Aaron woke up and expected it to be a dream, with Audrey next to him, until he opened his eyes. Then it hit him, hard. Audrey was dead, he was mute. Aaron couldn't hold it back and started crying. He had liked Audrey for years, and yet he only had the courage to tell her right before she died, but at least she knew. Aaron felt horrible. He fell into a sort of darkness, and every day, he would just lay there, in his bed, mutely crying to himself. The emotional pain enveloped him until he felt he was blind, too. Blind to the good in the world, yet excellent visions of the evil. Aaron felt it was worse torture to feel this than being back at the facility. Eventually he gave up, and found a knife. He didn't cut the stitches on his mouth, since he never wanted to talk anyway, and he was being kept alive by stuff being pumped into his body and bloodstream. No, Aaron used the blade to cut something else. He reopened the scars on his arms and made new ones. Strangely, the loss if blood and the amount of pain helped with his emotional state. With every drop of blood that was shed, staining the perfectly white sheets red, Aaron felt some of his inner pain slipping away. He eventually became addicted, cutting himself whenever he got the chance. But slowly, the cutting wasn't working, and Aaron began to break. He still had emotional breakdowns, and he was falling apart with every breath he took. He wanted to die, but Laura would come in and prevent it. She didn't know about the knife, though, because Aaron kept it hidden under the bandages. He ended up cutting his legs, too, trying to find some form of escape from the darkness and emptiness inside of him. Aaron would cry himself to sleep every night and sobbed silently in every waking minute. The boy with a gentle heart, the one who stayed strong for others when it was needed, couldn't stay strong for himself.

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Hey, sorry the chapter was so short, and I'm sorry if I went too far, on any of this. I just need to write it, you don't understand. I'm sorry if I lost some friends and readers due to this story. This is not what I planned, but what I ended up with and am keeping. I can stop, if it's bothering too many people, and again, I'm so sorry!! I might remove this chapter someday, and put a different one in it's place.