Canto 1 Missing

The night sky was aglow with bright city lights, and a faint breeze carried the scent of concrete, salt, and a mixture of fried and spices from food vendors. Keisha and her mamma, Beatrice Alighieri, walked the streets of Atlanta after leaving the movie theatre.

“And then they punched them straight into the sky!” Keisha imitated by thrusting her fist in the air. “Who-wah, ha! And hah!”

Bea laughed at her daughter’s reenactment. They passed by several people coming and going to the theatre.

“What was your favorite scene, ma?”

Bea hummed and tapped her chin. “I don’t know. It has to be when the Hero Society saved that school bus from the cliff or the training montage scene—you know I’m a sucker for a good training scene.”

Keisha took a fighting stance and punched the air in quick succession. Her thick afro curls bounced up and down on her reddish-brown skin, one that she shared with her mamma.

“I just want Scarlett Heroes’ weapon. Do you think we can get one on Amazon?”

“That staff-looking thing?”

Keisha spun on her heels and walked backward. “Yeah! The one that looks like a moon with a shiny crystal in it and has the power to control the universe. I have to have the costume too for Comic Con, mamma. Please!” Keisha jumped up and down, with her hands pressed together.

Bea’s eyes widen, brushing a springy curl away from her face. “Wow, with a power like that, how can I say no? We can see how much it costs when we get home.”

“You mean it?” Keisha squealed, hugging her waist.

Keisha continued to jump, skip, and spin as they walked the streets of Atlanta. They passed by a Sushi restaurant, and Keisha walked ahead of her mother, turning the next corner.

“Keisha, wait for me!” Her mamma called out for her.

Keisha’s back was turned as she called back to her mamma, ‘I’m right here—.’ She was interrupted when she barreled into a sturdy frame. The older man had layered gelled hair and a bushy beard, and his dark grey eyes looked down at her.

“S-sorry, sir!” Keisha raised her hands.

“Watch where you’re going, stupid kid.”

The tall man shoved Keisha to get by, making her stumble into the brick wall.

“Hey!”

Bea stormed around the corner and rushed to her daughter, checking on her first, before spinning around to the guy.

“Who do you think you are touching my little girl?” Bea yelled at the man.

The man crinkled his nose and grunted. “You the kid’s mother?”

“Obviously, and you’ve got some nerve manhandling a child.” Bea’s brow furrowed as she jutted her finger in the man’s direction. Keisha grabbed onto her mother’s hand, hoping to pull her away from the scene.

“Then, mama, teach your hooligan kid to watch where she’s going. You’d be pretty upset if she got hit.”

Bea scoffed. “Excuse me? Is that a threat?”

“Mamma, come on.”

The man smirked. “Go on with your kid. You don’t want to mess with me, lady.” He turned his back on them and walked away, out of sight.

Bea rolled her eyes. “The nerve of that guy. Come on, baby,” Bea said, wrapping her arm around her daughter’s shoulder to pull her close. “I’m sorry you had to see that, but please don’t run off like that again.”

Keisha frowned. She bobbed her head in the crook of her mamma’s arm. “Why was that man so heated for? I said I was sorry.”

“He woke up and chose violence, baby. Unfortunately, we can’t control the actions of others, but we can see to it we don’t become like that and be kind to others, even if we’re in an unpleasant situation ourselves.”

Keisha pursed her lips, thinking about what her mother said.

Making light conversation, they were about to turn a corner when a static noise resonated through the air. The two stopped walking when a golden portal appeared. The smell of ash and smoke filled the air. Bea pushed Keisha backward. “Stay back, Keisha.”

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Keisha bobbed her head. Her mamma glared at the mysterious portal with power and determination in her amber eyes. A cloaked black figure came out of the rift. Keisha gripped onto her mamma’s arm.

“M-ma, what is that?” Keisha asked. She couldn’t make out the figure, except he wore black leather gloves.

“Keisha,” Bea said, not taking her eyes off the cloaked figure. “Whatever you do, run, don’t look back. Do you understand? The train station is up ahead to get security.”

Keisha frowned. She didn’t understand, but there was no time to ask questions when the cloaked figure rushed at them.

“Run, now!”

Bea pushed her daughter as the Cloaked Figure grabbed Bea and pulled her through the portal. Keisha stared in shock, but instead of listening, she reached for her mamma and tried to pull her out of the portal.

She hadn’t expected the Cloak Figure’s boot to slam into her face. Keisha fell hard and saw the last blurry image of her mamma being pulled through a black void.

Keisha struggled to get up, holding the side of her throbbing head. Her fingers pulled back to see red on her fingertips.

Keisha wildly looked around the dark empty streets, and she panicked. “Ma! Mamma!” she twirled around, frantic as she ran through the streets calling out her mamma’s name.

