Bah

Layne's thoughts got progressively more aggressive until he was outright cursing the existence of the sun in his mind, as he made his usual solo trudge all the way up the small hill from his house to high school at seven-thirty in the morning.

He was sixteen, in his final year of high school, slightly tanned from unwilling participation in the sun filled activities, with a shock of messy black hair and deep brown eyes, and at the moment, fairly annoyed with both himself and two of his so-called friends.

"Every damn time" he murmured to himself as he lifted his left arm shield his eyes from the morning glare. "Every damn Sunday night I stay up too late… and then it's Monday morning, I'm headed to school, and I want to collapse because I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night and by god its bloody hot today"

Layne stopped and glanced backwards down the street to his house, the summer sun was bearing down especially heavy on his sleep deprived soul and he briefly considered the possibility of just going back home and sleeping more, before just accepting that he shouldn't

"I was up way too late watching anime last night and why? Because Moll and Joel wouldn't let me sleep…so I guess this is my own fault" he snorted inwardly.

Around two years ago, Layne's mother had died unexpectedly and the only two things in the world which had kept his head above the water had been his best friends Joel and Moll, they'd forced their way into his life around three years back and he was grateful for their presence every second of his waking existence, despite how much it would occasionally seem otherwise

Layne's father had walked out on the family when Layne was 7 and his younger brother Kieran was currently serving time in a juvenile detention center for a critical mass of antisocial behavior, including injuries inflicted upon Layne himself, so his family life was a bit of a mess and as a result Layne lived alone… in a house that was the closest to the high school that He, Joel and Moll attended.

As his house was the closest to the school, Moll and Joel often slept over there to save themselves the commute. Layne didn't really care unless he had an early start, like Monday's and those two ungrateful jerks woke up him and forced him to go, even when he was planning on going late anyway.

"Guess I could catch a few extra winks in English" Layne muttered, dismissing his useless complaints and resuming his heading for the school, still thinking it was too early for the temperature to be so high.

At recess Layne's thoughts were abruptly snatched away from his lack of sleep and plans to get more, by the appearance of Joel came out from his class. Joel was also 16, in year 12, around the same height and build as Layne but had dirty blond curls and dull blue eyes.

Joel came out of his maths with the usual "S'goin on?" and a huge grin at the sight of the bags under Layne's eyes "I wasn't sure you were actually going to make it, but Moll said she'd beat your ass if you wagged off today"

"Sup…and I figured that'd be the case…so I came, but I'm here under protest" Layne replied easily as he leant his head back against the grey concrete wall he was sitting in front of, closing his eyes in a vain attempt to pass out before end of recess bell.

Joel and Layne continued their banter, talking about video games they played, the anime they watched last night, trash talk about mutual acquaintances and almost anything else

Talking to Joel came easily to Layne, who had been a quiet person, his whole life.

"You jerks coming back to mine tonight?" Layne suddenly blurted out, "It's Tuesday tomorrow though so we can all sleep in till noon"

"Guess it can't be helped" replied Joel, as Moll arrived, Moll was also 16, also in year 12, of Indian descent, neck length black hair and brown eyes, and at the moment was cursing out the existence of her maths teacher

"Man I really hate maths, that damned big-nosed idiot won't shut the hell up when I'm trying to talk to everyone" she said angrily

Privately Layne thought she'd do a lot better if she actually attempted to pay attention in the class, but at the same time, some people shouldn't be teachers and Mr Big Nose was definitely one of them.

Joel and Layne glanced at each other, unsure of what to say to calm her down. Layne just cocked an eyebrow as if to say to Joel "You've known her longer, you do it"

Joel and Moll had been his friends for three years… but they'd been friends with each other since childhood, It was rare that a day even went by where they physically didn't see each other though Joel occasionally ran Moll's patience thin and he didn't appreciate it when she tried to beat his ass, but they made it work

Layne was jealous of what Joel and Moll had together, they had been best friends for essentially an eternity longer than Layne had sleepwalked into their lives. He didn't want to do the wrong thing by either of them by feeling jealous but it was incredibly hard not to.

"Still up for yours tonight Layne?" asked Moll, which snapped Layne from his chain of thought and back to reality "We can watch some more Kill la Kill"

"Are you serious, that anime is freaking weird."

"I know, isn't it great"

"Look I'll concede that point" Layne replied dryly, raising his hands in a gesture of mock defeat "But you woke me up entirely too early this morning, so we are going to marathon One Piece until I pass out tonight"

"Sure whatever" she grinned, seemingly restored to full spirits "I'm up"

They settled into some old, easy, laughing chatter that you wouldn't expect to be so easy between three people who had only know each other less than ten years altogether; but it came naturally to them because they had no one else to share their lives with.

The recess bell rang and the group split up and headed to their respective next class and for Layne than meant going to chemistry and switching off again though he was pretty cheered by the thought of watching One Piece until he passed out that night, so the rest of the day seemed like a blur to him and he just hoped he hadn't missed anything important during the blur, though it was unlikely… after all the upheaval everything surrounding him had seemed to settle down.

