Stuck In A Moment

Christmas part 6.

WARNING: SUICIDAL THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIOR! ALSO TALK ABOUT ATTEMPTING SUICIDE! IF ANY OF THIS TRIGGERS YOU, STOP READING IMMEDIATELY AND SKIP OVER THIS CHAPTER! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Laurens ran out of the home and down the street. Like he did last year around Thanksgiving. He ran all the way back to his dorm and swung the door open.

"How come you're back?" Alister asked.

"How come you're here at all?" Laurens questioned.

"I was gonna go home to see my family, but my plane was grounded due to bad weather." He explained. "Are you ok?"

"If you want my turtle you can have him. If not, Peggy will know what to do." Laurens stated.

"Why?"

"I'm gonna go jump off a bridge."

"What!?!?!?!?!?!"

Laurens grabbed his backpack and slugged it over his shoulder. "Anything of mine you want is yours. Make sure Alexander gets nothing."

"No!" Alister gasped. "I'm not letting you do this."

"You can't change my mind." Laurens whimpered. "The one person I could always rely on when bad things happened now thinks I'm better off dead. So there's no point in living anymore." He walked over to the door.

"I'm really sorry about this." Alister tackled him. He grabbed his arms and pinned his body to the floor.

"Let me go!" Laurens complained.

"You'll thank me later! You can't throw away your life because one person says so."

"What about six people? What about all the foster parents who wished I was dead? What about my own father who tried to kill me at the age of five?" Laurens teared up. "I'm worthless and all I do is cause trouble to the people I care about!"

"John, please! Don't make me do something I know I'll regret." Alister begged.

"Just let me go! It'll be better for you too. You can have whatever you want. You won't have to be one of the people I hurt."

"You can't think this is a good idea. What about Peggy?"

"She can finally have peace knowing her future husband won't get killed. Or even worse, get her killed. She moved on once, she could do it again." Laurens exclaimed.

"So you refuse to change your mind?"

"I'm not gonna stop fighting you until I'm dead!"

"Then I apologize in advance." Alister grabbed a nearby book and smacked him in the head.

Eliza and Peggy ran down the street. They asked multiple people if they had seen him. None apparently saw him leave. That didn't stop them however, they kept on their journey to find him before it was too late.

"Excuse me? Have you seen a 19 year old boy, with brown hair and hazel eyes?" Eliza asked.

"I'm sorry miss. I've been inside all night." The man she was talking to said. He was one of her neighbors.

"Ok, thank you for your time." She turned to leave in defeat. She walked back over to Peggy.

"Anything?" Peg asked.

"No. We're 0 for 10." Eliza sighed. "Everyone's been inside all night."

"Isn't that just fantastic!" Peggy deadpanned.

"I'm scared. He's harmed himself before, and that was just because of a break up. Now his brother told him he wished he was dead." Eliza teared up.

"What! When did this happen?" Peggy asked.

"The reign of Stevie the stupid." Eliza stated.

"Right."

"But it just proves my point. He's probably scared and depressed. I think he'd consider ending his life." Eliza cried.

"I'm not gonna let that happen. I promised myself I wouldn't let anything happen to him. Even if it means I'm saving him from himself." Peggy tried to keep a brave face. "I'm not gonna stop looking."

"You're right. We can't stop to cry, we have to find him and hope it's not too late." Eliza nodded.

Alexander and Lafayette had been looking too. Well, Alexander was looking. Lafayette was mostly just smacking him in the head.

*SMACK!!!*

"Hey!" Alexander rubbed his head.

"I'm sorry, maybe you're better off dead." Lafayette glared at him.

"I know I messed up. But we need to find him. Don't do this as helping me, but for finding Laurens before he potentially..." Alexander paused. He couldn't bring himself to say it.

"If he dies? His blood is on your hands!" Lafayette threatened him.

"I'm not gonna let that happen." Alexander stated. "I can't."

"You can't say something and make it so!"

"I can't lose James!" Alexander exclaimed. "I-I mean Laurens."

Lafayette was silent for a moment.

"I can't fail him." Alexander said.

"You didn't fail James." Laf spoke up. "It wasn't your fault he died."

"If I hadn't been there, he would've been saved." Alexander whimpered. "The only reason he died is because I was saved first and he drowned." Alexander gulped. "Maybe I'm the one who's better off dead."

Again, Laf was silent.

"You don't have to say anything, just don't let me kill another brother." Alexander turned and started walking again.

"Ok." Lafayette nodded his head and walked with him.

Washington and Martha were also looking for Laurens. They couldn't believe what Alexander said, but they knew they didn't have time to be mad. Even though no one wanted to admit it, everyone who witnessed the event knew Laurens could be in danger from himself.

"Where could he be?" Washington asked.

"I don't know. We've already checked the Schuyler summer home, the hotel he stayed at last Thanksgiving, the police station. I don't know where else he would've gone unless he..." Martha started crying.

"It's ok Martha." Washington tried to calm her down. "It's ok."

"I hope he's ok. That's all I can do right now."

"I know. We can't give up. I won't stop until I know where he is or what happened to him." Washington stated.

"Ok." Martha nodded. "I don't know where else to look though."

"Let's start with our street." Washington suggested. "Maybe he went home."

"I hope so."

After a long time of searching, everyone ended up with the exact same thing.
Nothing.

None of them had found Laurens. None of them knew where he was.

All seemed lost, until Peggy got a weird phone call from Jane.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Peggy? I need you to come to the campus." Jane replied.

"Look, now is not the best time, Jane. Laurens is missing and he's very unstable right now. I have to keep looking for him." Peggy said.

"Umm, about that..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just come. Don't bring anyone. You'll understand when you get here."

"Ok, I'm on my way."