"L" Part 1 “Please help, anyone, please!” a man cried out from down the street. His hands were covering a spot on his stomach and blood was seeping between his fingers. The man spotted me and walked as fast as he could towards me, he grabbed me by my shoulders with his blood soaked hands. “Please help me, you must stop him, please stop him.” the man pleaded to me, his voice wavering from blood loss. The man doubled over grabbing the spot where he was stabbed. I grabbed him by his shoulders and steadied him. “Who? Who do I need to stop?” I asked the man, his mouth started to form a word but only a sound escaped his mouth, the sound was an “L”. The man went limp I was not able to support his weight and I fell with him. “Sir, who do I need to stop?” I asked again, my voice trembling with fear. The man stayed quiet, his eyes gassed over and the last bit of strength drained out of him. I was crying by now and I started to shake the man. “Sir, please, tell me.” I sobbed as I held the body of the man. Someone must have finally called the cops because I heard the sirens off in the distance. The cops arrived and they had to pry the body out of my hands. I was soaked in the man’s blood and they took me down to the department. That night passed in a numb sensation of answering questions and them collecting my cloths and every sample of blood they could find. They never found the killer of that man, but the memory of that night was forever burned into my mind. I started to wonder who the killer was, all I knew was that his name started with the letter L, so I started to call him that. That happen one year ago today, the killer of the man had gone unknown, that is until I was killed, or almost killed. Christmas break had just ended and everyone was getting back into their usual day to day activities. I had my head down and I was heading to my next class when I heard something coming from the guy’s bathroom. I walked it to find the usual bullies picking on a new kid. “Hey! Back off will ya.” I say pulling the guys off of the kid. The kid was someone who would stick out like a sore thumb. He was wearing black skinny jeans with a crimson tee and black converse. He wasn’t the normal kind of kid you would see around a small school like this one. He had an aura about him that just screamed out that he has had a hard #life, and that he didn’t care what happened to the people around him. The bullies left pushing each other and joking around, while the new kid was groaning in pain. I crouched down and helped him up, even though he was in pain he had an emotionless expression on his face. “Hey are you all right?” I asked the guy. He just nodded and left as quickly as he could. I decided to shake it off and go about my day. The rest of my day went by in a flash, seeing the new kid every now and then, but other than that my day was its usual. Every day after school I would walk up to the guy and try to be nice and be a friend, but he would just walk away like no act of kindness would phase him. Over time I learned that the guys name was Leo. One day I was driving home and I saw Leo walking home, I decided to try and see if he would let me drive him home. I drove up beside him and he stopped walking. “Hey Leo, need a ride?” I asked him once he looked at me. “No, I’m good.” Leo said in a monotone voce, starting to walk away again. I lightly groaned and moved the truck beside him, keeping the same pace as him. “Just get in, I’m not going to bite you.” I say once he stops. “Fine.” he mumbles as I stop the truck. He gets in and buckles up then looks at me, “What’s you name anyway, I mean you know mine, but I have no idea what you name is.” he says watching me. I slightly chuckle and give him a brief look. “I’m Tyler.” I say with a chuckle, “Sorry if I seem a bit stalkerish, there aren’t many people like you around our school.” I look over to Leo to see him looking out of the car window. The rest of the ride was quiet, only broken by Leo telling me where to turn. I would cast a quick glance over at Leo every once in a while. For some reason Leo looks like I have seen him somewhere other than school. “Here is my place. Leo said as I pulled up to that one spot, the spot that had been forever been burned into my mind. That one spot where that man died in my arms. I froze and slightly chuckled. Leo looked at me like I was crazy. “You ok man?” he asked me. “Umm..ya I’m good, just a bad memory of what happened here. You do know what happened here, right?" I asked Leo. I looked over to him to see him giving me a confused look. I sighed and pointed to the spot where that man died. "A man was murdered, he died in my arms right there. They never found who killed him, mostly because all they had to go off of was the letter "L"." I look over at Leo to see his emotionless expression on his face again. He smiled softly and looked at me. "So I'm living in a dead mans house?" he asked me, half joking. He softly chuckled, "I wonder if he is haunting this place." his voice was full of curiosity, he unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door. "If that man was haunting anyone, it would be me." I say more to myself than to Leo. "Why do you say that?" Leo says from the door. "Well because he asked me to stop someone, and I didn't." I say shrugging. Leo slightly nodded and watched me. He slightly shrugged and walked to his house. Before he got to his door he called out to me. "It wasn't your fault, you were in shock." he walked to his door and went inside, leaving me to wonder what he meant. That night the drive to my house seemed to go on for hours, just turning over what Leo said and everything I knew about the killer. Once I got home I went to bed immediately, not wanting to stay up and dwell on the subject anymore, but my sub-conscience had a different idea. My dreams were riddled with the images of the man. One part of the dream I could see a silhouette of a man out of the corner of my eye. I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock blaring in my ear. I didn't want to get up but I wanted to figure out what was up with Leo. I got dressed and headed to my truck. "Hey mom, I'm going to stay at a friends house tonight." I call out as I walk out of the house. I hopped into my truck and started it up, the deep rumble of the engine calming me slightly. I turned the radio on and listened to the rock station. I was halfway to school when I saw Leo walking to school, he had his jacket hood up and his head down, never straying to far from the shadows. If he hadn't of moved when I looked out my window I would not have known he was there. Every once in a while he would look behind him and watch for a minute before he started to move again, I watched him for about five minutes before I called out to him. "Hey! Leo, hop in," he looked up at me and ran towards the truck. "Thanks, thought someone was following me," he says slightly out of breath. I looked around and saw no one around except a patrolling officer parked at the side of the rode. I shrugged what he said off and headed to school. The school parking lot was full of kids and trucks milling around, stalling as much as they could before school. I parked and killed the engine, letting the truck settle before I got out, shortly followed by Leo. "Hey, do you mind if I hang at your house tonight? Parents are gonna be out of town and there are people coming over to work on our house," I speak the lie easily, knowing that I had get to his house somehow. "Don't you have other friends you could stay with?" He asks sounding slightly confused. I sighed and slightly shrugged my shoulders, lowering my head slightly, "Not really, there aren't many people that like me around here." Not a compleat lie but I do have friends. He nodded and slightly shrugged. "Ya ok just make it weird ok?" He said jokingly. I laughed slightly then nodded heading to the school, Leo headed to his class leaving me behind. I soon got to my class not paying attention to the teacher, my mind was on the dream on what when on. I heard my name being called an I ignored it till the teacher came up to me and slammed on my desk. "Tyler! Are you even listening?" He yelled in my face. I looked up at him and shook my head, his face was red from anger and I was just making him madder, and today I really just didn't care. He grabbed my things and sent me to the hall thinking I would just sit there. The second the door was shut I left the school, heading to my truck. I needed to escape, needed to think. I ran ran through the parking lot, not caring if anyone saw, jumped into the front seat and started my truck.