Your Heart

Chapter Ten

I write down some more, continuing what I left off from. The teacher drones on until he says something that makes my body freeze. "...As rare as Schizotypal Personality Disorder." He finishes. I gaze up, thinking hard about what he said. Why would he say specifically the condition that Phoenix has? I look up to the front of the room, and he's staring straight toward Phoenix. There's something about him...

I'm deep in thought when I hear the sound of sharp, piercing screams breaking through my ears, swallowing my sense of hearing completely. I spring up, looking for the source. I survey until I notice that Kasumi isn't in her seat. Instead, it's abandoned on the floor. I rush around the counter, squatting down and watching in horror as she pulls at her hair with one hand, trying to rip the skin off the other with her teeth. I grab her hand, pulling it away so she can't injure herself anymore.

Kasumi's screaming busts my ears as she kicks me away, as words can be heard in her screeches. "DON'T LAY ONE FUCKING HAND ON ME!" I slowly move away, but she continues to bruise my legs by kicking them over and over again. I stay by her, not moving an inch or deflecting her hits. After almost fifteen minutes of Kasumi trying to tear into her flesh, me blocking her from doing so and her kicking me, she finally calms down a significant amount.

By this time, everyone has left the classroom and is somewhere else. The only other person in the room is the teacher, typing away on his laptop. I put a hand on her shoulder, only to have her shove it off and move closer to the corner. "You okay, Phe?" She stays silent, her bangs covering any hint of emotions

Phoenix moves her head in my direction, frowning. "Strange.." I look at her, confused. "I feel like I finally see it. We have to go home now." She stands, waving for me to follow. I go after her, and she picks up her cane, putting the pair of sunglasses on. I finally see it? What does that mean? She walks very fast, tapping on the floor as some of the students in our class give her puzzled, yet amazed looks. She walks past all of them, not giving them a glance as we walk down the stairs and right out the main entrance. A guard is standing at the entrance, but Phoenix waves a hand at him and he drops into his seat, asleep.

Once we get out of the vicinity of the school, we break into a sprint. We close the space between ourselves and the door to our apartment complex, and she swings it open, sprinting to the stairs. I try my best to follow behind, but she is sprinting like she left the stove on.

I whip out the key and unlock our door, and she runs to her room, slamming the hefty wooden barrier behind her. I wait idly in the kitchen, confused my the whole ordeal. She must be insane, I think. That's the only thing that ran through my head while there were loud noises coming from Phoenix's room. It must be the one the teacher was talking about, I infer. She reacted so strangely to it, what was the name again? Schizotypal Personality Disorder...

I hear another scream, followed a loud thud. That made my brain click everything into place. I jump from the stool I was sitting on, abandoning it to the floor as I whip open her door.

She's sitting on the floor, raking her fingers through her hair. She has a hunger for violence in her eyes. How did I never notice this? "Phe, you have... Schizotypal Personality Disorder, right?"

She looks up to me tilting her head. "What about it?" My heart races. So she does have that, I think.

"Why do you need that injection, Phe?" I speak clearly, despite my thoughts rushing like a tidal wave breaching its barrier. "What's wrong with yourself that you need it?"

"I've never had feelings, you know. The whole personality disorder doesn't allow that. So, this one person came up with exercises to make me feel emotions." She looks up at me, and a silence hushes the room. She grins at me, and I take a step back.

"While I understand that you want to live normally, this thing that you're doing doesn't help. I remember a girl I once knew that used this and it made her worse in the end. I used to look into her room and her laughing as she ripped her flesh open. It was horrifying, Phe!" I took a deep, shaky breath and exhaled it out once more, trying to slow my quickening heart. Phoenix looks up to me, her face draining of color.

"Leave." She says, her voice gravelly.

"What?" I reply, trying to multitask as my brain is thinking too fast.

"I said... LEAVE!" She runs at me and grabs ay my clothes, ripping them as she's trying to push me away. She pushes me into a wall and slams the door open, running out of the room. I run after her, and she's trying to get the door out of the apartment open.

"Phe, that won't work," I say, walking closer. She turns quickly, pressing her back against the door. I walk up to her until I can hear her rough breathing. She looks up to me, and her hand slowly moves from her side. She touches the side of my neck lightly with my palm, and then her eyes falter then close, and she's falling down to the floor until I catch her and scoop her up racing to place her down on her bed. I leave the room, closing the door behind me. I press my back against the door, and slide down until I'm sitting on the floor. I close my eyes, and wait for something, anything to happen...