Chapter Text
“I’m home!”
Dee tossed his bag onto the couch and shrugged off his heavy coat as the heated house warmed him up, throwing it next to the bag. As he began the lengthy process of untying his boots his phone buzzed from inside his bag, shattering the silence in the house.
Slipping off one shoe, he started untying the other one on autopilot as he glanced around the house. There was no pleasant smell of dinner cooking, a few things from this morning that he and his brother had thrown around during a tussle remained on the floor, no music flowed through the house and yet two keys still sat on their hooks.
His mom was still at work, tending to stay a fair bit later on Thursdays so she could go home earlier Fridays and head to the bar with Bug and Anna. Heavy had gotten detention along with Lif, the only reason he was home anyway since usually he would’ve take the opportunity to hang with her alone without his nuisance of a brother. But even with those two gone, it was still far too quiet.
The house had never been silent when his dad was home. There was always something going on, whether that be the television, or music, or conversation, it was never quiet. Dee grew accustomed to the noise, easily tuning things out and keeping earbuds on him at all times if it became too much. Right now, the silence felt suffocating.
Usually if there wasn’t a greeting, his dad wasn’t in the house. He loved pulling his kids into a hug whenever they returned home, no matter how much Dee didn’t care for it. He would’ve assumed the man just wasn’t home if his keys weren’t hung up.
Had uncle Ches taken him somewhere? But Glam always drove, and he would’ve told Dee this morning.
His dad loved his routines, too much to stray from them like this randomly.
Putting his shoes in their rightful place, he began searching the house. His parents room, bathrooms, all the closets (he wasn’t sure why, his brain nagged him to), until he stopped outside his dad’s office. He didn’t have work today, and even if he did, it was time for dinner preparations.
Dee knocked hesitantly and as expected, no response came. He attempted to open the door, finding it locked.
Sighing, he returned downstairs, noticing his phone still buzzing. He groaned as the abundance of notifications filled his screen.
A few were from Lif, complaining about her being in detention. A handful were from kids that needed something from him for the test tomorrow. A couple from Heavy that was asking about why uncle Ches was calling him and complaining that it nearly got his phone confiscated.
Most of the texts were from Ches, including a few attempted calls. It looked like he had been trying to contact him since noon but his phone had been on automatic Do Not Disturb during school hours. He opened the messages.
It looked like the calls had come first and after neither he nor Heavy picked up, he started texting him.
12:17
kid cal me when u can
tell ur brother 2
and vicky if shes hime
1:06
glams okay
wel
hes alive dw
thag sounds worse
pleas js call me soon
2:54
and dont go in his offce
i thnk i lockd iy
its not god to snoop anywy
cant belve im sayin tht
god im panicing
n ur at schol anway
3:01
sory kid
aloy happe nd
Dee quickly clicked on one of the missed calls and waited until uncle Ches picked up, heart racing.
It wasn’t like his uncle to call or text at all, usually just showing up at the house unannounced to talk in person. Doing both, especially when half the messages were messed up and he was clearly panicked, did not bode well.
Something happened to his dad. Something that managed to even shake Ches, the most relaxed person he had ever known.
He picked up on the second ring, sounding haggard.
”Hey kiddo. Glad you got my texts I thought you missed ‘em.”
”What the fuck happened?” He asked quickly, sounding like he was about to cry. He cleared his throat, trying to get rid of the sick feeling in his stomach and the frog in his throat.
”Your dad got injured, he’s at the hospital with me right now. He’s steady though, hanging in well,” Ches attempted to reassure at the end.
Dee could hear the buzz of the fluorescent lights and beeps of machinery on the other end as the other two fell into a silence. “What… how did he get hurt?”
His uncle sighed deeply and he could tell it was something far heavier than a simple accident. “I’m sorry kid, but that’s up to him to tell you when he gets out of here. There wasn’t an attack or break in, if that’s what you’re scared of.”
He knew Ches wouldn’t budge on telling him so there was no begging to know on his end. “I’ll let Heavy and mama know. What hospital are you at?”
”Thanks kid. I’ll send you the address, I don’t remember where we are.”
He laughed and it was hollow. They said their goodbyes and hung up.
Dee quickly called the detention monitor, knowing that if he dared ring Heavy she would take the phone. Thankfully she didn’t seem to care that it was his brother calling and quickly handed the phone over to Heavy.
“Dad?”
”No, it’s Dee.”
”Are you gonna break me and Lif out of here?!” He whispered excitedly. Dee felt bad ruining his excitement.
”No, Heavy. Dad’s in the hospital, that’s why Ches called you earlier.”
”…what?”
He could practically see his brother’s face crumple at the news. Maybe he should’ve just waited until he was home.
