Chapter 11:
It's been a month and Crystal still wasn't eating (except for tiny little snacks and tiny meals that Lloyd and Kai made her eat because they were the only ones able to do so) nor sleeping (expect for once every week and it was only for a hour or 2 before being woken up by nightmares) and she was still cutting. One night, it was 11:00 pm and Crystal got woken up by nightmares again and it was a bad one. It was when her whole family was around and they all turned to dust and the wind blew them away. Crystal was sobbing on her bed when she grabbed her knife that she hid from Lloyd from underneath her pillow, unwrapped her bandages and let the knife pierce her skin. She didn't care about the pain. This pain was better than the pain that she was constantly feeling. She watched as her bright red blood oozed out of her wrist as she continued slicing until she felt faint. She was cutting more and more now whenever Lloyd didn't catch her. Crystal re-wrapped her wrist and just sat on her bed, sobbing. She wanted her brother, she wanted him to wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything will be ok. She wanted it so bad. She heard footsteps walking past her door to the kitchen and then stop at her door and knocked,
"Who is it?" Crystal called out but not too loudly for it was late,
"Kai." Kai responded,
"Come in." Crystal said after she looked around to see if there was any trace of her cutting, hiding her knife back under her pillow and pulled down her sleeves so Kai won't see her bandages. Kai opened the door and walked into Crystal's room,
"You know. You should really get some sleep." Kai stated as he sat on Crystal's bed,
"I did. Nightmares." Crystal explained,
"What time?" Kai asked,
"About 10:30. I don't know." Crystal explained,
"You need to get some proper sleep. More than 2 hours." Kai explained,
"If I need sleep, why did you knock on my door?" Crystal questioned,
"I just woke up and I decided to see if you were sleeping." Kai explained,
"Just like Cole would." Crystal muttered as she hugged her knees. Kai placed his hand on Crystal's shoulder,
"You wanna know something? A couple of weeks after you became ninja, Cole started to have these nightmares about something happening to either him or you so one day you know what he did?" Kai started and Crystal shrugged, "He asked me to look after you if anything was to happen to him." He explained,
"Sounds like him." Crystal muttered,
"Yeah. That's what I'm planning to do. Ok?" Kai explained,
"Ok." Crystal responded,
"Now get some sleep." Kai instructed,
"I'll try." Crystal replied,
"As long as you try. Good-night." Kai said as he walked to the door,
"Good-night." Crystal said back as Kai closed the door. Crystal hasn't told any one this before but she saw Kai as a 2nd big brother. Not just because he was another ninja, because she felt safe around him, like nothing would hurt her like she did around Cole and Lloyd.
The next day, Lloyd knocked on Crystal's door for he heard her music turned up loud, which wasn't a good sign. Crystal didn't respond so Lloyd opened the door slowly to see that Crystal was once again cutting. Lloyd closed the door behind him for Crystal didn't want anyone to know and Lloyd went over to her, treated her wrists and supported her while she bawled her eyes out as Lloyd tried to calm her down. Soon they both fell asleep.
Nya went to see if her friend was ok and when she opened the door, she saw the couple asleep so she closed the door and headed to the games room where Kai, Zane and Jay were playing video games.
"How she doing?" Kai asked
"Well, I think." Nya answered
"You think?" Kai questioned
"She fell asleep with Lloyd." Nya explained
"It's hard to think that not long ago he was just a kid." Jay piped up
"Yeah." Nya agreed.
Wu walked into the games room,
"Kai, you have a visitor." Wu said before leaving and Skylor walked in,
"Hey Kai." Skylor said as Kai walked up and gave her a hug,
"Hey Skylor." Kai greeted, "How was Australia?" he asked for Skylor was in Australia for the past 4 months,
"Let me tell you, it gets boiling in Australia but it also gets very cold as well." Skylor explained, "What have I missed?" she asked and silence spread through out the room, "What?"
"Let's just say something big." Nya said and they explained how Cole and Lou fell off the cliff and how it was impacting Crystal.
