Dementophobia • tyler joseph •

thirteen // you're breaking down

--Tanner's P.O.V--

Courtney has been off her medication for a week.

Ever since we saw her music teacher at Starbucks, she had been acting different. She was becoming distant again. Ginger even told me that she started locking herself in her room like she did when she first came back home.

We were all worried, especially her brothers and I. We didn't want her to start getting worse. Besides, if she did there had to be a reason.

Maybe there was something she wasn't telling us? Did something happen at the hospital that her family was never informed about?

I wish I knew the answer, but I wanted to give Courtney the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that she wasn't getting worse, but all my hopes were dashed when Ginger let me in the house.

I was automatically greeted by screaming and crying.

Ginger was out of breath and her eyes were widened as she ranked a hand through her hair.

"What is going on?" I practically had to yell for her to hear me over what seemed to be Courtney's screams.

"It's just like the week before she got enrolled in the mental hospital," she explained. "I think she's having a breakdown. She's been acting weird and today, for some reason, she just snapped. Mom is upstairs right now, trying to get in her room. Courtney locked the door."

That's when a thought hit me.

"Ginger," I said, darting up the spiral staircase. "I have an idea."

Courtney's crying and screaming seemed to intensify as I stepped into her bathroom. It was horrifying.

"What are you doing, Tanner?" Ginger asked, covering her eyes.

"Courtney told me one time that she always hides an extra key to her room in the her bathroom. It's in an empty shampoo bottle where nobody will bother it."

I threw open the white cabinet doors under the sink before grabbing a red shampoo bottle that was at the very back. I twisted the cap and turned it upside down.

A small silver key fell into my hand.

"Do not tell Courtney that you know about this key, alright?" I said, turning around to face Ginger. "There's a reason why only I know."

She nodded. Mrs. Akehurst was outside her oldest daughter's door when we stepped into the hallway. She was terrified and I could understand why.

The last time Courtney had a breakdown was at her house five years ago. Eli and I had baseball together, so I came home with him after and practice, and I honestly didn't know all the details of that day.

I didn't know if Courtney had a bad day at school or if the breakdown just happened. I just remembered her screams and her father, brothers, and myself rushing up the stairs to her room. She never locked her door back then. It was easy to calm her down that day, but that day also proved that she desperately needed help.

Mrs. Akehurst believed that when her daughter came home she would be perfectly fine and be the person she was before. That just wasn't the case. If Courtney didn't want to get better, she didn't have too. It would just take one or two days of her not taking her medication and everything returned back to the way it was five years ago.