An Apocalyptic Invasion

a confession

I'm an alcoholic.
It's not something that's really easy to say, but I finally found the courage to.
I definitely had a feeling that I had a problem with drinking, but I didn't find out until it was too late.
It was a couple weeks after Delilah arrived, and she told me that our other sisters stayed with our mom because, you know, they were only eight and six respectively.
I did plan to visit her in the future, but I was so caught up with everything that I didn't have time to do that.
Fortunately, in a different story, I saw her for the first time in eleven years.
Back to this, I had just woken up and decided to go the winery.
I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going.
As I was chugging down a bottle, I found myself feeling the same dizziness I did a few weeks before.
What was worse in this case, however, was that I was on the top of the stairs leading up to the first floor.
I tried my best to fight it, but it eventually got to the better of me. I tumbled down the stairs and landed with a heavy thud onto the ground floor.
Due to the alcohol, I didn't really feel any pain- but I was definitely stunned.
I was so obliterated that I couldn't find the will to stand up. I just laid there, on the ground and waiting for the floor to stop spinning.
It probably attracted the attention of my friends, but at that time I did not care at all.
Through the blurriness, I saw Riley prop me up and take me to my room.
She kissed me on the forehead and left. Then she came back with some snacks.
"Eat."
"I'm not hungry."
"You haven't eaten anything in the last eighteen hours."
I was about to refuse again when I saw the stubbornness in her eyes. I sighed and took the goldfish.
I was still conscious of everything that was happening, but I was definitely starting to pass out.
Seeing my head loll forward, she grabbed the snacks and took me outside.
"Where are we going?"
"To the hospital."
"What?" I yanked my hand away from her.
"You need help."
"I don't. I- I can fix this."
She raised her eyebrow at me.
"Well, um... I can, you know, stop drinking."
"We both know that that's not going to happen."
We ended up in the emergency room.
To cut it short, the nurse gave me a pamphlet for an alcoholic meeting- the ones where you sit in a circle to relate with other people.
"I think it's a good idea," Riley said as I was flipping through it.
"Really? Like I'm gonna stand up and say, 'I'm Carlos and I'm an alcoholic.' Yeah, not gonna happen."
"At least think about it."
I snorted. "No, Riley. I only drank ONE beer."
"But it was only a couple of weeks after the last one."
"Okay, and?"
She sighed and tapped her fingers on the wheel.
"You can die. You know that, right?"
"I already cheated death multiple times. I'm sure I'll be fine."
She didn't say anything after that, but I could tell that she wasn't convinced.

The next night, Todd woke up to someone falling down onto the floor.
When he peeked out of the doorway, he saw Carlos staggering upwards and stumbling towards the stairs.
"Yo."
He jerked his head to him.
"You good?"
Carlos wiped his mouth. "Yeah. Just... just getting some air."
"Okay."
He caught a glimpse of a beer bottle in his hand, but he didn't say anything.
Todd got back in his room and went to bed, not completely sure why Carlos was out there.

