pt. 3
Fast forward 3 months. Laying in bed latenight watching Hooktube and I get a message on Snapchat. What appears to be a goodbye message he thanked me for being his friend and then said he's going to get his ship back. By the tone of the message he's dead serious. Contact his roommates to see what the fucks up and they say that he spent a bunch of time loading duffle bags into his car and "went to the woods" about an hour ago. I go into panic mode and start contacting his family. They've all received goodbye messages as well and are freaking out. I start telling his brother where I think he might of gone (the trailhead near my friends house) and he hops in the car to drive over and see if he's still there. I head over to his Mom's house to pick her up and see if he's talked to her about anything. Maybe we can piece together what he's about to do.
At this point I'm thinking he's going to hike up into the woods and an hero with his pistol. Freaking out because however crazy he's acting he's still a lifelong friend that I care about.
Pull up into his Mom's and try to talk with her (she's hysterical naturally). This isn't going anywhere so I decide to call the cops and let them know that he's missing, appears to be suicidal, might be heading to the local military base, and his car info / description.
Brother calls — Friend is not at the trailhead but there's fresh tiretracks in the snow meaning he was there within the last hour.
All we can do is wait for what seemed like weeks.
My friend's Mom's house phone rings and she acts like she's getting good and bad news. Says she'll be right there and hangs up. Ask her what happened and she says the cops have him in custody and are taking him to the hospital. Now I'm relieved but worried at the same time. Ask her if she wants me to come with her and she politely declines and says she'll call me tomorrow when she knows more.
Drive home and spend the rest of the night wide awake, mind going a gorrilion miles an hour. Finally get a call from his Mom around noon the next day. He's booked into the psych ward at the local hospital. The cops pulled him over on the Interstate 20 miles from the before mentioned military base. When asked what he was doing he said that he's on his way to the base to get his property back. His car was loaded down with 5000 rounds of 7.62x39, two AK's, and three 10mm pistols.
This motherfucker was driving to a military base to shoot his way in and get his spaceship back. Clinical definition of CRAZY AF.
Later find out that he's been diagnosed as a Schizophrenic and he has to spend a couple months in the hospital.
When he finally gets out he's a shell of who he once was. Drugged up and by all means lifeless. I've tried to continue being his friend but he's just not the kid I grew up with anymore so it's tough. From time to time he will still tell me that he hears a voice in his head that tells him to do bad things but he doesn't listen to it because it's "a dick".
However kiked it may be, there are people who genuinely suffer from this shit so don't just brush it off as nonsense.
Here's the real kicker though: they didn't take his guns away.