Disclaimer: Nickelodeon and Viacom own Hey Arnold! Craig Bartlett created it.

: This chapter will present a twist. Other than that, the other things are clues for the later chapters. Read carefully! ;) j/k Have fun! Thank you for reading. Please leave review if you have time.

Chapter I: Drifted Away

By

The dim lights of the street made the view from where Arnold was standing harder to see. The soothing sound of the wind occasionally whispered through his right ear as if it was the sound of the haunting ghosts. The nipping breeze passed through Arnold skin to his bones, and slowly turned him into glacial ice. His heart dropped, and so was his brain as if the sky had fallen down. To Arnold this second, time had stopped. Just a moment ago, barely fifteen minutes ago to be exact, Helga had stomped out of Arnold's house filled with rage and she drunk? Was it because of the earlier conversation with him that made her mad that she drove in such high speed and somehow got into this accident? Was it because Helga held so much emotion within her that she decided to suicide? Was it because of Arnold?

No way, Arnold answered to himself instantly. No way Helga would do that to suicide. It would be just stupid and unlike Helga at all.

This was all so sudden. Too much were happening in one night.

Arnold hoped that the scenery on front of his eyes was just some nightmare he got into while asleep in the boarding house. At least, Arnold prayed, please don't let it be Helga's car. His heart was pounding like a wild drum as he raced down to the riverside. The fastest way to get there would be jumping down the river and swim over, or run down the highway and slide to the side. As Arnold forced himself to take a deep breath, he decided took take the fastest way. There wasn't anymore time to waste.

Arnold left his bike lying there as he jumped over the fence into the smoothing freezing water. Luckily the river current wasn't as strong as he thought, but rather stoic to Arnold's relief. After a quick second of diving, Arnold gained his balance and tried to swim toward where the car was. Sadly, when he was about five yards away from the wrecked car, the tiny spark of fire that rose to life a minute ago was faster and obviously in a better position than Arnold was. The flames instantly spreaded and dominated the entire car. Before Arnold's eyes, the vigorous flame grew more and more ferocious like a zealous fire fox ready to demolish anything in its way. Any moment, everything will be too late; the car will explode leaving the black ashes fluttering in the air. Even having that in mind, Arnold still continued to swim forward the flaming car.

No, Arnold's mind was filled with trepidations. I have to … save Helga… before it's too late!Three seconds passed by, Arnold was now four yard away from the explosive.

BOOM!

"No!" Arnold screamed. He knew he was too late.

Floating in the cold water, Arnold's eyes widened as he just witnessed the most horrified scene that he has ever to watch. A car was blowing up, and one of his friends was in that car! Tears seemed to pour down his pale cheeks uncontrollably. Clenching his fists, Arnold turned his face away, closing his eyes, but the tears still teemed down just as much like the rain. He didn't want to remember this image. Though closing his eyes only made him felt worse as memories of the past, especially those memories he spent with Helga G. Pataki, kept appearing and fade away. He could hear the lingered sound of her rare smoothing voice and the familiar 'football-head' name calling for him, haunting him already. Arnold never thought that he could ever experience this melancholy misery. Witnessing something like this was almost total hell. She must had it worse.

Arnold covered his face with his hand, trying to calm the rise of a furious headache. He wanted to scream.

" Hey, short man," the voice of Grandpa shook him. When Arnold opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the couch in the cozy living room where he has been living with his grandparents all his life. " Go to your room and sleep."

" Was I… dreaming?" Arnold softly spoke as he struggled to sit up.

" Yup," Grandpa replied. " It was sure heck of a dream. You were yelling in your sleep. Pookies could hear you screaming outside the door. You go and rest."

It was a dream, Arnold chuckled. He has never been so glad that all of it was just a dream. A horrible nightmare that was happening only in his head. Good.

"Morning, Grandpa and Grandma!" Arnold happily greeted his grandparents just like another beautiful shining day.

" Morning, Arnold," Grandma replied.

" How are you this morning, short man?" Grandpa asked as he took a bite of his breakfast.

" Blazing and shine," Arnold smiled. It seemed like he had already forgotten about last night's nightmare. " I'm going to school a little bit early today, okay?"

"Sure dear," Grandma replied. " Helga got the box yesterday, did she?"

" Yeah," Arnold said. " I think she did."

" Of course," Grandpa said. " I would be a surprise if she didn't."

"Huh?" Arnold frustrated. " What was in the box anyway, Grandpa?"

" Um… Nothing, short man," Grandpa turned away and took the last bite of his breakfast. " Have fun in school."

" Sure grandpa," Arnold murmured under his breath as he wiped a toast and said goodbye to his grandparents before heading to school.

" Hey Arnold!" Gerald yelled from behind, as Arnold was about to enter the gate.

