We're Not Alone

Chapter 14

Leo and I swing the doors open, leading into a surprisingly huge supply closet, Milo and Ben are sitting on the floor. Ben isn't crying, but he's still hyperventilating. Leo sits down to hug him, but Ben doesn't react.

"Ben, can you hear me?" Leo's eyes flicker between me and Milo, "He stopped talking to me, I think he's in shock, he told me not to touch him, it was too constricting" Milo says, Leo pulls away from Ben after hearing that.

Instantly, my entire body feels cold, wanting to vomit, he's having a paralyzing panic attack, the last time I had one it was bad, really bad, and seeing it takes me back.

I sit down in front of Ben, Milo, and Leo on either side of him. "He's um, he's having a panic attack, when they're really bad you can get sort of temporarily paralyzed." Both of the guys are watching me "When I got them, I could hear voices but couldn't process what they were saying right away, I also couldn't respond or move." Leo's expression changed slightly when I said I had them before. "Can I try something that helped me?"

They both nod. "Ben, I know you might not be able to understand what's happening, and I know how scary that is, but you're safe, Milo and Leo are here. I'm Scarlett, Leo's friend, we've had some classes together before." I want you to try and focus all your energy on your feet" I press down on the toes of his shoes lightly, lifting my fingers up, and pressing again every few seconds "If you focus on just your feet, nothing else, you can feel me tapping on your toes, forget the rest of your body, just focus on your toes" Leo and Milo are both staring at me, like they think I'm crazy.

After a minute I move my hands to his calves and then to his knees, tapping the same rhythm and telling him to focus each time I move my hands "Now I bet you can feel your feet from your toes to your knees, you don't need to move them, just feel them. Now Leo is gonna tap your thighs, and me and Milo are each gonna tap your fingers" I nod to each of them, them following what I say. After about 3 minutes we've repeated the process, Leo still tapping his thighs, Milo and I worked our way up to his shoulders. "Now I'm gonna tap your shoulders, Milo will tap your hands and Leo will tap your feet"

A few seconds later he takes Milo's hands and squeezes them. Leo and Milo both let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, now I know this part is scary, When it happened to me I didn't want to open my eyes, I didn't think I could, but I was also worried that when I did I would panic again, but there's no rush. The panic attack won't come back just because you open your eyes. You're moving your hands again, and the panic attack didn't restart." he opens and closes his mouth "I just- I'm embarrassed, the whole school saw me"

I nod, even though he can't see me. but relief has flooded Milo and Leo's faces after hearing him speak. "I'm really sorry Ben. But I promise when you open your eyes you won't go back there, you'll see we're in the supply closet, which Leo told me is your hang-out spot, your safe spot. And the only people here are Milo, Leo, and I"

We wait for a minute before his eyes flicker open. He takes a deep breath, looking around before holding his arms out for Milo and Leo, hugging them for a few moments before pulling back. He looks up at me "Thank you" I nod "It's no problem, I know you probably don't really want a stranger here for this, so I'll go" As I stand up Milo and Leo say "No" at the sometime as Ben drops their hands to grab my wrists. Milo chimes in "Could you stay, in case it happens again?" Leo nods and adds "Please?" I glance at Ben "You don't have to stay, but I want you to, you're the one who stopped it and you also got me to Milo" I nod sitting back down.

He tilts his head "How did you know to get Leo?" Leo glances at me confused as well "Oh uh, the poster, I handed them to Milo, I didn't want to throw them out in the cafeteria trash when everyone was there so I gave them to him." Milo hands one to Leo, who hasn't seen it yet. "You can't see Leo's face but the ring, it's Leo's ring." I glance at Leo "I took all the posters down, I don't think anyone else noticed, but I connected the dots."