Sturniolo triplets - Oh To Be Loud (Matt-centric story about mental health)

As Bad As It Gets?

Trigger Warnings: Fighting, Cursing, Knife, Injury, Bleeding, Emotional, Near Death Experience

The fight continues and their situation takes an unexpected turn for the worst

The Story:

Everything went to shit immediately after that. 

Rafe recovered from his shock quickly and pulled Matt back by the back of his hoody and punching him hard in the face. Matt was prepared though, he didn't go down like the first time, instead he caught himself and flung his whole body onto Rafe, sending them both crashing into the wall behind them, Rafe, specifically his head, taking the blunt of the impact. 

Matt quickly stood back straight, grabbed Rafe's face with his hand and pushed it back into the wall as hard as he could. He didn't manage to do it a second time, because Barry was back up and pulling him off, sending a punch to the other side of his face, then to the side of his chest.

That was enough to send Matt down, and he hit the side of his head on the ground. His vision blurred and he couldn't see for a long second, the entire right side of his head and face now damp with blood from where the skin burst. He could barely make out the distant shouting over the loud ringing in his ears. 

He didn't get any time to recover before he felt hot, burning pain in his ribs on his right, followed quickly by another, more intense pain from the second kick. He braced himself for another, but then looked up as the shouting grew louder, followed by the sound of air getting knocked out of Barry, as he was tackled to the ground next to him.

Through his blurry vision, Matt could made out two new figures, both holding down Barry and yelling. He tried to focus, he needed his head to stop swimming so he could see, he desperately needed to understand what was going on and react. 

Though he already figured who exactly it was that came to his rescue, because honestly, who else could it be. And although the knowledge that his brothers were with him would calm and reassure him in almost any other situation, right now it made him panic even more. They can't get hurt because of me. We have to get out of here.

Matt forced himself to get up, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain. Everything hurt, his whole body felt like it was on fire, each small movement sent new waves of pain through him and since his sight and hearing were slowly coming back to him, the sensory input made his head feel like it'll burst.

He stood slouched forward, clutching his less-hurt arm around his injured stomach, he could only keep one eye open, since the other was already swollen shut from getting punched and the blood running over it from his head wound.

"Matt!!", "Matt, can you hear us, Maaattt!?", he could finally make out other sounds over the ringing in his ears, though it still sounded a bit like he was under water. He looked over to where his brothers were, joining efforts to hold Barry down, both getting a few punches in on his face.

They kept glancing over between Barry and Matt, they looked so concerned and panicked it made his already injured stomach hurt even more.

"Matt, are you okay, please answer us Matt, don't force yourself to stand on your own, we'll help you now, we're here, Matt, please", Chris called out to him, voice pained and desperate.

"Just stop struggling you utter piece of shit asshole, it's over, let it go or it'll only be worse when the police get here", Nick yelled down at Barry, angrier than Matt had ever heard him.

They wanted oh so badly to get to Matt and check him over, they didn't know how serious his head wound was or if his ribs were cracked or worse, but they knew they couldn't afford Barry attacking them again.