The Mystery Of Red Herring
Chapter 3: Irresponsibility

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"What were you two even talking about?" Ava asked.
"Just... Well, theorizing why school may have been closed today?" Zoe answered, a bit uneasy.
"You know you can't lie to me. I know your concerns."


"I'm not lying, mom. I'm simply answering your question. What do you think we were doing either way?" Zoe said.
".. I don't know. It's.." Ava stuttered.
"We're just worried for you" Leo saved the conversation.
"..Why would you be worried for me?"
"To be honest, you never told us where you had gone to with Dan right after you left from school."
"We were just investigating the city. I said it's really... Empty. No one's around. We asked the neighbor and he acted as if we were hallucinating."


"You WHAT?!" Ava shouted.
She nearly fell and Leo had to hold her.
"Uh, what's so bad? You allow me to go out on my own.." Zoe said, a puzzling look on her face.
"..We didn't want to tell you. Half the city has gone missing.." Leo sighed and whispered.
"Huh?" Dan said.
"How come we don't know any of this?!" Zoe shouted.
"I.. We didn't know.. Until while you were with Dan.."
"Then how did the neighbor say that?"
"Maybe he was drunk." Leo suggested.


"Whatever has happened, I don't want ANY of you to go outside now! Not until I say it's safe!" Ava roared.
"But.. You didn't even tell us? Not even notified us when we thought school was closed!" Zoe shouted.
"We didn't even know until we turned on the TV! The main issue is we don't know where all these people have gone! They may have even been killed! YOU could have been killed!" Ava yelled.
"I'll go upstairs with Dan and research it, then." Zoe slowly said.
"Forget about it. Dan is going home. You are staying here." Ava growled.
"And what do you think we should do? Stay here and just hope someone solves the mystery?" Zoe blurted.
"Someone will. Certainly not some teenagers."

She sighed and said goodbye to Dan, although she couldn't help but worry. Ruby had gone home too and apparently she had went missing shortly after they had tried to call her. But what she didn't understand is how her household was the only one that hadn't disappeared into the unknown yet. She had to find out soon.