Her breaths came out in shallow pants as she crouched in the dusty cupboard, listening with trepidation as the footsteps neared her hiding place with every passing second. Her clothes and skin were splattered with blood. She was the last one left, her friends all brutally murdered by the same masked man that was after her now. It had been a mistake, accepting the dare to spend a night in the abandoned hospital.

  The door to the room slowly squeaked open and her breath hitched in . She squeezed her eyes hut, willing herself to turn invisible as she heard him approach the cupboard.

  The door was yanked open and a shrill scream was ripped from as she looked up at the eyes that glowed with madness behind the once white mask, now stained red.

  “Pfft, so lame.”

  The chubby boy was the first to speak. Around him, the group of eight year olds all nodded their agreement, unimpressed by the cliché plot of the horror movie on the television. All except one.

  Tao sat, tensed, in the corner, fists clenched as he fought to keep a bored expression on his face. The thought of how much teasing he would have to endure if the others found out he had nearly shat his pants when the murderer appeared made him cringe and he silently wondered if he could leave without anyone noticing.

Next to him, Kris had already fallen asleep, his head on Tao’s shoulder, an empty bowl of popcorn clutched in his hands. Stupid Kris, leaving him to fend for himself at a horror movie marathon.

  Later that night, Tao was the only still awake. Everyone else in the room had succumbed to sleep hours ago, their soft snores the only sounds in the late night silence.

  It was not that Tao did not want to sleep, it was that he had somehow managed to convince himself that the various monsters would manifest and kill him in his sleep.

   Suddenly, there was a rustling as Tao felt someone crawl into his sleeping bag with him and wrap their arms around him as they nuzzled into him. Tao opened his mouth to yell, when a hand clamped over his mouth.

  “Shut up,” Kris hissed, his face appearing above Tao’s. “I can’t sleep with you tossing and turning. Just go to sleep Taozi, I’ll promise to kill any monsters that appear, okay?”

  Tao only nodded sleepily as he finally relaxed and drifted off to sleep, suddenly reassured by his friend’s presence and words.

~*~

For what seemed like eternity, Tao stared into the eyes of the person that had left him behind without one word of farewell or thanks. The person that he had made that promise with, to always be together and to never part. That promise meant a lot to Tao, though he did not like to admit that that childish promise meant something special. It is funny isn't it, how something so childish and seemingly unimportant, could mean so much?

As he continued to stare into those eyes, he saw signs of Kris, the Kris he knew when he was younger. Yet it wasn't the Kris he knew then. Something seemed to have changed in his aura, his personality. He seemed stronger, more resilient, more able to look after himself. He seemed different. He was changed.

Suddenly the daze that Tao was in was broken as Tao blinked slowly, his eyes widening slowly as he realised what he was doing. He looked away, but as if by some magnetic force his eyes locked with Kris' eyes once again. He was drawn in by those dark eyes of the boy in front of him. Then Kris smirked and the spell was broken.

The Kris he knew from childhood, would never smirk. Ever.

He took a step back and backed away slowly from him, his eyes downcast and his cheeks tinged a light pink from embarrassment.

"Hello, Tao," Kris spoke, his deep voice rumbling from his mouth,"did you miss me?" He chuckled at Tao's shyness and brought a hand out to hold Tao's chin in his hands. "Did you get thinner?" He asked, his eyes twinkling as he made Tao look up at him.

Tao slapped Kris' hand away, his eyes no longer downcast, now they shone in pure anger. His cheeks were no longer pink, they were a bright red. His breathing grew shallow and he glared fiercely at Kris.

"Get your ing hand away from my face." Tao said this deliberately, his anger evident in the tone of his voice as he spat every word out without going above the normal decibel level.

Without a word he swatted Kris' hand away, and sat down in his seat, trying to ignore the loud and furious whispers that erupted around the room. Burying his head in a book, he groaned and hoped to God that Kris would leave him alone and that he would not be in any of his other classes.

He was wrong to have hoped for such a thing. It seemed Fate had decided to torture him slowly.

For in every class he entered, he pointed his eyes up to heaven and prayed that Kris would not be in it. But in every class it was the same story, Tao would walk in and find Kris already there, his tall figure visible as he chatted to the nearby girls, who could not help but flirt with him. The girls bothered Tao, but Kris' oblivious attitude almost made him want to strangle him.

How could he just stand there with those girls and act like there was nothing wrong? How could he talk so casually to him as if nothing had happened between them? How could he-?

Sighing resignedly, Tao tried to pay attention to the Math teacher who mentioned something about a test, but soon he found himself wandering off into his own world, where he forgot everything and everyone around him. Though he did not want to say it out loud, he had missed Kris all those years. He had missed the person that had taken his heart and dashed it against the wall, leaving nothing but a broken and bruised heart behind.

He knew he should hate Kris, but he knew deep down he could not. For as much as Kris had hurt him, broken him, left him alone, he could not find it in himself to hate him. He still loved Kris, the Kris he knew four years ago, the Kris he had given his first kiss to. But he did not know if that Kris still existed, the Kris he had learned to love.

He was awoken from his reverie when he felt his desk shift slightly, as if someone had accidentally bumped into it and hadn't bothered apologizing. Tao's head snapped up to see Kris' tall figure looming over him, a line of worry across his forehead as he looked down at the dark-haired boy who sat in his seat.

"Are you okay, Tao? You've been sitting in your seat for the past ten minutes, the lunch bell rang." Kris asked, a hint of worrying his deep voice.

Pursing his lips, Tao stood up, grabbed his art pad and pencil, and brushed past Kris to get out of the room. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, not that he did much talking in the first place. He wasn't exactly an easy person to get along with, he preferred to be left alone and to himself.

He heard someone call his name, someone who sounded oddly like Kris, the last person he wanted to talk to at the moment. Ignoring Kris' calls, Tao purposefully made his way outside and sat down in a secluded area of the school grounds. He didn't want anyone, especially Kris to bother him as he drew.

Before he set pencil to paper, he looked around to make sure no one with a popsicle was near him. As soon as he was sure, he looked around for something to draw. Something special.

That's when he saw the most perfect thing for him to draw.

A face like a statue carved of the finest marble, like an ancient Greek or Roman god of old, without a flaw to be seen.

A strong and thin figure, ones girl would die for and guys would get jealous over.

Yes. Tao had found the perfect thing to draw. He set his pencil to paper and began to sketch, trying to ignore the fact that the person he was drawing was him. The guy who had left him. Kris.