• Chapter Three
    Kimaru’s POV


    “Does anyone know where Layla is? It’s been a week since she’s been to class.” My photography teacher asked and I frowned. No one knew where she, or her family, had gone to.

    I sighed and looked at the computer she would be using. It worried me. No one, not even her friends knew where she was and they couldn’t contact her. Her friends tried calling her house, texting her, sending her messages on Facebook and emailing her, but none got answers. No one would even answer the phone when they called. It had been disconnected. Everyone was worried, and if it turned out to be something small she would be killed by all of us, but I had a feeling it wasn’t something small.

    My morning classes passed slowly, but eventually they were done and I could go have lunch with my boyfriend Trevor and his friends. Layla’s friends would come up and talk to us for a bit before leaving. It was mostly about Layla. We all wanted to be kept up to date, to know if someone has talked to her or something. I went up to the corner and sat with Trevor.

    “Hey Trev, you talked to her the most out of everyone here, have you gotten anything?” I asked since Layla’s friends weren’t here yet.

    He shook his head “No. She hasn’t been on a computer as far as I know.”

    “Hey guys. Any news?” Suki asked as she, Akisame, Ryan and Kaily came up to them.

    I shook my head “No sorry. What about you?”

    Akisame frowned and shook her head. It was clear this was eating them all up inside, but was killing Akisame “I wish.”

    “She’ll show up.” I said and wished I believed myself.

    Kaily frowned and sighed “I hope so.”

    The three left and I sighed as they went. They were starting to lose hope. Not every day a close friend vanished off the face of the earth. I felt bad for them. I really did. After they left I leaned against the wall and started to eat a salad and some gummy candies. Trevor stole some candies and sat near me, like normal.

    I heard footsteps coming down the hall, so naturally I looked up. What I saw surprised me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was like someone, or something had killed her. Layla was walking down the hall towards the corner. I couldn’t believe the difference one week had made. When I saw her a week ago, she seemed happy, but now only a week later, I barely recognized her.

    She had lost a lot of weight in a week. She was one of those girls that shouldn’t lose weight, but she did. It looked like she hadn’t eaten in a week. She also walked differently, like something had taken all the life out of her stride. It was kind of scary. I was worried.

    When she got closer we could all see cuts on her face, and those cuts drew us to her eyes, which had no life in them at all. They looked dead. She was wearing a T-shirt and I could see cuts all up her arms. I shook my head in disbelief, now I was really worried. I knew she had cut before, but never like this. The words dead carved into her left arm and I hate me carved into her right arm. Not just small shallow cuts, but the words were actually carved into her arms.

    I got up and took the few steps to close the distance between us and put my arms around her. She didn’t really respond. Just put her head on my shoulder, leaving her arms down beside her. She was like the living dead. Literally. I pulled away and left my hands on her shoulder, looking right into her eyes “What happened to you?”

    She didn’t answer. Just looked at me, or more through me actually. She wasn’t there at all. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. I sighed and grabbed her hand. I pulled her down to sit on the ground beside me. She just sat there, not even acknowledging anyone there.

    Everyone else just stared at her, like she was some foreign animal they had never seen until Trevor got up “What? Quit staring.”

    “She’s not even there.” Adrien said, almost whispering. He seemed just as shocked as me.

    I looked at her “She’s there. Just she’s hiding. She’ll come out soon. I hope.”

    “I’ll go find her friends.” Mitch said, not even commenting on her state. He got up to leave but I shook my head “Why not?”

    “I’ll tell her friends later. Just leave her alone. We should tell her friends before they see her. We were all shocked, imagine how her close friends would feel.”

    Axton shook his head “But maybe her friends could bring her back, maybe her boyfriend. Ryan, isn’t it?”

    As Axton said Ryan’s name, a slight bit of life entered Layla’s eyes “It might, but her friends should understand her,” I sighed, unsure of what to say “State first”

    Shane, who was just watching from the corner got up and came over to her. He gently grabbed one of her arms “What happened to her to make her do this?”

    Isaiah looked at the arm Shane was holding and shook his head “I’m not sure. She was strong. It had to be something horrible beyond what we could imagine happening to us.”

    “I wonder if it had anything to do with DJ” Ian said thoughtfully, also looking at her arm “He was the one who hurt her in the first place.”

    Trevor looked at Ian and nodded “That would make sense. But what could he do to hurt her this much?”

    I didn’t think it was possible but when they talked about the guy DJ, Layla’s eyes would look more dead. It obviously had something to do with him “Who is DJ?”

    Trevor looked at Layla “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to explain. Not very many people know about him. Me and Ian are about it here. I don’t think she would like it if we told her story.”

    I nodded “Okay. I understand.”

    “I’ll tell her friends.” Trevor volunteered after a while of just silence.

    “I can if you want.” Ian said “I talk to her friends more often than you do.”

    Trevor shook his head “They can’t stand you. It would be better if someone they would rather talk to told them. Easier on them and on you.”

    Ian nodded just as the bell for third period rang. Everyone except Axton and Layla got up. After I got up though, Layla started to get up but I put my hands on her shoulders to keep her sitting down “Stay here with Axton today. don’t go to class until I tell your friends.”

    I suppose she understood because she sat back down again. She showed no emotion as she sat. I sighed and went to my classes, which passed fairly quickly.

