Sign Of Silence

- Chapter One -

Cain walks up to the telephone pole with a piece of paper nailed to it. "Damn, another guy missing." He sighs and burrows his hands in his pockets, shaking his head. He looks around and sees Lacey walking toward him with a perplexed expression on her face. "Where have you been?" She demands his answer. "The whole team was waiting for you never showed. You cost us the game Cain." She crosses her arms waiting for a response. He rolled his eyes and looked her in the eye. "Kids are going missing and all you care about is the stupid ga-" She cuts him off. "This is your future, we're talking about Cain. This is my future. I don't know what's going on around here, but what I do know is that you need to be focused on basketball. That's all you're good for anyway." He looks back at the poster and sighs heavily. "I care about these missing kids, Lace. Basketball is just a game. This.." He takes his hand out of his pocket and gestures toward the picture. "This is real life." He turns his head back to Lacey. "Do you know what I think Cain? I think you're full of shit. You don't care about those kids." She leans towards him. "You are not a good person. Never have been, never will be." "I try to be. I tried to be a good person for you. But of course that wasn't enough for you. I don't know what else you want me to do, Lace. I'm trying." He continues. "I wanted to be a better person for you and you left me for it." Lacey smirked in response to this. "You're nothing without me." She says in the most condescending way possible. Cain's eyes widened. "Lacey..." She shakes her head and turns around to walk back to her car. The leaves crunched under her feet as she walked. He stands there, frozen. Trying to swallow what she said to him. Jane walks over to the telephone pole and smiles. "Hey. What's up?" He shakes his head and looks up at Lacey's car as she drives away. "Lacey's mad at me again." He tries to put a smile on his face. Jane pushes him out of the way and analyzes the picture on the pole. "This is getting out of hand." She stares intensely at the man in the picture. Cain rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'll catch you later alright Jane?" She nods and waves her hand, dismissing him. She pulls out her phone and takes a picture of the poster. Cain walks away and heads home. The cool fall breeze calms him down. It was just him, his thoughts, and the leaves that fell to the ground around him. He threw open the front door to find his mother asleep on the couch with the tv on, playing a soap opera. He reached for the remote to turn the tv off but the show caught his eye. A weeping woman. She wept in her bedroom and wouldn't stop. She cried about how her husband was no good and how she was feeling lonely and betrayed. He related to her. Things didn't end off well with Lacey, she hated him now. It hurt him so bad because he loved her more than anything. Kids in his neighborhood were disappearing left and right, he had to keep up with basketball if he wanted a scholarship, he had to maintain the highest gpa that he could, and he had to take care of his sick mother. He didn't realize how deep he had been pushing these feelings down, because when he started thinking about all of these things, he cried. His mother shuffled a bit, he knew he was being too loud and started to head to his room. He turned the tv off and removed his shoes. He laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. He didn't know if he'd be able to get through this. The next morning his friend Andra came to pick him up for school, when he entered the car, he smelled a very strong, very bad odor. He didn't want to be rude so he didn't say anything. "Hey Andra, what's up?" She looked over at him as he buckled his seatbelt and smiled slightly at him. "Nothing really." He nods in response and looks out of the window as Andra pulls out of the driveway.  About halfway to the school she mumbles calmly, "Hey did you hear about all those kids that are going missing? It's so crazy, right?" He sighed "Uh yeah, it's pretty crazy.." He tried to avoid conversation. When they arrived at the school and pulled into the parking space she put the car in park and faced Cain. "I heard about you and Lacey..." She reached for his hand, but he pulled it away. "Yeah, it's fine Andra. I'm gonna be late for class. I'll see you later." He reached for the handle to open the door, but it wouldn't open. Andra had locked him in the car. "Unlock the door." He looked at her with a concerned look. "Cain, talk to me. I care about you." He narrowed his eyes. "Unlock the fucking door Andra I don't have time for this shit." He looks at her. Her face holds a blank expression. "Please.. just open the door." He begs. She slowly reached for the button but hesitated for a moment. "Can't we just-" "Now Andra." He raised his voice. She unlocked the door and he exited the car, slamming the door behind him loudly. He stormed to class and entered the room with a sigh, he looks around for a place to sit and sees Lacey flirting with Lucas Broflovski. Cain's face grew red and his breath became short. He sat his book bag on the ground and sat next to Leila. "Hey Leila." He smiled warmly, trying not to look at Lacey. Leila closes her book, smiles back at him, and waves. "Hi."