One Saturday morning Skylar Oakland woke up to find his little sister's pet dog sitting firmly on his chest. The dog- which was a poodle- wasn't very heavy, so it did not cause much trouble with his breathing. " Get off." He mumbled as he pushed the dog off his chest and down on to the floor. He sat up in his bed and yawned, stretching his arms above his head. Morning light fell through his window, whose curtains were pulled back, and down onto him. He smirked as he looked at the mirror adjecant to his bed as counted slowly in his head, waiting for his little sister to come and wish him a happy birthday, just as she always did.

As he counted he stared at his reflection. Skylar had long, messy, dark brown-almost-black hair and hazel eyes. His skin was fairly tanned despite the fact that he wasn't a real outdoors-y person. Truth be told, he wasn't, as most teen girls would call it, "hot", though Skylar thought he was decent-looking. Of course, Skylar had never really cared about looks. That didn't mean that he didn't care about personal hygeine- he just didn't care about all the latest fashion trends or how good he looked. He honestly didn't understand why guys- and girls- would wish that they were more handsome or beautiful. He also didn't understand while all of them- in general- were practically desperate to have a girlfriend or boyfriend. Honestly, he could care less about having a girlfriend, though if he had to choose one, it would definitely be his best friend Blake Nite.

Blake and Skylar had been best friends since elementary school, where they met on the school playground. Skylar had been being beat up by a bully by the name of Jon Smiltzer when Blake had stepped in. That day, Jon learned a very important lesson: You do not, under any circumstance, mess with Blake Night. When Jon had began to bully her, she had promptly flipped him over onto his back- an impressive feat, for she was very small, and he was very large- and had started to beat him into a pulp. Their teacher had come over and stopped them, but the damage had been done; Jon had to be sent to the hospital because of his broken fingers, and Blake had been sentenced to a week of suspension. Shortly after that, the friendship between Skylar and Blake began to form.

Skylar and Blake's friendship was probably one of the strangest thing that people had ever even seen or heard of. While they both liked the same type of music ( which was rock) they were almost totally different. While Skylar was quite, soft-spoken, book-smart, and obedient, Blake was loud, out-spoken, street-smart, and a bit of a rebel. Most people had said that that friendship wouldn't even last a day- their friendship had been going on for at least nine years now, and it only got stronger with each passing day.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a rock hitting his window. Skylar shot up out of the bed and headed toward the window. Well speak of the devil- there, standing on the ground, was Blake Nite. Truth be told, she was a very pretty girl. Her usually white-blond hair was dyed jet black and her skin was pale. Her almost electrifying blue eyes seemed to send bolts of lightening through Skylar's body. Above her right eye there was the eyebrow ring that she had gotten as a birthday present a year ago. She wore a pair of somewhat baggy jeans and an Evanescence t-shirt.

Seeing that Skylar had noticed her, she began to make motions with her hands to tell him to open the window, which he did. Fast as lightening, Blake climbed the tree that was next to his house. Within seconds she was in his room and had smothered him in a warm hug.

She pulled away, and for once there was a smile on her face. " Happy birthday, Sky." Sky. That was what everybody normally called Skylar. It had began when he had been a small child and had a strange fascination with the...erm... sky. Not outer space, but with the actual sky.

" Hey, Blake." Skylar said as Blake sat down upon his bed. Blake did this almost everyday before they went to school, since there houses, coincidentally, were on the same street. Luckily she always came early, so Skylar was almost always asleep. Skylar had joked that he didn't even need an alarm clock- oh, no, he had something better: Blake. They had begun this morning ritual-type-thing three years ago on their first day of highschool. One could imagine Skylar's shock and surprise to wake up to find his best friend leaning over him- he had left the window open that night.

" So how's the birthday boy doing today?" Blake asked, and now Skylar could now see that her smile had been forced. " Good. You?" He asked, concerned.

Blake tensed, immediately defensive. " Yeah, why shouldn't I be?" She now gripped the bed covers tightly in her hands, and her lips formed a rather tight line against each other.

" Blake..." Skylar said. He could always tell when she was upset about something- well, almost always. Blake was exceptionally good at hiding her feelings.

Slowly, very slowly, she relaxed her hands and her mouth. " It's mom." she said blankly, staring at the wall in front of her. Yet another thing that Blake was good at: not crying. In fact, the only time that Skylar could remember Blake ever crying was at her father's funeral... that was it. That was why Blake was so upset. No, it wasn't because of her father- she had long excepted that he was dead- no, it was because of what happened after her father died. After her father died, Blake's mother had sunk into a deep depression, and had turned to alcohol for comfort. Six years had passed, and Blake's mother was- for a lack of another word- uncontrollable. She would drink alcohol day and night, trying to ease her pain. Skylar didn't know how Blake managed it, but she somehow did. " What happened?" He asked, wrapping one arm around her shoulder.

