Trigger

Ch. 4 - No Stitches

when he arrived, james slid his phone out of his pocket and dialed aleks one more time. 

it rang and rang, and finally hit his voicemail again, something he had grown used to hearing in the past 12 hours.

"shit," james uttered under his breath as he approached the front door and shoved his phone in his back pocket. "there's no way around this, i guess." 

he approached the door, slowing his pace from what it was earlier. he was trying to calm himself down. deep breaths. deep breaths. aleks was probably just sleeping. it's so early after all. he is okay. he's perfectly okay. there's no need to worry.

mindlessly, he knocked at the door. right after, he realized eddie was out, and the door was locked. god, he was clueless sometimes.

"aleks!" james yelled loud enough to wake up the whole street. maybe it would wake him up, but he doubted it. so he tried again, louder this time. "aleksandr!!"

a few moments later, after no response, he figured he had to find a different way in. maybe the back door? or would he have to so some parkour? he hoped not. it was definitely way too early for that kind of shit.

he made his way to the back door. to his surprise, the door opened with ease. but due to the force he put on it as he fully expected it to be locked, he lunged fowards and face first onto the floor of the apartment with a loud thud. his hands broke the fall, but it made his wrists ache as he tried to pull himself to his knees.

"god," james whispered as he raised himself to his feet, using the wall of the hallway to steady himself. his head was still pounding, and he regretted ditching those painkillers after his shower.

"aleksandr!" he shouted again, hoping his friend would hear him this time; but obviously to no avail. the house was so silent you could hear a pin drop. maybe eddie took chef with him? it was never this quiet in their apartment. at least not when james was here.

james breathed in a huge chestful of air and made his way upstairs. his heart felt like it had stopped beating, and he felt like his head was spinning in circles. telling himself that aleks was okay just made him panic more and more.

he reached aleks' door, and exhaled deeply. "aleks?" he asked, placing his ear on flat on the door. he knocked gently as he reached to open the door. he took a peek inside as the door nudged open. but he saw nothing. he stepped inside the room, looking around for where he might be. he snatched up the covers and when he found no one underneath, he let out a low sigh of relief, but also worry.

"god dammit, where did you fucking go?" james said in a muffled voice. he stormed out of aleks' room and moved down the hall, and opened eddie's door. no one was in there, either. it seemed like james had driven to a seemingly empty house. 

"you fucker, if you left, i swear..." a heavy sigh escaped his lips as he headed down the hall to leave. then he heard something from the other room, making him stop like a deer in headlights.

it sounded like a muffled whimper in pain from all the way down the hall. but then he realized. he had checked every room but the bathroom. that's where it had to have come from. 

"aleks?" james' voice cracked in worry. he started practically ran to the bathroom door and shoved it open with no hesitation. his eyes widened while he stared down what was in front of him. what he saw was apalling. 

aleks was in a black wifebeater and gym shorts, lying in the bathtub. his eyes were half-lidded and the water was completely red. his face was rested on the edge of the bathtub, and a bucket laid itself right next to his face. it was filled with what looked like blood-filled spit. aleks' breathing was violently heavy; it filled the air as james took it all in. huge slashes laid themselves right in the middle of aleks' wrists, leading vertically all the way up to his elbows.