    I don’t really even remember what the teacher had said during class. My notebook, that I don’t remember opening was blank. I guess we were supposed to take notes on something, but I didn’t hear anything. My thoughts were on Layla still. I was worried about her. I didn’t think it was possible to lose that much weight in a week, and her arms also had me concerned. Also the dead look in her eyes. Something clearly happened, but I didn’t know how long it would take for her to find out, if she ever did. Layla had locked herself away in herself. It was something I never expected, wanted, to see. Especially from her,

    After the bell rang after my fourth period class I went up to the corner to see if she was still there. She wasn’t so I went outside to my bus to go home. When I got home my mom was on the computer “I need that as soon as possible.”

    She nodded “Okay, why?”

    “You know the girl that just vanished?” I said pausing and then when she nodded continuing “Well she came back today”

    “Oh that’s great.” My mom said smiling and looking at me.

    I shook my head “It is, and it isn’t. She is like the living dead. She’s lost weight, she has cuts all up her arms, and her eyes. They scare me mom. They look dead.”

    My mother nodded and sighed “Well then, try to bring her back to life.”

    I nodded, but in truth I had no idea how I was going to do that. I started to walk up the stairs to my room “Call me when you’re done, okay?”

    My mom nodded and I went up to my room throwing my bag down near the door. I sighed and flopped down on my bed to stare at the ceiling. I didn’t know how to help Layla, but I wanted to help her. I really did, but how could I? I didn’t even know why she was like this. It was obvious I had to figure that out first.

    About half an hour later I heard my mom yelling at me from downstairs. I got up and went downstairs to get on the computer. Normally I wouldn’t go on the computer, I didn’t use it that often, but now I had a reason to be online. I sat down on the chair and signed on to MSN.

    Trevor was online and I quickly typed ‘Did you tell them?’ to him. He replied with ‘yes.’ I quickly asked him how he told them.

    ‘I told them that Layla was back but she wasn’t the same person. They asked how and I said she’s non-responsive. She looks dead and her arms are covered in cuts. Words are even carved into her arms.’ Trevor answered.

    ‘They didn’t take it well, did they?’ I asked already knowing the answer.

    ‘Of course they didn’t.’ Trevor replied ‘I have to go. Talk to you tomorrow. Love you.’

    ‘Love you too.’ I typed back and leaned back in the chair. Sure, her friends knew, but they hadn’t seen her yet. When they did things would change. A lot.

    Tomorrow would be a hard day, probably harder than today “Mom I’m in my room if you need me.”

    I went up to my room and flopped down on my bed again, only to get up to turn on my music. I went through my notebook from that day, trying to teach myself from what I had heard. All I got was a textbook page and it made some sense, but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I put away my books just as my mom called me for dinner. After dinner I had a shower and went to bed early.

    The night wasn’t what I would call a good one, but I did manage to sleep a little bit. When I got up I got ready for school quickly before leaving to go to school. When I got to school, Layla was already sitting there in front of it. I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She didn’t react.

    “Come on. Let’s go inside.” I said and gently pulled her inside the school and led her towards where I hung out in the morning.

    When we got inside to where we hung out I sat beside Trevor and rested my head on his shoulder. Layla leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. She was staring straight ahead, but wasn’t really seeing anything. She didn’t even glance at me or Trevor. I sighed and shook my head. Trevor just squeezed my arm in a form of support.

    Soon the bell rang and I went into my photography class, followed by Layla. I grabbed Layla’s hand and led her to the open computer near my seat. Of course, that seat was close to Ian’s too, but I wanted her near me.

    The teacher came in and smiled warmly when he saw Layla in class again “I was beginning to wonder where you went. Glad to see you’re back though.”

    When Layla didn’t respond, he frowned and looked at me with a question in his eyes. I frowned and shrugged.

    As the class went on, I managed to do a lot of work, while keeping an eye on Layla. She also got her work done. At the end of class, Layla go to sign out the camera for the rest of the week to catch up on all the work she had missed since she vanished. The bell rang and everyone got up to go to their classes.

    “Do me a favour and don’t go to your next class?” I asked Layla. I wasn’t trying to keep her from her friends, but it would be best for them to first see her out of class “Just go to the corner and wait until lunch.”

    Layla nodded without much thought and walked out of the room. I’m not sure if she ever did go to the corner, but I know for a fact that she didn’t go to class.

    I went to my second period class and got to work quickly. I was trying to distract myself from watching the clock. It worked for the most part, and I managed to do most of my work too. When the bell rang, I only had a few simple questions to do for homework.

    When the bell rang I jumped up and left the classroom as quickly as I could without running. I went to the corner and saw Layla. I smiled and sat under one of the windows, in my usual spot. Layla sat down too, but farther away from me than she was yesterday. Slowly everyone else started to come and sit down. They all watched Layla warily, unsure of how to react to her, or how to act around her. It didn’t take long before they were acting normally again.

    “Whoa. You weren’t kidding.” Dylan had just gotten to the corner. He wasn’t here yesterday, so he hadn’t seen Layla yet. I frowned and looked at Layla. She was wearing a black long sleeved shirt today, so the cuts on her arms weren’t visible. He shook his head “I wonder what happened to her.”

    I shrugged “I wish I knew.”