" Hey Gerald," Arnold grinned. " Good day today."

" How come you're so happy all the sudden?" Gerald tweaked one side of his eye brown as if Arnold just got brainwash. " You missed the concert yesterday, remember?"

" Well, I know," Arnold was still in a great mood. " But then again, it's no use getting all mad now, would it? I think there'll be next time."

" Yeah right," Gerald snorted. " Well, maybe you're right."

" I am?"

" Yeah, Lila didn't show up at the concert yesterday. Maybe she left early," Gerald shrugged. " Did Helga come?"

" Yeah," Speaking of Helga, somehow, reminded him of that dream -no, that nightmare last night that he tried to forget. " She came an hour later after you left."

" Dang, that late? You should have gone with me to the concert then," Gerald said. " I can't believe you're still okay with that."

" Not really," Arnold confessed. " I had a fight with her…"

" I wonder how she'll be treating you today," Gerald teased. " You know what happen when Helga gets mad. Just look at what she did to those glamorous girls last year, and they didn't even pick on Helga first."

Arnold didn't say a word until the bell ring to his first period; history.

" Attendance," the teacher announced. " Arnold?"

" Here," Arnold said.

" Well," the teacher scanned the attendance sheet as she spoke. " I think everyone all here… except… Lila Sawyer?"

The door suddenly opened, and Lila stepped in the classroom. She looked quite pale, hair barely brushed, her cloth were wrinkled, and no make-up. " I'm so sorry, Mrs. Robinson."

Arnold found it quite strange because with Lila like this, he thought Helga would yelled out something such as insults like, 'Have a bad hair day?', or mumble a snicker, or something. Especially, Lila was always Helga's least favorite person. Everyone knew that since the incident from eighth grade. It was a long story.

" Warning for first tardy," the teacher smiled. It seemed like Lila was one of teachers' favorite student. She always had. " Moving on… Is Helga Pataki here?"

Arnold turned over his back and looked at Helga's empty desk.

" Helga is absent?" Gerald whispered to Arnold. " I wonder why."

" Me, too," Arnold mumbled.

" Guess what?" some girls sat behind Arnold giggled to each other. " Yesterday, while I was going home, I saw this old wrecked car crashed into the gas station."

" No way!" the other girl answered.

" Yes way. It was quite a blow. I'm glad that I wasn't standing that near."

" Do you think it was a suicide or something?"

" I don't know, but that person was crazy."

" I wonder if they figure out who it was."

" I'm not sure if that even possible."

" How come?"

" The car crashed into a gas station. Blew up pretty bad. What's left are probably only black ashes."

" Class!" the teacher yelled. " Please, keep it quiet while you're taking notes."

The room fell silent. Arnold tweaked his head and looked at Helga's empty seat as his mind filled up with uneasy feelings.

As the day finally ended, Arnold walked home with his buddy Gerald as always.

" Hey," Eugene ran up to them. " Have you guys heard?"

" Heard what?" Gerald asked.

" Last night, the gas station blow up by some psycho that tried to suicide or something," Eugene excitedly said.

" Yeah," Arnold replied. " I've heard that probably a hundred times at school today. Did they find out who that psycho is?"

" I don't know," Eugene grinned. " But I'm definitely tapping the news tonight. Something wicked finally happening in Hillwood!"

" Um… Eugene… Having the gas station blew up is a bad thing," Arnold and Gerald gave Eugene a tweaked look.

" Well yea, but it's exciting," Eugene grinned again and began to gain speed ahead as he turned wave goodbye to Gerald and Arnold. " See you peeps later!"

BOINK!

Eugene has walk into a bus stand. " I'm okay!" he announced.

Arnold and Gerald softly chuckled and felt sorry for the contend guy. All these years, and Eugene still have bad lucks as always.

When news channel was on at 8 o'clock, grandpa yelled. " Hey people, I think they've figured who the psycho is!"

Mr. Huynh, Ernie, Oska, Suzie, Arnold, and Grandma came to the living room. It was a pretty big thing at Hillwood.

" Last night at 11:35PM, the most tragic accident happened in Hillwood at the gas station when a car crashed into the gas station and caused the explosive blast. The police reported there were one dead and fifteen people injured. Since the station blew up badly, there are hardly any evidence left of the person who was in the car. The police are currently trying to collect the pieces that miraculously didn't turn into black ashes. We hope of finding any clue of the car license number or any other item available. Until then, Lisa Davis from HNN news."

" Darn it!" Grandpa yelled. " I thought they might have figured who it was by now!"

" Shhhh!" Grandma interrupted. " I think they got it!"

" We have just received a piece of information from police that there was someone who accidentally passed by and taped the scene when it happened! We'll show you the tape when we come back. HNN news."

