She Never Left

the final goodbyes.

Kevin returned home. It's been a week since Roman left - and a little over a week since the death of Lani, as well as the disappearance of Laury's ghost. Kevin planned this summer to be very eventful, but this isn't at all what he meant by that. He wasn't sure how he was going to deal with any of this when school started again. Not having his closest friends by his side was already a pain. Being somewhere where you see them every day only to not see them there was going to make everything worse.

"It's not every day something like that happens," Kevin's mom, Natalia, said. "But, death comes to everybody every day. Loss is hard to deal with, but I believe you can get through it. I'll help you through it." She smiled.

Kevin smiled back at her. "Okay." He stood up and returned to his room. Shutting the door behind him, he looked at his broken keyboard, noticing something on top of it. He approached it and picked it up. It was a piece of paper with writing on it. It read:

"Kevin,

I can't thank you enough for the amazing memories you have given me. I'm glad I get to keep them in the afterlife. I know I made a promise that I failed to keep, but all in all, I am still with you. Don't think for a moment that I don't love you. I wish I could stay with you longer, but the current circumstances don't allow me to.

Lani is here with me, as well as Alina and her mother. We're safe up here, away from the danger. You're safe where you are. Everything will go well for you, I promise you that for sure. Live your life normally. Don't worry about us. There are other people for you out there. New friends, new girls, and a new you. I won't forget you, and I hope you don't forget about us. <3

-Laura Aryn Free"

Kevin smiled and set the letter in his drawer to keep. He went to sit down as his phone rang. The number was from an unknown caller, but he answered it anyway.

"Hello?" Kevin said.

"Hey, Kevin, it's Roman."

"Oh, hey! How's it going?"

"It's going great, man. I'm back home in Russia. Everything's going just fine. What about you?"

Kevin thought for a moment what to say. "I'm good. Doing better now."

"Glad to hear it," Roman paused. "Oh, uh, I looked at your local news earlier. They found Ivan and Malakhov's bodies and found out everything about them. The article about Lani's death was updated. The gang that I was involved in were all put on probation because they had ties to Ivan and Malakhov."

"Good to hear," Kevin said. "Thanks for letting me know."

Roman smiled behind the phone. "No problem. Well, you have my number now. I'll talk to you later."

"See you." Kevin hung up the phone. He was relieved to hear that all the chaos was coming to a close.

-----

Two months passed by. Kevin was now seventeen years old. He started his junior year of high school two weeks ago. It was a rough start, but everything is stabilized and going smoothly. The final bell rang. Kevin walked out of the classroom at a comfortable pace and approached his locker. He gathered his things and began to close the locker, but was interrupted by someone.

"Hey, you're Kevin, right?" someone asked. It was a girl. At first glance, she looked like Laury. She had the same dark brown curly hair, almost black, just like her's. She was a lot taller but had the same soft complexion as Laury. Her eyes were the same brown color as well. Kevin thought this could mean something, but he wasn't going to jump to conclusions.

"Yeah. And you are?" Kevin asked.

The girl gave a cute smile. "I'm Kenadie. I'm in your last class."

"I've seen you around." Kevin thought she was really cute, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to act on it.

Kenadie gave the same smile and played with her hair. She reached out her arm and gave Kevin a piece of paper. "You should call me sometime. If... you want, at least." She blushed.

Kevin smiled at her. "I will."

Like that, she turned around and left school for the day. Kevin shut his locker and thought to himself for a moment.

"Thank you, Laury," he whispered under his breath. "Thank you."