text: Ken blended into the fabric of the high school. Part of the walls, unnoticed by the staff and pupils alike. Yet he missed nothing. He went about his business every day, cleaning up the leftovers of their lives. Quietly watching their teenage dramas unfold as he went. He was part of them even if they did not know it. No one noticed him as he shuffled along the corridor pushing his janitor cart. Ken was never meant for greater things. This job was his greatest triumph. More so than people gave him credit for. He knew Megan was dating the school jock, Andrew, but also knew that Megan was screwing Tyler behind the bike shed. He knew Ashley was pregnant. He had found the discarded test. Things had been very subdued lately, since Alison went missing. It had been a week since she had vanished on her way home from school, without a trace. A shrine filled with flowers and stuffed animals had slowly appeared under her locker. Like the small tributes would somehow tempt her back or lead to her return. Every day it grew. Ken cleaned around it. Watering the small pot plants placed there by morbid curiosity. As dumb as Ken was, he knew it was not out of love for Alison. Ken knew Alison. She was one of the characters in his high school drama, the only one that greeted him now and then. She hung around with the popular girls but was not one of them. She was plain compared to Ashley, and positively ugly compared to Megan. Quiet and meek, they made fun of her clothes. Always the butt of their jokes. They permitted her to sit with them as she would willingly do their homework. Like ken. She was the person no one noticed, till she was gone. Then suddenly, they were all crying, acting like she was there best friend. There were rumours that she had run away or killed herself. Rumours, no doubt started by Megan. Megan had recently found out that Andrew, had been spending time at Alison’s house. His excuse was she was helping him with maths. Ken suspected it was more than like Biology. So did Megan it seemed. Andrew, to save his reputation, had yelled at Alison in the cafeteria to leave him alone, and stop coming on to him. That he would never want her and that she was trash. Everyone had heard. Alison was humiliated, crying in big gulpy sobs in the corridor. Andrew, high fiving his mates, satisfied Alison was humiliated enough that Megan would forgive him. A day later Alison was missing. Wherever she was now, she would no longer have to deal with these horrid people. It could not be worse for her than this. Ken pushed his cleaning trolley back to the cupboard and walked down the stairs to the basement. Alison was sobbing quietly in a cage, at the back of the darkroom. Don’t worry, Ken said to her. I will take care of you. He proceeded to tell her all the horrid things her friends had done today.