UnOrdinary: Unleashed Hell

Chapter 3: Broken

Vaughn entered his house, his house keys jangling together as he walked into the kitchen and threw them onto the kitchen table with a noisy clang. The first thing he did after that was go upstairs to check on John. There were no signs of the young male being downstairs so Vaughn assumed he was still in the guest room.
As he approached the guest room door, he wondered what kind of state John would be in. Would he be awake and finally willing to talk? Only one way to find out.
Vaughn reached the white guest room door and knocked on it, expecting to hear the ravenette's voice somewhere from within the room, but there was nothing but silence.
"John?"
Still silence.
An uneasy feeling was beginning to worm its way through Vaughn's gut.
"I'm coming in!" He called rather loudly as to make sure the younger heard him and after a few seconds of nothing in response he finally turned the silver doorknob and opened the door.
Vaughn didn't really like what he was seeing.
John was still in the same position he had left him in this morning with his back facing to him. He was even still clutching the fluffy white blanket to his chest in the same way he had been before.
Bad sign number one.
Vaughn glanced towards the wooden nightstand he left the sandwich on that morning. It hadn't even been touched.
Bad sign number two.
'He can't possibly still be sleeping.' Vaughn thought. He slowly made his way around to the other side of the bed so he didn't startle the boy and there they were. Those lifeless eyes were staring straight back at him.
"John." Vaughn said the boy's name again, willing a reaction of some kind out of the black-haired kid.
"John." He said again, this time crouching down to be eye level with the boy.
John didn't even blink.
Bad sign number three.
Vaughn studied John a little more. He had deep eyebags starting to form under his eyes, his hair was messier than usual, and he was incredibly pale.
Bad sign number four.
Something was very wrong with this kid and Vaughn was gonna get to the bottom of it. He wouldn't tolerate one of his students being in this much despair. John was clearly suffering horribly and he needed help, fast.
It had been almost a week since Vaughn had found John among the abandoned cars. The kid hadn't eaten a single thing the entire five days that Vaughn had, had him in his house and the teal-haired man was really getting worried. The younger never even moved from his sideways position on the bed, unless it was to curl up into a ball as if he just wanted to disappear from the world, all while he still had that fluffy white blanket.
Vaughn had continued making John food and had tried multiple times a day to get the ravenette to at least take one bite of it. The boy was starting to lose weight from his lack of eating and Vaughn almost couldn't bear looking at his student anymore.
John's raven hair was even messier than it had been 4 days ago, he was now sporting deep purple eye bags that rivaled Darren's, and he was even paler than before if that was even possible. Those soulless eyes also remained. It was as if somebody had sucked the soul out of the young male's body and only left behind an empty shell of what the boy once was.
Vaughn sighed for the hundredth time that day as he gave up, once again, trying to get John to eat a little bit of the sandwich he brought him. He was crouched down on the side of the bed John was facing so he would be facing him at eye level. He got nothing but the usual emotionless, unblinking stare when he tried to talk to the kid.
Vaughn stood up and walked back over to the white door, but not before leaving the sandwich on the nightstand as usual. He hoped by some miracle the kid would at least nibble on it.
He spared one more look at John, who was now in an oversized white t-shirt and black sweatpants. Vaughn had managed to get the boy to take a shower yesterday with a lot of coaxing and practically dragging him to the upstairs bathroom. His heart broke when he grabbed John's pale arm to help get him off the bed and the young male cried out in terror to which Vaughn quickly glanced at the boy, only to see his golden eyes return to their soulless state after a split second. He had internally facepalmed after leading John to the bathroom when he realized this whole time he hadn't thought to get any of John's clothes from his dorm the whole time the kid was with him.
Eventually, after lots of digging through his clothes, he found some old ones that would somewhat fit John and that was what he was wearing right now.
After a whole other day passed with no progress, Vaughn decided once again to try and start up a conversation with his very broken student. He really needed to know what was wrong with him. John was continuously spiraling downhill to the point where Vaughn was afraid of leaving him alone all day by himself.
He silently entered the guest room, this time determined not to leave until John spoke to him, even if it was one word.
John was in his usual position curled up in all his blankets, an untouched sandwich was still on the wooden nightstand. All this starting to become the sad normal for Vaughn.
He made a point of entering the room, although he didn't think John was at all paying attention to his surroundings, and sat on the bed next the ravenette.
"John, are you ok?" He knew the male wasn't but he just thought he'd start the conversation that way.
He was met with the usual silence.
"John you haven't said a word for five days or even eaten anything I'm getting really worried."
Still the everlasting silence, but Vaughn continued on while scratching at his beard.
"What happened to make you like this?"
Still nothing.
"You know John when I first met you I had high hopes for you. Not only were you powerful, but you had every asset to your personality that I was looking for."
A sudden creak in the bed brought Vaughn fully out of his thoughts and he shifted his position to look at John.
John's eyes were on him. He had flipped his position so he was now facing him. His eyes were still unnervingly emotionless, but John was looking at him, which meant he was listening and aware. This was a start!
"When you started acting out violently, I thought I misjudged you." Vaughn continued, still keeping his emerald gaze on the boy.
"What I should have thought about is the pain you went through and what led you to acting the way you did, and what put you in the state you're in. Looking at you now, I realize that I should've realized you being tormented all your life was the reason and I apologize."
Vaughn thought he saw something akin to emotion spark through John's eyes, but it was gone as quick as it came.
'I seem to be getting through to him.' Vaughn thought, and so he pressed on.
"I'm not excusing your violent actions in any way, I'm just saying I understand why you did it. You and I both know how bad this hierarchy is. People are so focused on power that they don't realize this order that's been placed is so mentally damaging, and you were one of the worst victims."
The young male closed his eyes for a second, seemingly taking in Vaughn's words, before opening them and continuing to lifeless stare at Vaughn. Something in those eyes was telling Vaughn to keep talking.
"John, I care about my students, including you, so please tell me what's wrong." Vaughn hoped that John would actually say something this time. He was so close to getting the boy to talk, he could feel it.
However, the ravenette just curled up into a tight ball from the sideways stretched out position he was in, and pulled the same fluffy white blanket closer to him. Vaughn had taken note that John must've found something familiar with the blanket, whether it be a feeling or a fond memory, and used it as a comfort tool quite often.
He stood up, a sigh escaping his lips. Looks like he wasn't gonna get anything out of the other male tonight after all.
"I understand, John. Just tell me when you're ready." Vaughn was about to walk out of the guest room until he heard a quiet, barely audible voice.
"Authorities."
Vaughn instantly whipped back around, one hand on the silver doorknob of the door, to face the ravenette who was still curled into a ball.
"What was that?" Vaughn pressed him. He needed him to continue.