Headsets For Fear

PRESENT 19 : BENJAMIN

Fifty days after

Benji had never seen Callan, though he had heard about him from Maverick and Kate. Both of them had met him before.

From what he had heard, Callan was a cool person. He was jovial, and talked about a lot of stuff. The guy he saw didn't look like that at all. He had a deep, serious voice and had that expression which gave you the hint that he was interested in small talk at all.

At the same time, he looked sad. It wasn't a momentary kind of sadness. It was something that was the inherent nature of a person.

"She's indoors, right?" Callan asked.

Benji nodded. "Yeah. Her room is the second one from the left on the second floor. She went there a few minutes before."

Callan nodded. "Thank you."

He wordlessly strode towards the house.

Rick wrapped an arm around Benji, eyebrows creased. "What the fuck's up with them? Did they have a fight?"

He looked at Kaitlin.

She shook her head. "No idea."

"Let's just stay here," Benji suggested. "And leave them alone."

Rick nodded in agreement.

They had only been waiting for a few moments, when Callan rushed outside, looking as if he had seen the worst thing in his life. He ran towards Rick and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Quick," he gasped, his voice shaking, "We need to take Nora to the hospital."

To the hospital?

"Why? What happened?" Kaitlin asked. Her voice sounded unnaturally shrill.

Callan removed his palms from Rick's shoulder. "I think she tried to kill herself. Her wrist is cut. There is a knife beside her. There's a lot of blood. I already called the ambulance."

Saying this, he ran towards her room once again.

Rick gulped. His face had grown sickly pale. Benji felt his own hands growing cold and numb.

Kaitlin had already started to follow Callan. He and Rick followed suit.
●○●○●○●○

It had seemed to Benji that life was slowly getting back to normal. He almost never thought about his suicide attempt or Drake's mysterious death. He had a stable job, and the website was growing more and more popular. He was envisioning a happy future with Kaitlin.

All of that went up in smoke when the strongest person in his life gave up.

Nora's eyes were wide open, and Benji felt as if he were reprimanding them. But her face was pale, and she didn't budge even though he shook her hand multiple times. She didn't flinch when his tears profusely fell on her hand.

Kaitlin had already begun cleaning up the puddle of blood which had been formed by the cut. Rick had gone to the bathroom adjacent to the room. Benji wasn't sure what he was doing there, vomiting or searching for first - aid.

Callan remained by Nora's side. Once the ambulance arrived, he slowly picked her up and handed her over to the people who had come from the hospital.

Had he looked the same when he cut up his wrist in the hotel?

They rushed to the nearest hospital, and Nora was taken to the ICU. Kaitlin had not come with them.

The moments passed. No news came forth.

Rick grasped Benji's hand. It was colder than his, and drier. "Do you know about anything that was bothering her? Or anything bad that happened?"

Benji shook his head. "No." But then, he had never asked her. He always took it for granted that she was okay.