Wordlessly, Blake lifted the sleeve of her Evanescence t-shirt, where four long scratch marks ran up and down the length of her arm. Skylar gasped. " Wh- what happened?"

" She threw something at me, and I tried to dodge it, but I tripped and fell on a broken bottle." Blake said as Skylar examined her arm.

When he was done, Skylar looked up with pure concern on his face. "Blake, your mom needs help." Blake nodded, but Skylar could see that she thought it to be a lost cause. They had tried countless times to get Blake's mother some help, but had all attempts had been unsuccessful. The last time that they had tried it was a year and a half ago, and it had earned Blake a broken wrist.

Skylar removed his arm from around her and stood up from the bed, holding his hand out to her. Blake blinked and, wordlessly, grasped it and stood up as well. Skylar put both hands upon her shoulders. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright." Skylar had said these two simple sentences so many times that he had lost count. He knew that they were fruitless attempts to comfort her in her current situation, but still he tried. It was the only thing he could think of doing to give her. Blake turned her head to the side, and Skylar knew that she didn't believe him.

What seemed like no time at all, the door to Skylar's room opened and in stepped Arabella Oakland, Skylar's- somewhat annoying- little sister. " Come on Sky. Breakfast is ready." Arabella suddenly smirked, and as Skylar got the feeling that she was going to say something remotely embarrasing- for him anyways. " You can let your girlfriend come and eat with us." Quickly as she came, Arabella turned on her heels and went downstairs to the kitchen.

Skylar turned awkwardly to Blake. "Uh, you know that I would never think of anything... romantically about you right ...?" Skylar said, looking anywhere but Blakes eyes, fearing that they would see something that would make her think the opposite.

Suddenly, Blake laughed, which was a rare occurence as it were, and Skylar stopped his worrying to stare at her in awe. " Y-you laughed." He said, failing at his feeble attempts to hold his surprise back.

Blake stopped laughing, and so managed to talk again. " Of course I do, Sky. And it's not like I would think of you as my 'prince charming'." Blake scoffed and rolled her eyes jokingly. Skylar smiled at that, ignoring his conficting feelings, that made his mind whirl, for he did not know the cause of it. And he had the feeling that he didn't want to know, either.

Blake jerked her head toward Skylar's door. "Come on. Let's go down there before they send Arabella up again. Who knows what she'll tell your parents what we've been doing all this time." And with that Blake turned and walked out of the room, taking Skylar's jumbled emotions with her.

Three hours later, Skylar and Blake were now walking in the forest behind Skylar's house. Skylar had gotten a few presents this year( the new Three Days Grace album, a couple of t-shirts, and a new drawing kit) though he hadn't asked for anything, and his family knew that he didn't like to make a big fuss about his birthday. Not because he didn't like getting older; he just didn't understand why people made such a big deal out of it. It was just a regular day in the year, yet people treated it like a holiday. Well, for some people it probably was, but not for him.

Blake walked slighly in front of him, dragging a slim branch that fell from one of the trees above behind her, barely leaving a mark in the leave-strewn grass. The multi-colored leaves of the trees fell from there branches at random points in time, filling the ground once more with a blanket of leaves, as of trying to protect the ground from the coming winter months ahead.

Blake shivered slightly as a wind blew past them. " Geez, Sky." She said as she looked towards a gap in the trees, where houses could be seen boasting decorations for tonight. " Only you would have a birthday on Halloween. It's so...weird." Blake said as she turned her head to look at him.

Soon, Skylar was up beside of Blake as they walked aimlessy through the woods. " I thought you liked weird." He said, a smile in both his eyes and face.

Blake jerked her head up towards him, trying to look shocked. She succeeded. " That's right! I do!" And then they both started to laugh, oblivious to their surroundings.

About forty-five minutes into their walk, Blake stopped suddenly and kneeled down on the ground. Skylar knelt down beside her as she combed her fingers through the leaves. " What are you doing?" he asked.

"My earring fell out." Blake said, and Skylar saw that one of her skull earings had indeed fallen out( she had put them on after breakfast). Sighing, Skylar began to help her look for it. Within seconds she had found it and had stood up to go back to Skylar's house, but Skylar ignored her. His fingers had closed around a hard object that was most definetely not of nature origin. Slowly, very slowly, he lifted up his hand, not knowing that performing this otherwise innocent action would change the course of his and Blake's life forever.

Author's notes- I apologize for leaving you on the cliff-hanger there but... it was necessary. At least, I believe so. Of course, I could be wrong.

I know that as of right now, this looks almost as if it has nothing to do with Artemis Fowl, but it will. Trust me.

If you review, please give your honest opinion, but no flames, please.