"Momma" a small five-year-old girl with long brown hair tugs on the bottom of her tired mom's pants "when will daddy come home?" Her big bright brown eyes meet her mom's dull brown eyes.

The tired mom glances at her watch, which reads nine pm. She pulls a curtain back from the window in front of her and sighs "any minute".

She turns her head to look at the little girl "Why don't you go put your jammies on, grab your sister, and we'll play a little game" she warmly smiles. The little girl squeals and runs to her room.

The mom smiles as she runs down the long hallway, she glances back outside to the empty street. "C'mon Rick, where are you" she mutters. She fiddles with her gold wedding ring that has a single, gorgeous, red jewel on it. A "blood-red diamond" as her gemologist cousin calls it.

"Mom, please tell Karlene that I don't want to play some stupid game" The five-year-old, Karlene's, older sister complains. She tucks a strand of her long dirty blonde hair behind her ear.

"Now Sierra, you promised to play a game with her earlier, and as soon as your dad returns from work. You can go back to your room" Sierra's mom finally turns away from the window.

"Ugh, fine, but just one round" Sierra huffs "what game are we playing anyway."

"Cops and robbers!" Shrieks Karlene.

"No. No way am I going to play that stupid game" Sierra angrily crosses her arms.

"How bout a card game?" Their mom suggests.

"Ooh let's play gold fish!" Karlene happily said.

"Sounds good to me" Sierra finally agrees "and it's Go Fish."

"I'll grab a deck of cards, you two clear off the coffee table" their mom dashes out of the room to look for a deck.

"Where do you think dad's at," Sierra asked her little sister as she moves a stack of paper to the ground.

"Maybe he's fighting super villains!" Karlene enthusiastically hits a remote on the ground "oops" she mutters to herself.

Sierra can't help but giggle at her little sister's sheer happiness. "He could be" Sierra puts the last object onto the lower level of the coffee table.

"Really?" Karlene squeals.

Sierra smiles and messes with Karlene's crazy brown hair, she looks around and gets ear level with her sister. "You know dad does have superpowers" Sierra whispers and smirks.

Karlene's blue eyes go wide and her jaw drops "No. Way." Sierra only grins "umm, yes way, he told me"

And as soon as Sierra said that, the girl's mom walks into the large living room, hold a bowl of pretzels, and a deck of black cards.

Before she can set anything down, Karlene leaps to her feet and runs at her mom. "Does daddy really have powers?" She asks excitedly, bouncing up and down.

"Ah, well, I wanted to wait till you were older" their mom sends an upset glare at Sierra, which she ducks behind the glass coffee table.

Their mom walks around the bouncing Karlene and sets the bowl and deck on the table. "But yes, your father has...er..powers"

And at that Karlene lets out the loudest squeal on the planet. "Do you think he can show me his?" Karlene runs up to Sierra.

Sierra only shrugs "don't ask me," she says

Karlene then turns to her tired mom "do you think I'll have powers?" She jumps up and down on the carpet.

"Well, there is about a fifty-fifty chance of you two to get them, but let's play our card game" she pulls Karlene by the hand to sit "please? And once your father comes home, you can berate him with any and all questions"

Karlene grins again. "So six cards?" Their mom asks as she deals out five cards to everyone.

"I'm pretty sure it's seven" Sierra corrects her. They continue to play round after round until the big, old, grandfather clock strikes twelve.

Karlene is passed out in her room while Sierra is reading and her mom is currently pacing back and forth in front of the door.

"Mom" Sierra puts her large book down, "I'm sure dad's fine, he's probably just held up somewhere" her mom stops pacing and shoots her a worried glance.

"Oh, umm, I meant in...like...traffic or something" Sierra quickly corrects herself. But her mom continues to pace.

"But he's never been this late" Sierra's mom throws herself on the nearest piece of furniture, which was a very comfortable armchair.

"I'm sure he's fi-" Sierra cuts herself off with a big yawn "ine" she rubs her eyes.

"You should go to bed, he'll (hopefully) be back here tomorrow" Sierra's mom gets up to plant a kiss on her daughter's forehead.

"R-right" Sierra picks up her book and walks down the hallway to her room. As soon as her door closes, Sierra's mom pulls out her phone to dial her husband's phone.

But on the second to last ring, a sobbing woman picks up. "R-Rose," she sobbing woman says "h-he's go-o-one"

"What! Tina calm down, who's gone?" Rose calmly asks. "R-ri-ick" Tina barely finishes.

The phone nearly slips out of her hand, Rose slides into one of the chairs and readjusts the phone. "M-my Rick?" Is all that she can muster.

Rose slides from the chair to the hardwood floor. "N-no!" She sobs "i-it ca-a-an't be t-r-r-rue." Rose drops her phone and continues to sob hysterically.

After maybe a few minutes or a few hours, Rose's sobs turn into loud whimpers. She shakily picks up her phone, Tina has hung up ages ago.

