"Be a good boy for Mama, okay." She kissed his tiny hands before pushing him inside the room. "Be quiet. Mama will come and fetch you." He wasn't old enough to recognise her frantic movements nor the fear that soaked her voice like a pungent odour.

"Mama-" He made to move towards her.

"Hush." She kissed his forehead before shutting the door. She turned the key in the lock as he waited for her to switch on his lights.

"Claire!" His daddy sounded angry. He always sounded angry. "Where the hell are you?" His father's footsteps pounded up the stairs.

"Mama." He whispered, knowing she was still leaning against his door. "You forgot to switch on my lights."

"Bitch! Did you think I wouldn't figure out you took him out for the day?" His father's voice scared him. Riaz hated when he used those words. They sounded so ugly.

"Please, Zaheer. It's his birthday." She tried to pacify him. "He's always too busy to have fun."

"He doesn't need to have fun. He needs to learn."

"He's only 4." He knew his mother said the wrong thing when he heard her gasp from the other end of his door. "Sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"You don't tell me what to do." His voice felt like poison to Riaz's ears. "Say you're sorry." He sounded as if he was making fun of her.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry." He heard a thud before his mother started to scream.

"Mama, the lights." He began pleading softly. He was feeling so scared in the dark.

"Say you're sorry." His voice only quietened, causing Riaz to shiver in the dark.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry..." He heard a scuffle from outside. "Nee! Los my!"

"Speak in English!" He commanded her.

"I'm sorry... Please." She sounded breathless. Riaz didn't know what was happening. "No, no, no! Stop it!"

"You aren't privileged enough to use the word No in my house." He spat out.

"Mama..." He heard quiet shuffling as his mother kept whispering the words 'stop, I'm sorry' over and over again.

"Mama, you forgot the lights." He huddled down in front of his door with his hands over his ears, trying to block out his mother's whimpers and pleas.

Riaz bolted up from his sleep, his body drenched in sweat.

He hated that dream.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes knowing it would be useless to try to go back. His fingers started tapping restlessly against his cream coloured duvet. He needed to smoke so badly, it felt as if every cell in his body was pleading with him but he couldn't. Not after what happened. He didn't want to risk it. He sat up, leaning against the headboard, reaching for his glasses.

What was he supposed to do?

His leg kept tapping under his duvet- He was going crazy. The night was too quiet. There were no crickets chirping their songs nor was the wind trying to sing the world to sleep. It was just him. The air felt too dead and too cold and he didn't like it.

His bare feet padded against the tiles quietly as he walked towards his bag. He still wasn't sure how it was that she managed to sneak notes every single day into his bag. It was quite an impressive feat he supposed.

Though he would never tell her that he had begun to recognise her writing.

I had a little nut-tree,

Nothing would it bear,

I searched in all its branches,

But not a nut was there.

'Oh little tree,' I begged,

'Give me just a few.'

The little tree looked down at me,

And whispered, 'Nuts to you.'

Riaz could only breathe out an amused laugh... Leave it to the little Bee to send him a poem like that.

...

"Attention Students! There will be a compulsory gathering in the auditorium at 1. Your teachers will mark off your name at your entry."

Shit!

Riaz hated the auditorium. He hated waiting for the darkness to come...

How was he going to get out of it? He didn't want to risk his dad finding out that he had skipped something else at school. There were times he wished he was a normal teenager. He didn't know what it felt to have any sort of inclination to be rebellious. His father had crushed any such notions years ago as he demanded their submission.

He wished he was just 18.

That's all he wanted. He just wanted to be 18. But acting as an 18 year old had consequences and these consequences he couldn't bear.

"Ashlynn James was an Angel whose light was snubbed out too early. None of us knew what she was going through until it was too late."

Riaz could feel his pulse quicken as he kept glancing up the lights above him. He knew they would go out at any moment and he hated waiting for it to happen. He was terrified of waiting for the darkness... What if the night was too long and the darkness never ended?

He kept flicking his eyes to the lights above him. As long as they were still switched on, he would be fine. Nothing happened in the light. It was only the darkness that brought companions, not the light.

A small square of paper landed on his lap.

Close your eyes.

He looked to the crazy girl next to him, quirking his eyebrow in confusion till she tossed another note onto his lap.

The darkness isn't so bad if you're the one controlling it.

He looked back at her.

Who the hell did she think she was?

"What is your problem?" He glared at her, he didn't like this. He didn't like the fact that she was privy to his deepest fear. She shouldn't see him in his weakness.

"I don't have a problem." She whispered back.

