Rydellington Oneshots (Discontinued)

Would She Have Done It?

Warnings: self-harm, mentions of suicide, graphic descriptions of blood, death

Prompt: Rydel and Ellington don't know that their daughter self-harms until they find out the hard way.

Requested by: R5ers_

"Emaline? Do you know where your brother went?" Rydel asks her daughter as she knocks on her bedroom door. When she attempts to twist the knob, it catches. It was unusual for Emaline to lock her bedroom door.

Rydel goes into the living room to see her husband, Ellington, sitting on the couch with their dog.

"Where's the key to Emaline's room? She locked her door."

Rydel has always been the overprotective mother, who worried over the smallest things. Though Emaline had recently turned 17, she still worried about her.

"I think it's on the top shelf in the kitchen. I'll get it for you." Ellington replies as he stands up, making his way into the kitchen. Rydel follows behind, seeing him lift the picture frame from the top shelf and pull a key out from underneath of it. Instead of giving it to Rydel, Ellington goes to Emaline's room, and unlocks the door, to see something he was not expecting to see.

Emaline was lying sprawled on the floor, a razor in her motionless hand, surrounded by a pool of her own blood. Her wrists had opened cuts on them, that were still spilling blood. Her hair was caked with blood, and a huge stain was on the knees of her white jeans.

"Emaline!" Rydel exclaims, running towards her daughter in fright, scared that she might have been dead.

"Emma." Ellington says quietly as he exits the room, before soon returning with a first aid kit. As Rydel hugs her daughter and tries to shake her awake, Ellington begins pulling antiseptic wipes and gauze from the first aid kit. As he begins to gently wipe away the blood on her wrists, he realizes that he feels no pulse.

"Rydel, don't panic, but call the cops. She has no pulse."

***

"Emaline Rydel Ratliff will be dearly missed. She was only 17 years old, and was self-harming without anyone knowing. In her diary entries that were found, she explained feelings of nobody caring, and the feeling of being alone. Her parents will miss her everyday, as will her siblings, and shall she rest in peace."

Emaline's funeral had just gotten over, as the hospital had pronounced her dead without any chance of survival at the scene. She had lost too much blood, and they were told that if they had entered the room two minutes earlier, she would've had a chance of surviving.

Rydel wasn't able to live with herself for years, until she finally found closure in the fact that it wasn't her fault. Emaline had made the decision herself. Ellington came to terms with it about a year before Rydel; as did her siblings. They still all miss her dearly to this day, and wonder;

Would she have done it if she would've known how many problems it would cause?