“Ches won’t tell me what happened, but he’s okay as of now. I’m going to see if I can get mom to come home and drive us over, hand the phone back to the teacher and I’ll try and get you out of detention.”
He hoped the idea of getting out two hours early would be at-least slightly uplifting, but there was silence until the teacher greeted him again. He gave a vague explanation about a family emergency and that he needed his brother home. The monitor was definitely skeptical but after telling her to look how Heavy was definitely upset and not ecstatic at going home, she relented and hung up.
Dee rang his mother a few times to no response. Eventually he tried Anna, who thankfully picked up after two calls.
”What the fuck do you want blondie?”
”Tell mom to pick up her phone or let me talk to her. Please.”
He heard Anna shouting at her and soon enough the phone had been handed off.
”What the hell did you do this time, I’m too busy for your shit Dee.”
”Dad’s in the hospital.”
“Did Ches fall out of the window again or something? I keep telling him to use the damn door.”
Dee groaned. “No ma, he got injured somehow and Ches took him. Heavy’s on his way home now, I was hoping you could take us over to the hospital.”
The call ended and Dee took that as ‘I’m rushing the fuck back right now’. He checked his phone for anymore notifications.
Lif texted that she was walking home with Heavy, saying the teacher wanted to make sure he got there and that he looked really scared. He told her about what happened and she said they’d speed walk over.
Ches had sent the address to the nearest hospital and he sent it over to mama, who was still silent.
Ignoring the messages about schoolwork, he tossed his phone back to the couch and stopped pacing, willing his heart rate to slow down. He hadn’t noticed how high it had been the entire time, or that he had begun pacing throughout the living room.
He made his way back upstairs, eyeing his dad’s study. He was explicitly told not to go in there, so certainly whatever happened, happened in there. Curiosity ate at him as he tried find anything out of the ordinary about the outside of the room. Looking closely, there was a small bloodstain on the carpet right outside the door and he could gather that there was likely more inside.
Dee made a detour to his room and grabbed an out of shape paper clip that acted as a lock pick. He was glad none of the locks in the house were proper ones and it easily clicked unlocked with little finesse.
His hand paused on the doorknob. Something dangerous could be behind this door. Something to cause enough damage to go to the hospital for. Was he willing to risk coming into contact with it, whatever it is?
Pressing his ear to the door, there wasn’t any sound. No wild animal or anything. He took a deep breath and for the sake of keeping his little brother safe from whatever was inside, he swung it open.
Heavy was almost running home, Lif struggling to keep up in her big boots. It was an unusually quiet walk-run, save for the sound of his sniffles and heavy breaths as tiredness from running mixed with sadness.
They slowed down as they came up on the house, Heavy quickly fished for his key. Lif decided to test the door as he fumbled, finding it unlocked thankfully.
”Do you want me to stay?”
She was the closest kid to their family that wasn’t blood, but she wasn’t that close with their parents. Victoria’s motorcycle definitely couldn’t fit four anyway, three was already a stretch.
”Until we leave? Please?”
She nodded and followed him inside, immediately being met with the sound of retching. Heavy quickly rushed upstairs to where the sound was, finding his brother outside Glam’s closed office. He was incredibly pale and was clearly about to be sick. Heavy practically shoved him to the nearest bathroom and thankfully he managed to get to the toilet before throwing up. Lif held his hair back as the contents of his stomach were emptied.
Heavy plugged his nose as the smell got worse, though Dee seemed done. He backed away from the toilet, Lif letting his hair fall back down as he caught his breath.
It was then they noticed he had been holding something, now dropped in front of the toilet.
”Dee… is that yours?” Lif asked, concerned, pointing at the blood covered razor blade that sat there. He shook his head, once again looking mildly sick. Thankfully it was nothing more than that and he gingerly stood, grabbing the blade and tossing it in the disgusting toilet before flushing.
”It… was in dad’s office. I think…”
He didn’t need to finish the thought, the three of them quickly picked up on what exactly had happened.
Dee thought he would be able to handle going into that office, but now he wished he had heeded Ches’ warning. The sight of the usually pristine space being utterly ripped apart, blood and pills coating the floor and a blade sitting innocently on the ground was harrowing.
He barely managed to bear with the sight long enough to remove the weapon to hopefully prevent this from happening again.
Heavy tried to stop himself but he was quickly sobbing, Dee could feel tears of his own sliding down his face as he attempted to comfort him. Lif looked lost as to what to do but she tried, gently stroking Heavy’s back to try and get him to calm down while Dee washed his mouth out and makeup off.
As they attempted to calm down, they heard an engine rev from outside.
