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"Zoey, get up!" The sound of her mother's shouting woke her up, but she didn't move at all.
"5 more minutes!"
The truth was, she wasn't that sleepy. Could easily just spring out of bed. She just didn't want to go to school. Everyday was the same and she just wanted to break out of the boring routine it all was.
Everything was so dull there and it felt like a waste of time. She knew that knowledge was power and that things she learns there are supposed to be useful, but wasn't there any easier way?


"Zoey! I'm not repeating myself!"
Staring at the ceiling, she thought if a person could die of boredom. She wanted something good to happen today. Something that was worth to get up for. A surprise, perhaps. She knew nothing would happen, though.
She eventually, begrudgingly got up and went to the bathroom.


Zoey washed her face while thinking about what today would offer her. Probably nothing. Probably just a stack of homework and misery. After all, that's what each day gifted her.
She didn't herself understand how she survived this every single day.


She went to her room and got dressed. She assumed it must have been late enough, because soon after her mother once again yelled: "Zoey! Are you still sleeping?!"
"No, I'm not!" She sighed and ran downstairs as quick as she could. She tried to stomp through the stairs so that her parents would hear her coming.


"What took you so long, Zoe?" Ava said. Zoey hadn't understood how much time it had taken her to get ready. Maybe her pondering had taken up a chunk of time...
"You're late for school. You'll have to eat on the way."
"No, thanks. I'll eat at school, I have to go."


"You need a proper breakfast. How much time until they feed you there? Just take a biscuit even and go." Ava insisted.
"I swear I'm okay, I'm not that hungry after all."
"Not even a single biscuit?" Her dad, Tom, pleaded.
"Dad, I insist."
"Okay then, have a nice day."
She doubted that would be the case but she hesitantly went to the front door.


She smiled when she saw her friends waiting outside. They seemed to be having a conversation.
They were really her best friends. Always supportive and eager to help, they also had a great sense of humour. Sure, they did sometimes argue, but it wasn't that bad.


"Hi Ruby! Hi Dan!" She greeted them.
"Hey Zoe! Your parents had told us to wait here."
"Sorry, I didn't realize for how long you were here. Let's go."
Their school was near Zoey's house, so it was easy to just walk for a while.


They had just arrived when something felt out of place.
"Have any of you have an idea of why there isn't anyone here?" Ruby asked.
"Are you sure we're late?" Zoey's parents surely weren't wrong with the time, so she doubted it, but still she asked.
"Of course. I checked my phone before I left." Dan answered.
The schoolgrounds were normally bustling with students. No one knew why they now looked so... Empty.


They went at the school's front door and looked through the window from afar.
No one, nothing.
"Is it Saturday and we don't know?" Dan said.
Apparently Zoey couldn't understand whether or not. Part of her wanted to shrug it off and go home, but she was still curious. Perhaps the school had notified that it would be closed that day for whatever reason.
She doubted it.


"So... What do we do now? Is this just a free day for us?" Zoey asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"Of course not, they never do that. Wouldn't give us a day of happiness for nothing." Ruby laughed.
"I'd say we go in, there must be a teacher there."


They reluctantly walked inside the building. They were immediately met with the sight of a girl with black, short hair and a sassy look on her face.
"Oh, the little dorks are here. Great. You came instead of Stacy."
"Ugh, we thought the school was closed on this day and just decided to check if it really was. Why are you even here?" Zoey demanded.
"Ahem, I'm guessing you're blind because Sam's also here. All the lame people, of course."
"She just had to be here. Like, it would be great if school was just closed on this day, and the principal came in and asked us why we weren't notified and we go home and..."
"Shut it, Danny. I knew that school was closed on this day. I just... Came to..."


