4:15pm

—

"I can assure you wherever we are going won't be worth it" Logan deadpanned while adjusting his glasses and staring at his friend, Roman, who grinned and swooped their arms into the air, mischievously winking at his friends. "Stop being such a cynic!" He commented, "all you do is work all day! You're a bore! This will be fun!" He reassured and twirled back on his feet to face forward, skipping across the pathway between the lots of grass. Logan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"C'mon, Logan!" Patton urged, "you'll love-love it!"

Logan rose an eyebrow, tutting in disapproval. "I will not" he replied, ever pessimistically. "Look; lets just get it over and done with" their third friend, Virgil, piped up, hands already stuffed into his jacket-always stuffed into his jacket-"Roman won't leave us alone if we don't"

Logan sighed once again, arms dropping to his sides. "Fine" he agreed, jaw clenched. "Lead the way" he and Virgil followed after Roman and Patton who were definitely more excited about this than the other two. They skipped ahead, laughing and smiling. Sometimes, Roman would burst out into songs, ones about adventure from different movies he had watched recently, the ones that filled his head with these-i-i-i-ideas.

"We could've at least brought some food" Virgil moaned in distaste. "That only would have dragged this day out longer than needs be" Roman-Roman-Roman-Logan replied, arms crossed over his chest, flattening his tie down. Patton overheard and gasped, "A picnic sounds like fun!"

"Too late!" Roman called from far ahead, his fake sword held tightly in his hands. "Adventurers like us don't need food!"

"Without food consumption we would eventually-DIE-die, Roman, no matter if we were 'adventurers'" Logan found the need to bring down the mood in situations he was dragged into. It has happened on multiple occasions before this, and he was sure it would happen in the future, too. He wishes Roman would stop getting such stupid ideas like these from watching fictional movies and just-stop-grow up. That's a long stretch, though, Logan was sure Roman didn't even know what the word 'mature' meant.

The four lived on an island, so while they did have a lot of land to explore, a lot of it was dangerous, and usually out of bounds for the public. Although, they're teenagers, so they weren't going to pay attention to the warning signs. Well, Logan wanted to, but with Roman dragging him through, he didn't really have much choice. Virgil only followed because he didn't want to be alone, and Patton tagged along because he loved his friends-cantstop-and finds immeasurable happiness in their presence.

"This way!" Roman declared, sliding down a rather slippery slope, "be careful, I-won't-will save you if you fall!" He called when he reached the bottom, standing with his arms outstretched. Patton grinned and slid down, crashing into Roman at the bottom. The two laughed and Patton wondered off to the side, looking over the edge of the cliff as Roman helped-help-the other two. "Oooo!" He gushed, pointing towards the gorgeously blue ocean. "I bet there's mermaids in there!"

"Mermaids do not exist, Patton" Logan responded, dragging his shoes through the grass to rub away the mud. Virgil quickly did the same. "If they did they'd probably all be dead from oil or experimentations" Virgil chipped in, the atmosphere crestfallen from his words. "Oh, you two" Roman mused, running a hand through his hair and taking a few steps forward to the land that jutted out. "Can't ever say something nice, can you?"

As he stood close to the edge, he didn't really think of the dangers until the ground suddenly j-j-j-j-j-jol-jolted under him, he opened his mouth to s-s-scream-scream-scream-as it mov-but-moved-moved-but other than that it didn't do anything. Afraid, he jumped back onto the stable surface, all of his friends staring with wide, shocked eyes and slacked jaws. "Right" Roman shakily spoke, trembling hands clenched to stop them from shaking. "Let's carry on; shall we?" He turned and carried on down the path, his walk losing his happy bounce.

"Yeah.." Patton drifted, forcing on a smile as he followed. Virgil gulped and glanced at Logan who didn't say a word, so the two rushed past the mass of land and down the side of the cliff face. The path was dangerously narrow and usually slippery from the mud. Many are advised to stay away, and whoever does cross this path ends with major injuries, but Roman was determined to each the side of the island unreachable unless they had a boat. His friends tailed along just in case.

Patton looked over the side and giggled, "the sand looks so soft!" He gushed, leaning over that little bit further, yelping-yelping-yelping-laughing when he straightened back up and skipped to be closer to Roman. "We can use these!" Roman picked up a rock when they reached a section of the path that was coated with deep mud. He laid them across the unstable land their legs were sure to get stuck into, the place he took the rocks from were in a pile, a pile that was sure to be there for years. As he dislodged more and more, a few rocks began to move, and fall from place, the place that kept the rather large boulder up on the side.

