Burning Alone

Chapter 5

Kel rushed back to his home as fast as his legs could carry him, pushing the door open only to hear his parents talking very quietly in the dining room. Other than that, the house was completely silent. He had really assumed the worst after getting the call from his broken sounding older brother and he honestly felt relieved to not hear the angry screams of his brother through the house. He truly expected to hear the sound of things hitting the wall coming from upstairs and arguing between their parents about how to handle Hero and his freak outs.

Kel walked cautiously into the dining room where is parents were seated, quietly discussing something that seemed important. But the moment his parents heard their youngest son enter the room, they fell completely silent for a moment. "Where is Hero?" Kel nervously questioned after a moment, unsure how to feel about the quiet. It was just uncanny.

Their home was NEVER quiet. Between two competitive brothers and a toddler, it was extremely hard for the home to be calm let alone SILENT. His mother at the very least had a novella playing on the tv. There was a thick cloud of tension lingering through the entire house.

"He came home about an hour ago and just ran upstairs and shut himself in. We tried to check on him but he wouldn't open the door" Kel's mom sighed out. She was exhausted and Kel could see that obviously. They all were.

"He went on a date earlier, do you think it went bad?" Kel frowned, unsure what could have happened that caused Hero to be so upset. Was she mean? Did she not care about Hero's stories? A frown took over Kel's face at the thought that maybe she stood him up? That had to be it. Poor Hero.

"I really have no idea." His mother huffed out, trying to not be annoyed by her sons actions. She knew he was having an impossibility hard time, but she felt like Hero didn't do enough to try to cheer himself up. She felt like he just sat home and moped around, and she had no idea just how difficult it was to get through what Hero was trying to go through. She was so happy to hear he was going on a date with a new girl, but seeing how he was acting now made her feel helpless that he would ever get back to his old self.

Kel took a step back and turned to leave the room with a nod. "I'm going to go check on him." He told them, jogging up the stairs to his bedroom door. He immediately noticed the loud silence when he got outside the bedroom door. No music played, no sound of the TV on from inside the room. Kel couldn't even hear and shuffling like Hero was even in there. He tried to knob and realized immediately that it was locked.

"Hero, let me in," Kel tried, wiggling the door knob. He waited a moment, hoping Hero was coming to the door. Silence. Kel sighed loudly, beginning to knock on the door.

"Heroooo it's my room, you have to let me in!" Kel tried again, confused why Hero would lock himself in while being just so silent. Was he sleeping?

Kel started to knock harder, hoping to wake Hero up from whatever sleep he had cried himself into. After two minutes of banging on the door, and getting no response he was about to give up and wait for Hero to wake up and let him in. But as he turned to walk back down the stairs he heard a strange rattling sound. Kel froze in his place and began listening carefully, suddenly hearing a gasp and sob. Another rattle, another heavy breath. Kel's eyes suddenly widened as his brain put together what was going on. He didn't want to believe that that was the case and he started more frantically hitting the door.

"Hero this isn't funny. I need you to open up the door." Kel demanded, now hearing a louder sob escape from his brother. It was as if he was holding it together until he heard Kel's voice.

Hero was now loudly sobbing and Kel could hear the sound of pills rolling around in a plastic bottle. He couldn't fucking believe this.

"Hero!!" Kel shouted, banging on the door again, finally throwing himself at the door in an attempt to break it open. "HERO! Open the fucking door!" He yelled, in this moment not caring about his mother downstairs hearing his language. Usually his mother wouldn't hesitate to hit him if she were to hear something like that come from her teenage sons mouth, but this time she just ran up the stairs and watched and Kel alone tried to bust the door open.