Oblivion

2

It had been days since he'd been found. For most of that time, the doctors had battled to save his life. His body was so malnourished and his organs so close to failure that on more than one occasion, they doctors had declared there wasn't much more they could do for him. And for the entire time, Kyle sat and he waited for his friend to pull through. He had searched high and low, every single day for the past four years to find him. And he had. It had been him who spotted his friends Converse from under the pile of wet newspapers.

And he was there when he finally woke up.

'Dan.' He spoke quietly as his friends blue eyes, sunken into his skull, adjusted to the light. Immediately, Kyle's heart lifted. 'I can't believe we found you.' He sighed. A few moments passed where Dan just stared at him, almost like he was trying to figure out where he knew him from. Kyle couldn't hide the elation on his face to see his friend awake. But that quickly faded to sadness when he finally replied.

'Why didn't you leave me to die?' His voice was croaky, quiet, tired.

'What?'

'I don't want to be here.' He turned his head away. Kyle didn't understand.

'Dan, we've been looking for you for four years. Have you been out there this whole time?'

'I don't know.' He shrugged. 'Maybe. Why couldn't you just leave me alone?'

'Because we love you. And we want to help you.' He tried to explain. He tried his best to make Dan understand the struggle that he, Dans family, all of his friends had been through.

'I don't need your help.' He spat. 'You should've left me.'

'No. And I'm not leaving you now.'

'Kyle, please just leave me alone.'

They spoke no more. Dan fell back to sleep. His entire body was exhausted. There was little left of him. His skin clung to his bones with very little muscle in between. Kyle sat and watched him for hours, looking over his friend as if he were a different person. There was nothing he recognised anymore. Dan had once stood tall and broad, he'd had a handsome face and perfectly kept hair. But this man lying before him was half wasted away, grey skin, long, matted hair.

Kyle had replayed their last conversation in his head, over and over, for four years. Dan had been agitated, jumpy, upset. Kyle had tried to find out what was wrong. Though by that point there had been no talking to Dan for a few months already. No one was entirely sure what was going on in his life anymore. It had all been a very confusing and worrying time and then Dan had dropped off the face of the earth.

His parents had reported him missing. Kyle, along with their other bandmates had searched high and low for him. They had retraced all of their steps. They had visited and rang every single person they could think of. But he'd just disappeared. Leaving a massive hole in everyone's lives.