Demons Are A Guy's Best Friend

Chapter 3

The next month is rather eventful. Rhett has dropped out of high school, against his brother's wishes, due to all the bullying and harassment from the populars. Raeven has been coming around every day but instead of tormenting him, she tries to understand him, and help him feel better. Rhett still refuses to go to therapy. Gray cut back his work hours so he can spend more time with his brother. Rhett got a job at the local music/comic book store. Emotionally, Rhett hasn't gotten any better, but he hasn't gotten worse either. And surprisingly his parents haven't come looking for him. But that was about to change.

It's a Tuesday afternoon, Rhett is bored out of his mind at work, so to pass time he gets a guitar off the shelf, sits back behind the counter with his feet propped up, and starts to play "I'm Not Okay (I promise)" by My Chemical Romance. Half-way through his jam session Raeven walks in, "Hey." Rhett stops playing and looks up. "Don't stop playing on my account." "I need to get back to work anyway. What are you doing here?" Rhett asks, placing the guitar back in its place. "What I can't come hang out with you?" Raeven asks. "I told you we aren't friends, and we're not going to be." Rhett says. "Why not?" Raeven asks, "Because I'm a demon? I'm trying to help you!" "I don't want your help!" Rhett yells. "But you need it." Raeven says. Rhett opens his mouth to reply back, but his cell phone rings, cutting him off. "Hello?" Rhett answers. "Hi, is this Rhett Parker?" A woman's voice asks. "Yes." Rhett replies, drawing out the 's', suspiciously. "I'm sorry to inform you that your brother, Grayson Parker, has passed away." She says. "Wh-what?" Rhett asks, disbelievingly, "How?" "He was in a drunk-driving accident, he died upon impact." The woman responds, "His body is currently in the hospital mortuary at Northwest Hospital and Medical Center, if you would like to see him." "I-I'll be there as soon as I can." Rhett replies. "I'm sorry for your loss." The woman says, before hanging up. And with that Rhett races out of the store without saying a word to Raeven.

Rhett makes it to the hospital and tells the receptionist why he's there. A nurse leads him down to the morgue. Rhett hesitantly walks in, unprepared for what he might see. He enters the room and approaches the man there, "H-hi. I-I'm Rhett Parker, here to see my brother Gray." The man nods and walks over to one of the doors on the wall and opens it, pulling out a table with a body covered by a sheet on it. "I'm sorry for your loss. Take as much time as you need." He says in a thick British accent, which is odd considering he looks like he's from India. Rhett walks over to the table and pulls the sheet back. He instantly starts sobbing. He stares at his brother's pale face; it's only been a few hours but the colour's already started to drain out. "Why'd you have to leave me, Gray?!" Rhett says, clutching onto the dead body, "You were all I had left, what am I supposed to do now?" He stays like that for several hours, no one daring to interrupt him in his grieving, but he eventually has to leave and go back to the, now lonely, apartment. "Why'd you have to leave me?" He asks one last time before finally letting his brother go and leaving.

He finally gets home after an exhausting walk home. He doesn't do anything but numbly walk to his room and do something he hasn't done since he moved in, he takes out his box of destruction and begins the process of harming himself in every way possible. He just wants to feel anything but the crushing sadness he feels when he thinks of his brother. Rhett cuts and burns himself until there's no unharmed skin left, then he repeats moving to his chest, stomach,thighs, and legs. With what energy he has left he carelessly patches himself up, takes a shower to get rid of all the excess blood, then proceeds to fall into Gray's bed and cry himself to sleep.

Weeks go by rather slowly after that but Rhett soon finds himself on his way to his brother's funeral. Rhett walks into the funeral home, immediately going to the casket at the front of the room. His parents are standing next to it, they glare at him when they see them. He avoids their gaze, continuing on to where his brother peacefully lies. Rhett sighs and the waterworks start once again. He glances at Gray with sadness in his eyes, "I wish it was me in there instead of you. You have no idea how much I need you." The service soon starts and the room becomes silent. After everyone finishes saying their goodbyes they all head outside to watch the casket get lowered into the ground. Rhett is staring at the hole in the ground, anxiously awaiting the moment he truly won't be able to see his brother again. He seriously thinks about jumping in the hole with him and having the rest bury him alive, but he knows at least one person here would feel obligated to drag him out before that happened.