" Aww…" Oska complained.

" Be patience now, Oska," Suzie scowled.

" Why is everyone so excited about this?" Arnold asked.

Every stared at Arnold for a while until Grandpa broke the silence.

" I don't really know, short man," Grandpa chuckled. " Just something that sucked us in, workedlike drugs."

" Phil!" Grandma scowled.

" Well, I think I'm going to prepare dinner while you guys are watching this," Arnold said carelessly as he was getting up.

" The tape is on," Ernie yelled as Arnold turned to the kitchen.

" It looked like an old lavender Toyota car from the 80s. Strange thing, the right door of the car seemed to be rather opened. Even though you could barely see the car license number, the police had come with twenty-four possibilities.

"As we're speaking right now, the police are calling the owners who registered under the car's license numbers. The listed people are Annie Aguilar, Ashley Alexander, Buck B. Alexander, Leslie Alteza, John Aquino, Billy Bean, Buck Benson, Billy Clair, Jenifer Carreon, Terry Chan, Michelle Coffey, Lewis Crowell, Minh Dau, Ryan Diaz, Justin Dineros, Tien Do, Julian Fonseca, Aimee Garcia, Lilia Gonjales, Michael Gonzalez, Jeff Hoang, Ngoc Lam, Chae Park, and Helga G. Pataki."

The mention of Helga's name flew Arnold away. He quickly swung around to see the TV as the tape of the crash was replaying.

No Way, he thought. That car… was Helga Pataki's car…

The familiar words came back to Arnold as he realized it was pretty much the same thing he had said in his dream. Was he dreaming again? Arnold pinched himself as he stood there; staring at the TV until he figured what was happening now was no dream, but a reality nightmare.

RINNNNGGGG!

" Someone get the phone," Mr. Huynh said as he stayed put, not even blinking his eyes as he focused on the TV screen.

" I'll get it," Grandma said since it was obvious no one wanted to leave their seats. " Arnold, it's Gerald."

" Hel..lo..?" Arnold said softly when he reached the phone in the hallway. His voice had begun to tremble.

" Are you okay, man?" Gerald asked.

" Yeah… I'm alright," Arnold lied.

" Anyway, did you hear?"

" Hear what?"

" The news, Arnold! Helga G. Pataki was one of the possible psycho!"

" What about it? You don't think it could be her, would you?"

" She didn't show up at school today, Arnold."

" Maybe she wassick or something."

" You saw her last night, didn't you?"

" Yeah."

" Did she look sick to you?"

" No, but she could've got sick in the morning? I mean she could have gone somewhere with her parents or whatever."

" Oh yeah?"

It was a long pause.

" You're still there, Gerald? Oh yeah … what?"

" Are you looking at the TV right now, Arnold?"

" No, I'm in the hallway."

" Bring the phone with you or whatever. You must see the TV, now," Gerald sounded quite solemn which was a rare thingthat ever happens from Gerald.

As Arnold took a first look at the TV, his hand unconsciously released the phone that he was holding to the ground. On the screen, he saw reporters filled up the street that was only a couple of blocks away from where he was. They were all crowded at the door, trying to shove their microphone into Big Bob's sober face.

" Arnold, are you still there?" Gerald tiny voice was deafen by the noises of the TV and the conference in the living room.

Standing there, Arnold saw this coming though he tried to avoid the thought of it, but it was all true. Arnold felt like he could write a thousand pages precisely of what he was feeling right now, but words seemed not be enough. All the uneasy and uncomfortable feelings flooded his stomach, ready to eat up his heart along with the pain ripping every pieces of his mind. Arnold felt himself began to rumble as if he was going to collapsed any second now. This was all happening to fast, but at least it wasn't as bad as witnessing the real scene with his own eyes.

After thinking for a while, Arnold felt like this was his fault from the start. He shouldn't have given Helga those harsh words. The little sour guiltiness rat that was hiding in the corner of his mind last night after talking with Helga, somehow, had turned into a vast massive beast, eating up whatever left of Arnold.

At the same time, every kid at Hillwood that knew Helga Geraldine Pataki got out of their house and ran to Helga's house to make sure that what they has seen on TV was not a lie while Olga Pataki from wherever she was at rushed to the airport with tears in her eyes. If Helga was here to witness all of this, then maybe she would had never think that no one ever cared for her.

: End Chapter I. To be continue.

I was struggling when I wrote this chapter, and I changed my plot a couple of times.

If you think some events are not making sense, please leave review. I'll take any suggestions. :) I hope you like what is happening so far.

I want to thank you all the readers and reviewers very especially,I would like to thank Donna and Amy who were my first readers and supporters. See you next chapter!