Chapter 55: BEHAVIOUR

Joan's POV

Autumn becomes more distant as the weeks go by. Her physical wounds are practically healed and she even manages to get the cast off a week earlier. But Autumn doesn't seem to be healing mentally. Keegan says she's been spending more and more time alone and when she does try to stay with him she becomes jumpy. She panics more and lashes out. The smallest of sounds can startle her.

I was scared. I'd only seen what she was going through once. I'd seen it with myself. It was after the events of the Balkans. I'd barely pulled out of that one. It was a few years before Autumn was born but I was lucky to have meet that point.

Those events were awful but they weren't as bad as Autumn and when the doctor gave her Hydrocodone my fear skyrocketed. I'd gotten addicted to something similar but it was weaker than what Autumn is on. And from the way she was behaving…

I was scared. Autumn was showing behaviour similar to what I showed in my early stages of using and it would only get worse. She would become more violent and distant until finally she would break.

I desperately hope that's not the case. I desperately hope Autumn isn't going down that path.

I barely made it out and I slipped up twice.

But my gut told me she had. And that she may already be too far gone for me to help painlessly.