Dee gently tugged Heavy downstairs and grabbed both of their helmets. He slipped on mismatching shoes and the helmet before thanking Lif for her help. She smiled slightly and wished them luck before walking off.
“If it were any other day you two would be grounded for having someone over,” Victoria reminded gruffly as they loaded onto the motorcycle.
Dee paired all of their helmets as she began driving, though there wasn’t much point. Heavy was still sniffling, trying his best to calm down as Dee gently consoled him and Victoria focused on driving well above the speed limit.
Thankfully it wasn’t a long drive, they were parked out front of the hospital in no time. They tugged off the helmets and just dropped them around the bike before rushing inside.
Ches woke up earlier than usual at the sound of a text notification. He groaned, fighting to open his eyes to silence his phone in case there were more. He was far too hungover to be awake this early.
Before he managed to silence his phone, a second notification came through, aggravating his headache. Why does he keep that damn thing so loud?!
Finally grabbing his phone, he almost completely ignored the messages as he scrolled down to mute them but the messenger caught his eye.
Glam hated texting, always preferring to call and speak on the phone so he didn’t misinterpret anything and to hear his loved ones voices. But the texts came from Glam, and they both made his heart rate spike as he actually read them.
11:29
Messedup hel p sory
lov u dnt foget m
Ches was out the door before he even really registered what the messages were attempting to say.
Flying down the road, he made it to the metal household in record time. The van was barely stopped before he jumped out, jamming his spare key into the door and rushing inside, hearing something possibly more terrifying than screaming.
Utter silence.
Glam hated silence with a passion, it made him uneasy and reminded him too much of his old house that was always too big to be filled with noise. Many times Ches had noticed that whenever there wasn’t anything to distract him, Glam started spiraling down quickly. Scratching his wrist, hallucinating, the works.
He could only hope the silence wasn’t permanent.
The door to Glam’s office thankfully wasn’t locked and he threw it open, finding a scene he thought had been left in their teenage years.
Glam was holding a blade, blood coating it and the floor. The wrist that had been injured so many times before was bleeding once again, three large wounds on it that went far deeper than just skin. His old violin had been smashed, coating his desk in its remains and his antipsychotics littered the ground around a seemingly inconspicuous piece of paper. Ches wasn’t sure if he had taken none at all or an abundance.
Ches hauled a barely-conscious Glam up, trying his best to not further irritate the wound. He managed to get him to drop the razor and keep his wrist somewhat steady to avoid hitting things or getting blood everywhere.
He led him downstairs and out the door, settling him into the van gingerly before rushing back inside. Running through the house, he locked the study for the kids, grabbed the first aid from the kitchen and locked the door to avoid having a break in on this already shitty day.
Settling into the drivers seat, he made sure Glam was still awake and breathing before starting the car to make sure it actually would and opening the first aid kit. He sloppily applied bandages over the wound to hopefully stop the bleeding and to avoid Glam scratching at them.
Ches talked the entire way to the hospital, trying to keep the other man conscious though he was too focused on driving to tell if it was working. Police began tailing his incredibly fast van about halfway to the hospital and he cursed. He’d deal with them later.
He pulled into the hospital and wasted no time in getting out and carrying Glam inside. The receptionist quickly called for doctors to take him and he was wheeled away in seconds.
Police reprimanded him for not calling an ambulance but thankfully didn’t give him anything more than a warning and good wishes for his friend.
It was about an hour, in which he attempted to contact Glam’s family to no results, before he was allowed in the room.
He was still pale and unconscious but the monitors showed he was alive and steady. Blood was being pumped back into his arm that was now properly bandaged.
“Are you his family?” One of the nurses asked, though it sounded more inquisitive than accusatory.
”Not technically, I’m trying to get his actual family here.”
They nodded. “I’ll allow you to stay since there’s no other visitors. Are you aware of what exactly happened?”
”I think he didn’t take his meds before a panic attack, or overdosed on them,” Ches wagered.
“We didn’t detect any drugs in his system besides the painkillers we administered. Are the meds antidepressants?”
”Antipsychotics.” The nurse nodded along and jotted something down before leaving.
Ches practically fell into the chair beside the hospital bed, feeling the lingering hangover comeback as adrenaline faded now that he knew Glam was alive.
He watched the monitor that told him that, lost in thought. He thought the two of them were getting better, healing and being mentally stable for once in their lives. Granted, they both relied on either drinking or a handful of medication, but it was progress.
Even without meds, he’d never seen it quite this bad. Glam had done damage to himself, especially before he got diagnosed, but it had never been this severe. Something must have happened, a trigger of some sort, but what?
Before he could dwell on it his phone rang. Dee was finally calling back, presumably home from school.
”Hey kiddo.”