The Schizophrenic

Chapter 12 - Damaged

“Martin, I cannot handle Jade anymore,” Eileen said.

Martin looked at his wife. It had been half a year since the fire that had burned down their house, and in just that much time, Eileen had gone from being collected and composed to belligerent and impatient. She’d lost a lot of weight and age was now beginning to get hold of her beauty. Wrinkles had begun to branch out around her eyes and the stress lines never left her forehead. Her black hair now had greys peeping out quite obviously and her olive green eyes were strained from worry and temper.

“Look, Eileen, we can’t blame her for whatever is happening to her,” Martin answered.

“She’s just pretending! She only wants attention! Why don’t you see that?” Eileen exclaimed.

Martin had seen this coming. He knew she would explode that way. He sighed. “You cannot determine that, dear. She’s going through a phase, that’s the only way we can explain this.”

“It’s no phase. She’s been breaking everything in sight for the past two months. She’s forgotten how to behave, she talks about a boy being in her room, she doesn’t eat and she’s just screeching all the time. And the way she speaks! It doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense! One day when I went to check on her she glares at me and says, ‘Tape black jeopardy’. What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know, frankly. I'm hoping for this madness to end, and you should hope for the same, too. You need to stop getting so worked up and calm yourself a little. Nothing’s going to come out of anger, Eileen. We have to handle Jade carefully till we come across someone who knows about what’s happening to our daughter. She’s in a delicate mental state, and we cannot let it get worse,” he responded quietly.

“It’s driving me up the walls, Marty. I'm so worried about her,” Eileen said, collapsing on the couch beside him. Tears began to well up in her eyes. It had taken so much control to never let them spill. She had to be strong. She couldn’t afford to break at such a point.

He put his arm around her shoulder and said, “We’ll be alright.”

She looked at him, a tear sliding down her cheek. “I really hope so.”

A loud shriek sounded in the corridor, followed with mad laughter. Eileen shrank toward Martin.

Jade couldn’t do this right now. Not when her nerves were finally beginning to relax. She pushed herself off the couch but Martin held her.

“Leave her for once, Eileen. Let her calm herself down without you scolding her,” he said.

She gave up. They retreated to their room and fell asleep.

Jade had managed to dent the wall. Momma slapped Jade thrice for her ‘mad behaviour’ and she even hit Endeavour’s head on the wall till it bled. In frenzy, Jade began hitting Endeavour too, and they both laughed as the blood poured down his face and stained his clothes.

“Your blood is green,” Jade pointed it out to him.

He just grinned at her and threw his arms around her neck. “I will kill you!” he yelled and began choking her.

She began cooing and dug her broken nails into his hands as she continued humming in a soothing voice. He cursed her and they spat at each other.

“Hooligans!” Jade screamed.

Endeavour let go of her and pushed her on the mattress. She resisted him, tried pushing him off her.

“You’re hurting me!” she complained when his knee dug into her stomach.

“Promise me something,” he spoke in a threatening tone.

Jade struggled in his iron grip. When she knew she was helpless, she sneered at him. “What?”

“You’re going to bite your father’s arm when he comes in to check on you.”

“No I won’t! He’s my Daddy, Endeavour!” she said, her eyes wide.

He lifted his knee from her stomach and ran a finger lightly along her waist. He knew her scar there hadn’t healed and was delicate, and he smirked with satisfaction when she winced.

“You don’t want it to hurt more, do you? You can’t keep me out of your room, Jade. You know I’ll come in anyway. It’ll be smarter if you just did as I instructed and you won’t ever be hurt. I promise,” he said.

Jade shivered as his fingers skimmed her wound again. Tears squeezed out of her shut eyes.

“Okay, okay, I’ll do it,” she submitted in barely a whisper.

“That’s like a good girl,” he said, placing a small kiss on her cheek and getting up. “Now let’s break that god damned bulb.”

Jade jumped up from her mattress. “Okay!”

They climbed over each other to reach the dangling light and swung at it. Endeavour crouched on the floor like a pretend-horse and Jade stood on him, and managed to break the bulb finally.

“Let’s see who makes a bigger cut,” Jade said, challenging her friend.

“I’ll win,” he smirked.

They began to scratch the shards of broken glass across their wrists multiple times. They shrieked and laughed and jabbed each other, enjoying the spray of blood. Endeavour left after that and Jade collapsed on her mattress. She fell asleep.