Her Safe Haven

Chapter 22 - Revelations and Decisions

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys! My exam is over, WOOHOO! Now please just pray for me so that I would pass :'( Anyway, as promised, a longer (the longest so far) chapter to make up for the past 2 weeks!

This chapter (and the next one) was EXTREMELY difficult to write, so please forgive me if some parts of it are still unsatisfactory. Also, this chapter will contain some descriptions related to what this novel was initially supposed to be all about (mental health). I was a volunteer with an Institute of Mental Health myself for two years, and am currently studying psychiatry, so I would like to think that I am somewhat qualified to write about this theme. But of course, criticisms are always welcome :)

Enjoy! <3

Previously on Her Safe Haven: It was Spring holidays, and for a Spring Break Exchange Programme, some Lakeside student councillors were chosen to attend Dews High's Spring Sports Festival for two weeks. Rohan had stopped avoiding Winter, but he was still distant somehow. Then, when Winter and Rohan were talking at night at the Garrison's household, Jacob came bearing the "bad" news that the Garrisons' father was home...

For the next few days after that night, Rohan completely disappeared.

More competitions and events in the festival came and went. All ball tournaments and the marching band parade were held on Thursday, Polo matches on Friday, and lastly for that week, the track and field finals were being held that Saturday morning. On Thursday, after much persuasion from Rose and Riley, Winter joined them to play in the female's volleyball Guest team, and they made it all the way to the semi-finals before being beaten by Galena High.

Those three competition days were fun. Very fun, Winter supposed, and supposedly she should had been able to enjoy it if not for the fact that Rohan's complete vanishing worried her to death. From the morning after that night until now, she hadn't seen Rohan once. If he was avoiding too much interaction with her before, right now he was making himself practically non-existent. She tried to look for him in his house, at school, everywhere — even asked Lennox and Jacob to help look for him sometimes; but even the two of them were being uncharacteristically unhelpful, and came up with a bunch of reasons, ranging from "I think he's busy right now" to "he's looking for Schwarzenegger who ran away from home!", of why she couldn't see him.

It was frustrating at the very least, especially after she saw how the blood on Rohan's face practically drained and ran cold after Jake told him that his father was home. She was extremely anxious about what was going on, restless because of the bad feeling she had been having regarding this entire thing, and especially, worried for Rohan who was once again completely avoiding her. It was last month all over again; he was closing himself all over again, and instead of talking to her, or to anyone, really, once again he disappeared.

Her concern now wasn't quite like before when she was left alone and confused to figure out why Rohan had run away from her and Lakeside; now it was more of a fretting for a friend. Rather than feeling abandoned and rejected, now she was just extremely worried for Rohan. She knew that the reason he was making himself scarce this time around was not because of her, but because of this mysterious patriarchal figure that she similarly hadn't even seen once since the news of his return from a business trip on Wednesday.

Winter didn't know the relationship between the Garrisons and their father, nor why the fact that their father was home was bad (she was always elated whenever she could meet her parents), and frankly, she didn't care. Rohan's father could had been a wanted criminal for all she cared, it was not going to change the fact that Rohan was her friend, and Rohan was currently distraught. Yes, she hadn't seen him for four days, and no, she was not born with a psychic ability to telepathise, but something in her just knew that Rohan was now in distress. She wanted to help him, but she couldn't because he just completely disappeared. He was not with his siblings, he was not spending time with Jonah, and he was not even with the teachers nor doing work anywhere like he usually did.