Dreams

Reaching the breaking point

Michaels POV

When I woke up from sleeping on the chair, my neck and back ached. I got up, and decided to go to my bedroom to sleep more comfortably for the rest of the night. When I reached my door, I realized that it had been broken…wtf? How did I not notice that? ... I was too caught up in safe-proofing the house for Claire, I guess.

Slowly opening the door, I saw the wood shards littering the floor. I sighed, and scooped most of them up. I could clean the rest in the morning.

I walked over to my bed, and lay down, once again falling asleep.

*the next morning*

When I awoke this time, I felt refreshed. I walked out of my room and across the hall toward the bathroom. As I tried to open the door, I found it locked, but there was no light coming from under the door.

“Claire?” I called out. I heard her whimper a little.

“Y-yeah?” she called back, her voice shaking.

“Are you okay?” I asked, something told me she wasn’t.

“Yes, I-I’m fine,”

“Why don’t you have the lights on?”

“I..Uh…I don’t know,”

“Claire, open the door,”

“No, Michael, give me a minute, okay?”

“Claire, I’m not asking again, open the door,” I said, but, of course, she didn’t.

Remembering that I had a spare key to all the rooms, I went and grabbed the one for the bathroom. Opening the door, I saw something that I had hoped I would never see.

[Warning! The following may be triggering]

Claire was seated on the counter with one of the wood shards in her hand. It was cutting into her wrist and arm, where so many cuts and scars already lay.

She looked up and dropped the wood she was holding.

“Its not what it looks like?” she said, but it sounded more like a question.

“What the hell Claire!?” I grabbed her un-harmed arm and dragged her over to the sink. I ran cold water, and cleaned the arm that was bleeding. After wrapping it again, I pulled her into the living room, and made her sit on the couch.

“Ill be right back,” I said, going to the bedroom where the rope was. She was going to hate me for this, but at least she wouldn’t be able to hurt herself. I returned to the living room, and grabbed her wrists.

“What are you doing?” she asked, obviously confused.

“Keeping you safe,” I said, starting to wrap the rope around her wrists.

“What? No! Stop it!” she tried pulling away from me, but it didn’t work. Eventually, I tied the rope, leaving her wrists bound together.

“There, not you cant hurt yourself anymore,” As I spoke, she glared at me. Yeah, she was mad.

“Seriously? You’re really doing this?”

“Yes,” I said simply, she rolled her eyes and looked away from me.

“Claire, you have to understand, I don’t want you doing this anymore!”

“Michael…”

“What?”

“Do us both a favor right now, and don’t talk to me,”

Ouch, that kind of hurt. But if she wanted to be like that, then let her. She’d come around sooner or later. I walked to the kitchen, making some food for us. I came back, setting the bowl of soup in front of her.

“Here, you need to eat,” I said.

“What? Are you going to feed me?” she said in a sarcastic tone.

“I guess I have to,”

“I’m not hungry,”

“Claire! You haven’t eaten anything in days! You need to eat!”

“No,”

“Please?” I asked, but she shook her head and turned away from me. I sighed, this wasn’t going anywhere.

I sat on the couch on the opposite side of Claire. The tv was playing some show, but yet again, I wasn’t really paying attention. The door opened, and Chandler walked in.

“There’s this new thing that people do, its called knocking,” I said.

“Cool, does it look like I care?” Chandler responded, and looked over at Claire. His face scrunched up, and he looked like he saw something horrible.

Oh yeah, I didn’t cover her arms with a jacket or anything…whoops.

“She cut herself again?” he asked

“Yeah, but I stopped her before it got really bad,”

He just sighed, looking like he wanted to say something.

“Why?” he asked after a few minutes passed.

“Why what?”

“Why did you stop her?”

“Because I couldn’t let her kill herself!” did he really just ask me that?

“Why not?”

“Seriously!? Wouldn’t you have stopped her?”

“Nope, if she wanted to do it, why should I stop her?”

This guy was unbelievable.

“You know, I don’t really think I need you around anymore,” I stated.

“Okay, whatever you say. I’ll leave if that’s what you want, but you and I both know you’re going to end up calling me sooner or later,” he smirked. Wow, he really was cocky.

“Goodbye, Chandler,” I said, and he nodded and turned around, leaving once again.

“Michael?” Claires voice said.

“Yeah?”

“Can you untie me?”

“Claire…I don’t think so. I don’t want you hurt anymore,”

“Look, I promise I wont. I know, I know, I promised last time too, but I really mean it this time,” her voice sounded really sincere.

“Fine…but if you do it again--“ she cut me off.

“Yeah, I know, youll tie my wrists again,”

I sighed, and walked over, taking the rope off her.

“Thank you,” she said with a small smile. At least she wasn’t mad anymore.