The Day Of The Meltdown...
Rix had closed his eyes, the shock too much to keep his eyes open when he landed on the hardwood floor with a massive thud. He'd half expected to die on the spot since he was weak and hungry, and still not fully recovered from cutting and letting himself bleed the other day—Other days. But to his greatest surprise, and slight dissatisfaction, he was still breathing, although with difficulty, he was still breathing nonetheless.
But he was aching all over, but nothing was probably broken or it would be more than aching muscles, and bones?, and what was definitely a concussion, he'd slammed his head on the stairs a couple of times before a final slam on the hardwood flooring downstairs.
"Rix, are you awake, honey? Open your eyes for mommy!", he could hear a woman screaming, the voice was muffled and sort of distorted, like he was under water and someone was talking to him from above surface. He tried to answer but his tongue was thick and heavy in his mouth, and had a metallic taste in his mouth. Blood. He had probably bitten his tongue halfway off when he rolled down the stairs. It was a wonder that he didn't hack it up as he coughed out blood initially after he landed.
"I told you to leave him be for the night, Darren!", MaryAnne screamed at her husband all while she cried her eyes out and Darren just stood there, dazed, watching his wife and daughter cry their eyes out.
On one hand was the guilt eating the man up for not listening to his wife, not taking her advice and letting the boy rest till the next day before bringing up the issue. But on the other hand, Darren didn't want to appear weak or wrong.
"He won't die. Think of this as karma for his sins. His stupidity. I'll call an ambulance", Darren balls his hands into fists and grudgingly turns away from the barely conscious boy and his wife.
"Is that all you have to say, Darren? He's your son", the Mrs is beyond shocked at this point, surprise written all over her tear streaked face as she observes her cold husband, tightening her hold on Rix and Dani.
"What more do you want me to say, Anne? I'm going to call an ambulance", Darren sounded tired, tried to sound calm and uninterested but it came off as weary.
Darren isn't ready for the slap that lands across his face as he blinks in surprised, stunned to silence as he stares at the woman breathing heavily, with her red rimmed eyes and the scared looking little girl pulling on the wide part of her loose pants, looking from her father to her mother with terror in her eyes. He wasn't sure how she moved so fast.
"Anne?", Darren has to clarify if he's awake right now or not just trapped in some twisted nightmare instead.
"You're not on drugs and neither are you dreaming, Godson. I slapped you and I'll do it again! Can you hear yourself? No, did you hear yourself?", MaryAnne looks like she'll cry again at any second but she's struggling, trying to keep her eyes dry as she speaks.
"First a report came in that your son assaulted someone and you didn't ask questions, you just let your fists loose and now he's hurt a classmate physically and you don't even care to know how he is and you scared him to the point of falling halfway down a flight of stairs and all you can say is 'he won't die', 'it's karma', 'I'll call an ambulance'. Darren did you see his face when you hit him a few days ago?! You called him a faggot and told him he needed to go to a mental institute and he called us by our names! Are you that dense, Mr Godson?!", it's harder to calm down now that she has started to unload all the baggage she's been holding on to.
"Mummy! Rix!", MaryAnne is cut short by the sudden coughing fit from the boy on the floor and Danielle's scream.
Anne is rushing back to his side, dropping to her knees and checking him over before turning to Danielle.
"Get me my phone and keys, Dani. Hurry", Danielle is scrambling to do as she's told, nearly tripping on her way up to the stairs to grab what was asked.
"Get off me!", Richard screamed, a little too high pitched for a male but it wasn't out of place with the current situation, and scrambled backwards in fear, thinking he was 'still' in danger and MaryAnne jolted at the speed at which her son backpedaled away from her, his suspended coughing fit resuming with a vengeance and he's left with blood stains on the front of his sweat damp shirt and on the floor.
He looked disorientated and very frightened as he looked between the couple, his mother and father, through blurry vision.
That's when Danielle runs downstairs and Rix' s eyes go wide with panic as he sees his sister, like a deer caught in headlights and is quick to try to keep her away from their parents on impulse, shooting up on shaky feet to grab his sister and pull her towards him, away from Darren and MaryAnne. His breaths are coming in harsh pants, and he barely concealed a wince, most likely from moving around too quickly with a concussion and blurry vision.
He lands harshly on his ass in his struggle to pull his gem towards himself, away from the threat that was his, their, parents.
Rix is back to back with the one of the living room couches, with Danielle's face pressed against his chest and his arms wrapped around her back almost too tightly. How he moved that far is quite the mystery to Darren and MaryAnne as they watched, Darren's face morphing from surprise to annoyance and disgust in quick succession, while MaryAnne's expression goes from surprise to fear and panic and confusion, caught between trying to calm her terrified son, and trying to wrestle the boy into the car and zooming off to the hospital, preferably without her husband scaring the boy even more.
"Rix, baby?", MaryAnne didn't mean to voice out a question but the way he startled made her startle as well but she's quick to gather herself and get on her feet, deciding to go to her children and hopefully get Rix to follow her or straight up carry him, since he's actually quite light for a boy his age, to the car but she didn't count on her husband following her.
"Rix, baby, you're hurt. Let's get you patched up", she kept her voice small and gentle as she approached the spooked kid who was panting and shaking.
"Rix?"