"Carly, we have understood that you didn't know the school was closed today. You don't know everything."
Carly, along with Stacy and Mia was accustomed to making fun of everybody except themselves. Zoey was used to it by now, but she was still annoyed by their snobby behaviour. At least her friends weren't there.
"Okay then. At least I'm not a loser like all of you."
"Hey, you're the one that can't even run in P.E . Seriously, is it necessary to wear high heels everyday?" Zoey snapped.
"Just ignore her, Zoe. She just wants to make life difficult for us." Ruby stood infront of them, blocking the impending fight she sensed would come.

They sat at the lockers and pondered what to do. Perhaps they would go to find a teacher somewhere, when Zoey noticed from the window that the whole city looked deserted. She had to go investigate soon.

The Mystery Of Red Herring
Chapter 2: Discussions
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"Let's run through this once again," Dan said. "You think everyone in the city is missing?"
"Yes! I swear! We searched everywhere!"
Ruby's parents had called her to come back home, so she couldn't join the search, but Dan and Zoey had investigated the whole city to find the reason of why everyone was nowhere to be found.
"This is nonsense. People are probably in their homes." Dan suggested.
"We went in shops too. No shopkeepers. And also, stores are open today, so there's no reason they wouldn't be. No vehicles either."
Zoey had a point. No one was in the streets. No chatting at parks, not even birds chirping. Silence, everywhere.
"It still doesn't make sense, Zoe. How would our parents still be here when everyone is gone?"
It was Zoey's turn to think. What Dan was saying was true.


"..But it still doesn't explain..."
"How about we call someone? If you call your neighbours?" Dan recommended.
"That's... Okay then."
She tried dialing Ms. Taylor, the woman who lived next to her house, but there was no answer.
"I knew it!" Zoe shouted.


They just sat on the floor, defeated and tired. Zoey noticed the sun had set and the moon was showing through now.
She checked her room's clock. Evening.
"Why don't we just tell our parents?" Zoey groaned.
"We already told them there was no one at school rather than a few students."
Plus, she didn't know whether her parents even knew what was going on. It was all just weird.


They sat on the bed and pondered, each person lost in their thoughts.
"Maybe it isn't that big of a mystery. Just a randomly bizarre day, and tomorrow it's over."
"Let's call Ruby."
"Still thinking about that idea, huh? Okay then."
She stood up and went to her desk. She tried calling Ruby. No answer.
Then Ruby's parents. No answer.


She sat on the bed once again. Was she just hallucinating? Was she just dreaming? She pinched herself, but she felt it.
"So?"
"She doesn't answer, nor her parents do."
"But they always do!" Dan insisted.


She looked out of the window. She expected a little bird to come and tell them "Hey, you're dreaming, wake up" or something like that.
"Are your parents even here?" Dan said curiously.
"Why do you ask?"
"I can't hear the TV. They were watching it when we came here." Dan answered.
"They're probably in the kitchen cooking food or something..." Zoey said, still looking out of the glass window.
"But I can't hear footsteps also." Dan insisted.
Suddenly she became afraid. They always informed her when they left to go out or something.


Her worries were interrupted when she saw something weird outside.
"What are you thinking?" Dan asked.
"..What's that?"
The "that" was a neighbouring house's window suddenly lighting up. That meant someone was finally there.
"Dan, look. Someone IS here, after all."
"I told you. This is so silly."
"Hey!" Zoey shouted from the window.
"Do you know why no one is outside?!"
The curtains opened and revealed a man with a confused expression on his face.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"There aren't any shopkeepers nor people on the streets!"
"Are you off your rocker or just pranking me? Look outside, kid!"
Zoey did.
No one was there.

She begun to think it was all just one big hallucination where random people around her happened to share as weird as that sounded, when she felt faint. The feeling of confusion took over and she closed her eyes.

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.

The Mystery Of Red Herring
Chapter 4: Uncertainty

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It was late at night, her parents sleeping when she was watching TV to get her mind off things. She couldn't sleep at all, and when she barely drifted off to "sleep", she had nightmares of everyone leaving her going to wherever everyone missing had gone to. She felt uneasy looking outside the windows. Each glance another fearful sensation. Her confident attitude towards finding what happened had diminished, and the boredom of not being able to go outside, see her friends, or even just see a Sim being other than her parents had taken a toll on her.


