Windows

Chapter 39 : Nightmare

Chapter 39

Later...    

Rocky POV

I almost fell out of bed, waking up to the sound of someone screaming. I turned on the light on my nightstand and realized it was Riker who screamed. I've never seen someone look so terrified before.

"Riker, what happened?" I asked, quietly.

I saw the hall light go on. I could hear that people were awake. And then mom and dad appeared in our room.

"What happened?" Dad asked.

Riker got up and ran out of the room. I was guessing he was hiding in the bathroom again.

"Do you think he had a nightmare?" Dad asked.

"Probably. I can't really think of another reason he would've screamed," I said.

"We should go check on him," mom said.

"Can I handle it? He's my brother, you know," I said.

"Fine. But if anything happens, come wake us up, ok?" Mom asked.

"I will."

Mom and dad left and shut the hall light back off. I went down the hall to the bathroom. The door was closed, and I'm assuming locked too. I didn't want to waste time by knocking because I've already tried that today. So I grabbed the key above the door and unlocked it. And then I tried to open it.

"No, no, no! Stop! Don't come in!" Riker said, crying.

He pushed the door shut.

"Riker, are you ok?" I asked.

"Please just leave me alone."

"I can't. Mom and dad want me to make sure you're ok."

He didn't say anything else, so I tried to open the door again. And I got it open before he could stop me.

But it was my turn to look terrified.

He had a razor blade in his hand and he had blood dripping down his wrist.

"Riker-"

"You can't tell," he said, quietly.

I took a few steps forward into the bathroom and shut the door. And then I locked it too.

"What did you do?" I asked, very confused.

"Can we just not talk about it?"

"Riker, this is dangerous. Maybe I should tell mom and-"

"No! You can't! You need to promise me you won't! You can't tell them! Please, Rocky. Don't!"

"I won't tell them if you tell me what's going on."

Riker seemed frozen in his spot. So I took the razor blade out of his hand and threw it in the garbage. And I got out the first aid kit.

I couldn't understand why he would do this to himself, but I barely know him. Clearly he has a lot going on right now.

I took his hand, which was shaking slightly and then started cleaning his wrist with an alcohol wipe. I could tell it was hurting because he started squirming around.

Now that the blood was off, I could see a ton of scars on his wrist. He's done this before. A lot.

I gently bandaged up his wrist. The whole time he was just trembling harder and harder, and I could see him visibly shaking now.

I put the first aid kit away. Riker looked like he was fighting back more tears.

"Let's go back to our room," I said, putting my arm gently around him.