This is it, the End

It was midnight and everyone in Anubis House were sleeping, except for six students; Nina Martin, Amber Millington, Patricia Williamson, Fabian Rutter, Alfie Lewis and Jerome Clarke. Jerome had overheard Alfie's new gang saying they were meeting up at midnight so he was lying in bed waiting for Alfie to leave.

In each room in the house students were getting out of bed and leaving their rooms. In Patricia, Mara and Joy's room, Patricia was leaving and Mara was awoken by the click of the door closing. She sat up, rubbing her eyes and looking over to Patricia's empty bed, her eyes then quickly flitting to Joy whose sleeping form was still in bed. She hummed slightly before deciding to follow the sneaky red head, she yawned as she slipped her feet into her slippers and getting out of bed. She was wearing this: mara_jaffray_this_is_it/set?id=78704722 She crept out of the room just in time to see the door to the stairs closing, she tip toes through it and down the stairs but she searched the living room, the kitchen and laundry room but there was no sign of her roommate, she was just about to head back up to bed she heard a thud come from Jerome and Alfie's room. She crept to the door and silently opened it, entering the boys room without permission; she would never have been prepared for what she saw, not in a million years. Jerome was hanging from the railing in his closet by a belt that was wrapped tightly around his neck.

"Jerome!" she squeaked, quickly picking the chair up and forcing him to stand on it. She then balanced herself on the chair with him and took the belt from around his neck as tears streamed down her face. She took his hand and they stepped off the chair as Jerome whispered an apology. They were stood in the middle of the room, Mara still clutching his hand as if it was her life hanging in the balance, she could feel him shaking violently and she could see the red belt mark around his neck. "What were you doing?" Mara croaked not quite sure what else she could say. Jerome pulled his hand away, turning so he didn't have to look at her and pulling his hands over his face.

"I can't take it anymore, my life is a mess. I mess everything up, my mum hates me, my sister hates me, and my dad is in prison, Alfie barely even talks to me anymore. I just want it all to stop, I need it to stop!" Jerome now had tears streaming down his face as he paced the floor rapidly.

"Jerome. Jerome please stop you're scaring me," Mara pleaded causing Jerome to snap his head around to look at her.

"Why did you have to come in? Why couldn't you have stayed away?" Jerome questioned accusingly, he was blaming her for the fact he was still alive, still hurting.

"Don't say that! If I hadn't come in then you would be dead and I don't know if I would be able to cope if you had died," his eyes softened as she looked into her eyes.

"Maybe I want that, maybe I want to be dead. It would hurt less than living my life. I don't have a family, my best friend had abandoned me for the Scooby gang and I have to watch the girl I love be in love with the guy that moved away, what do I have to live for?" Jerome spoke softly despite the words being quite harsh.

"Alfie is still your best friend, you know that he loves you and Poppy loves you and… and I love you," Mara explained immediately hugging him around his waist; he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, burying his face in her hair. They sat on the floor leaning against the side of his bed. "You need to talk to me, it's obvious that you're depressed and you can't bottle everything up, it isn't healthy."

"I can't, I can't talk about it. I'll just be setting myself up for more hurt, I just can't do it." They had been sat relatively close to one another but Jerome had distanced himself from her and there was now about five feet of empty space between them.

"I won't hurt you, I promise," Mara hated seeing him like this, it broke her heart. She had seen him sad before but this was the first time she had seen him truly break down. Jerome was sitting with his head in his hands, elbows on his knees and he kept rubbing his eyes with his palms in discomfort.

"You say that now but you'll get sick of me, you'll forget about me just like Alfie has," he stood up and walked over to the wall, leaning against it with his hands; he was staring at the floor breathing deeply. He hoped that if he closed his eyes she would be gone as soon as he'd opened them again but of course he was wrong, that didn't happen and he just wanted to hide under a rock until she went away.

"Just tell me why you believe the only way to escape your pain is to… kill yourself?" Mara asked from her position on the floor as she hugged her knees.

"It is the only way, my only way out."

"No it isn't Jerome, your way out is to let go of the hurt from your past and to let someone in," she told him as she walked over to him; she tried to get him to look at her but he side stepped her and went to the window where he stared out at the night sky. It been nearly two hours since Mara had stopped him from committing the diabolical act, they had had many prolonged silences all of which had been broken by something Mara did or said. It was two in the morning and Mara had taken her place sitting on the floor directly in front of the door again almost an hour ago. No one had said anything since Jerome went to the window, Jerome too afraid to let her in and Mara afraid she might say something to make him snap. He was still staring out at the sky as if it held the answers to all of his questions.

"People say live, laugh, love so why is it whenever I love someone they hurt me and whenever I laugh its fake. Who would want to live like that?" this time the everlasting silence was broken with his heart breaking question. He was right though, how can someone live without someone to love them back like they love them or without genuine laughter; laughter equals happiness and who can live without that? "I hate my life Mara, how can someone live whilst hating themselves?"

"Jerome you just need help to see how truly amazing you are," Mara didn't dare look at him, she was too afraid of what she might see, all she really wanted to do was to hug him but she knew she couldn't. By half two Jerome was sitting against the wardrobe next to the door directly in front of the window whilst Mara was still staring directly at the door, they were both emotionally drained when Alfie entered the room.

"Mara what are you doing in here?" he asked confused, he would have suspected that she had come down to profess her love for Jerome if he hadn't seen the looks on their faces. He scanned the room searching for something that would clue him into what was going on when his eyes fell on the open closet, the chair and the belt that was still hanging from the closet rail. He stared at it for about five minutes just trying to decipher what it meant, trying to make sense of it.

"Jerome why is the… did you… but you seemed… I don't get it," Alfie couldn't even string a coherent sentence together as he was so confused. Neither of the teenagers answered him, Mara continued to stare at the floor whilst Jerome stared straight ahead as if in a trance. "Will someone tell me what happened? Please!" he snapped making Mara jump and look at him, grief stricken eyes locked with fear stricken ones. She took him outside to explain as Jerome didn't seem aware that Alfie was even in the room, as she opened her mouth to talk Fabian exited his room.

"Alfie I heard you shout… Mara"

"Just go back to bed Fabian," Mara told him.

"But I-"

"Fabian, please just go!" Alfie snapped not wanting to wait any longer for Mara to explain, Fabian did as he was told and re-entered his room.

"He tried to kill himself, I was following Patricia but couldn't find her and when I was about to go back upstairs I heard something come from your room so I went to find out what it was and he was hanging there and it was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm not usually nosey, what if I had just ignored it? He'd be dead, Alfie he'd be dead. I don't know what I would have done," Mara cried into Alfie's shoulder as he silently cried into her hair.

"It'll be ok, we'll just have to help him," he told, they both agreed and both went to bed, all three of them lying awake all night until they had to get up for breakfast. Jerome was at next to Alfie staring into his breakfast not even attempting to eat anything. Mara sat across from him and as she looked at him she hoped it was just a cry for help, not serious attempt but deep down she knew he wouldn't accept anyone's help. It was just a matter of time until the end.

A/N: The end! I hope you liked it! I wrote in one evening! Anyway REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!