Wind whistled through the trees, echoing in the vast expanse of nothingness surrounding a lone boy.

"I knew it," he sighed to himself quitely, his words mixing with the snow and slowly drifting to the ground. "Everyone... they all left. I don't understand."

He shivered and sat down in front of a tall tree, unaware of what to do. Lost in his thoughts, he began to cry even though he feared his tears would freeze to his face.

"It's so cold," he sobbed, unable to hold back his tears.

Wrapping his fuzzy scarf closer to his face, his crying almost ceased until he thought about the incident again.

Three boys surrounded him, smirking as though they hid something.

"We've decided," the boy with the longer, brown hair said. "We're no longer going to obey you because we can control ourselves, and we don't need you anymore."

"Y-You can't!" The boy with the scarf said. "I've done so much for you... you can't just leave like that!"

"We can, and we will. You can't stop us. We're no longer afraid of you!"

The three boys laughed heartily and left the tall boy standing all alone in the cold. He stood and watched them leave, rejected and numb.

Tears flowed down his cheeks. He couldn't believe that they left him like that, after he cared for them and protected them for so long. He thought that they were his friends.

"I guess they really don't need me anymore," he mumbled sadly, shifting himself to lay on the snow-covered ground among the tall trees. He closed his eyes as the sun slipped below the horizon, and shivered in the cold for one last time.