I didn't feel the need to go to the diner for lunch anymore, since I had Maria. Naturally, she attracted a bunch of people but I learned quickly she chose her friends wisely. We had picked up another girl, her name was Iris. She was shy, unlike Maria and I, who talked every second of the day. None of us had many classes with each other. Maria was in my guitar class, and all of us were in Spanish. Maria was a year above me and Iris was a year below me, meaning our normal classes were separated. Mrs. Bell had expressed many times how glad she was that I made some friends; I was glad too. 

"What are you drawing, Iris?" Maria hummed. Iris turned her book around to show us the page she was working on. It was a turtle. "That looks amazing!" Maria clasped her hands together as she inspected it.

"Thank you." Iris' gravelly voice replied. 

"It is! Rowen likes sea turtles." I said, fondly thinking of him. "He has a tattoo of one." 

"Really? That seems too passive for him." Iris said, returning her pencil to the paper.  "He would have like, a melted face."

"He has a skull on his chest and dog teeth on his collarbone." I said.

"Why a turtle?" Maria questioned. I smiled to myself, remembering a piece of my memories.

"I want a sea turtle. They're like the turtles in the lake but bigger and only have fins." A flood of information fell from my mouth, the boy next to me listening intently. "But they're huge, I don't know where I'd put it." 

A few days later, Rowen hopped up to me and rolled up his sleeve. A geometrical drawing of a sea turtle engraved his arm. 

"Look!" He smiled. "Since you can't have a real one, you can have this one!" After a moment of my gentle smile, happy about his kindness, I suddenly realized.

"HOW DID YOU GET A TATTOO?!" I screamed. "YOU"RE FIFTEEN." 

"He says it reminds him of me." I said, still thinking. Maria let out an 'aww~' while Iris laughed at me.  "I'll get one that reminds me of him when I can." 

"How long have you two been together?" Iris questioned.

"We're not 'together' " I scoffed, flustered. "...Six years. We met a year after he got here, on his birthday." 

"I bet you're his favorite birthday gift he's ever got." Maria smiled. 

"The only one he's ever got." Iris mumbled, much to Maria's annoyance. 

As I walked the halls, I noticed something on the large bulletin board towards the entrance of the school. It carried many announcements and advertisements, but the newly hung memorial picture caught my eye. I almost dropped my books in shock, the portrait of a young boy with his name in delicate cursive font was tacked on the board.

"Liam Nelson - Taken from us too soon. 

Special service hosted by his friends in Room 108, Wednesday at 3:00. 

I frantically dashed away, searching the flood of people for Henry. Instead of him, I saw a blonde girl at her locker. 

"Cecile?" I tapped her shoulder. She shuddered at the touch, whipping toward me. 

"What?!" She hissed. 

"L-Liam...?" She glared at my stutters. "What happened?" She stood silently. 

"It's none of your business." She snapped, closing her locker with a slam. 

"Please, I want to know." 

"He killed himself. They found his body with a note." 

"What?" I would never has guessed. 

"YES! I have no idea why, I have no idea why he never told me! I don't know, leave me alone!" She snapped, tears welling in her eyes. "I saw him the day before, he was normal. He was happy and content, there's nothing that was wrong!" Her hands clasped her hair. 

"I'm... I'm so sorry, Cecile. I had no idea either." I didn't know how to comfort her, I was still in shock.

"Of course you didn't. I've been his friend for years and I didn't know, why would you?" She turned away from me and started to walk away.

"Are you going to be at his service?" I called after her, to which she didn't answer. 

The service was short. It was mostly Liam's friends giving small stories about his life. As it ended and people pooled out of the room, I continued to sit and stare at his picture. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Two brown eyes looked down at me. 

"This is why we believe in Faeyar. He's going to get rid of all the suffering in the world. I'm sure once He receives Liam's body, He will accept him with open arms. He was a devoted Follower." Henry assured in a calm voice. 

"What do you mean?" 

"The Voices take the bodies of the Followers and present them to Faeyar for judgement." An uneasy feeling entered my stomach.

"He's not... buried?" 

"Um, I don't know what happens after they're presented." 

"Henry, doesn't that seem suspicious to you?" His eyes widened, sitting down next to me. "People's dead bodies are being taken to an invisible god by unidentified figures... while a bunch of murders are happening involving mutilation." His eyes grew dark.

"You're not accusing the Voices of these crimes, are you?" I sat silent, furrowing my eyebrows.

"No, I'm just saying how could you blindly follow people when they won't even give answers for what they do with dead people. Liam's your friend, you can't just let them take his body for who knows what!"

"Stop!" Henry's voice suddenly boomed. His eyes were distressed and hurt. "Stop accusing them, they haven't done anything! Liam wanted this." The boy stood up, turning to walk away.

"Henry!" I called but got the response of a slamming door. I was alone. 

Of course I messed that up. This is why I haven't had any friends before, I mess things up.

"You're trying to figure out the murders, aren't you?" A ghostly voice sounded behind me. I lifted my face and saw a tall blonde girl looking at me with folded arms. "Every victim so far has been a follower. Nobody knows if they were Voices, obviously." Cecile sat next to me. Her eyes fixated on mine, with a gloomy determination. "I think they're behind it... I think they did something to Liam." Her voice was sharp and cold as she addressed me. 

"But the murders all have a signature mutilation thing... Liam committed suicide." 

"Liam would never do that. I know he wouldn't. I can't investigate it since I'm a Follower, and honestly I don't think I could handle investigating the Voices. They're scary." The girl groaned, turning to me with a desperate expression. "Please, find out what they did to him. Find out what they did to all of them." I was quiet, but seeing how scared and hurt she was, I knew I had to do this. 

"I will. I promise. I won't let them hurt anyone else."