A/N: well, here it is, chapter 11! Things are definitely getting way worse, to say the least.

I know I said that Lottie probably wouldn't be a prominent character, but I just couldn't help myself XD she and Break are probably going to play a bigger part than I had planned in the beginning

A few pieces of this chapter I had planned a long time ago, especially with Vincent. Now I'm excited that I finally get to use it.

once again though, trigger warning for suicidal thoughts.


"What the hell is with that guy?!" Leo fumed, slamming a fist into his pillow. He had rode home with Lottie in silence, save for his occasional bouts of tears. Lottie had for once not tried to speak with him, to give him room to cry. Once she had driven into the driveway, Leo had jumped from the car and made a beeline for his bedroom, demanding to be left alone.

"Hey Leo?" Lottie knocked on the door, and poked her head in. "Lily wants to go outside, so Glen and I are going out back, if you want to-"

"I don't care, and no." Leo interjected with a harsh edge in his tone. "I thought I said to leave me alone."

Lottie frowned, and whispered softly, "Alright. You can come join us though, if you change your mind."

"Whatever." Leo mumbled, waiting until she left to curl up in a ball and begin crying again. "Who does he think he is?! I finally…..finally found a friend, and now…..."

From the other side of the house, Leo heard the back door slamming shut, and he jerked up his head, an idea forming. It was a stupid, foolish idea, but an idea nonetheless. And so he stood, clearing away his tears with a swipe of his hand. He was lightheaded, and slightly dizzy, but that didn't deter him from his task.

He reached into his backpack, pulling out two paperclips, and crossed the house, approaching the locked door to the piano room. With shaking hands, Leo picked the lock, hearing a small click as the mechanism released. He quickly pocketed the paperclips, yanking open the door and stepping inside.

Leo took a minute to look around the room, now that he was in there alone. It was furnished with a few mahogany polished bookshelves lined with rows of sheet music, a violin situated on top of one bookshelf, and a tambourine on another. "For Lottie and Lily I guess." He thought, rifling through the sheet music.

But none of it really caught his eye, until he saw something sticking out from the corner of one of the bookshelves. He knelt down and gently pulled it out, his eyes darting across the page. "Huh, this actually looks interesting." He mused to himself, crossing the room and placing the sheet music into the stand. He sat on the bench, his eyes quickly scanning the first few bars.

From the first note, Leo was captivated, playing the song with his entire soul. It was an odd mix of soothing and haunting, and conveyed a message that Leo couldn't quite grasp. It tugged at his heart, and had a nostalgic feeling.

Finally, his hands stilled, the emotional high he always got from playing slowly subsiding, leaving the room feeling empty and still. He stood, and gathered up the music, turning to leave. But before he could take a step, he froze, his heart stopping.

"What….are you doing?" Glen demanded, a frown etched on his face. "Get out of there."

Leo nearly dropped the papers, his hands trembling. "I…...I'm sorry…..."

"Get out!" Glen repeated, "Don't…..don't remind me about him….."

Leo forced his legs to move, stepping past Glen, still clutching the sheet music. When he reached his room, he collapsed onto his bed, his chest tight as he sobbed. "I knew…..I shouldn't have agreed to this…..I….I can't stay here…..." Outside the door, he could hear Glen and Lottie arguing, which he tried desperately to tune out.

With blurred vision, Leo pulled up his contact list. Finding the contact he was looking for, he reached his thumb towards the call option. And hesitated. Should he call? Should he give himself that chance to say goodbye? Or should he just leave, leave everything behind without looking back?

Finally, taking a deep breath, he pressed down on the call button, his hand shaking as the dial tone sounded from his speaker.

"Please answer!" he begged silently, holding his phone in an iron grip. "Please, if not ever again, at least now!"

Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes, then hours, as the dial tone continued to ring. Leo felt anxiety welling in his chest, fighting against his urge to simply hang up and leave. "Just a few more moments." he tried to convince himself, glancing at the phone.

After what felt like an eternity, the dial tone stopped, and Leo felt his breath hitch.

"Leo? What's going on?"

Leo squeezed his eyes shut, trying desperately to force his tears to subside. A painful lump had formed in his throat, and he barely managed to whisper, "Listen, I…."

"Leo? Talk to me, what's happening? Do you need me to come over?"

"No, I don't." Leo rejected, and working up his courage, he admitted, "Listen, I made a mistake. I'm sorry. Goodbye, Elliot."

"Leo, what are you talking about? Wait, don't hang up!" Elliot's voice came through the receiver, panicked and confused and desperate.