"Then leave me the hell alone." He felt his foot tapping endlessly as shivers tingled throughout his entire being.

"No." She looked back up at him. Even while sitting, she had to look up at him.

"What?" He looked around, grateful that they too far in the back to be noticed. They couldn't complain about him to his father again. They just couldn't.

"Trust me." It was the first time he had looked at her without any sort of vehemence or annoyance. There was just something in the way she asked him to trust her. There was a sort of innocence in her request that he had long since thought to be non-existent. "Please."

He nodded just a fraction of an inch, not even realising that his foot had stopped tapping on the carpeted floors.

"Close your eyes." She said softly, bringing up her hands up around his head to cover his eyes. "Nothing can happen if you're controlling the darkness." He thought he heard a quiver in her voice as she spoke these words softly in his ear.

"We need our friends more than we realise and maybe if Ashlynn had a friend- maybe... But we can't dwell on maybe's. We can only celebrate this beautiful angel's life and and honour her with her favourite poem." The Principal's soft voice seemed to reverberate through each of their souls as his words began to creep into their very skins.

"Nothing can happen to you." She kept whispering in his ear. "Nothing can happen to you."

His heart stopped beating as wildly as it had been as he lifted his hands to hers, holding them there. He could control this darkness. Nothing would happen to him if he could control the darkness.

"And a youth said, ''Speak to us of friendship.''

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside."

"Ashlynn, you know how my mother is about me going to your house. Why don't you come to mine?"

"Fine, I'll ask my Mum."

"But you need to bring the liquorice. She refuses to stock all those things."

"As long as you bring the video... Hey! You rented all those new ones, right?"

"For you to come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind, you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed."

"No way! Peter was not checking me out!"

"Yes he was! I caught him 4 times!"

"You sure he wasn't just checking you out?"

"Yes, Ashlynn. He even started laughing when I caught him for the fourth time."

"He is kind of cute..."

"When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain."

"Ashlynn, please talk to me. Please."

"Just leave me alone."

"And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also."

"She won't believe me, Ash. I don't know what to do."

"Whatever."

"For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, not your emptiness."

" Everytime I look at you, Tasneem, I feel like I'm dying!"

"And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

"Tasneem, honey. We know you were friends. Do you know anything that could explain why she did it?"

"No, Ma'am."

"I just don't understand it! Why would she hang herself?"

Riaz opened his eyes to the light as soon as she removed her hands.

"See, nothing can happen to you."

She smiled brightly up at him before standing up from her seat.

"Nothing happened to me, but something happened to you."

Tasneem stopped mid-step. He had never spoken an actual sentence to her before.

"Nothing happened to me." She said, her back still turned to him.

"You don't cry for nothing."

She hadn't even known he had stood up until his voice brushed past her as he walked away.

...

"You're late, Farhana." Zaheer sat at the head of the table, not even looking up as his daughter entered the sitting room just two minutes late.

"I'm sorry, Dad but..."

"But?" His fork clattered softly onto his plate. "Were you just going to give me an excuse?"

"No Dad." She breathed out.

She was shaking as her fingernails tapped against the wall erratically.

"Did you just lie to me?" He stood up from his place and walked slowly towards her. It took everything in her not to move away. "Answer me." He bent down before her to look her in the eyes.

"Yes, Dad." She was so close to tears that she could taste them.

"And what happens to little liars?" He spoke gently to her as if he was a devoted father and she was his loving daughter.

"I don't know Dad." Her voice stuttered out as tears began to seep painfully out of the corner of her eyes.

"They get sent to their rooms," He grabbed the collar of her shirt, "Without supper and without light so they can concentrate on just why they shouldn't lie."

"No! Dad no, please!" She clawed at his hand. "Please, please Daddy. I'm sorry! Please!" Her shouts were frantic and crazed blinding her to the rage contorting her father's face.

"Shut up." He gripped her wrist, squeezing it till her hand began to turn blue.

Riaz's heart was in his throat. If he squeezed any harder, he would break her hand.

"Now," Zaheer spoke again once Farhana had quietened down. "Go to your room."

"Yes,Dad."

Riaz couldn't sleep.

Farhana was still pounding against the door, begging for Zaheer to open the door.

He wished he was brave enough to stand up to him but he didn't dare. Not after what had happened the last time...

He needed something-anything- to distract him from his sister's pleas. He knew she would eventually scream herself into exhaustion, but till then he could have sworn he saw a little square of paper brushed up amongst his books.

I wasn't the only one who was crying.

A/N- The first poem is by Roald Dahl called The Little Nut Tree.

The second poem is called Friendship by Khalil Gibran