Please read The Moment I Said It before this one. It'll make a little more sense. The lullaby is the first two verses from the song Lullaby by Billy Joel.
I don't own this. Characters belong to Square Enix.
My name is Sora Kirkpatrick. This is the story of how I lost my best friend.
._.
I sat on my bed, bio textbook and laptop in front of me, notebook on my lap. I was pretending to do my homework, in case my idiot older brother decided to come in, but in all reality I was entertaining the idea that Demyx would climb up the trellis, then the drainage pipe, in my open window, and into my bed, sobbing as he always was. It had been a few says since I had seen him, nearly a week since I talked to him. He was about due for a visit.
The lights throughout the house went out, and the sound of silence filled my ears. There I sat, clicking my pen for twenty minutes, waiting for the mulleted blond to make an appearance, jumping and straining at every sudden noise. Nothing. I cleared my bed, turned off the lights, crawled under the blankets, and stared into abysmal nothingness. 01:43 flashed on my alarm clock across the room, pulsing in time with my steadily shaky breath. Or had I just synchronized my breathing with the pulsing for lack of anything better to do?
Soft grunts came in through my window, the flexible metal bumping against the side of the house. I smiled, my hand moving to the light on the nightstand.
"Don't." His strained voice came from the windowsill. "Don't turn on the light." My hand dropped back to my side. I respected him and his needs, but whenever he said 'don't turn on the lights', I started to worry.
"Demyx,-"
"No." He grunted, pulling himself into my room. As always, I rolled onto my side, facing my bathroom door. He laid down behind me, wrapped his arms around me and shook. I could feel a warm liquid soaking my body from all sides. I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. "Sing to me?"
I sighed. "Sure, Dem. What this time?"
"That lullaby your mum used to sing us."
I smiled and sang:
Goodnight my angel, time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been asking me
I think you know what I've been trying to say
I promised I would never leave you
Then you should always know
Wherever you may go, no matter where you are
I never will be far away
Goodnight my angel, now it's time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay
And like a boat out on the ocean
I'm rocking you to sleep
The water's dark and deep, inside this ancient heart
You'll always be a part of me
Goodnight my angel, now it's time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry, and if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart there will always be a part of me
Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die
That's how you and I will be
Not even half way through the second verse, I could feel his soft breaths on the back of my neck, his hands loosening their grip on me. The sleepless boy was no more.
._.
I awoke the next morning trapped in my own bed. I sighed. Sometime durning the night, Demyx must have tied my arms to the bed, the fear of me leaving…
"Demyx!" I hollered, straining on the bindings. The knots would have been much easier to untie if he wasn't a damned eagle scout. Footsteps approached the foot of my bed and I raised my head. "Jesus, Dem-"
"Really, Sor? I never took you to be into bondage." Roxas said behind a pained look. Probably holding back laughter, the ass.
I sighed. "Very funny, Rox. You know how he gets sometimes." He started laughing. For someone who knew what happened, he wasn't making this any better. "Shut up and untie me."
It took him a good five minutes to stop laughing, and another ten to get the two knots untied. Sighing and rubbing my red wrists, I asked where Demyx was. "About twenty minutes before you started hollering, your shower turned on. Five minutes later, it was off."
"And you didn't think to see if he was okay?" I panicked, my mind thinking and preparing for the worst. I shoved Roxas out of my room and knocked on the bathroom door. "Demyx?" A small sniff came from just behind the door. "Dem, can you let me in?" The lock on the door clicked, and I turned the knob.
I may have prepared for the worst, but there was no way to prepare for this.
Blood was splattered on every surface. A small blood puddle had started to form on the floor. The mirror was completely shattered into long, thin, jagged pieces. And then there was Demyx. Curled up in a ball in the corner, he was shaking and crying. His clothes looked like they'd been dipped in blood and left out to dry. A fairly decent gash ran the length of his cheek, well on the way to healing. And in his arms, pressed to his chest, was that damned tape.