Ignoring Elliot's cries, Leo hung up the call, and flipped his phone over, wrenching off the hard plastic case. He pulled off the backing, but nearly dropped it when it vibrated, alerting him to an incoming call. Flipping the phone back over, he saw Elliot's name plastered across the screen.

Without even pausing, he swiped the call away, and continued with his original task. With deft fingers, he removed his SD card, placing it into a small plastic snack bag. The SIM card came next, and finally, the battery.

Grabbing his backpack from the floor, he slung it over his shoulder, and jerked open the window. Taking a deep breath, he slid out the frame, not even taking a glance back, and started down the road, breaking into a sprint to put as much distance as he could before they realized he was gone.


Gilbert stood still, feeling as if time had frozen. The sight in front of him was horrifying. His own brother was holding scissors mere inches away from his arm, and was sobbing uncontrollably. He didn't know what to do. If he moved, it might cause Vincent to continue with the attempt, but if he didn't, he may not reach Vincent in time.

"Gil!" Vincent choked out, breathing raggedly. "Don't…...don't come closer!" He shifted the blade, and his body, to face Gilbert completely. "Please, just let me do this! I….I can't take it anymore!"

Gilbert felt many emotions flash through him at once. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't. He had to keep his composure, to keep Vincent safe. He took a step, his face pleading. "Vince, don't do this. Please, listen to me. Put those down."

"No!" Vincent screamed, dropping the photograph. He glanced down, and his hand reached for a bottle of glue. With blurred vision, he threw it, missing Gilbert's shoulder by a few inches. It hit the wall instead, cracking the plaster and leaving a small hole.

"Vince, put them down!" Gilbert could no longer hold himself back. He advanced on his brother, reaching for the hand that was holding the scissors.

"No! Please, don't! Stay away!" Vincent tensed, jerking his arm back. "Please, just let me die!"

Horror spread through Gilbert once more. His suspicions had just been confirmed. Vincent hadn't been attempting self-harm, but suicide. He clasped Vincent's hand, and forced it to the side. He had always been the stronger of the two, which he now was grateful for more than ever. "I won't! I need you, Vince! You're my brother and I love you!"

Vincent fought back, but with Gilbert now in the way, he was afraid of hurting him by accident. Even in his state of distress, hurting Gilbert was something he couldn't do. "Please, let go!"

"Like hell I will!" Gilbert took advantage of Vincent's hesitation, and pulled the scissors free of his grasp. He closed them, and threw them to the floor. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Because I want to die!" Now without the scissors in his hand, Vincent continued to struggle against Gilbert, trying desperately to reach past him. "I can't live with myself anymore!" The constant flow of tears was beginning to sting his eyes, but the pain in his heart was so unbearable that he hardly even noticed. "All this time, I've just wanted you to be able to live your life, and to make you happy, I would…..I would…..."

Realization hit Gilbert like a ton of bricks, and he pulled Vincent closer to him, his own body shaking from horror. How had he not noticed it earlier? "Vince, listen to me. What happened back then was not your fault, and I don't want you to die!" Gilbert held his brother tightly, tears falling down his cheeks. It hurt him to see Vincent like this, so willing to throw his life away, so willing to bring him happiness that he would die for it. "That won't make me happy, not in the slightest! You're my brother, Vincent! I care about you!"

"Don't you understand?!" Vincent screamed, hysteria evident in his heterochromatic eyes. "I never wanted to live!" His breath was coming out in sporadic jerks, and every one seemed to cause him pain. "Not since that day, not since that mistake. All I want is for you to live your life without the burden of me, without having to be reminded of what I've done!"

"But you didn't do anything!" Gilbert insisted, "Neither of us remember it!" He ran one hand through Vincent's hair in an attempt to soothe him.

"That….that was a lie…..." Vincent admitted through sobs, "I do remember it."

"What?" Gilbert gaped, pushing back enough to see Vincent's face. "You remember everything?"

"Not everything." Vincent lied, shaking his head. "Just…...just fragments." His eyes were still wild and unfocused, with tinges of hysteria.

"You said 'that mistake'," Gilbert recalled, "What mistake? What happened?"

"Nothing!" Vincent protested aggressively, "Nothing that you need to know! I…..I don't want you to know about it! It would hurt you too much!" Vincent took advantage of Gilbert's loosened grip, and lunged past him in a desperate attempt to grab the scissors. "I just want you to be happy!"

"Vince stop it!" Gilbert tackled Vincent, pushing him away from the scissors. "If you go through with this, I won't be happy!" He insisted, kicking the scissors as far away as he could. "When will you see that?! I love you Vince! I'll say it as many times as I need to! There's absolutely no way I'm going to let you commit suicide! And definitely not because you think it will make me happy!"

