I looked around in confusion, lost in a sea of figures far taller then me. Nearly constantly I called for mommy and daddy, and yet, they didn't come, didn't answer... I had no idea where to go, what to do, this airport, a bustling cavern of steel and cement, was forign to me, nothing like the small house and the rice paddy that had defined home for so many years. Just minutes ago, I had been excited, so much so that I pulled away from mommy, running off to see whatever it was that had caught my eye. But I had run too fast, and now, I couldn't seem to find my way back to her. A strange man stopped in front of me, a kind smile on his face as he offered a hand, but he was speaking gibberish, and something about the look in his eyes scared me. To my great relief, just then, daddy found me, houisting me up, and thanking the strange man as he quickly carried me back to mo-<br/><br/>Always a light sleeper, I bolted upright, glancing around in confusion for a moment, not in my bed, and trying to figure out why. I let out a sigh as I finally oriented myself, my chair pulled up to the small desk I used for studying. The secondhand laptop my parents scraped together to buy for me as a graduation present was humming quietly, and several windows were open, showing Francesca's schedule, several older missing persons articles, and in a word processor window, my notes on what I'd shown so far.<br/><br/>Well, it had shown my notes anyway. No, it looked as though they'd been pushed off screen by several pages of lowercase k's, the result, I belatedly realized, of my unintentional use of my keyboard as a pillow. Sighing, I hoped that it hadn't left too much of a mark on my face.<br/><br/>Closing the lid of the laptop for the moment, I looked around the room, trying to figure out just what had caused me to awaken. My eyes scanned my old, cheap alarm clock, and Francisca's shiny new one, her ipod still sitting in the dock on top, right where she left it while leaving for class after she realized the battery was dead. Quickly ruling out them, or any sort of disaster, I got unsteadily to my feet, the short, uncomfortable nap having done little to make up for my lack of sleep the last few days.<br/><br/>I padded across the room bare footed, clumsily adjusting my old high school track T-shirt, tugging at my pajama pants as well. Too tired to worry about my appearance, I undid the lock on the door, pulling it open just a crack and peeking out into the hallway to see if something out there had been what woke me.