She wasn't gaining anything though from this. Not finding a missing person. Her mother's words echoing in her mind. Of course, solving this mystery should be the police's job. But who else could if the police had vanished too?
She had called Dan and Ruby ten thousand times, yet no answer at all. Disappeared, just like that. She had a feeling she was next. Zoe and her family was the only people who hadn't gone missing.


Zoe sighed. What if she could do something?
An idea struck her. If she went investigating once again, maybe a clue would pop up somewhere, sometime. Perhaps she hadn't seen something or missed a hint during searching with Dan. Either way, she had nothing to lose and everything to gain.


Once again, she walked to the front door. It took her 5, maybe less seconds to reach it, but to her it felt like ages. Chances are she wouldn't find anything.
Then she silently opened the door and walked outside. The air didn't feel that chilly, but she got goosebumps either way to the sight of an empty, desolate neighbourhood. It was like someone had stopped time and everything looked so delicate. The buildings were still as beautiful as the memories she remembered with them, but it didn't look right without people.
She cleared her mind and thought of where to first go. Maybe the small store would be a good start.


Eventually, she reached the tiny shop. The atmosphere was eerie and she still looked around even if she knew no one was anywhere.


She pulled the metal door and cautiously went inside.
She gagged.
The store was always seemingly bare and small, but this time it just looked fully deserted. She took a deep breath and started investigating.


She glanced at the cashier's counter, and was surprised to see customer's goods carelessly placed. She was curious to know when these were put there as they had never been paid for let alone given to the customer. So... That would mean the employee cashier and the customers had disappeared right there on the spot?


She looked at the other side of the store and saw... Opened packaging, vegetables and other food thrown in together. Someone should have probably opened them just like that, infront of the staff? That didn't make sense.


She started being a bit creeped out with all these weird things. She went to the door and tried to open it.
It wouldn't budge.


Suddenly, the small fire sprinkler started spewing out water. Zoey jumped, shielding herself from the spraying waters and tried to push the door out.
Tried pulling...


Maybe kicking the door would break it?
Seems like a long shot.


Yeah, seemed like a long shot.
Now what?


The sprinkler wasn't stopping at all. Door wasn't opening. No fire was around in order for the sprinkler to freak out.


...
After half an hour or so, the rain of pointless sprinkler-malfunction stopped and Zoe could finally take a second to breath. Her hair had gone all wet as well as her clothes, but that was the least
thing that she was worried about. How would she leave?


Trying not to think about the fact that she was in huge trouble with her parents, she tried to think logically.
Not even a small spark of fire to trigger the sprinkler. But she set that issue aside.
How could the door have locked itself? Who could have locked it?


...
She woke up on the floor of the store. Apparently she had gotten too tired and drifted off to sleep. She hadn't come to a logical conclusion either way.


She needed to call for help, but to who?
She couldn't just be stuck there.


"But Leonard, what if we just don't find her?!"
"Ava, I am ninety-percent sure where she is. We'll go and find her when we make and finish our breakfast, okay?"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Just trust me for once, okay?! I understand you're afraid, but seriously, you can count on me."
"Alright..."

Maybe this was it after all, Zoe thought. Maybe everyone got locked into wherever they were. But this still doesn't explain the empty supermarket. All this information is confusing me...

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Zoe blinked and when she opened her eyes, she fell on the hard stone floor of... Somewhere?
"Ow! Where..."
The rest of her phrase was cut off when she saw two familiar faces.
Dan and Ruby.


"Welcome to the club," Dan said. "We've been stuck in here for, let just say a long time. Ruby's been here for more time than me."


Zoey got up. "For me, I went home and after a while, I went to sleep. I was woken up by weird noises and then saw that I was... Teleported here?" Ruby explained worried.
"The moment I stepped in my house blinding light surrounded me and I fell here." Dan said.
"For me, I just blinked and fell on this strange place."