"But I can't live with myself anymore!" Vincent screamed, struggling against Gilbert's grasp. "Please, let go! I want to do this!"

"No! I…...I can't let you do that to yourself!" Gilbert felt his heart being shattered as he listen to Vincent's broken words, the brother he loved, despite all their quarrels, being reduced to suicidal thoughts over something he didn't even fully comprehend. "I can call a hospital, get you some therapy, you can recover from this!"

"No!" Vincent vehemently denied, shaking his head, his golden locks falling across his shoulders, some tangled from their struggle. "I can't…..I can't do that! I can't learn to live, I don't want to live!"

"Vince!" Gilbert cried, "Please….don't do this to me…...don't do this to yourself." His voice broke with emotion, his hands shaking as he held Vincent down.

"But I'm doing it for you!" Vincent insisted, tears streaming down his cheeks that burned at his eyelids as they formed. "Can't you understand how much I hate myself?! You're better off without me!"

"No, I'm not!" Gilbert spoke in a forced whisper, "I don't know where you ever got that idea! How could I….how could I live with myself if I allowed my own brother to die because he thought it would help me?! I couldn't!"

"Please…..Gil….please!" Vincent begged, kicking his feet against Gilbert's thighs. Luckily for Gilbert, Vincent had already taken his shoes off, leaving him in his stocking feet. But then, his desperate pleas changed to a frightened cry. "Gil, I can't…...I can't see!" Vincent's eyes widened in panic, his body going slack.

"Vince!" Gilbert shifted his arms to cradle his brother away from the ground, taking a moment to breath as he picked Vincent up and carefully laid him on the couch, propping his legs up to help him recover. "Vince…...why didn't you tell me?" Silently, Gilbert reached down and grabbed the discarded scissors, pulling open the drawer where they were kept and collecting all of them. He quickly dropped them into a box, and slid it under their entertainment system.

"I swear, I don't want you to die!"


"Elliot? Are you alright?" Break peeked his head out of the door of the academy, glancing quizzically at Elliot, noting his dazed facial expression and clenched fists. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Elliot stared at his phone, his expression blank. "Break, I gotta go….I…..I can't…..Something's wrong…..with…...Leo…..." Unable to structure a fully coherent sentence, Elliot trailed off, reaching to shove his phone back into his pocket, only for it to start buzzing again. He jerked his arm back from shock, nearly dropping the device. His eyes traveled to the contact name, hoping desperately that it would be Leo. However the name showed up as Gilbert. Elliot answered, holding the phone up to his ear.

"Elliot?" Gilbert's voice came through the receiver, slightly panicked, but also tired. "Listen, I'm really sorry I can't tell you this to your face, but I can't leave the house and someone needs to know. Vince…..Vince just attempted suicide…..."

Elliot froze, feeling like his heart had just dropped. "What?!" He yelled, his mind racing. "No….no, no, no! This can't be…..this can't be happening! Wait…..Leo!"

"He's safe, thank goodness, I caught him in time, but I don't want to risk leaving him alone, and he's in no condition to go anywhere right now, he just passed out. I don't think it's anything to worry about, it was probably just from stress. I'm considering calling the hospital, if only to get him mental help, but until then I won't be leaving the house."

Elliot couldn't combat the overwhelming, crushing sense of grief and despair washing over him. Not only had a friend that he had just started to get to know call him and say goodbye, but his own adopted brother had attempted suicide on top of that?! "I…..I don't…." He stammered, "I don't know what to do…."

"Elliot? Did something else happen?" Gilbert questioned, "I can handle Vince on my own, if there's something you need to take care of…."

"Yeah….." Elliot glanced back at Break, then spoke into the receiver, "I've gotta go. I'll…..I'll call you back later. And…...tell Vincent to hang in there, OK?" His eyes teared up as he spoke, then pressed the end call button. "Break, I've gotta go….I'm…..."

Break held out a comforting hand, and said, "It's OK. Go on, don't worry about your lesson. You can always make it up later. Remember what I said? Be there for the people who need you."

"Thanks Break." Elliot breathed a sigh of relief, but only for a moment, as he packed his fencing bag back into his car, jumping into the driver's seat and speeding away with a screech of his tires.

"Leo I swear if you die, I'll never forgive you!"


well, there you have it. this is probably the most intense chapter so far, but trust me, there's more where that came from. I'm hoping to have the next chapter soon, and it's gonna be just as heartbreaking.

as always, comments are appreciated :)