Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or its characters. The only character that is my own is the Imaginary Friend.

"Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness," - The Fray, How To Save A Life

Every Sunday afternoon, according to family tradition, was spent at the Ocarina Inn. It was a place where the happy family could continue to be happy while indulging in Yolanda and Colleen's fine cooking while chatting here and there with Jake when he wasn't dealing with customers. Maya toddled around, trying to keep up with Gill and Chase's shenanigans while another little girl, sat off to the side and watched with her head between her hands as the boys and girl played. She had promised Gill that she wouldn't partake in today's activities, worrying her friend with her nausea and pain but it all meant something much more. Her time with him was ending and she'd flitter off to another child, someone in dire need of friend like Gill had been before finally breaking out of his shell.

The Wizard knew and understood her predicament, they were one in the same as he liked to say (although it always took him a minute or two to get it out), and they just had different occupations when it came to their magic. He was the fortune teller of Castanet and she was an Imaginary Friend, real to the children but unreal to the adults that surrounded them even though her shape could shift to fit the needs of whoever she was with. It pained her to watch him, smiling and running about as Maya tried to keep up with him and Chase – the peach-haired child had been in need of a friend too, at such a young age, Chase was already bursting at the seams with sarcasm and pessimism. Traits, that she hoped wouldn't be passed onto Gill through their continued friendship.

Hamilton and Elizabeth were seated, chatting among themselves and casting glances every now and again to their son and his friends. Making sure that he was safe, they were lovely parents, Gill looked just like his mother who was so beloved by the people. It was the same with his father, a Mayor so beloved by his people, but unlike Elizabeth – he didn't really share anything in common with his son other than his laugh and smile. Yet, they taught him everything that they could to mold him into a good person, a better mayor, and someday (as she had heard from his mother) a more splendid husband than his father. It brought a smile onto her face to see him so happy, looking her way every now and again to make sure that she was feeling alright and she was, despite the feeling that she had swallowed a thousand needles.

Gill Hamilton, the golden boy of Harmonica Town was nearing the end of his childhood. In less than a month, actually, in less than a week, the nine-year-old boy would be turning ten. The end of childhood and the beginning of something bigger and better for him, and he honestly couldn't wait for it to happen. He had been acting a bit brattier than usual to everyone, including his best friend that sat off to the side; he was trying to act big and bad. He often dismissed her from his company nowadays, preferring to spend it with Chase and Luna, and a couple of the other kids that lived here. She had tried, he knew, to tell him something over the past couple of weeks but he hadn't found the time to listen. It couldn't be anything incredibly serious, he told himself, they were just kids and nothing serious ever happened to them. Especially if you lived on Castanet, it was the same routine, over and over again which he promised to fix once he was mayor.

"Gill, sweetheart. Come and eat your ice cream, it'll melt if you don't," Elizabeth Hamilton's voice dragged him from his thoughts, he was on the floor, eyes fixated on the ceiling and breathing heavily while Chase and Maya laid off to his sides, doing the exact same except they weren't getting a treat like he was. Getting up and hurrying over, he plopped himself down in the chair beside his mother and began to stuff his face. An unsophisticated way of acting but he supposed it could be forgiven for now; he'd just have to refrain himself next time. He had suspected that she would still be there when he looked up from his bowl but she wasn't, his best friend had disappeared without even saying goodbye, and he would just have to confront her about that later on tonight for the annual children's bonfire.

The day faded into night, the warmth of summer had disappeared long ago and the chilliness of winter was beginning to settle in. It was the most perfect place to have a bonfire, the sand was soft beneath their feet and bodies and it seemed like the warmth of the fire was ten times better here than anywhere else. The dark blue, nearly black sky was painted over with stars and a nearly full moon with a gentle but chilly breezing rolling over the land as the children enjoyed their last bonfire until the springtime. Everyone was there, enjoying themselves by laughing or playing, making the smores or doing whatever they felt like doing because they could.

