Control » Muke

t h r e e

my mind's like a deadly disease

Michael felt as if his body was in flames; his throat burned with every word he spoke, limbs aching and tongues of fire were swallowing him whole. His body twisted and stretched on the floor and he clawed at his face, gasping for breath as if he was underwater, drowning.

In that moment, Michael really wished he could just slip into the water and let himself go.

"No! Just make it stop, make it stop," He was muttering under his breath, head clutched tightly between his hands, body rocking back and forth. Luke watched from the other side of the hallway, partly with fear but also with curiosity.

Luke wasn't scared of Michael - the pink haired boy was as timid as a kitten and he was just as frightening as one too. Of course, the screaming and crying made him seem pretty crazy and Luke had never seen a human act so terrified. Heck, Michael's fear literally pushed Luke out of his body, and that was a pretty big deal.

"It hurts," Luke noticed how Michael's voice wavered and cracked as he spoke, every word digging deeper into his chest as if someone was beating him black and blue. "I can't take it anymore, please just make it stop."

Admittedly, Luke was shocked by the outburst. He had seen grown men cry, women plead for their life and children lock themselves in all sorts of strange rooms and places, but never had a human openly asked Luke to kill them. The event would be a miracle to most people on the other side and any demon would jump at the chance to ravish a human boy to death, but Luke wasn't a demon. No, he didn't want to be and he never would be, because demons are cruel and unforgiving and Luke felt the strings on his hypothetical heart being tugged by the sight of the small boy in front of him.

"Kill me!" Michael's body was shaking. His fingers could barely clutch onto his thin legs but it didn't seem as if he would be calming down any time soon. "That's what everyone wants, right?" The air was filled with cries and whimpers but the atmosphere was much darker: was Michael serious about wanting to die? Had Luke's silly jokes finally gone too far?

It wasn't only Luke who was surprised by the words, however. Michael himself didn't think he would ever speak the words. At school, things weren't always perfect and it was frustrating when his parents didn't fully understand what he was going through, but that had never been enough for Michael to seriously try and kill himself. He had thought about it before, that was true, but had he finally reached his breaking point?

"My classmates, my family, you; everyone wants me gone so just do it already!"   Michael cried out. He was sick of waiting, ready for it all to be over. It was already hard to get through each day and he didn't need more pain to make things worse. "Stop waiting around!"

It was strange seeing a human look so fragile, so broken, so vulnerable - Yes, that was the perfect word to describe Michael. Vunerable. From what Luke had seen, Michael always tried to come off as independent and sassy when he could, but behind closed doors lay a lifetime of fake smiles and hollowed out eyes. Despite seeming completely normal and out together on the outside, there were a whole number of layers to Michael and it seemed as if his tough exterior was breaking down quickly.

Luke never paid much attention to his victims. He didn't even like the call them that; Luke didn't kill anyone, eat them or sacrifice their souls, they were merely experiments and practical jokes, test subjects and lab rats for when Luke got bored. However, something was different with Michael. The idea that his pranks could drive someone to such a bad state was making Luke go crazy and he felt somewhat guilty about hurting the smaller boy.