She tiredly wipes her eyes and looks at the time, one and a half hours have passed. That means she spent one and a half hours sobbing when she wanted to be with her husband.

She shakily pushes herself to her feet. Waves of nausea washes over her as she sits back into the armchair. She decides that she is too tired to walk down the same hallway her girls went.

She instead pulls her knees as close as she can into her chest and wraps her arms around them. She lays her head on them and looks around them empty room.

Memories of her family come flooding in, she glances at the coffee table she and the girls were at, and a memory of them with their dad play a board game makes her smile as more tears form.

She continues to softly cry as she remembers the last time she spoke to her husband. It was before he had to leave for his job.

They were talking about his they were planning on taking their girls out of the country for a vacation. But that idea is now long gone.

Rose continues to softly cry until she falls asleep. She dreams about talking to her husband in a little cafe.

She is rudely awakened by her youngest daughter. "Mommy" she happily says. Rose's bloodshot eyes meet her daughter's beautiful brown eyes.

"Yes, sweetheart?" She croaks, her throat begging for any water.

"Where is daddy?" Karlene asks with a small grin. Tears form in Rose's eyes as the thoughts of last night come flooding back. Perhaps it was a dream?

No. Rose couldn't remember a dream to save her life. "Y-your d-dad's g" she stops herself as her oldest daughter tiredly walks into the room.

She yawns "Karlene, let mom wake up first" Sierra rubs her tired eyes and unceremoniously throws herself onto the couch next to them.

Rose wipes her eyes and sits up straight. "G-girls" she announces "I have something very important to tell you about your father." Both girls sit down and pay attention.

"Your father...he's..." Rose sighs, she takes a deep breath in "he's gone"

"W-what do you mean gone?" Sierra asks.

"I mean your dad is gone, dead, he was...I believe that he was murdered" tears form in her and Sierra's eyes.

Rose looks down at Karlene, half expecting her to be full-on crying and half expecting her to be confused.

But she is the later one. "Daddy isn't coming here?" She furrows her brows as she tries to think "did he leave us?" She looks up at her now crying mom.

"Yes, he left us" she tries to explain, but Karlene starts sobbing "d-di-d he n-not l-o-ove u-s" she cries.

"Oh no baby" her mom says, she gently scoops her up and sits onto the couch next to the sobbing Sierra. "He love-ed us w-with all h-h-is heart" Rose tries not to cry, but she's failing miserably.

"W-will I-I get t-to see h-hi-m aga-ain?" Karlene wails. "Of c-course" Rose reassures her wailing daughter " y-you'll s-see hi-m aga-ain" Rose chokes on a sob.

BANG. BANG. BANG. Rose unwraps her arms that are around Karlene and sets her gently where she was sitting. She quickly walks towards the large dark oak front door. Rose takes a deep breath in, wipes her tears away, and opens the door.

"Hello, Ms. Winster." A tall police officer says in his deep voice. He nervously shifts on his feet. "My name is Dean Sanchez" he holds up his police badge, "and this" he points to his partner. His partner is slightly smaller, with blonde hair and brown eyes. "Is my partner."

"James Riddle" he introduces himself. He politely holds out his hand and shakes Rose's cold hand.

"We've umm...come here to inform you that your husband has be-" Sanchez tries to say but Riddle jabs him in the side.

Rose raises one of her eyebrows "has been what?" She asks, already knowing the answer.

"He's dead," Riddle says bluntly. "James! Be sensitive" Sanchez says. After hours of crying, more tears stream down Rose's face.

"H-how d-id it hap-pen" she sobs.

"We don't really know, it could've been an accident or a murder. We're still looking into it" Riddle explains "but we'll update you on any new information we get."

"O-okay" she sputters out. Sanchez pulls out a tissue from his vest and hands it to Rose. She says a quiet thank you and blows her nose.

The policemen bow their heads and start to walk away. Rose slowly closes the door, leaving a crack to watch them, making sure they left.

Something was off about them, but Rose didn't care enough to question them. She crumbles up the used tissue and places it on the coffee table.

She looks at her two still crying daughters. "How 'bout we get some ice cream?" She offers.

Sierra sneezes and weakly says "okay". Karlene only nods, she does her red and wet face on her soft PJ shirt.

"Go get dressed then we'll leave" Rose calmly says. Both girls get up and head for their bedrooms "and brush your hair Karlene" she calls after the youngest.

Rose looks down at her owns clothes. Pj pants and a hoodie. She sighs and rubs her tired face, she heads for her own room to change.

After five minutes of staring at her husband's clothes, she finally meets the girls in the living room.

"You ready?" She sadly smiles at the girls. Sierra lets out a hiccup and puts her flip flops on. Rose looks at her youngest daughter "did you brush your hair?"

Karlene only nods. Rose sighs and grabs her black leather purse "alright lets go."

A/N, here is the new prologue. Umm, I have big ideas for this story, so I hope y'all like this. Thanks for reading!