Five Seconds After Death

Heavens Blade

He awoke to pain. Sharp and strong.

It permeated through his body as he got out of bed and got ready for school. It faded as he rode the bus, and started back up again once he stepped inside those doors.

Zach was good at hiding things, real or emotional.

None of his teachers had noticed anything wrong with him. So he had no trouble attending class. He was worried about one thing though.

The paranoia he felt was immense all throughout the day.

Were they staring at me? Did they know? Has Axel told anyone yet?

Oh god Axel...

Zach had been avoiding him for the past two days.

Luckily it hadn't taken him long to familiarize himself with the school's layout. He could easily hide himself in the sea of bodies, or slip into the janitor's closet, or stop just around the corner when he saw Axel.

Except when he noticed that Axel had started waiting at his locker in between classes. What the hell did he want from him?

The constant paranoia all came to a crashing halt for Zach the next morning. He had woken up 2 hours early from his alarm. Something felt desperately wrong inside. He reluctantly got out of bed.

You're so pathetic. Why do you do this to yourself?

Standing in the fuzzy darkness of his room, the kind of darkness that held no comfort for him to hide in. He looked at the mirror in front of him and it showed a blurry monochrome figure staring back.

You're stuck with this body. You wish this was all some cruel joke, don't you?

Zach remembers Sawyer saying that you should never look in a mirror while you're in a dream. This wasn't a dream though.

In dreams he could grab his skin and pull apart his body like crushing a ball of clay. He could reshape it, reshape it to whatever he wanted to be.

That's never going to happen. You're too weak to make anything happen...

He dug his fingers into his shoulders, tightly.

You wish you were an animal, you wish you could lose your mind cause then you wouldn't have to realize what you really are... meat.

He tightened his grip harder. Feeling the skin break underneath his fingernails. Blood pricked up from his shoulders as Zach let go.

His fingers were stained with it.

There is no comfort for you. You can't lash out, but you want to so badly too. You're pathetic. Why don't you save yourself and end it all?

Zach started to cry. They weren't tears of sorrow, but of anger instead. He grabbed the edges of the mirror and turned it around to face the corner of the room.

—---

Wednesday morning was another groggy sleep deprived haze.

When Zach arrived at school Axel was waiting near his locker again.

Great. Thought Zach. He was getting really tired of avoiding him. It had really only been two days. Eventually Axel would have to give up.

He'd found out that having friends was too problematic, and Zach had made his decision to move on through highschool without making any.

Zach rubbed his sore ribs. The pain was slowly seeping back in.

He took a painkiller this morning and it was starting to wear off.