Layne was afraid to admit to himself that he'd enjoyed the upheaval a little bit… not any of the events per se… well maybe the incarceration of his piece of shit for a brother, but the shattering of any semblance of routine… he craved a little excitement occasionally, but there wasn't a lot of room for it in his current lifestyle, so he tried to be with Joel and Moll as much as possible, but he'd never let them know.

As the world came into focus again he was walking to home with Joel and Moll, between the three of them talking about everything and nothing as it came to them.

As they were in the middle of a group wide discussion of who would win in a fight between Mr Big Nose and another one teacher, when Moll, who had been walking a few steps ahead stopped, staring directly ahead with a look of shock etched onto her face, which was slowly melting into horror every second she looked

She continued to stare ahead, stock still but the other two didn't notice that she hadn't moved for some time until they caught up with her and noticed what she had been staring at.

It was definitely disturbing, Layne would later think back on the occasion and remember; a pulsing black, red and purple hole that had appeared where his house once stood, The gaping maw had appeared to swallow his house leaving only the hole in space where it once stood

Moll was dumbstruck "Shit" was the only word her mouth could correctly form

Joel just moved a little closer with his jaw scraping the ground as he moved.

"Don't get closer to that thing idiot" Moll snapped, snatching at his arm "This thing isn't natural"

Layne followed Joel a bit closer and Moll walked just behind Layne, cursing their stupidity and natural instinct as they moved closer to the thing. Layne gave a weak grin and turned around to look at Joel and Moll

"Damn good thing that you convinced me not to wag off that last class"

They nodded weakly, too enraptured with the hole to notice any movement around them

Layne suddenly gave a shout of surprise as a rope like object that had crept up on him during his pathetic attempt at humor reached up and wrapped around his waist, coiled up his chest and appeared to puncture just to the right of the heart.

Layne grabbed a hold of it with both hands and started tugged, but it was attached deep, strangely the only pain he felt was the piercing of the skin, but he felt himself growing weaker by the second for some reason

Moll and Joel shouted incoherently and ran over to him as he fell to his knees staring blankly at the rope-thing as it started tugging at him, pulling him on his ass and dragging him towards the hole while he vainly attempted to pull it off of him.

Layne shouted as the two of them "Get the hell away! We don't know what this thing is"

But they continued their attempts at separation, grabbing a hold behind Layne's hands and yanking as hard as they could.

Without warning two more of the rope-like objects snaked out and grabbed Moll and Joel, and all three of them were caught and slowly being dragged into the hellish, gaping maw.

"Holy shit!" Layne shouted, having been the first to notice that apparently the worst was yet to come

A white spike was the only way to describe it, it appeared to be made out of bone and it shot out of the maw and looked like it was going to hit Joel in the chest, but summoning the very last reserves of his strength at the sign of a danger to one of his cherished friends Layne dived in front of it and held up his arms to shield Joel

The spike impaled Layne's right wrist at a forty five degree angle to his arm, impaling so deep that Layne blinked at the pointed tip covered in his blood from the other side of his wrist, and he groaned and slumped over with a dull crumpling sound, having fainting from a lack of ability to stand the combination of the sight and the pain.

Another muffled thud alerted Moll to the fact that Joel too, had passed out from the effects of the rope

Moll had been the last one to get captured by the rope but, could only watch as the ropes and the spike in Layne's wrist seemed to emit a faint glow and she could now see that they were pumping something into the three friends

Both of Layne's attachments had a deep green theme except the spike was only edged green when a black core, while the rope was fully green and when she focused on it, Moll could swear she could hear rushing water. Looking across to Joel she saw that his was red and sounded like a rumbling earthquake. While when she looked down at her own all she saw was a translucent white and sounded like a howling gale.

Inevitably Joel who had been the closest to the hole after Layne leapt back to take a literal bullet for him and though he had tried with all of his not inconsiderable physical prowess to get loose before passing out he had been powerless to resist the rope and was sucked into the gaping maw, which seemed to crackle at his entry, shifting violently.

"JOEL!" screamed Moll as he disappeared over the event horizon

Moll had never been one to hide her so called "useless emotions" as Layne so often expressed them so she openly wept, her frustration and sadness coming out as she watched Layne too get closer to the edge

Layne strangely got stuck on the edge of the event horizon, strange not because Moll had any idea of what in the world was happening to them, but because she could actually see the rope/tube straining to pull him in but he wasn't budging, not being pulled in, yet unconscious and unable to get up and attempt to escape escape so as Moll moved past him she grabbed the spike that was still impaled in his wrist and attempted to hang on for dear life.

But her ropes pull was inexorable and as she was pulled in she removed the spike stuck in Layne's wrist, and that seemed to be the thing keeping from falling in.

As they fell through the blackness Moll let go out of the spike and grabbed onto Layne's limp left leg and held it as tight as she possible could, before she blacked out from the effects of the rope

Behind them the hole winked out of existence… as if it were an old CRT television that had just received the command to switch off, the only memento of its existence the complete and utter disappearance of the house it had swallowed during its brief existence.