invisible string - TJ Morrison

"You've all been missing, presumed dead, for 5 1/2 years."

——

Now Astra was no physics major but even she could understand the basic laws. There was no possible way a plane could somehow appear over 5 years in the future. Absolutely no way. So how was she now in 2018. The same age as she was in 2013. It made absolutely no sense.

At first she was secretly convinced it was some sort of weird prank for a really bad tv show. But as time went on and they were sent into some large room with a tent with a bunch of cots set up while others were getting questioned by the government, the less she was convinced. After that, things had become a blur for her.

She was sitting on the cot next to Michaela, who had Cal sleeping next to her. Ben had gone off to go and find Cal's medicine and had yet to return. The 3 siblings had barely spoken since they were told what had happened to them, each still trying to comprehend it. Astra's phone and earbuds had been confiscated as part of evidence, and even if they weren't her phone would not have worked, so she was forced to sit and try to process everything. She truly didn't think she'd ever really be able to. None of it would ever feel real, and she really didn't want to think about what was to come. If it was truly 5 years in the future, that meant all her friends would be out of college and gone, probably getting married and starting family's. And her family would be older as well. Olive would be a teen, no longer the same age as her twin and only 2 years younger than Astra herself. The whole thing was devastating and she had no idea how they would be able to move on at all from it.

Ben's voice pushed Astra out of her thoughts before they continued to spiral more.

"Hey." he said, clearly trying to gain the attention of a sleeping Cal yet gaining the attention of all three of them instead.

"Hm?" Cal replied, sounding very tired.

"Medicine." Ben replied, handing Cal the pills.

"When can we leave?" Cal questioned after taking the pills. Astra had felt terrible for her nephew. He was clearly tired and not feeling the best and she wished they could all just go home so that he could sleep in his own bed. All of this was so unfair to him and he truly didn't deserve any of it.

"Soon, buddy. They're just... They're gonna talk to us, take a little look at us, and then we can get out of here, okay?" was Michaela's reply, trying not to scare Cal anymore than he already probably was.

"If it's really been five years, how am I still alive?" Cal asked. His question absolutely broke Astra's heart.

"Do you feel five years older?" Ben replied. Cal shook his head in response.

"Neither do I. Don't worry." was Ben's final response to the conversation. Astra realized during it that she also did not feel 5 years older, or even any older than she did when she got on the plane. After pondering it for a while added it to the list of things in her head that she could not understand and decided to try and get some sleep before she was inevitably pulled back for questioning.

——

Astra awoke to a fancy man in a suit at the foot of her cot repeating her name. It took her a minute to process where she was and she finally got up, grabbed her crutches, and followed the man to what seemed to be a make shift interrogation room. A serious looking man, the same one who had told them earlier about the planes disappearance, was sitting at the desk, a camera sitting next to him recording the entire interaction. He introduced himself as Vance and asked Astra to sit down so he could ask her a couple questions.

Astra reluctantly sat down, hoping to get the interrogation done quick. She hoped since he had already questioned dozens of passengers by now that he would understand that they knew as much as he did about where they had gone.