Saving Grace (editing)

20: elliot // World Wide Web

t w e n t y

It is Sunday and having had suggested to his father to take little Susie out for the day, Elliot decided to stay home to catch up with study.

""Study"", in big fat quotation marks in actual fact.

He is actually cleaning his cupboard. But he figures that he is not being entirely unproductive really.

Besides, it helps him think, so technically he is not procrastinating, although his assignment that may or may not be due in two days.

Closing the doors of the cupboard, Elliot spots a newspaper on top of his bookshelf, neatly placed beside his old action figure of Hawkeye.

Elliot hadn't noticed the paper there before. Moving to pick it up, he notices that the date was from a few weeks ago.

He figures his father must've passed it on to him when he had finished with it and Elliot had just come to see it now.

A bright green sticky note sticks out from one of the pages.

It surprises him that his father still did this, tabbing articles he thought that Elliot would be interested in, having done this ever since Elliot was kid.

Elliot nonetheless finds comfort in it, even despite the situation between the two, as it gave some familiarity within everything else going on in their lives.

He figures that maybe those were his father's intentions after all, for some of the normalacy of the past to still remain.

He skims through the tabbed piece, an article about Eminem.

Elliot thinks that he should tell his father that he hasn't listened to his music for over a year now but he knows he probably won't end up doing that anyway.

He flicks through the other pages and  Elliot vaguely discovers that some of the articles are familiar. He realises that it is newspaper he had picked up when he was locked out in the snow.

His eyes then land on a particular article, one that he never got on to reading that cold morning.

It was about Grace.

Was it intrusive to read it though? Even if it was published in the local paper for the public to read, he was now aqquainted with the girl.

Friends even. Yes, definitely friends as he recalls the two of them settling upon it already.

He can't help it but he reads on:

Abandoned teen girl in bizzare 'depression coma'

With the snow finally falling upon small town Petalerney, it came as a shock to residents of the discovery of the body of a teenager girl on the side of Pincy Road. Admited into Petalerny Hospital in a critical condition...

Elliot feels the bottom of his stomach cave in, skimming past details.

...although stabilised, it is appearing that her symptoms point towards having PSTD and another sort of depresson. She is yet to speak to authorities about her circumstances, however it is reported that she has an unusual shut-down condition, drifting in and out of consiciousness. With doctors treating her in her comatose state, it appears this defence mechanism...

He lets out a sigh, leaning on his elbow to rub his forehead as he processes the information.

...It is still unknown how exactly the teenager wound up in the snow of small town Petalerny, with reports that authorities were unable to trace back to any known family or relatives. It may well be the case that this young girl truly is alon-

Elliot stops.

He throws the paper in the bin.

It gives him enough motivation to actually get back to his school work, probably just to get his mind off.

shecan'tbealoneshecan'tbealone

Turning the screen of his school laptop on, he returns to his AP History paper that he was working on.

He clicks and types away, eventually finding himself on Google to find another word for 'destory' seeing as though he's already run out of synonyms.

...d-e-f-i-n-e--d-e

His eyes flicker onto the suggestion bar and his attention becomes instantaneously glued onto the third phrase down the list.

He clicks it.

A string of results pop up onto the screen and the top of the screen reading:

depression
/dɪˈprɛʃ(ə)n/
noun
1. severe, typically prolonged, feelings of despondency and dejection.

Depression was sadness. He already knew that.

His mind lead back to Grace and Doctor Gregory's words.

"...depression, amongst other things, therefore it is vital for you to encourage her to open up. She refuses to even speak to our counsellor..."

Guilt sank into him.

Yes, Elliot was helping Grace for her wellbeing sake and he really did care for her.

But he knew that in the end, he was being paid for his actions.

Paid to talk to her.

Paid to listen.

Paid to keep her company.

He shook his head.

Maybe he should cancel that deal...

Instead of completing his paper on European Revolutions, he spends the next hour reading pages about depression and mental illness.

His eyes catch the time at the bottom of his screen and it is then that he realises that he might need to take a break.

No, he definitely needs to take a break.

Elliot feels like his head might explode.

Closing the lid of the device, he stands up from his chair, tilting his neck sideways to relieve a knot of tension building up there.

Turning, his vision lands on a framed photo of a small boy holding up a large yellow sunflower to a woman wearing a blue dress.

She has a wide grin that causes her eyes to crinkle and her cascading hair falls down her shoulders as she leans down to the child who has a smile just as big as hers to match.

A different kind of bothering feeling finds itself within Elliot, and without a second though he grabs his jacket off from his bed and heads out his room.

And to the hospital he went.