"Dam. That is big." Skylor said, not knowing what to say, "Is Crystal alright?" she asked
"Not really, she hasn't been eating well nor sleeping the appropriate lengths of time." Zane explained
"But Lloyd's been helping her out." Nya added
"Do you know how bad it gets?" Skylor asked
"The worst that it gets that we know of is that she stays in her room all day and all night crying, but Lloyd probably knows more, if it gets more. Which I hope not." Nya explained
"Where are they?" Skylor asked
"In Crystal's room asleep." Nya answered
"I hope things get better soon." Skylor hoped
"So do we." Kai agreed, "So are you staying for dinner?" he asked,
"If it's not any trouble." Skylor said,
"Not at all." Kai reassured,
"Sure. Why not." Skylor said.
Later it was ½ an hour before dinner and Lloyd went into the games room where Nya, Skylor, Kai, Zane and Jay were playing video games still,
"Hey Skylor." Lloyd greeted
"Hey Lloyd. How's Crystal?" Skylor asked
"She's still asleep." Lloyd answered,
"She's ok right?" Nya asked, with concern for her friend
"She's ok right now." Lloyd replied
"Right now? How bad dose it get?" Skylor asked
"Pretty bad." Lloyd answered, not telling them about her cutting,
"What do you mean?" Kai asked,
"I rather not say." Lloyd said, wishing that they hadn't asked that,
"What do you mean?" Kai asked for he was intending to keep his promise to Cole and keep an eye on Crystal for Cole,
"She made me swear not to tell anyone." Lloyd said, hoping that the topic will change real soon,
"Why?" Nya asked
"Just…she doesn't want others to know." Lloyd said, letting them not that he won't go behind his girlfriend's back so they changed the topic to the video games and Zane went to start on dinner for it was his turn to cook.
Later it was time for dinner and Skylor offered to go and see if Crystal was going to eat,
"Just be cautious of what you say, you know how sensitive she is and even more now." Kai warned
"I know." Skylor said and made her way to Crystal's room and knocked on the door,
"Who is it?" Crystal called out softly,
"It's Skylor." Skylor said and when Crystal opened the door, her eyes her pink and red from crying for too long and the tears stained her face and she looked a great mess, "Are you ok? The others told me what happened and I'm sorry." Skylor said as Crystal looked like she was about to start crying again and Skylor gave her a hug.
"I just really miss them." Crystal sobbed,
"Losing someone isn't easy and we all have our ways of taking it but in the end, that's how we get stronger, we push on to make them proud." Skylor said from experience, "You coming to eat, Zane cooked tonight so it's going to be real good." she asked,
"No thanks, I'm not hungry." Crystal declined and that's when Skylor really got a sense on how bad it was getting.
"Well…I'll get them to set a plate aside in case you change your mind, ok?" Skylor said and Crystal nodded before Crystal went back into her room and Skylor went to the dinning room, worried, "Hey how long has it been since she's eaten properly?" she asked
"Since she lost her dad and brother." Jay answered
"Wow, no wonder she's way skinnier that last time I saw her." Skylor stated
"I'm guessing by that she's not eating again?" Zane questioned with concern,
"Nope. How is she not eating? She must be starving." Skylor questioned
"Don't know but I hope she breaks out of these habits soon." Kai stated and everyone agreed. They ate the meal, leaving a plate aside for Crystal and an hour later, went to bed with Skylor sleeping in the guest room.
The next morning, the ninjas were training (expect for Crystal) and Lloyd couldn't shake this feeling that something bad was going to happen,
"You right Lloyd?" Nya asked
"Why?" Lloyd asked
"You seem out of it today." Nya pointed out
"I just got this feeling that something bad is gonna happen today." Lloyd explained, "But I'm sure it's nothing." He added
"Yeah, most of the time, that's the case." Nya agreed and they continued to train until Wu came out and told them that they had a mission and when they went to prepare, Wu went over to Lloyd,
"Lloyd, you may be excused from this mission." Wu stated
"Why?" Lloyd asked, confused,
"Crystal cannot be left alone at this time and she needs someone who is close to her." Wu explained and Lloyd understood, Crystal's head isn't right.
