Chapter 12

"What's going on?" Theresa inquired, as everyone began to enter the tragic scene.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. It doesn't ever matter anymore." Alex wanted to run upstairs to her room so badly, but she knew even if she tried, she wouldn't be able to even make it past the hallway.

"No it's not nothing! And it does matter!" Dean snapped again, regretting the harshness in his voice. He calmed down, before gently whispering. "Alex, if you don't stop, you're going to die. Please don't do this to me. Please don't leave me. I love you more than I could love anyone or anything else in this world. You are my world."

"I love you too, but you don't understand! I want to die!"

Those were the dreaded words. The words that made everyone struggle to hold their tears back. The words that made everyone speechless. Alex wanted to die. Something they had never expected from her. She was always so happy and humorous, enjoying every moment of life. But now, now she wanted that same life to end.

Max finally spoke up, his thirteen-year-old mind so confused. "You don't mean it right? You're just saying that. You're just joking."

Alex didn't know how to respond to him. He was so young, too young to know the truth. So instead, she looked down, her body trembling.

Theresa took a deep breath, before replying to her son. "Max, why don't you go hang out in the SubStation right now?"

He didn't answer, but he did as he was told, holding his tears back until her was alone. But Justin and Juliet followed him, trying their hardest to comfort him.

"Do you mean it, Alex?"

Alex closed her eyes for a moment, trying to pretend it weren't true. "I…I don't…yes."

"Please, Alex. Please don't do this. Why? Why would you want to die?" Dean's eyes began to water with tears.

"You don't understand what I've been through. I'm tired of living like this! I can't keep living like this! I just can't! Everyday I used to go to school dreading what were to happen! I went to school everyday wondering if it were going to be my last day! Or if I were going to be raped? Or taken away? Do you know what's like to live like that for a year?!" She collapsed to the floor sobbing, as horrific memories flashing through her mind. She shut her eyes shut, struggling to get the scenes out of her head. "Stop it! Just leave me alone! Stop, stop, stop!"

Everyone exchanged worried looks, as she suffered on the floor before them. Dean bent down, attempting to comfort her, but didn't succeeded. "Alex…"

"Don't touch me!"

Nobody knew what to do. Anything they did only made it worse. So they waited until it ended. Until she finally calmed down. But she sat on the floor, sobbing. Dean sat down besides her, pulling her onto his lap. She leaned into her shoulder, continuing to sob. He rubbed her back, struggling to hold back his tears.

Theresa took Jerry's hand, leading him into their bedroom. She sat on the bed, letting a tear slip from her eye. "I don't know what to do anymore."

His eyes wandered to room, searching for an answer. But he didn't know what to do either. They never dealt with something like this before. It never even crossed their minds. "She needs help. And she needs it quick."

"Samantha said they were going to prescribe her on anti-depressants."

"She needs more than that. She's hit rock bottom. It's worse than that, if possible. She's having flashbacks where nobody can even move or she flips out. She's severely depressed and traumatized." Theresa nodded in agreement, grabbing the laptop from the desk. She opened open Google, before typing in, "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." "What are you doing?"

"I think she has PTSD."

"She can't have something else. She doesn't want to hear that she has Anorexia, Depression, and now PTSD."

"It says all three illnesses of connected. One of the causes is sexual and physical abuse. Here are the symptoms- re-experiencing the traumatic event, such as, intrusive memories, flashbacks and nightmares dealing with the event, feeling intense distress when reminded of the event, intense physical reactions when reminded of the event. She has all of those."

"What's the next symptom?" Jerry wanted to deny she had PTSD, but he highly doubted it was false.

"Avoidance and emotional numbing, such as, avoiding things that remind you of the event, loss of interest in activities or life, feeling detached from others, and sense of limited future. Again, she has all of those."

"Next."

"Increased arousal, such as, difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritability or outburst of anger, difficulty concentrating, and feeling jumpy or easily startled. Again, she has all of these."

"Any other symptoms?"

Theresa nodded, reading directly from the site. "Other common symptoms include, anger, guilt, shame, self blame, depression, hopelessness, suicidal thoughts or feelings, feeling alienated or alone, feeling betrayal, and substance abuse. She has every symptom but substance abuse."

"How do we treat this?"

"It says, to seeks help right away, such as a therapist, which we have. Oh here, treatments include therapy, family therapy, and medication."

"So how do we tell her?" Jerry closed the laptop, sliding behind him, and wrapping his arm around his wife.

"We don't. We talk to Samantha first. We'll talk to her tomorrow, with Max. Dean and Justin can stay home with her. But Max really needs to talk to someone. He shouldn't have to deal with this at such a young age."

"I just wish there was something we could do for her."

Review! Sorry about the major delay. This doesn't usually happen, except my computer needed to be fixed so I wasn't able to update. Thanks for your cooperations.