Zoe started looking around everywhere, for something strange or unusual. Other than the bookshelf which seemed normal despite the bizarre placement, there was nothing to be found.
Then she thought of something.
What if there was some kind of switch, or button, or any other mechanism that was buried deep somewhere?
"Can everyone get up and start searching the walls?"


Dan stood up and felt the wallpaper for any bump or dent, and Ruby did the same. Zoe started stomping on the ground step by step to see if there was any convenient opening.
They all got a headache after two hours of searching for any little detail or any small inconsistency that they just gave up.
"Is there something behind the bookcase?" Zoe asked, having a gut feeling she couldn't shake off.


She pulled every book starting from the top.


Zoe sighed. She grabbed a random book from the bookshelf and started rushing through the pages to see if there was anything weird. But it was simply a boring novel.


Ruby started searching once again where Zoe had stopped when she noticed one book just wouldn't move.
She tried jabbing it out but it seemed to be fixed on its place.
"I think I found something!"


She sucked in a breath when she realized the bookcase started to move slowly, turning open.
Ruby cautiously went in the seemingly empty room.


When everyone got out of the narrow room, Zoe finally said a word after being so dumbfounded.
"What in the world is THIS?!"


"Oh, for crying out loud... Group of teenaged intruders trespass in my own home. What else is new?!"
Zoe wasn't referring to the woman but the bookcase, yet she still stared at her flabbergasted.
"Who... Are you?"


"Actually, I should be the one asking. Who are YOU?"
"Uh, my name is Zoe, and this is Dan and Ruby."
"Thank you very much. Now, WHO are you?"


But something else caught Zoe's attention.
"What are these?"


She walked to the weird table where mysterious, magical looking objects were gathered.
"Yes, that's a teapot containing my tea and some other things you shouldn't care about."


Suddenly the woman snapped her fingers and a table with a dessert tray appeared, fading into sight.


"What..." Ruby exclaimed.


She went to say something else, but Zoe ran to yell.
"Wait a second, you're a witch, aren't you?"


The woman snickered.
"I'm surprise you noticed just now," She said sarcastically. "Seriously, who else would literally be able to hide furniture and create illusions of this type?"
"But... There's nothing here except for the table and..."


"Of course not! Don't expect me to trust you after you barged in uninvited ALSO using my secret bookcase entrance!"


Zoe started to float and ominous green glows started appearing, then escalated to glittering sparkles exploding.


The lights blinded all of them for a second and then Zoe was found on the floor, fallen.
"Ouch! What'd you do that for?!"


"I know you think we're intruders, but seriously, we're not! We don't even know how we got here!"


"Sorry," The woman whispered. "I'm still learning to control my anger."


"Uh, what does that mean? How can you accidentally, well, fling someone with weird lights surrounding them and make them fall?" Ruby asked.


She snapped her fingers and all furniture appeared."Anyways, no time to talk about me. You said-"


"We don't even have your name!" Zoe said.
"My name's Tia. Happy now? Let's continue."


"How exactly did you get here? The entrance from the bookshelf is to be only used by me."


"We don't know! Dan went somewhere and light blinded him and somehow got him here, Ruby fell asleep and woke up here, and I just blinked and teleported here!"


"And coincidentally, all residents of our city have magically disappeared." Ruby added, examining a beautiful fairy statue.


"Wait, wait, wait.. What did you say?"
"All of our city's people have gone missing."


"Hold on, everyone?"


"All of the city? No one left?"


"Uh, everyone except a few. Why do you care so much? As bizarre and scary as it is, it shouldn't technically be your business! We're the ones that are worried."


"Do you know any details?
"No. One day we went to school and only 2 students were there and us. No teachers, no staff. Seriously, what's going on?" Zoe answered.


"This isn't going according to plan." Tia said.

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