❝In which two people call up a helpline in order to find someone just as broken as they are. ❞
"Does...does it bother you that my dad's in prison for murder?"
"Well, judging by the fact that I moved away from America to get away from the memory of a...
This is one emotional chapter guys, so prepare the tissues. I would also recommend listening to the song above, as it truly adds to the atmosphere of the chapter in my opinion :) It's called I found by Amber Run. :)
Enjoy :)
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Elliot = Bold
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"I...it was a Friday night and we...we were all watching one of those corny soap operas because mum...she had wanted some family time. Which was...fair enough, really, because it was the first time Jacob had come home from working up North and Grace...well, it was honestly a miracle that she wasn't with her boyfriend for once.
All of us kids were screaming at the overly dramatized plot line whilst mum and...dad tried to get us to shut up so they could actually watch the program." Elliot chuckled through his tears, leaning his head on Isabella's shoulder as she smiled down at him with a look that said he could keep going, but only if he wanted to. And he wanted to. "Grace was the loudest, of course."
Isabella had an arm wrapped around him as he wrapped both arms around her waist, somehow making an uncomfortable situation comfortable as the two shared an awkward hug over the two front seats of the car.
"And it was just...looking back on it now...it was something we all needed. A...a good laugh. We were all so stressed out and we...we all just needed some down time I guess. Grace was really stressed out about her boyfriend moving away. Jacob was stressed about this new case he had. Noah was stressing about his first year at university. I was stressed about catching up with my college summer work. Mum was stressed because she was trying to stop the rest of us from becoming stressed. And dad he...he hadn't been himself for weeks.
There was this thing at work that he couldn't stop thinking about. He...he was a police officer and there was...there was this one case and he...he acted like he had killed a guy. But he...he hadn't. It...it wasn't his fault but he...he kept beating himself up about it.
He...he had said that he and some of the force had been after a group of drug dealers. And they had cornered them in this building. And, the police, they...they had them. But-but one of the dealers set fire to the place in a last act of desperation...almost like a distraction so that he could escape. But he...the dealer dude he...he had underestimated the building. The...the building was surrounded by the police and the fire was coming and he...I guess he couldn't get out in time. Or...or any of his mates. He...the building collapsed before the police could do anything. It...it just collapsed on top of them and...my dad, he...he tried to run in and save the guys but he...he was too late. They...all five of them had been crushed by the fire and...there was...there was no way of getting to them. By...by the time the paramedics came all of them were...all of them were dead.
And my dad he...he blamed himself. He...he kept saying how he should have run in as soon as he saw the terrible condition of the building...how he...how he should have gone further into the fire before any of the other officers could hold him back. But it wasn't...it wasn't his fault. And we kept telling him that but he wouldn't...he wouldn't listen.
But it...it turned out that one of the guys who died in the fire had a brother and he...he wasn't too happy about how the...how the whole situation had been dealt with." Elliot's breathing had started to increase, clutching Isabella tighter as he prepared himself for reliving the moment that he dreaded the most. He almost expected her to walk away, out of the car and out of his life, incapable of handling the emotional mess that he had become. Because he was supposed to be strong. He was a guy, for god's sake. Why the hell was he crying?
But she only gave him a small smile, rubbing his back in small circles as she gave him a small nod to tell him that she wasn't going anywhere.
"So this guy he...he broke down the front door with a few of his mates and he...my dad wasn't in the right state of mind to be alert for this kind of thing. He...he was in a daydream and he...he had barely been getting any sleep. So...he...he was as surprised as the rest of us when we heard the door burst inwards and the guys...there were seven of them...they were...they were in the living room before we could comprehend what was happening and they...they had guns. God, Isabella, they had guns." He had begun to shake, voice trembling as a tremor of hiccups invaded his recount of the night. "I...I don't know how they got them and they...they certainly weren't legal but they...they had them. And...they were all aiming at us. And the guy...the brother, he...he began screaming all these accusations at my dad for not saving his brother. For...for leaving him to die and my dad he...he tried to defend himself but he...it wasn't convincing. He...he blamed himself anyways but he...he stood in front of us...protecting us. But there was only one of him and the rest of us we were...were terrified and he...I...no one could stop the guy when he...when he shot Grace and...and she...just fell...collapsed," a loud sob escaped his lips as he pictured her body falling to the ground, the scream that had escaped his lips as he realised that that was his sister, laying on the ground, barely moving as the blood soaked through her shirt, "and Jacob he...he automatically ran over to her, trying to hold the wound to stop the bleeding but there...there was so much blood. And...I...Noah went over to help but I...I couldn't move. I...I was in a state of shock. So was...so was mum. She...she was just staring at Grace as if she was already a ghost. But then she...she wrapped her arms around me and shoved me behind her, yelling at the boys to run and get out of here, that...to leave her and dad and just...just be safe.
But dad he...his reaction was completely different. He...he was mad. He...he automatically tackled the guy who had shot Grace, in a fit of rage as he wrenched the gun out of his grip and shot him. But he...he didn't just shoot him once. He...he kept going. I...I...he just kept shooting this guy with tears streaming down his face and I know...I knew he was in shock about Grace but he...I...I was terrified. I...I had never seen my dad like this and I...I was scared of him.
And then the other guys with guns aimed their guns, seeming to be struck out of their daze of their leader being smacked to the ground and they...they shot him. But dad he...he had already killed the guy. And...then there were sirens. I...I think one of the neighbours had heard gunfire and I...they took dad away and he...I...it wasn't counted as self-defence. I...he...he had taken too many shots at the guy for it to be self-defence. It was...the level of danger he was in wasn't equivalent to the amount of damage he had caused and he...he got a prison sentence and then Grace didn't make it through her surgery and she...she never woke up. She just stopped breathing and then...and then mum broke and started blaming herself and hurting herself and...and dad was gone and...and then Noah and Jacob left and I...I just...."
Elliot began to full on sob again, body heaving with emotion as the words finally left his mouth, leaving his chest empty and aching as his head began to spin from the amount of universe that was leaking from his eyes, trying to keep some for itself as it all came out into the open. His world was coming apart at the seams, one thread at a time as the energy slowly left his body. Until he could do nothing but sob. But Isabella was there, just about holding him together as she bundled up the thread and held him as tightly as she could, promising to herself that she would sew him back up. Sew herself back up, even. With a new, stronger bond that wouldn't unravel quite so easily.