It's after the funeral and the only people remaining are Rhett and his parents. "So you think you can just run away from your problems, is that it?" His mother asks harshly. Rhett doesn't respond and keeps staring at the gravestone with his brother's name on it. His mother grabs his face and yanks his head up to make him look at her, her nails breaking the skin, "You look at me when I speak to you, and answer me when I ask you a question! Understood?!" "Yes." Rhett muttered. "Did you honestly believe that you could run away and we wouldn't find you?!" His dad yells, punching him. Rhett's eyes start to well up with tears. "You are so stupid! You cause way more grief than you're worth!" His mother shouts at him, she backhands him hard enough to send Rhett to the grass, her ring cutting his cheek open, "You don't want to live with us?! Fine! We never cared about you anyway!" Rhett is laying on the ground, holding his cheek, crying. She throws a kick to him, resulting in a sickening cracking sound, that definitely fractured a couple ribs. "You are a pathetic excuse for a son, Gray was much better than you. It should be you buried under the ground." His father says, sending a hard kick to Rhett's stomach, before leaving. "It should've been you." His mother says, hatred dripping from her voice, "we can live without you." Rhett stays on the cold, hard ground sobbing by his brother's gravestone until he falls asleep.

The next day Rhett wakes up next to Gray's grave. He's covered by a blanket and figured one of the grounds keepers took pity on him, didn't have the heart to make him leave, and covered him so he wouldn't freeze to death. He gets up, the cold air stinging his face, and the bruising on his abdomen making it hard to walk out of the cemetery. Rhett goes back to the apartment because he just wants to be alone. He calls into work and tells them he won't be coming in for a while. He doesn't eat either, he hasn't since he got the news about his brother. Rhett has continued to harm himself every night and sometimes throughout the day.

All day, Gray's neighbors have been stopping by, sending their condolences and giving Rhett food. Now he's lying face down on Gray's bed, just needing to be close, listening to the Seattle rain, when Raeven comes in, "Hey, Rhett." He merely hums in response, but it's muffled by his pillow and barely audible. He's in too much pain to move, emotionally and physically. His face hurts where it's swollen and cut open from both hits last night, reminding him to muster up the energy to fix it later. "You okay, Rhett?" She asks moving closer to the bed, sitting next to him. At the sudden movement Rhett groans and clutches his side in pain. Raeven hops up off the bed immediately, "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! I didn't even know you were hurt!" She rants quickly. Rhett doesn't say anything, just goes back to silently moping. "Everything okay?" Raeven asks, noticing Rhett's strange behavior. "Don't wanna talk about it." Rhett mumbles. "Okay." Raeven says a little disappointedly. She drags a chair over to the side of his bed and sits next to him, "So what are we gonna do today?" "Nothing, I don't want to go anywhere." Rhett says. Raeven glances around the room, "Why are you in Gray's room?" Rhett lets out a small whimper at the mention of his brother's name, the tears flowing again. "Rhett?" Raeven asks, concerned, "What's wrong?" "It should've been me." Rhett cries. "What should have been you?" Raeven asks, confused. "Gray's dead, but he shouldn't be. I should be the one buried six feet under, not him." Rhett sobs. Raeven's expression immediately saddens, "I'm so sorry, Rhett, that's awful." She moves to sit next to him on the bed, "I'm gonna hug you, okay?" The only way Rhett lets her touch him is if she states what she's gonna do first. Being abused all his life has really taken a tole on him. Rhett nods, rolling over to rest his head on her shoulder. She hugs him tightly, yet comfortingly, as her shirt becomes wet with Rhett's tears. He holds onto her like his life depends on it. "I'm so sorry, Rhett, you don't deserve this." Raeven says. Rhett's sleeve pulled up a little bit when he wrapped his arms around her, revealing what he's been doing too often lately. "Oh Rhett, what have you done to yourself?" Raeven rhetorically asks, gently running her fingers over the fresh scars. Rhett just cries harder. Raeven has never seen him so broken, she soon finds herself crying as well. She rubs his back soothingly, "I know it hurts, but you shouldn't hurt yourself, it's not what Gray would want." "I just want to feel anything but this." Rhett sobs out. "I know, I wish I could help make things better." Raeven says. Rhett nods holding onto Raeven even tighter, "Please don't leave me alone." He pleads. "I won't." Raeven replies, as he falls asleep, "I'll always be right here."