“Mamma!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Tears welled in her eyes as she clawed at the air, hoping to make the portal reappear again.

Her breathing was raspy. Images of the portal appearing out of nowhere replayed in Keisha’s mind. The captured the look of terror on her mamma’s face getting sucked into the portal. ‘Go to the train station. I have to get help!’ The command came at the forefront of her mind.

She wiped the tears from her face. The square was up ahead and she saw the bright lights of skyscrapers. She saw a police officer sitting inside of the station's security office cubicle.

“Woah, slow down. Why the rush, miss?” An older man said. He leaned from where he sat at the front desk. His thick mousy mustache twitched when he spoke.

Keisha grabbed onto the counter and leaned into the window.

The smell of paper and old coffee mixed in the air, making Keisha’s nose wrinkle.

“P-please, officer, sir…my mamma…she was taken.” Keisha blew out each word with a strangled breath. “We have…we have to go.”

The mousy mustache man got up from his seat. Keisha spied his name tag read, Officer Smiley.

“Taken? Where was this? And did you happen to get a good look at the person?”

Keisha beamed, glad that they were getting somewhere. “Yeah, and they were wearing an all-black cloak and cape, and they dragged her through this portal and poof.” Keisha imitated with her hands in an explosion. “It was gone!”

Officer Smiley’s brow knitted together. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Eh, one of you types, huh? Kid, you know this place is if you have emergencies, right?”

Keisha frowned. Her hands stopped moving wildly. “W-what? This is an emergency. My mamma was taken through a portal by some creepy person in a cloak!”

Officer Smiley grumbled something she couldn’t make out. A younger officer with short-cropped blonde hair came inside of the cubicle behind him.

He smiled at Keisha. His tag read, Officer Harley.

“What’s all the commotion back here, Jerry? You selling cookies or something, girly?”

Officer Smiley waved his hand and grunted. “Nah. No cookies, Maxwell. Some prank or something. Said her mamma was ‘taken’ through a portal by some cloaked figure.”

Officer Harley’s eyes widened with a smile on his face. He pretended to shake with fear by what his acquaintance was saying.

“Sounds scary. What’s a kid like you doing watching scary movies like that? It can keep you up at night and make you tell elaborate stories.”

“I’m fourteen, and I’m not playing! She was taken through a tear in the air.”

Officers Smiley and Harley continued to laugh despite Keisha's tone and seriousness in her scrunched brow and trembled words. It wasn’t until they turned her away did she know that no one was going to listen to her. She didn’t know what she would do now.

Keisha’s lip quivered as she walked away from the train station. Her eyes filled with tears. The cool breeze against her cheek chilled her instead of the comfort that it had been prior.

I can’t panic. I have to think of something! What would the Hero Society do?

She blinked back the tears and sniffed. Keisha frantically looked around, seeing several people walk past her, enjoying the festivities, unaware of what she had witnessed.

She needed to find clues first. The officers didn’t believe her because they didn’t see proof—so she would get some.

Keisha headed back to the park where her mamma was last seen and looked for anything weird, but what she found weren’t clues or whereabouts. It was a girl, two years older than her. The girl’s curly brunette hair framed her heart-shaped face and cascaded over her golden brown shoulders. Her bright lidded violet eyes stared past Keisha.

The girl’s thick brow knitted together, realizing Keisha’s steady gaze was focused on her.

“You can see me?” She asked in a Tuscan accent she recognized from the way her papá spoke.

“What do you mean? Of course, I can see you.”

The girl grunted. She was exceptionally pretty in the way her curls swayed when she moved. The moonlight lit upon her eyes, making the violet hue brighter.

“The name’s Verona. Have you seen anything strange by chance?”

Keisha’s eyes extended. She nodded, telling Verona what she had told the officers who failed to help her.

Verona touched her chin and nodded every so often. “I believe you. I’ll fix it from here. You can go on home.”

Verona cut the air with her hand, and a portal—like the one that had taken her mamma—ripped the seams of air to make an opened crevice. Keisha stared at the swirling colors as they rotated endlessly.

Verona stepped one leg inside.

“Wait!” Keisha screamed. She grabbed Verona’s hand and pulled her back. Verona turned to frantic and big amber eyes. “T-take me with you. I can’t sit here and not know what happened to my mamma.”

Verona sucked her teeth, shaking her head.

“I can’t let an Earthborne come through the veil with me. It’s too dangerous.” She tilted her head to the side, thinking. “But…”

Keisha gripped Verona’s hand. She looked into the girl’s vibrant colored eyes hoping that she would guide her.

“No one believes me, no one but you, and you might know where she has gone.”

Verona huffed. “Alright.” She squeezed Keisha’s hand and pulled her. They walked through the portal. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Keisha held her breath. Her gut twisted as she was wrenched in the portal. She closed her eyes, not expecting what would happen next.