The Journal

Chapter 27 : Caught

Chapter 27    

The next day...

Rocky POV

Riker seemed like he was having another bad day today. He was super quiet all morning.

Mom and dad were taking us snow tubing today. Riker said he had a really bad headache and he wanted to stay at the cabin. After arguing for a little while with mom, he won, and we left him at the cabin.

I was super worried about him though. But maybe he really just has a headache and that's why he's being like this.

I tried to just focus on having fun with my siblings.

Later...

Ross POV

After snow tubing for a little while, and goofing off with my siblings, I was super cold. Rocky had thrown snow down my coat, and my clothes were kind of soaked. 

The snow tubing hill was at the same place as our cabin, just a 15 minute walk away, so mom said I could go back and get changed. And I was supposed to meet them in the lounge area to get some lunch when I got back.

I walked quickly because I was so cold. It's a good thing I brought extra changes of clothes.

When I got back to the cabin, I took off my snow clothes at the front door so I wouldn't track snow through the cabin.

I went upstairs and went to my room to get clothes.

But when I got to my room, my stomach dropped. Riker was sitting on the floor, crying. And he had made cuts on his arms and more on his hips and even his stomach. 

"Riker! What did you do!?"

"I j-just w-wanted the h-hurt to s-stop!" He cried.

"God, Riker..."

I ran to the bathroom and got the first aid kit. There was blood all over Riker, his clothes, and the floor.

I wrapped up his wrists and then focused on his stomach and hips because that area seemed to be bleeding the most.

"You can't tell mom!"

"Riker, this is dangerous! You might have to go to the hospital."

"N-no!"

I pressed against his cuts because I knew I was supposed to apply pressure to get the bleeding to stop.

"It hurts!" Riker cried.

"I know. Just breathe, ok? You're going to be fine."

My heart was racing so fast, and I honestly felt a bit dizzy because I was so freaked out. I just need to stop the bleeding.

"Do you have a headache or was that a lie so you could stay here?" I asked.

"No, I don't have a headache..."

He was calming down a bit, and it was a little easier to stop the bleeding because his chest wasn't heaving so much.

By the time I got the bleeding under control, the bandages on his wrists had been soaked through with blood, so I replaced them with new bandages. His wrists don't look nearly as bad as his stomach and hips.

All of a sudden my phone started ringing. I was still trying to clean Riker up, so I answered it and put it on speaker.

"Hello?" I asked, trying to sound calm.

"Ross, where are you? I thought you were just going back to get changed," mom said.

"Um... Yeah. Riker needed help with something, so I got caught up helping him for a few minutes."