xx. flawless

[flawless]

{ FLAWLESS }

In a small town in California, perfection is key. Perfection is the past, present, and future. You should see the place - it's the cutest little town. You know, the type of town with the adorable little cobblestone paths and small houses with picket fences [or huge, beautiful mansions, for that matter]. With the perfect scenery comes perfect people. The only adults that ever came out of the place were geniuses or successful in some way. Science wizzes finding cures to diseases, celebrities, sports figures - you name it, this town has had it at one point or another.

Of course, not everyone can be perfect, even in such a town. Some people just naturally don't care about being perfect. There are the ones who have dreams, just ones that aren't as 'out there' as others', and then theres are the ones who don't have an aim in general - the ones who are just there, along for the ride. It's not that they're looked down upon by everyone, or anything, but they're simply... not treated the same. Even when the two groups pass each other on a street, the tension is there. Through the smiles of both, you can just see the perfect ones looking at the... not so perfect, as if they don't belong there.

Obviously, something else doesn't want them there either.

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"Mrs. Lawson, please be calm. We need you to explain what happened."

"It's my son, he's thirteen. He was in his room about two hours ago, I guess playing video games or something - he always plays video games. When dinner was ready and I called him, he didn't come. He wasn't there - I checked! He's been kidnapped!"

"Ma'am, you were home the whole time the dinner was cooking, were you not?"

"Of course I was..."

"Did you hear any peculiar noises? See anything odd?"

"Well, no..."

"How do you know he was kidnapped, then? Isn't there the possibility that he ran away?"

"Yes, but he wouldn't do it! Robbie isn't like that, he wouldn't run away. Even if there were problems at home, which there aren't, he wouldn't run away. He loves his video games too much."

"Could you give us the phone number of his friends? We're going to check with them and the neighbors to try and find evidence... this is either a kidnapping or a run-away. We're going to get to the bottom of this."

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They never did, and it wasn't a kidnapping or a run-away case. The next week, another kid was 'kidnapped'. Then the guy at the post office went missing. Pretty soon, people were disappearing all over the place. It wasn't every day. Sometimes it would be once every three weeks. Other times, two or three people would go missing in just one week.

After the first month, the pattern was realized. None of the people who were mysteriously 'vanishing' were the normal people in the town - the perfect people. Instead, the ones who were gone were the ones who didn't have any ambition - or the ones who didn't have ambition to be the "world's best", that is.

Two months after his disappearance, Robbie Lawson showed up. Surprisingly, he didn't show up in a creek, floating face down. He showed up on his own doorstep, in fact, not a scratch on his own forehead, no physical damage. Oh no, the real damage came when he opened his mouth and with his actions. He was almost oblivious to the fact that he'd been gone. He didn't mention a word about where he had been for the last two months. He didn't even talk about being gone. He didn't even touch his video games for the first week of his arrival home.

He was a changed kid. He didn't care for being a game designer anymore - all he chattered about at the dinner table was soccer, and he could be found in the back yard kicking around the ball in his spare time. Even when he was taken to see a counselor, he didn't talk about his problems. Instead, he talked happily about anything he wanted to. Nothing was visibly wrong with the kid, minus a change of heart and a completely different outlook on life.

Heck, Mr. and Mrs. Lawson didn't mind. Oh, and the postal worker's girlfriend didn't mind when he suddenly wanted to attend college and become a doctor, either. Everything was a little weird, but - well, you know, your loved one is back, and changed for [what seems like] the better, who cares about all the facts? What matters is that they're home.

Only thing is, more and more people are vanishing. Depression is becoming common, even in a perfect town. No matter how wonderful a victim comes back, there's always the depression of another one that's gone to weigh people down.

The local high school has been filled with more drama than usual. Siblings' of victims walk the halls in terrible moods, and pretty much everyone is related to a victim in some way [friends, enemies, cousins]. The rebels and the perfect kids have been battling it out even more than usual, and fights are becoming increasingly more violent.

What used to be a perfect town is gradually becoming something imperfect. Will the mystery of the disappearances become clearer? Will the rebels ever get along with everyone else? You decide at FLAWLESS.

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