Gill hadn't seen her once tonight, his eyes had roamed over the familiar faces of his peers but they had yet to land on her. She didn't stand these sort of things up, ever since they were little, she had loved the bonfires and now, all of the sudden, she was standing them up? It made the already irritated boy more irritated as he plopped himself down onto the ground, arms crossing over his chest and huffing. It was all incredibly unfair, he didn't deserve to be stood up, he was Gill Hamilton and they were best friends. Best friends didn't do this sort of thing but then again, he hadn't really been acting like her friend and maybe, she was upset over that. He believed it to be stupid, complaining to an exasperated Chase that couldn't get Maya to leave him alone because of her stupid crush on him. "She can't just stand me up, we're best friends and we always come to these things together!" he groaned, his pale cheeks growing a bit red from the cold and from anger. "Well, go tell her that. She lives on that dinky little farm, doesn't she?"

Chase had never been more right in his whole entire life, Gill nodded his head and slapped the peach-haired, violet-eyed boy on the back and murmured a quick "thank you" before darting off. He had been there a hundred times and more, the way to her house was engrained in his mind and was probably as familiar as the feeling of his parents under the same roof and in the room right next to his. There wasn't much variety in the scenery that he passed, most of the things were dying or already dead but would come back in the springtime. He could remember the times when they had played hide-and-seek, pretended to be the king and queen of the world, and a bunch of things that he would no longer partake in after his birthday. He would be a man and a man didn't do childish things.

The plot of land was decent, the fall crops had already been harvested and the fields hadn't been plowed or weeded. Quite an eyesore, he admitted to himself as he grimaced at the state of the land. It was a decently sized house, enough to fit the three measly people that lived under its roof; it was a homey little place. Gill had spent most days here when she had been his only friend, they were practically like family but recently, that had begun to change along with everything else. Being the perceptive boy that he had always been known as, he noticed the changes in his mother's behavior and the way she acted, everything seemed a little forced and his father appeared to be the same way. Where there hadn't been lines or creases in his skin, they had begun to appear, a bit prematurely as Gill would add. He'd just have to talk to them; figure out what was the big secret that they were hiding from their one and only son, their pride and joy as they told him before kissing and ruffling his white-blond hair.

The wooden door to the front was already cracked, someone must have forgotten to lock it or they had just recently come in from whatever their tasks for their evening had been. The lights were shut off and the building seemed almost foreboding, it didn't streak him as the house that he remembered. He didn't want to waste any more time, things needed to be settled and he needed to get whatever he was feeling about their predicament off his chest. Barreling forward and through the door, Gill suspected someone to wake up and flick on the lights to see what creature had gotten into their home. Yet, nothing came and his eyes opened after being squeezed shut in fear that someone would shout at him. His mouth was agape as he took in his surroundings, the furniture was gone and it looked like everything had aged ten years over night. The Harmon family was no longer there, in fact, it looked like they hadn't been there at all.

He wasn't sure what happened next, what he could remember before waking up back at home in his bed with his parents worried faces coming into view before anything else, was running around the two-storied house like a crazed man. Screaming for his friend to quit playing with him and come out, that the joke that she was playing on him wasn't very funny and he was getting worried. They were still friends, he still cared and he didn't like the feeling that made it feel like his heart had been kicked out of his chest. Nothing seemed to work and he fell to the floor, curled himself up and cried and screamed until he couldn't do either anymore. Waking up was no relief to him, his parents couldn't get him to talk and he could hear his mother cry in the other room that she didn't understand what could have possibly happened to her baby.

A letter was waiting for him, brought in by his father with a solemn expression on his face as he whispered that he might want to read it. The familiar handwriting was the thing that made him jolt upward, snatch it from his bedside table and rip it open feverously. The contents weren't exactly what he wanted to read, his once hopeful expression dissolved into what the world would probably one day deem the most pathetic expression, the tears were back and all he could do for the next week was cry. He had lost a friend and he would never be able to say goodbye or apologize for his actions.

Hello, my dear readers.

This is How To Save A Life, a new project.

Read, enjoy, and review if you like ~