At this point, Samantha Shawn was at her wits’ end. She trudged down the streets of San Castro, California, a bundle of crumpled pages poking out of her fists. Her hair was in a mess. Her feet were tired. And her energy was gone. She squinted as she gazed up at the orange sky. “It’s already time…?” she muttered. She glared down at the paper in her hands and cursed. “Damn it.”

After a whole day of passing out fliers, asking anyone around her if they had seen her friend, Sam’s anger was at its boiling point. Now, any other day doing this usual routine wouldn’t have gotten her so worked up, but a certain group of people that she had encountered made her day a whole lot worse.

‘What’s the point of looking for her, anyways?’ they’d mocked. ‘Let her rot in the dirt for all we care’, ‘No one cares’, and ‘Give up already. She doesn’t deserve to be brought back’. Sam had known from the beginning how cruel her classmates could be, but this was a whole different level. 

“Where are you, Avice…?” Sam mumbled to herself. 

She shook her head as she continued down the street. The lamp-posts nearby flickered brightly as the sun finally set, and the colorful orange sky was now a deep purple-ish black. And despite the changing time, Sam continued down the street, her eyes void of any consciousness. 

Her thoughts had been running rampant in her head as she walked. Millions of different possibilities of what had happened to her friend came one after another, and each idea gradually grew worse. 

Did she just run away? Have her parents snapped and sent her away for good? Was she kidnapped? Did she commit suicide? Did Trent finally get his hands on her and she’d had enough? Is she dead? 

I told her I was there for her if she needed it, Sam thought. Suddenly, someone ripped her away from her inner ramblings,

“Now where the heck were you earlier, Sam?” It was a boy’s voice. A boy that Sam really didn’t want to see at the moment.

“I was here,” she responded nonetheless. “Is there a problem with that?”

“Yeah, there is,” the boy continued despite her not even looking at him. “Ruby and I were waiting for you, y’know. Waited a whole hour after our meeting time," he said. "Even now, Ruby's still waiting on the school rooftop."

"And what are you doing here?" Sam asked.

"I went looking for you, of course," he said. "I can't have someone else disappear on me. Are you okay?” His voice sounded carefree, but his words were sincere. Sam’s shoulders trembled slightly. He put a hand on them, and she turned around.

There were no tears in her eyes. Sam couldn’t allow that to happen, yet. But the devastating feeling swirling around in her heart was eating away at her. The boy looked down at her and sighed. Sam’s nose twitched, and she forced his hand away. “What? What do you want? Is it so wrong of me to be doing something on my own?” she asked. “You guys can take care of yourselves, right? You don’t need to hear from me. I’m doing fine. Got it? Got it?” She rambled on.

However, the boy just stood there. He bent his knees a little to get even with her. “Was it Ashley?” he spoke softly. Sam didn’t respond. “I told you not to get too hung up on them, Sam. They’re just spouting nonsense,” he said.

She pursed her lips. “I can’t just ignore them, Kale…” she said tiredly. 

“You’re going to have to,” he said. “If you let it get to you, you won’t be able to think straight. That’s what was happening earlier right?” Kale hung his head low. “You were probably thinking about all of the bad stuff that might be happening to Avice right now.”

“Aren’t you?! Even after all this time you’re just the same old you! So calm and acting like you don’t give a shit. Aren’t you worried?! Or have you moved on?! You probably don’t even care about her anymore!” Sam yelled suddenly. The terrible feelings bottled up in her  spilled out all at once. It was like a dam that had been forced open. Her words didn’t stop and as soon as they left her lips, she clamped her mouth shut. Kale smiled wryly as he looked up at her. “K-Kale, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

“No, it’s fine,” he said. Sam’s heart squeezed at his pained look. She knew more than anyone how Kale felt about this entire situation. In fact, he might’ve felt even more agitated and exhausted than she did. And yet here he was, looking calm and composed in front of her. Not a hint of anger or sadness in his expression. He could only give her a weak smile. “I care about her a lot, Sam. I do. After all, six months is a really long time to be separated from the people you love.”

“Y-Yeah,” Sam responded lightly. The three of them had been on this rough journey of looking for their friend, even after half a year had passed. Maybe that was what had gotten to Sam’s head. The sheer amount of time and effort they’d been giving every single day to look for her - to get as much information on her whereabouts as they could - finally took its toll on Sam. She bit her lip just thinking about her outburst. And the most likely cause for that was definitely Ashley. So she admitted it. “You were right,” she said. “Ashley and her gang were around. They… Kale how can they say those things?”

“I don’t know,” he said. 

“Telling me that they hope that she’s dead. That they hope she never comes back even if she’s still alive. You don’t say that kind of stuff about people!” Sam shouted.

“Calm down,” Kale said as he put a hand on her head. As he did so, it felt like everything bothering Sam at that point was disappearing. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter what they say. Avice, too, knows that they just spout a bunch of bullshit,” Kale grumbled. “But do you know what does matter?”

“…What?” Sam asked.

“Us being here for Avice no matter what,” he said. “We made a vow, didn’t we? We’d never let Avice feel alone again.” Sam nodded. “And that applies even now that she’s not here. Because if we let them get to our heads, it’ll be over,” he said. “We need to be there for her, because no one else will. So let’s just carry on like usual, yeah? Keep on asking people and keep passing out these damn things,” he said as he took her hand and took one of the papers. It was the missing-persons flier with the image of Avice on the front. 

Sam looked down at the page. “You’re right… Thanks, Kale,” she said with a wide smile.

“No problem. Now let’s get going. Ruby’s gonna piss herself if we don’t meet up with her soon.”

She laughed. “Got it.”

As the two continued down the street, one young man sighed in admiration at what he’d just seen. He sat upon a nearby rooftop, leaning his arm on his knee. He stood and kicked his feet against the clayed tiles. He lifted his hands up to the sky and chuckled. “Avice has some damn good friends, doesn’t she?” he said. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take them with the rest of the class to Eden, would it? Hopefully Princess Irisel finds them fun.” 

In a brilliant flash of white, he disappeared.