The City of Havamon

Chapter 2 - Best Friend

Friends. They are important to everyone. Anyone who claims not to need them is wrong. Humans need other humans for sanity, it's a part of life. Without friends, what would we all be?

Alexander Santos, who goes by Alex, was Laine's best friend. Laine had been concerning Alex for a few days now, and Alex was getting a little tired of Laine hiding things.

"Laine, what happened? You haven't spoken much in the past few days, I'm getting really worried!"

"I'm fine Alex. Don't worry." Laine dismissed, brows furrowing in frustrating at Alex's pushiness.

Alex raised an eyebrow, disbelief clear in his frown. "No, you're not." Alex deflected. "You don't really think I'll believe that, do you?"

After a couple long moments of silence, Alex let out a small sigh in defeat and turned to walk away. His heart ached with guilt; had he been to pushy? Was he too strong with his words? Maybe he shouldn't have said anything. His heart hurt even more at the thought of Laine going through... whatever he is... alone.

It was later in the day, when school had ended, and Alex next found Laine. He thought apologizing was the appropriate thing to do.

"Laine! Wait! Can I talk to you?" Alex called out as he chased after his friend.

"Alex? What is it?"

"I- I'm sorry for being so pushy earlier, I was just-"

"No, you have a right to know. I guess I should explain..." Laine began. He explained the story of what he saw to Alex, making the kid's face go pale with shock.

"S- so Helena is... Dead?"

"I... I think so..."

"Oh god... Oh no... Oh f-"

"I didn't see her die, she might still be alive, but I don't think she would have survived that."

"well, maybe you shouldn't walk home alone then..."

"no, I'll be fine, don't worry about me, okay? I... I don't think the man saw me."

Of course, Laine was wrong. Walking home alone would be a mistake, the serial killer had most definitely seen him, and His safety was limited, but Laine was too clueless to know.

6 months later and Laine is still walking home alone. It's been a while and Laine was still safe, so why should he still be scared? Laine felt as if the event meant nothing anymore. He was probably hallucinating. Helena probably changed to the private school in the city, that has to be the reason no one has seen her.

In truth, Laine only told himself this to cover the guilt of letting someone die. Not only that, but someone he knew. Helena had been nothing but nice to everyone she met, and he just let her die. He ran away when she needed help. His dad was right, he really is weak and pathetic. That's what he thought anyways.

Alex's concern throughout the months only grew. How could it not? His best friend had been through something terrifying and was completely ignoring his personal needs. But no matter how hard Alex tried, Laine would never listen to him. And Believe me, Alex tried. Laine kept trying to convince himself that he was fine and Alex was just being paranoid.

Laine had nothing to worry about anyways. ...Right?