Returning To Steve Leonard

Chapter Four

Recap

Then who are you?" Darren didn't know why, but he felt a smile forming at his face.

"My name is Annabelle."

Present

Click

Now he remembered her.

The smile that had prior been on Darren's face quickly faded. In its place, a surprised gasp appeared. "B-belle?" The word came out more as a squeak than a question. Darren's whole face was masked in confusion.

Belle chuckled for a second at Darren's expression, before growing serious again. "Yes. Your childhood friend." Darren kept staring at her. In general staring was rude, but Darren didn't really care at the moment, he hadn't seen her for seven years. Seven damn, freaking years!

"But…" As the memories came back to him,

"But you were kidnapped! The police thought he had killed you, and Heather."

Heather was the other girl who had disappeared that year, only with a week's time between. She too was assumed kidnapped, and dead. In both cases a witness had seen two girls get into a blue, old car.

Neither returned again.

Up until now there hadn't been a trace of them anywhere. The police had given up, and so had everyone else. Darren didn't know about Heathers family, but Belles family moved on. They never forgot Belle, or stopped caring about her, but they kept living.

Everyone moved on. Well, everyone but Steve, Darren suspected.

The fact that she was here, right in front of him, alive and, by the looks of it, healthy, were… It just shouldn't be that way. She was dead, Darren was sure of it.

Every time Steve came over to his house and started to cry, Darren always told him that. That she was gone, to a better place and everything. Or when Darren would have a sleepover with Steve and Steve started having nightmares about her dying, worst way possible, and cried hysterically when Darren woke him.

It was simply impossible that Belle was here. Or anywhere for that matter, she was dead.

"Well, obviously I am alive." Darren stared at her once again, mouth agape. She's kidding… right?

"Of course you're alive, you're here!" Belle looked mildly surprised at his outburst. He always was the calm and kind of them. Steve was the one who'd be mad. Belle herself was always just… cold. Unexpected. She was good at comforting people at times, simply because she was so good at pretending. She couldmake people believe that she understood how they felt and such. The problem was that she wasn't as good as now at such young age, and people often saw trough her lies. Therefore a lot of people rather wanted Darren to comfort them, cause he at least tried to understand. She didn't try. If she couldn't fool them, then she didn't bother to try to help them more than pretending.

Back to the matter at hand Belle figured that he probably had the right to be mad. "You want the whole story?" Darren kept his gaze at her for some good more seconds, before nodding.

"Let's sit down, this could take a while."

Disclaimer: Do you seriously think I own The Saga of Darren Shan?

Now to the author note-

"That wasn't a real disclaimer!"

"And why is that Belle?"

"You never actually said that you didn't own it. You merely asked if-"

"Yeah, yeah we get it!"

Sign.

"I do n0t, in any way, own The Saga of Darren Shan.

A/N: Yeah… There isn't really any author note. I'm sorry for waiting so long with updating, I've been busy. And, please, do not scold at me, you see, my grandmother died today.