Logan stepped up and helped him with the rocks, as he picked up a rather heavy one, the boulder lost-lost-lost-lost-lost it's support-and-and-didn't-rolled-didn't move for it had been there for so long, it created an indentation into the ground, which stopped it from rolling down onto them. "We can cross them like stepping-stones!" Patton cheered once they had finished, hoping across them until he reached the other side. "Good work, I guess" Virgil shrugged and followed after. Roman grinned and bowed, gesturing his arm for Logan to go first. The boy sighed but did so, they all carried on after Roman made it, too.

"Do you think we'll-helphelphelp-make it?" Patton cocked his head at Logan who shrugged and jumped over a small gap in the path. "I suppose so. Although dangerous-" he looked over the edge "we will survive if we fall, due to the fact we are closer to the ground than before" Patton nodded happily, suddenly more confident. That confidence came with a price, though, as now he was more laid back. Even if they wouldn't die from falling, they would still be injured, so as he hummed and bounced across the path, his foot-foot-foot-foot slipped-stayed in place, allowing him to overtake Roman who was smelling the flowers growing out the side of the cliff that was covered in quite a lot of shrubbery.

"There it is!" Patton yelled to his friends, throwing his arm in the direction of the cave. "You're right!" Roman grinned and gripped Patton's hand, the two running down the rest of the path and landing on the soft sand. Then, they moved as fast as they could, laughter filling up the air around them. Logan and Virgil decided against running and instead kept up their caution, but even that-shutupshutupshutup-that kept them both alive.

"What's so interesting about a fucking cave" Virgil grumbled, "there's one across the beach-helpmehelpmeicantstop-that doesn't involve walking across the side of a cliff"

"One that Roman has explored countless times before" L-L-Lo-Loga-whatdoidowhatdoidowhatdoido-Logan countered, "he says he finds it boring" Virgil went to agree when a scream-scream-scream-cantstop-scream cut them off. Both of their eyes-eye-eyes-imsorry- widened and they quickly sprinted across the sand and into the cave.

"Help!" Patton c-c-c-stop-cried, pointing to Roman who was flat down on his stomach. Virgil was suddenly paralysed to the spot, unable to move. Logan, on the-on the-on the-STOP- they'refinethey'refine-Roman's fine-on the other hand darted over and rolled Roman onto his back. They saw a gash across his forehead, blood pouring out at an alarming rate-stopstopstop-Patton let out a whimper, covering his mouth. He took a few steps back, Logan ready to pull out his phone and dial the ambulance when a crack-nononononononono-c-r-cr-cra#//#)£-

St-sto-cra-crack echoed-STOP-crack echoed across the-the-the-the cave. Logan whirled around to see one of the rocks from above had f-f-f-fallen, detached from the ceiling and-crush-crush-crush-pleasestop-crushing Patton.

Logan, much like Virgil, fell into a paralysed state of shock, one-one-one-nomorepleasenomore- one they couldn't get out of for a few minutes, staring at their friends who had both di-di-di-di-di-di-di####////////£&#*£]-died. Just like that. Slowly, Logan rose up from the ground, sand sprinkling from his clothes like rain. "Go" he whispered to Virgil, "go, run, now" that was all he could muster. Snapping from his state, Virgil rushed away with tears streaming from his eyes. Logan quickly followed, and the two went back up the path.

They weren't cautious anymore, all they wanted to do was get-get-get-get-dontdontdontdontdont/#dont-get away. While jumping across the rocks, Virgil's foot slipped, and he yelled as he couldn't grip onto anything stable. He fell off the cliff side, body-body-body-body-body-bodyfinebodyokaylandingsafely-snapping as his back bent up against a rock protruding from the ground. Logan couldn't control his breathing, shallow gasps filling up his lungs. He couldn't look at his friend, unable to force himself to do it.

He crossed over the mud, dodged past the boulder and kept running. He jumped over gasps, crossed over land ready to fall, and made it to the top. He didn't stop there. He choked on sobs as he sprinted to the police station, ready to tell them what happened, to see if any of them could be saved, he was their last hope, their last hope-hope-hope-hope.

But hope couldn't last forever.

Itcanitcanitcan-While he crossed the road to get to the station his movements were put to a sudden stop when a screeching horn filled his ears. His body was flat-flat-flat-flat-imsorry-flattened by a heavy truck that seemed to come out of nowhere-cantstopitcantstopit-and like his friends, he was motionless, eyes wide with shock, lips parted to let out his last breath.

This is why you always stay cautious.

—

5:16p-p-p-p

You.

5:15p-p

You kept reading.

5:15-

This is your fault.

5-

You murderer.

5:15pm-m-m-m-m

Are you happy?

5:15pm