Crystal sat in her room when she heard Jay and Nya walking down the hallway,
"What do you think the mission is?" Jay asked
"I don't know. I guess we'll find out when we get there." Nya replied
'A mission? Am I going to do this?' Crystal wondered for little did anyone know, Crystal was having some dangerous thoughts and she looked at the note that she wrote and started to cry again.
Soon, Crystal heard the others leave, but she didn't know that Lloyd stayed behind as she grabbed her chair and tied a rope to the roof and around her neck. Lloyd went to check on Crystal, he went up to her room, slowly opened the door and nothing in the world could prepare him or take back what he just saw. Crystal just took a step off the chair, not noticing Lloyd, and when she expected to feel the rope around her neck, she felt something wrap around her legs, which prevented her from falling, and when she looked, she was Lloyd with terror in his eyes and Crystal started to cry so Lloyd carefully placed her down, minding the rope, and held her close as she cried her eyes out like waterfalls,
"I'm sorry, I just…I just want the pain to go away. I want to be with my family. Please don't hate me, please, cos I know Cole would." Crystal sobbed,
"Crystal, listen. I know you want the pain to go away, I know you want to be with your family, I have no reason to hate you and Cole would never in forever hate you, no matter what you do. I know you feel alone right now but you have me, Skylor, Kai, Nya, Jay, Zane, Pixal and Uncle Wu, plus don't forget your family back in Empraio. You can talk to anyone about it, we're here to help you. Ok beautiful?" Lloyd said in a calm, gentle tone as he placed his hand on Crystal's cheek and wiped away her tears then kissed her. Lloyd continued to make sure Crystal was ok.
Later, the others had returned and when Crystal heard the door, she got worried because the rope was still there but Lloyd threw a ninja star at it and the ninja star returned to him for the door was still open.
Soon, Lloyd went to the games room,
"Hey, how was the mission?" Lloyd asked the others,
"It was a success. All we had to do was check out some suspicious activity." Jay explained
"Where were you?" Nya asked
"Sensei wanted me to stay back with Crystal." Lloyd replied and the rest could understand why.
(I don't know what to write so I'm just going to do a tiny time skip, but just by a few days. Thanks J)
The ninjas were in the dining room, playing cards and since Nya was out, she decided to see if Crystal was doing ok.
All was quiet when they heard Nya scream loudly and since it was Nya, Kai and Jay were 1st up and 1st to the scene,
"Nya! What's wrong?" Jay asked but Nya just had her hands cupped to her mouth and looked into Crystal's room with horror then dug her face into her boyfriend's chest,
"Um Lloyd." Jay said and Lloyd looked into Crystal's room to see that she was unconscious, pools of blood were forming under her wrists and a knife was in her hand,
"Crystal!" Lloyd called as he quickly went to his girlfriend's side and luckily, she was still alive, "Someone quickly, call the hospital." He instructed as grabbed bandages from the first-aid kit and wrapped them around her wrists, instead of the old dirty ones that Crystal was using before, as Pixal alerted the hospital,
"The hospital is alerted and have an emergency crew ready and waiting." Pixal explained to Zane and Zane told the group for they couldn't hear Pixal.
Soon they were at the hospital, waiting on the doctor's results.
"Lloyd Garmadon?" the doctor asked out and Lloyd raise his hand and stood up, "It's a good thing you got her here now and not later otherwise she wouldn't have been as lucky." The doctor explained
"So she'll be ok?" Lloyd asked
"Yes but she'll be out for a few days for she has lost a lot of blood. How long have you been aware of her self-harming?" the doctor asked and Nya cringed when she heard 'self-harming',
"For about 2 months now." Lloyd answered and Nya's water nearly shot out of her nose and the others were just as surprised.
"Hm-mm. thank you Mr Garmadon." The doctor said as he jotted the info on a piece of paper and walked off.
"2 months?" Kai questioned sternly and Lloyd just simply pulled his mask over his face, to make it clear that he wasn't going answer any questions, and waited for the nurse to give the all clear for visitors.