One-shot; Songfic: Life Starts Now- Three Days Grace
Disclaimer: I don't own The Covenant or anything you recognize from it. I also don't own the song. It's "Life Starts Now" by Three Days Grace. I do, however, own Adalyn.
Warning: Talk of suicide. If you ever feel this way, please talk to someone. You don't have to suffer, and you definitely don't have to suffer alone. There is always help; there is always hope.
It was tearing at Reid's heart to see her like this. Forever the playboy, he had finally found a girl he cared about enough to stay with for more than just the night. She made him want to be a better person, she helped him stop Using so much, she had stolen his heart, and his friends loved her. She had quickly become everything he lived for, but he could feel that she was slipping away and he was grasping at straws, trying to figure out how to keep her.
They'd been together for just over a year. Things had been so amazing that he tried very hard to ignore the signs that she was crashing. He had known something was wrong for weeks, but he tried to ignore it; tried to continue with the happy charade she was feebly attempting to portray to their friends. But he couldn't do that anymore- she needed help and he was going to make sure she saw that. He was also going to make sure she saw that he was going to be forever by her side.
He already knew where she was. He had shown her his favorite place to think- the cliff at the Dells- when they first started dating and she had immediately fallen in love with it. She had come by herself a few times since then, and Reid knew because he had shown up to find her already there.
You say you feel so down
Every time I turn around
And you say you should've been gone by now
And you, you think that everything's wrong
You ask me how to carry on
We'll make it through another day, just hold on
Reid pulled Tyler's Hummer up close to the cliff and turned the vehicle off, his heart hammering. What if she got mad? What if she broke up with him? Seeing her standing by the cliff, he slowly got out of the car and shut the door. The sound startled her and she whipped her head around. The Hummer's automatic headlights hadn't turned off yet, and he could see the confusion on her face in the bright light. When she realized that it was him, she turned back to face the darkness. He stopped a few feet from her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked quietly. Reid sighed and stepped up next to her, resisting the strong urge to pull her into his arms.
Cause life starts now
You've done all the things that could kill you somehow
And you're so far down
But you will survive it somehow because life starts now
"I know you haven't been doin' so hot the past few weeks, and I wanted to talk to you," he said simply. She looked at him, and her look of serenity worried him.
"Reid, I-"
"I swear to God, Addie, if you tell me you're fine, I'm going to shake you." Adalyn looked down. Reid was the only one who didn't immediately receive a glare upon calling her 'Addie'.
"I was going to say I found a solution," she mumbled. Reid took in the way she was calmly swinging her hands, and inching her feet closer to the edge of the cliff. Horror struck him and he immediately hauled her back a few feet. Her serenity snapped immediately and she clawed against his hold to return to the edge.
"Let me go!" she screamed. Reid's heart was breaking into pieces as he listened to his girlfriend scream about how much she just wanted to die.
I hate to see you fall down
I'll pick you up off of the ground
I've watched the weight of your world come down
And now it's your chance to move on
Change the way you've lived for so long
You find the strength you've had inside all along.
He Used to swing the car door open and shoved her into the Hummer before slamming the door and Using to keep it locked so she couldn't escape. He climbed into the driver's seat and took off. Adalyn sobbed from the passenger's seat. Once they were about a mile from the cliff, Reid stopped the car on the side of the road and pulled her into his arms, letting her cry.
"Oh, baby," he breathed, as tears started to fall from his own eyes. "Can't you see how much you have to live for? Your family, your friends; they'd be so devastated without you! And what about me? God, baby, I can't live without you. I just want to help you. Please, sweetheart, let me help you." Adalyn just kept crying.
"It hurts," she whimpered.
"I know, angel," he soothed, running his fingers through her hair. "And you're so unbelievably strong for going through this by yourself. But together, we can make it better. We can ease the pain. Remember how you helped me feel better when I stopped Using so much?" She nodded, her face pressed into his chest. "I just want to help you like you helped me. I wanna help you feel good. Will you let me do that?" She slowly nodded again and the relief that filled him was staggering.
Cause life starts now.
You've done all the things that could kill you somehow and you're so far down
But you will survive it somehow because life starts now.
"I felt so alone," she whispered. Reid held her tighter.
"You're not," he said firmly. "I love you. I'm always going to be here for you, and I'm not ever going to let you forget that. Do you want to tell me about it?"
She pulled back and looked into his eyes hesitantly before nodding. He wiped the tears from her face as she took a deep breath and began to tell him how she'd been feeling and why she was in so much pain.
All this pain
Take this life and make it yours.
All this hate take your heart and let it love again.
You will survive it somehow.
