Prologue
Here's the truth. I've known Jenny, Ben, and Lauren Fellows since I was six when I moved to Athens, Vermont, a small town with a population of three hundred. They didn't know about me at the time, and I didn't know about Ben. Both of our families kept their secrets very well. Ben was my best friend, he was the first kid in the neighborhood to come to the new kid's house and say hello. We spent every day of the next eleven years together. Jenny usually tagged along with us, but we never got as close. Lauren, on the other hand, didn't like me much. I think it mostly had to do with the fact that I was stealing her siblings' attention.
Ben and Lauren weren't my only friends, though. Our group also included Zeke Rodgers, a guy with a temper as red as his hair; the beautiful Rosalinda Garcia, a half Hispanic feminist; Johnny Dobson, a beach bum wannabe; and William Sanford, the pretty boy/future bodybuilder. We were a trail mix group, which is probably the reason we were such good friends: we all had something different to say.
I don't know how I missed all the signs of what Ben was. Looking back on it now, it was obvious that something was wrong with him, but I was young, and foolish, and was too worried about my future to notice that my friend was acting strange. Now I wonder, if I had known, if I could've helped him.