Disclaimer: I do not own The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. All rights belong to Heather Brewer.
Chapter Two: Panic
Henry stopped banging on the door and listened. He could hear something that sounded wet. He went into the room right next to Vlad's and went out the window. He inched over to Vlad's window. When he saw Vlad, bleeding on the floor, he did puke. Right over the edge of the roof. He wiped his face and went back to the window, swallowing back the bile. He saw Vlad choking. He pushed at the window prop, fighting to get it up. When the window finally moved, he wasted no time in getting into Vlad's room and rushing to his side.
He saw an empty pill bottle and cursed.
"Fuck! What did you do?"
He shoved two fingers down Vlad's throat. Thankfully, he started coughing and puking up pills. Henry knew that some had already digested. He tore the bottom of his T-shirt and tied Vlad's slashed wrists tight. On his left wrist he could see bone. If Vlad wasn't a vampire, he'd already be dead. He was freaking out. He saw what Vlad had used to cut himself and he grabbed it. He cut his wrist and put it to Vlad's mouth. At first, the blood deprived vampire won over and drank before the suicidal teen took over and shoved Henry's wrist away. Henry made him drink again. After a moment, Vlad stopped drinking and began crying.
"Why didn't you let me die?! That's what I want! I wanna see my parents again!"
Henry just held him while he cried. He saw that a kitchen chair was, in fact, propped under the door handle.
.
.
.
After Vlad finally fell asleep against Henry, Henry looked at the piece of paper he had been ignoring as long as possible. He picked it up even though he didn't want to see what it said.
"This is all I can do. Henry, you're moving. Nelly, you're leaving with Otis. Well…. I'm leaving too. I'm sure mom and dad miss me, so I'm going to go where they are.
Don't cry for me. This is how I want it to be. This will be over soon. I don't know what I can say besides I'm sorry. That's too cliche, so I'll just leave it at goodbye.
vlad tod"
Henry had to silence his sobs. Tears ran freely down his face. The paper was splattered with blood and mascara tears. Based on how crinkled the paper was, Henry knew he'd been planning to do this for a while. He'd just had to figure out the best place. He put his hand over his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't believe Vlad would try this. Suicide. It was a horrid word, and to think, it was now a part of his life.
He heard a car door and knew that it must be Nelly. He almost panicked again. He gently moved Vlad and stood up. He moved the chair and threw a towel over the blood stains in the carpet. He stood in the doorway, bloody and with a torn shirt waiting for Nelly.
When she started up the stairs, seeing Henry covered in blood was the last thing she expected. At first she thought that maybe Vlad had attacked him. But then Henry held out the bloody note.
She read it and fell to her knees sobbing. She put both hands over her face and put her forehead to the floor. She stayed like that for a moment before slowly getting up. She held onto the stair banister to keep from sinking down again. She shuffled over to Vlad's doorway and saw him laying on the floor, bloody and sick looking. She also noticed the puked up pills. She turned around and hugged Henry.
"What did he take?"
"Uh, Oxycodone. I think. I only looked at the bottle for a second."
"I'm so sorry Mellina…" she whispered.
Henry walked her to her room and sat her down. She looked checked out. She was in shock.
"You sleep. I'll take care of him. I gave him some of my blood so I don't think he'll need stitches or anything."
She nodded. He understood why she was kind of zombied out. He couldn't fathom how he would feel if his child, or someone he'd grown to consider his own flesh and blood, attempted suicide.
That word again. It bounced around in his skull. Causing guilt. He should've noticed sooner. Done something sooner. It also made him want to fight. He wanted to fight whatever dark forces made his friend wish to die.
He made sure Nelly was in bed before going back to Vlad's room. When he stepped through the door, he saw Vlad sitting on his bed. His face was wet. He was holding the empty pill bottle. He looked beyond miserable. Henry felt miserable.
"Hey."
"...-sniffle- h-hey."
That was all he could think to say. He sat next to his best friend, took the bottle, and pulled him into a hug. Vlad started crying harder and clutched onto Henry. Henry let him cry. He could tell that Vlad had lost weight. He shut his eyes and stayed strong for his closest friend.
.
.
.
At about 1 in the morning, Henry woke up, and found Vlad asleep on his chest, his hand clutching Henry's shirt as if he may disappear. He wiggled his phone out of his pocket and saw three missed calls and two texts. His mom was worried.
hey, mom. sorry. i'm gonna stay with vlad tonite. some bad stuff happened. i'll tell you about it tomorrow. He hit send. He hated not telling her yet. But it wasn't time.
She said ok. He felt bad about not telling her about staying, but disregarded it because of the circumstances.
He laid there and was thankful for every breath he listened to Vlad take. He put both arms around him and let himself cry. Almost losing his best friend scared him more than anything ever would.
He hoped that he could help Vlad past this, and he would be damned if he was still moving.
Woot. yes I know this one is moving kinda fast. I want to focus more on the healing and maybe smut XD idk mostly the healing aspect. Probably a short story. Not as long as golden darkness, but longer than my VK fanfic. Anywhore, enjoy chapter two. And if I vanish for months again, I apologize in advance. I rarely get the computer and almost all of my stuff is uploaded via iPod touch. so yeah. once I graduate in may, I'll have my own laptop, and I expect to have no life so I'll probably be on A LOT! lawl Review! Please! =D