Chapter Sixteen

                                    

                                          
~Johnny~ 
                          
"That'll be £4.50 please." I pushed the drink across the bar top and took the money from the mans hand. 
                          
"Sausage." Mum put her hand my arm grabbing my attention, turning round I met her worried face. 
                          
Her and dad had been quite quiet with Nance and I about Alice, we didn't know the full truth of what was going on. Around us they tried to act normal like none of this was going on, but me and Nance knew, of course we knew. 
                          
They looked tired all the time, they looked worried and sad all the time and whatever was going on was starting to take its toll on the whole family, and I don't think mum and dad even realised that. 
                          
"Yeah." I answered, watching dad over her shoulder. He was serving customers but his face was preoccupied, he was distant. 
                          
"Can you go up and check on Al, see if she's okay. She hasn't spoken to us since she got back in from school." I nodded and went upstairs. 
                          
I knocked on her bedroom door but heard no response, cautiously I pushed it open cringing when it creaked worried I'd wake her up because I just presumed she'd be asleep. 
                          
"Oh god Alice." I rushed forward when I saw her sat on her bed cutting her arm. 
                          
My entrance into the room didn't stop her, it was like she didn't even notice I was there she just carried on. 
Dropping down to her level I firmly grasped her hand in mine stopping her from harming herself anymore, the normally golden brown eyes snapped up and met mine and they were darker, they seemed darker than I remember them yet they also seemed clouded, dull, like frosted glass. 
                          
"Alice what have you done?" I breathed out, of course it was a rhetorical question it was plain what she'd done. 
There wasn't a flicker of anything on her face, in her eyes, there was no reaction she just looked at me, no, she looked straight through me. 
                          
I grabbed whatever she was using in my hand, the blood coated cool metal slipping against my skin quickly becoming sticky as I ran downstairs stopping just before the door way to the bar. 
                          
"Mum." I shouted, my voice low but I knew she'd hear, she turned round her face faltering and then plummeting when she saw my blood stained hands. 
                          
She shouted for dad quickly before running upstairs and into Alice's room, where she still sat on the bed unmoved from when I left her. 
The blood was smeared on her bedding, it slowly seeped through the fabric staining every part it touched and Alice just sat there. 
                          
"Alice baby we need to get you cleaned up." Dad placed his hands firmly on the tops of her arms and pulled her body up like a rag doll and silently walked her through to the bathroom. 
                          
"Johnny this is important when you found her what was she like, was she upset? Crying? Anything?" Mum frantically began stripping the bed not even flinching at the blood transferring over her. 
                          
"She was calm, still, she didn't even know I was in the room till I grabbed her hand and then she just looked at me, but it was more like she was looking through me. Mum her eyes they were empty and the way she was cutting herself, mum that's what was worrying." I began helping her pull the duvet cover off, grimacing slightly as my hand slid over the sticky thick substance. 
                          
"What do you mean." Momentarily mum looked up at me. 
                          
"It was precise, maybe even methodical she was being careful, making sure it was just right. Not like the other times, were it was rushed and desperate." Mum stopped dead in her tracks, dropping the duvet and sitting on the bare mattress. 
                          
"Mum what's going on with Al? Me and Nancy know there's stuff your not telling us." My voice was soft as I sat down down next to mum, staring at the blood covered sheets and soaked duvet.