5 Psychosis

It was a stormy night; the rain was pouring down with all its might as if raging towards the ocean enclosing the HQ island; a flash of lightning went by, thus breaking his light slumber with ungrateful suddenness.

The bender sat up to see the time on the wall clock; it had just struck 3:00 in the morning, but just then, as he was returning to his abyss, he was interrupted by a faint noise. "14, 13, 12, 11", A boy sitting on the floor of his otherwise empty chambers audibly whispered. The new bender got scared; he didn't expect anyone to be lurking around in his room as he was supposed to be left all alone. He was crouched on the floor with his face towards the wall and his head bent down, captivating the marble flooring in a death stare. With each number he counted, his voice grew louder as if imitating a countdown. He took a pause and then started again, "10, 9, 8, 7", not paying attention to the tenant of his newfound dwellings.

"Wh-who are you? Why are you here?" asked the bender. The boy stopped again to take a pause. Furthermore, increasing the loudness of his voice progressively, he continued without response, "6, 5, 4, 3…2-2-2, 2 more to go, I'll be in control". He was dead calm after this. He stopped his counting and quietly looked up from the marble floor, which he previously was so fascinated by. Slow sounds of droplets falling echoed throughout the room, with the epicentre being a puddle near the boy's feet. "Ar-Are you alright? Do you need anything?". The bender walked towards the boy. He felt the atmosphere grow heavier; it became harder to breathe with every step as if he was diving deeper into the reaches of a massive sea.

He finally got to the boy and put one of his hands on his shoulder in a vague attempt to console him. The boy shook for a moment but then returned to his lifeless haze. The bender started crouching to get a better look at the boy; he was curious as to what was the latter's intentions or the meaning of his presence at the devil's hour for that sake. The moment he saw his face, his own turned pale yellow. A shiver chilled down his spine, and it was as if his soul creeped out of its previous adobe. He flinched back and started sweating profoundly; the atmosphere grew distant to his senses as he felt the ground slip beneath his feet with fear.

"It can't be! Not at all, you can't—" he was horrified. The face he saw was his own. The boy had tears, but instead of clear watery ones, it was blood, crimson coloured blood. "Just 2 more, do them for me, help me. JUST DO IT, DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, DO IT NOW!!!" the boy shouted.

He leapt onto the bender, forcing him to the ground. The boy just stared at him over his face, making the bender terror struck. The whole atmosphere started blending with white space; it looked like it was transitioning into something else. Soon the entirety of the surrounding was just flat out white. The only visible thing was waves of string-like objects floating at random places and had a purplish hue that kept changing back and forth from a reddish-orange-like colour. It was almost like they were moving in waves, or more likely, flowing around.

The boy's eyes were engulfed in red now; he had a sinister smile on his low-cut face which turned into a hysterical laugh followed by a snort. He had the same face as the bender but with crimson eyes which shocked the bender to such an extent that it had rendered all his senses moot, and his capacity to comprehend his surroundings was almost negligible. The bender was on the verge of fainting by having been forced to try to understand things far above his reach. The boy then aligned his fingers to point at the newbie's face. "Wait, what are you doing?", without hesitation, he thrust his fingertips into the eyes of the latter.

The surrounding became pitch black from the flat white colour, and the bender screamed in pain. He felt a sudden jerk which got him out of this nightmare. He woke up to see it was all just a dream. His heart was pounding, and it took some time for him to stabilise. While still on his bed, he turned to see the clock; it was 10:00 in the morning. The nightmare felt extremely real, and he had never felt that troubled in his life. He quickly got himself dressed up and headed through the corridor. On the opposite end, he saw the scout; she was standing with her hands crossed, and it looked like her blood was boiling with rage.