5 Lunch of Insanity

<~*Chapter 3*~>

Scott is panicking.

Everything seems to be wrong. His mental block is slowly opening and he can barely control his body. On top of that and the unknown chatter from the voices, he can't stop his thoughts from circling his mind.

Although he understands the need for his emotions, he hates his unusual feelings so much, he hates constantly thinking, he hates his unnecessary thoughts and especially, he hates the creepy voices.

If he lost his feelings, his spirit could break and he would most likely die. Inner essence is essential in a being's body, it works together with the mind and souls. If one is out of balance, the power will start failing. It may take time for everything to fade completely but that depends on the person and their will. Scott can be put into the category 'early stages of emotion loss'. He can only hope that he doesn't lose any further feelings, especially his senses. Even though the Celestials granted the humans inner essence to stay on Ethereal, it can still be lost by overworking, losing control of the mind and body, as well as someone casting a hateful spell onto a person to forcefully remove it. And without inner essence, no one will last long on Ethereal.

And with those meaninglessly worrisome thoughts, Scott steadies his ragged breath and hammering heartbeat. He's currently in the boys' bathroom splashing cold water on his face to calm himself.

He manages to blocks out the voices, it's a moment of silence in his mind but thinking of the time he was gone just makes him want to go crazy.

He dries himself off while steadying his heartbeat. He can calm when listening to it, it's rapid pace slowing down as he listens. He takes a deep breath in to finish calming his mind.

Scott can only be at peace in this certain bathroom. Almost no one uses it because it's in the back of the school. Plus, there was once a huge fight that broke out with Scott here. Nobody really messes with Scott unless they're looking for a fight, so Scott claimed this bathroom and it's been his for a while. People can go there, just when he isn't there. His troublemaker attitude can come in handy sometimes.

The bathroom is pretty nice to escape to and Scott is thankful to be alone, no one can see him on the edge of panicking here.

Scott laughs aloud at that thought. He's calmer than before and can see his eyes in the mirror, he can see what Mr. Ellis was talking about now.

His eyes were very bright at one point.. Before his dad left, before his mom started shunning him, before Matt and Melanie started being rude and insulting him, before that happened.

The warning bell sounds, meaning there is only a few minutes before the next class starts. Scott grabs his bag that he threw on the floor, puts it on his back and walks out of the bathroom.

He goes to his next class with a numb feeling, he tries not to draw attention to himself and sits quietly in the back. That class went by quickly, his only focus was the new algorithm on the white board and how he was going to do his homework.

His next class consisted of a lazy teacher and very energetic students. So Scott had a little breather then worked on a project to occupy his thoughts.

Scott's fourth class was pretty much a blur, mostly because the teacher's pace was quick, not leaving any room for slacking off. By the time P.E. is over, Scott's body and mind are both numb.

This concludes Scott's morning, and his afternoon begins with the obnoxious school bell indicating it was time for lunch. Even if Scott just had a mini panic attack, he still looked forward to the rest of the day. And it's because of his next classes where he doesn't study normal subjects but he instead gets to learn about essences and the society. Scott even excels in these classes, even though he rarely shows his face on school grounds.

Everyone rushed out of their classrooms while gathering their materials. Scott was not in a hurry so he slowly put his school clothes on, grabs the rest of his belongings, then he walks down the halls. Hearing the steady chatter and loud stomping put his mind at ease as he looked at the beige colored walls.

He walked into the filled lunch room, not bothering to grab food. He sat down at a random table in the farthest part of the room, placing his bag next to him. He hopes no one would see him but things don't seem to go right for Scott.

"Scott.. Eat this." He heard his sister say from in front of him, holding a tray with a cheeseburger and fries on it.

His siblings sat across from him, casting worried glances at each other. They're probably thinking he's hungry because of the morning's fiasco.

"Why?" Scott asked, skeptically. He raised his eyebrows and slowly went to grab the food.

Scott had to admit he was hungry, he hadn't eaten in at least a day.

"Well.. You didn't get to have some food this morning, so just eat it." Melanie suddenly grew angry.

Scott looked at her skeptically while eating a fry, Melanie's spirit just shifted and Scott noticed the difference.

Scott concentrated on Melanie then went into her mind, due to Scott's spirit essence he can use many abilities that derive from demons. One of those powers being telepathy, he can read others' thoughts and even control them if he wanted. He wouldn't stoop so low, but he could.

Scott searches through her thoughts while eating his cheeseburger, he tries to play it cool and seem as if he's just watching his food.

A voice joined in Melanie's head that made Scott jump. 'Go away.'

'What was that voice? Did Melanie hear it too?'

"You good, Scott?" Matt asks, Melanie looked normal and her thoughts disappeared.

'What happened to Melanie?' Scott ponders.

"Uhm.. Yeah. I'm fine." Scott says, dipping his fries in ketchup.

He went back into Melanie's mind.

'I said go away. I'll have to report you to her majesty if you don't.'

'..huh?' Scott speaks to it.

'Are you confused? Isn't it normal for shadows to possess people?' The voice asks.

Scott realizes what it said, it was impossible. The voices in his head got so loud he couldn't see straight. He stood up so quickly he shook the table. Matt and Melanie got up too, wondering what happened.

"Scott? What's wrong?" Melanie asks worried.

Scott grabbed his head as he walked away, Matt called after him. Scott couldn't hear a thing but the voices repeating a word over and over: Umbra.

Scott could feel eyes on him, he could barely hear Matt and Melanie still calling his name, and he only saw blurry faces walking up to him.

Scott just tried to escape the noise but he only made it to the center of the room before he collapsed onto the ground.

The last thing Scott saw was a familiar face coming closer as his eyes shut and he fell unconscious.