very, very carefully, she would have heard the static sound of a radio turning on and the words "She might be the one", whispered softly in a gruff voice.

That was the last time Skye and her siblings ever saw their parents again.