Bullied, But not Broken

7. Suicide

TW: Attempted suicide, open wounds and high stress*

Garrett

Garrett was gasping for breath after the exertion of dragging an unwilling girl back from the brink of death. Granted, she weighed less than he usually bench pressed, but the fact that he had to over extend his center to keep her far enough away from the bridge so she could not kick against it and still escape his grasp was tiring.

Then he’d seen that she had broken her left arm and the bone was sticking through the skin in a grotesque show of what could have happened to all of her if he had not managed to reach her in time. He was grateful that he had chosen tonight to follow her so he could see where she lived.

He’d lost her when she had gone around the corner, but then he’d seen her sprinting out of the house, running at full speed while he heard her sobbing. Garrett had started running after her, but kept a distance so he could pretend that he had been out running in case she turned around later on.

But she was running like she was being chased and he found her where she was leaning against the side of the bridge. At first he had thought that she came here to be alone and think, but then she climbed onto the railing and he sprinted towards her, knowing that it couldn’t be good. Amazingly, he had reached her just as she leapt, only just catching her one arm that had been spread out like angel wings.

The momentum had flung his chest against the stone of the bridge and for a moment it had knocked the breath out of him. While he was trying to catch his breath, she started pleading with him to let her go so she could die.

He was actually grateful when she fainted, because the broken expression on her face had torn him apart. How bad did her life have to be for her to welcome death?

Pulling out his phone, he pressed the speed dial for his Dad; he needed help, he was in way over his head and he was hyperventilating and scared out of his mind. The phone rang twice before his Dad answered.

“Dad, I need your help; she tried to kill herself, but now her arm is broken and she’s unconscious and I don’t know what to do -” He started rattling off before his father even had a chance to say anything.

“Alright, breathe.” His father interrupted him in a soothing voice. “Where are you so I can come get you?” His father sounded much calmer than he felt and he was grateful for it.

“We’re on the old train bridge; she tried to jump, Dad. She tried to commit suicide.” He gasped out, trying to cope with what he’d just seen and experienced. It had been raw and filled with despair and the thought of it was circling his mind on repeat.

He heard the sound of his father rushing out the door and then the car door slamming. “I’m going to lose you for a moment while I switch over to hands free. Stay on the line, Son.”

Garrett quietly got up, she was still unconscious, so he carefully got to his feet and switched his own phone to speaker. His father would need to stop on the highway and he could save time by meeting him there. He put it in his shirt pocket and then gently picked her up and made sure her broken arm rested on her stomach. Her arm needed to be treated and he had to meet his Dad near the road.

“You still there, Son?” His father asked with concern when he had started walking with her limp body in his arms.

“Yes, Dad, I’ve picked her up and I’m taking her towards the road, she’s still unconscious. Her arm is bleeding badly and I don’t know what to do to help her.” He knew he was rambling, but the silence was almost as scary as what had almost happened and he couldn’t face the silence right now.

“Just take her to the road, Son. I’ve already called the hospital on the other line and warned them that we’re coming. They’ll take good care of her.”

“She begged me to let her go so she could die, Dad. I’ll never forget the utter hopelessness in her eyes. I didn’t want to let her go, Dad. But she fought me...so hard.” He hadn’t realized that tears had sprung to his eyes until he tasted the salty fluid on his lips.

“I know, Son. Hold on, I’ll be there in less than a minute.”

“Dad, she weighs less than I bench press; this can’t be healthy. I don’t know what to do to help her. What if she tries to kill herself again and I’m not there to stop it?” He couldn’t stop talking about what he felt and saw; it would drive him insane if he had to close his mouth now and the silence still scared him.

Screeching tires warned him that his father had stopped on the side of the road, flicking on his hazards; he jumped out of the car and opened the back door for Garrett to slide in with the tiny bony figure in his arms. Garrett glanced down at her pale face with her eyes closed, her long lashes making shadows on her cheeks that looked like the tiniest black butterfly wings, an ode to her attempt at death against her pale skin.

She seemed to be breathing fine now, but the look of her arm made him want to gag. It wasn’t pretty and they were both covered in her blood. He felt the car pull away and speed down the road, leaving the hazards on while his father ran red lights and laid on the horn whenever he did.

In no time, they stopped in front of the hospital and the car door was flung open before they took the near-weightless girl out of his arms and he got out, following belatedly behind as if they were attached by some invisible string that dragged him along.

He was stopped at the doors to the operating room, leaving him to stare at the doors numbly and his father caught his shoulder, enveloping him in a side hug and guided him to the waiting room where they sat down to wait.

“I’ll never get the picture out of my head. Every time I close my eyes, I see her leaping into the air as if she was trying to fly and then her crying for me to just let her go. Dad, she nearly killed herself.” He muttered to himself, tears still flowing down his face; it was hard to fathom what had just happened and he didn’t want to close his eyes and see it all over again.

Arthur Steele pulled him against his chest and he cried weakly about what he had seen. What would drive a person to want to take their own life like that? Garrett sobbed like a small child as the scene replayed in his mind as if in a loop. Could he have stopped that from happening?

What was going to happen now? They couldn’t let her go and wait for her to attempt another suicide. How was he going to keep her from trying to kill herself again?

After some long moments of him crying on his father’s shoulder, his father cleared his throat and spoke in a tight voice. “I need to go see about getting her some clothes and things. You said she has no friends?”

“Only Mabel from the diner that I know of, Dad.” He spoke finally, sniffing back the snot and his father handed him his handkerchief, before he pulled out his phone.

He listened to his father explain to Mabel that they needed her to meet them at her house to help her pack a few things she might need for an extended hospital stay, since they would probably do a psychological evaluation after her attempted suicide. He was grateful that his little sister, Flora, was having a sleepover at a friend’s house, otherwise he didn’t know what they would have done.

Mabel agreed to meet his father at the address she gave him. But when his father stood up to leave, he followed. “No, son. Wait here.”

“No, Dad. I can’t do anything here and if I have to sit still I’m going to lose my mind.” Garrett answered firmly. His father hesitated a moment before he nodded reluctantly after one long look into his son’s haunted eyes.

Together they left the hospital, telling the nurse at the reception desk that they were just going to get Sasha some clothes for her hospital stay and asking that they phone them if they had any news.