I woke up the next morning to see someone running down to the ground floor.
Riley and Sam were in the lobby talking with Todd when Carlos vomited into the trash can.
"Carlos? You okay?"
He raised his head to look at Jeremy. "Yeah."
The girls exchanged a worried glance as Carlos stumbled outside, wiping his mouth.
A while later, Riley beckoned me to her room.
"What's up?"
"I'm worried about Carlos."
"Really?"
She nodded and sat in her recliner. "This is the second night in a row that he woke up drunk."
"Seriously?"
"I tried to convince him to go to a meeting, but he refused."
"What did he say?"
"'I already cheated death multiple times. I'm sure I'll be fine.'"
"He's right, though."
"About being fine? I highly doubt it."
I sighed. "How bad is he doing right now?"
She twisted her bracelet. "I... he doesn't look too good."
"But you're confident that he'll survive?"
She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "God, Tommy. I really don't know, but... I hope he does."
I went to her side and kissed her. "I don't either. We just have to hope that he figures this out by himself."
We heard a commotion and rushed to the lobby.
Jeremy, Sam, and Dakoda had Carlos pinned to the ground. He was yelling defiantly and struggling under them.
"What the fuck is going on?"
Sam looked up at me. "He punched Dakoda after he asked him if he's okay."
"Oh my god. Are you okay?"
Dakoda nodded at Riley with a grim expression. "Yeah. I dodged it just in time."
Carlos's struggles were starting to get weaker. He lay under them, defeated and panting.
Sam lowered her head to him. "Carlos, you need help. You almost hit your friend!"
He glared up at her with an anger I've never seen from him. "I'm fine," he snapped. "It was just a little oversight."
"This same thing happened yesterday," Riley said.
"It's only one day," he said defensively. "It's not like it's every day."
But it was. After that, he always staggered into the HQ, obliterated on alcohol and with no explanation as to where he's been.
Eventually, it got to the point where he would have mental breakdowns and lash out at almost everyone who even said a word about his wellbeing.
I say 'almost' because he stayed away from Marissa the entire time and never got angry at her when she asked if he was okay. He still had that kind person inside of him.
After days of him stumbling into the lobby reeking with the smell of alcohol, it all came to a crashing stop.
He limped in like normal, but he suddenly stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
I was on my phone and looked up when I heard him make a small sound of pain.
"What's wrong?"
He slowly turned towards me, his gaze full of panic. "My heart."
"What about it?"
"It... my chest hurts."
Then he yelled and collapsed to the ground holding his chest.
"GUYS!"
My friends came rushing out and kneeling by his side.
He was drooling, the saliva running down his throat. He stopped rolling around in pain and lay still on the floor.
"He's not breathing," Riley said. "Jeremy, call 911."
As he dialed the number, she broke down in tears and hugged Carlos.
The paramedics arrived and took him away in an ambulance.
"Who's going to tell Marissa?"
"I will."
Jeremy stared at me. "But she's your sister."
"Exactly." Riley came to my side, and I could tell she was fighting not to cry again. "She needs to hear it from someone in her family."
I went up to Carlos's room where she was.
As soon as she saw me, she asked, "What's wrong?"
"Um... I don't know how to tell you this, but..."
"Did anything happen? Where's Carlos?"
"He's in the hospital."
"What do you mean?"
"He's been drinking heavily for the past few days, and he had a heart attack just now."
"WHAT?" She hefted herself up.
"But the doctors are treating him! He'll be fine."
"How are you sure about that?" she snapped. "He could be dying for all we know!"
"Look, they'll tell us if something's wrong with him or not."
"Take me to him."
"But you're pregnant."
"I'd risk a miscarriage if it meant seeing my fiancee while he's in the hospital."
Long story short, I drove her to the hospital, where she ran past surprised nurses and into his room.
Through the open door, I could see all the tubes hooked up to him and Marissa crying at his side.
He was awake by now, and even though he smiled at her his eyes were empty. I wasn't sure if he was completely there.
When I got back home, my friends swarmed me with a lot of questions.
"He's awake."
Sam sighed with relief.
Riley, on the other hand, grabbed my arm. "But...?"
"Yeah, is there something else?"
I looked at Jeremy. "I don't think he'll recover mentally for a long time."
Dakoda frowned. "What is THAT supposed to mean?"
"Let's just say he'll become more... violent when he comes back."
Marissa suddenly appeared in the entrance behind me.
"Wha- how did you get here so fast?"
"Don't ask." Her gaze swept the group. "Why did nobody tell me about his drinking?"
Everyone averted their gaze. "You were pregnant, so we thought-"
"Thought what? That I wouldn't have the time to worry about him? You do realize that we're ENGAGED, right?"
"Yes," Jeremy mumbled.
"If I lose my daughter because I was reckless, then so be it. But don't even think for one second that I wouldn't be concerned."
With that said, she stormed up the stairs and slammed the door to the room shut.
"Well," Dakoda commented. "That was eventful."
"She has the right to be angry."
I sighed. "You're right, Sam. I think she's worried as well."
"We all are," Riley assured me.
"I didn't think she would be that mad, though," Jeremy admitted.
"Neither of us did. All we got to focus on is Carlos."
The weekend came, and I received a text from him that they let him leave.
When I went to pick him up, he still had an IV tube attached to his arm.
"Hey, man."
"Here to pick me up?"
"Seems like it."
He gave me a small smile. "What are you waiting for? Bring me back home."
Carlos was swarmed by the group as soon as he stepped foot into the building.
Laughing, he said, "Okay, okay! I can only answer one question at a time!"
"What did the doctors say?"
His smile melted as he turned to me. "If I continue drinking, there is no turning back. I will die."
"So you'll stop drinking?"
He looked at Riley with his empty gaze. "Yeah, I have to. It's what you wanted to hear, isn't it?"
He slowly walked upstairs and into his room.
I watched him go. Although he said he would stop drinking, I had a foreboding feeling that he would find another way to hurt himself even more.