Instinct ☪︎ BTS [vault!au]

07 - "glenn."

Trigger warning - Mentions of abuse

I opened the door to frightened Glen, who frantically invited himself in without a word; locking the metal door behind him rushingly and hugged me, crying into my chest.

"Wha- Glenn, buddy, what's wrong?"

He didn't say a word and cried harder, clutching my shirt for dear life. For a fourteen year old he was short, so my head rested atop his chestnut coloured head... My arms were wrapped around him for quite some time before he stuttered through a weak voice.

"H-he- they, my p-parents..."

"Hey, it's okay."

I rocked his small body back and fourth to try and calm him down at least a little bit which worked slowly but nonetheless worked.

"Glenn, it's okay, tell me why you're crying."

I pulled his head from my chest and looked at his puffy red eyes, the boys lip trembling; that's when I noticed he had a busted lip and a nasty purple eye.

"G-Glenn. What happened? Tell me."

I sat him in the couch to try and get something out of him; instead of him feeling obliged to cry.

"My parents... they f-found out I had t-this.."

He spoke through hiccups before pulling a handgun out of his sweater pocket. I immediately grabbed it from his shaking hands, checking to see if there were any rounds in it, and sure enough; it was fully loaded.

"Glenn, why do you have this? Where did you find this?"

I asked worriedly as he was looking at the trashed floor, his eyes wandering the quarters.

"Hey. Answer me."

I snapped my fingers in his face causing him to flinch slightly; coming back to reality before speaking with a more even tone.

"I stole it... from Toby."

"You- Wha- Wait. You stole this- From Toby?!"

I gestured the gun whilst raising it momentarily, surprised that this kid could pull off such a stunt without getting caught-

"Wait. Your parents found out?"

"Yeah..."

"And... did they do- this?"

I pointed to his roughed up face and he nodded sadly as he sucked on his bloodied bottom lip; tears threatening to fall again. I embraced him in a hug before they could, rubbing his back.

"This wasn't the first time this happened was it, they did this before..."

"Yeah... I wanted to- I wanted to protect myself, like you. You're strong and can fight; I wanted to be tough and stand up for myself like you and your friends... but I c-couldn't."

I could hear the pain in his voice, I could imagine the lump in his throat that ached and was dreading to be let loose... I felt everything he felt before and experienced it first hand. Only I didn't steal a gun; I stole a butterknife...

"Hey. You did great, Okay? You did better than what most people would do which would be to endure it... but you stole a gun. I'm still trying to imagine how in the hell you managed to steal a gun from Toby who is like five feet taller than you but one thing at a time..."

He pushed my chest away, a hint of a smile but quipped back anyway; keeping his stubborn composure.

"I'm not that short."

"No, no, you're pretty short."

"Screw you."

He crossed his arms; smiling. Thank god...