The Devolution of Reality

Part 1

"A chronic mental illness in which a person loses touch with reality"

Michael Brooks sat up tall in his chair with his hoodie up and his head hanging low. Dr. Timbs repeated the words to Michael's mother. "I have come to the conclusion Ms. Brooks that your son Michael is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, a subtype of schizophrenia." Ms. Brooks' eyes became heavy with tears on the verge of emerging. She turned to Michael and he looked up as if he had not just been deemed "clinically insane". He turned to his mother and said "You don't have to love me anymore mom, I'm not the kid you wanted anyways.......Mark is." Tears streamed down Ms. Brooks' face as she looked at her favorite accident in life. "Mikey, you will always be my son, and to me that makes you perfect." Michael laughed because he knew that his mother's opinion doesn't change the opinions of the other 3 billion people in the world.

Dr. Timbs broke the tense silence, "I want Michael back every week until he graduates high school." Michael had just entered his senior year of high school and was looking forward to another year with all of his friends. Well, some of them were friends, others were actors. These actors smiled and talked with Michael, but would just mock him behind his back. He knew what they would say but he didn't care, as long as he kept his music playing every day.

Music was Michael's only escape from the world around him. Each song seemed to transcend him into a world of higher meaning, free from the actors, the doctors, the pills, and worst of all the Voices. The Voices started in Michael's freshman year of high school. He began to hear fragments of sentences being spoken when there was no one around him, but he shook it off as lack of sleep. These fragments eventually graduated to full sentences, and most recently Michael has been having full conversations with brand new Voices each day. Dr. Timbs told Michael that the Voices were something his mind had made up to help him cope with emotions and the world around him. What Michael had not mentioned to Dr. Timbs though, was that sometimes the strongest of the Voices aren't just voices. They are beings that he can see and physically interact with. They influence Michael to do things, sometimes good and sometimes not so good. That's how he ended up in this dimly lit hell known as "Fairfield Correctional Office for the Troubled Youth".

The first Voice that manifested itself as a being was named Jack, and Jack liked to have fun beyond the limits of Fairfield County Law. Michael's mind created Jack as a tall, well-built young man around Michael's age. The only difference was that Jack had jet black hair and wore a very distinctive mask that was blank but had a smile and two eyes drawn on the front in what appeared to be an unknown red substance. The mask hid scars that riddled Jack's face from the corners of his mouth stretching to the back of his jaw, an almost Jokeresque smile. Jack wore a white shirt turned gray from over use, and a pair of black jeans. Tattooed onto Jack's forearms were the words "Timor et Ira". Michael knew it was Latin but never bothered find out what it meant. One day Michael was sleeping in chemistry class when he was woken up by a familiar voice that was dark and sadistic; it was Jack.

"Hey Mikey what did you get for problem number 3?" Michael lifted his head and saw Jack sitting in the desk next to him.

"Jesus Christ Jack. Nice of you to stop by." One of Michael's classmates heard him talking and looked over but saw that no one was talking other than Michael himself.

"Hehe what the fuck are we still doing here anyways? I got a ton of fun stuff planned for you! Check your pocket pal!" Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, that he had not remembered putting there before. It was orange and read "7-11" across the front of it.

"What's this for?" Michael was easily influenced by the Voices and seemed to lose all understanding of right and wrong when they visited.

"Ever seen a chemical fire? Hehe it's very hard to put out. Now go into the bottom drawer of the teacher's desk and pull out as many fun chemicals you can find." The student who had first seen Michael talking to himself started to watch closer.

"Ok Jack." Michael walked across the room while the teacher was helping another student; he grabbed four bottles poured them onto the teacher's desk and lit it on fire creating a blue and green blaze. The student who was watching Michael alerted the teacher and the school was evacuated. The police came and interrogated Michael and when they had asked him why he did this, apparently "Jack told me to do it." Wasn't the right answer. Michael was later taken in for treatment by Dr. Timbs and would forever be known as the "pyromaniac who talks to himself" at school. He was given pills to "silence the voices" but the only true remedy was music.