Chapter 8 - Bedlam

They would tell him kinds of things that wounded his emotions but he did not care. He didn't give it a thought when they said that but moved on with his life. The thought had gotten so bad that he rarely slept at night. He would get home and close his eyes to sleep but sleep never came. No matter how much he tried to sleep, he would always stay up most of the night thinking.

But when he got to school the next day, he slept in the class and that would make the teacher send him away. Selena was really worried about him after hearing the disturbing things that people had to say about his recent behaviour. So even though it had been a long they talked and checked up on each other, she had to ask after him and know how she was doing.

"Shiro... You always run off to the same spot whenever you have a problem. It's like you're a little kid. It's only the beginning of the semester. Keep cutting classes and you will have to take after-school classes or even worse, repeat." He turned towards her, scoffing.

"Hey, look who's talking. The 5th period isn't over yet, but here you are." He replied and watched as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and straightened up, rolling her eyes.

"It's okay for me to skip since I'm a genius." She added and Shiro burst out laughing. But that laugh was a sad, wry laugh. There was no life in it, just as life was slowly seeping out of his face. He always had dark circles under his eyes because he had turned insomniac. Then she began to taunt him as usual.

"You, on the other hand, got in here thanks to a miracle." She said,

"I have to get back to the class now, we have a big project to submit and I won't be able to in a while. Enjoy your stay outside, maybe you will keep repeating classes." She said before walking away briskly. Shiro knew that that was going to be the last time she would see him that week. Just as he bent down again to think, he heard another sweet voice. He knew who it was instantly. It was the noisy Mia who had had everything for him to notice her at school. They were now friends, but Shiro kept his distance.

"Hey Shiro-" She said, waving at him. He waved back and she ran towards him. Her countenance fell when she saw that he was still carrying that long look on his face. She sighed as she got close enough and bent on the rail. Amongst all his friends, she was the only one who was determined to help him out but Shiro was concerned. Who the hell was going to believe his story when he told them about it? Who would believe that the world would soon fall into chaos and human beings would turn into flesh-eating monsters?

"Why are you always-" she tried to talk but he wasn't even looking her way and scowled as she looked at him. She didn't find it funny that he was behaving this way. She wanted to know what was that troubled him so much.

What he found hard to share with the others. But it did not look like he was ready to talk to anyone. Shiro stared overhead, staring vacantly into the air. What if this was going to happen? What If he had been given this message to save the world before things happened and caught him unawares? But who was he going to approach and tell that he had seen?

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he turned around and saw Mia look down at him angrily. She was very angry with what had just happened. She could not believe that he kept staring away into the distance even as she stood there talking to him. She got furious immediately and began to hurl curses at him.

"I hate stupid people. I especially hate the ones who aren't aware of their stupidity. Fortunately, you're not one of those people. So if I keep telling you that you are stupid, then you will become less stupid. Stupid" she said and growled, thinking that he would give a thought to what she was saying. He wasn't listening to her. At times she thought that Shiro was behaving this way because Selena dumped him.

But it had been a year ago since she dumped him, so he was not supposed to think about it like that. He should have forgotten about it and moved on. She asked him again, no longer comfortable with the silence that came following whenever she asked him a question. "What? All this because your childhood crush dumped you?" She asked him, hoping that he would say something but he didn't. Was it because she had said that to him?

She wanted to apologize to him for calling him stupid but she didn't think he would say anything so it was best to leave him there immediately and leave. At the same time, he did not want to locate but as soon as the bell rang for the end of the recreation period, she swore through teeth firmly clenched and walked away to the class, muttering as she went.

"So stupid." She said, Far away from where she was, Selena was in her class and was deep in her thoughts. She was so sad about Shiro, she couldn't get where he was heading.

He would never joke then why would he say that? It was unrealistic and stupid. She wondered if he had begun to take drugs and had begun to hallucinate because that was the only thing that could bring about that kind of behaviour. How else could on explain such childish behavior? "About Shiro. I did feel that way about him back then, but he never noticed, so..."