WHO: Joey and Xavier [NPC] WHAT: Allll kinds of badness WHEN: Sunday night WHERE: Joey and Xavier's apartment WARNINGS: Mentions of mental illness, blood, and lots of scary badness
His day had been long and tiring and Joey was glad to be heading home. The shelter he worked at was usually a nice place for both workers and residents, but occasionally the kids who lived there had disagreements or fights of territory. Joey had just spent eight hours breaking up fight after fight that day and he wondered if it was the hot weather that was making every single one of the kids act crazy. Home was a sanctuary he was very much looking forward to.
The moment he stepped through the door, Joey knew something was wrong. It happened occasionally. His housemate Xavier had saved Joey's life once and Joey in turn now spent a lot of time since then saving Xavier's right back. Xavier had schizophrenia and despite taking meds, sometimes it got the better of him.
The apartment was too quiet and there was an air of something being out of place hanging around it. Joey dropped his bag and without even bothering to close the door he ran to Xavier's room, terrified of what he would find. If Xavier had killed himself while Joey was at work-
Xavier wasn't dead and Joey was relieved not to find a body. What he did find, however, was the man who had become his family, standing in front of a mirror with a knife to his head. He was bleeding profusely and dragging the knife across his skin as he mumbled to himself.
"Xavier!" Joey screamed but with the knife in play, he was too afraid to just charge forward and take it away from him. Joey wasn't strong and he wasn't fast and he had no idea what to do in a fight, let alone a knife fight. If Xavier was having a psychotic break he very well might see Joey as an attacker.
Xavier turned and he smiled at Joey, the expression wild and terrifying. "Joseph," he said, his voice pleasant. He spoke as if it was a normal day and his shirt wasn't stained with his own blood.
"Yeah...hi," Joey said warily. He edged his way into the bedroom trying to be careful and not look suspicious at the same time. "Xavier, what are you doing?"
Xavier shrugged, that same creepy smile affixed to his face. "Nothing, why." He laid the point of the knife against his head again and he twisted it around, gritting his teeth as he did so, which was the only faltering of the eerie expression affixed to his face at all.
"Hey, stop!" Joey ran forward and then he stopped a few feet from Xavier. "Xavier, you're bleeding! Stop! Just give me the knife, okay!" He reached his hand out, edging closer and closer.
"Nothing's wrong, Joseph," Xavier said, his voice more insistent then. There was something about it that clicked in Joey's mind. "Go outside."
"No," Joey said firmly. "Xavier, do you think someone is watching you?"
Xavier's hauntingly cheerful expression cracked and he immediately yelled, "No! No, nothing's wrong."
"Give me the knife, Xavier."
"Nothing's wrong, Joseph, just go out to the living room."
Groaning in frustration, Joey swallowed roughly. "No! I am not leaving you here with a knife to your head. Just put it down, Xavier. If someone's listening or watching you we can deal with it a different way!"
"I have to get it out!" Xavier finally screamed, stepping back from Joey and stabbing the knife into his temple ever-so-shallowly. It caused another river of blood to ooze out and drip onto his shoulder. "It's under the skin! Right here! I can hear it beeping and rattling about! They've bugged me and they're listening in-"
"Xavier, stop, just stop hurting yourself! Don't let them win this way!"
It was the realisation in Xavier's eyes that made Joey realise he had said the wrong thing. By the time Xavier said, "you're right. I can silence them," Joey was already jumping forward. Xavier pulled the knife back, intent on jamming it through his temple at full-speed and silencing the voices forever.
Joey hit him hard, knocking them both off their feet. The knife caught Joey hard in the left hand before falling out of Xavier's hand and clattering away across the wooden floor. From on top of Xavier and now bleeding himself, he grabbed Xavier's arms. "Xavier! Stop! Just stop, Xavier! I'm going to help you okay, I'm going to help!" He reached into his pocket and dialled 911 while Xavier struggled weakly beneath him.
* * * * * * *
Several hours and three stitches later, Joey was allowed to steal into Xavier's hospital room. The man was in drug-induced sleep, snoring lightly with his hair falling into his open mouth. Joey stepped over to Xavier and with his bandaged hand he pushed Xavier's hair back and then he leaned down and kissed Xavier over his own bandaged head.
"I know sometimes things get a bit muddled for you," he whispered, "but I love you. You'll be okay, Xavier. And then you can come home with me again. You're my family now, man." Joey had a lot of friends and many of them he considered close enough to be best friends. He was surrounded by people to love and people who loved him back, but none of them were Xavier. None of them had taken him in and gotten him off the street and showed him that people really could care when he had lived a life up until then without ever knowing what being loved felt like. Xavier dealt with so much and he had no reason to reach out to some skinny, gothic weirdo, but he had. He had and Joey wasn't about to abandon the man who had done so much for him. Not now and not ever.
"You just get better. You rest. I'll come see you tomorrow, Xav." He kissed Xavier's hair again and then he left his friend there to recover. He only hoped that Xavier got better soon.