I sunk to the floor beside him. "Demyx…" He looked at me, and through teary, swollen eyes I could see the hate, anger, rage, loneliness, sadness, and pain written in them. I wrapped my arms around his shaking body as he let out a hefty and pained sob that shook his entire being. I held him, comforted him for what felt like days before he could finally speak.
"I'm sorry." A harsh whisper was all he could manage.
"It's okay." I glanced over his body: he was cut, bloody, and bruised. Hell, there were bruises on top of bruises. "Let me clean you up a bit?" He nodded, gingerly setting the tape down. It had been the first time I'd seen the tape since I'd found him in their apartment. I grabbed the first aid kit from the medicine cabinet and towels from under the sink. "Tell me what happened. Start with last night."
He looked up at me, his eyes pleading for me not to make him. I shook my head. If he wasn't going to look after himself, I would. I took his arm and he started. "I went to the bar. I'd gotten in a fight with my uncle, and I needed an out." He winced as I poured hydrogen peroxide over the fresh wounds on his wrist. "I didn't go to start a fight. I swear to you. I was minding my own business when some girl walked up to me and started hitting on me. Told her to fuck off, and I went out to get a drag. Next think I know, I'm on the ground with some big guy on me. Apparently the girl told him I pulled a move."
"Shirt." I interrupted, holding onto the bottom edge of the bloody cloth. Carefully, the two of us worked it over his head, exposing more bruised and bleeding cuts.
"I barely fought back. Until he mentioned…" His eyes flicked to the tape. "I went apeshit. Took four guys to pull me off of him. Everything after that is blank."
I sighed. Should have known. Demyx was fragile. "Come on, I need you to remember. Remember." He blinked, staring at me patiently, like he was awaiting orders. "What happened after the bar?"
He paused. "I… went to the park. Cried. Came over here. 2:36. Tied you to the bed. 9:30. Shower. H-W-I looked down, smashed mirror. Cut. Cried."
"Thanks." He nodded and closed his eyes. "Demyx?" He opened them again, cowering away slightly. I sighed. "Hey. You're okay. Come with me." I led him to my room, sitting him on the bed. "Have you taken your pills?" He dropped his head. "How long has it been."
"A-a week." I sighed. He immediately teared up. "I'm sorry! I kept forgetting, and-"
"It's okay, it's fine. Let's go downstairs, alright?" He nodded and stood, wincing in pain. "Careful. You got beaten up pretty good." Again, he just nodded and followed me downstairs.
Roxas was in the kitchen, phone pressed to his ear and pan in the other hand. "They just came down. One sec." He handed me the phone. "Demyx's uncle."
I nodded. "Make sure he eats something." I moved into the living room for a little more privacy. "Hello, Alan."
"Hi, Sora. How is he doing?"
I sat on the edge of the couch. "He's alright. Pretty beaten up." There was an awkward pause. "He isn't taking his medication again."
Alan sighed. "That's why we got in a fight last night. Those alters or whatever they're called have been screwing him up. He didn't believe it.
"You think he would. Listen, I'm out of his as well. Any way I could come get some? And new clothes for him?"
"Sure. I'll be home all day. I booked him an appointment with that lady in an hour. Figured he'd be at yours by now."
"Alright. We'll be over later."
"Thank you for taking such good care of him since Zexion-"
"Yeah, no problem. Bye." I hung up. I wouldn't have to if he stepped up to the plate. I walked back into the kitchen just in time to see Demyx shove his face with pancakes. I chuckled and grabbed a plate, sitting beside Roxas. "Dem? We need to go to your house today. Get you some clothes, your pills…"
"Haven't I been taking them?" He asked, that glow that denoted his arrival back in his eyes.
I shook my head. "Apparently you've been skipping out on your appointments too."
"Damnit." He sighed, setting the fork down. "Well, it can't be helped now. I have a hunch you're taking me after I go home?"
Again, I nodded. "It's in about an hour. I figure I get dressed and we head over?" He stood, nodding. "Let's get going, then."