The Mind's Paradox

In Real Life

Artemis was the first one to pass out in the class. Riley followed suite. When Artemis entered Riley's mind, her brain shut down, and she closed her eyes, fell out of her chair, and hit the floor violently. The smack made everyone look towards her, and they gasped. Riley was the only one to not stand up and come to her aid. He, instead, started twitching, and then jumped up.

"Stop her, Belladonna, I don't want her there! Get her out!" Riley screamed bits of this over and over until he stopped suddenly. He glanced at the horrified faces of his classmates, and everything went dark to him. He slumped to the floor, and everyone shifted their gaze from Artemis to Riley, and back again. Neo, one of Riley's friends, rushed to his aid, while Tara, one of Artemis's, ran to her's. Neo, being weak, couldn't pick up Riley, but Tara easily hoisted the other teen onto her shoulder. She also managed to rub it in Neo's face by scooping up Riley onto her other one. The small 14 year old scampered after Tara with a blush of embarrassment on his face. Tara trotted up the stairs with the teens on her shoulder, and Neo tripped on the first step. He stumbled continuously, and finally managed to follow Tara into the nurse's office. Tara laid down the two unconscious people on the provided beds, and sat next to Artemisia.

Neo stared at the floor, and sat next to Riley. He continued twitching and muttering the name Belladonna. Artemis, however, started bleeding. Her knees bruised and one started to contort and snap, and Neo almost threw up when Riley had a piece of his flesh split and peel off.

Scratch that, he did. Neo had intense hemophobia, while Tara was not in the least bit bothered by it. Her mother was a surgeon, and she planned on becoming one too.

When Neo finally came back to the room, he regretted it. Blood was now trickling from Riley's eyes and Artemis's arm started to gain slices across it. Tara hurriedly called the nurse, and she walked in calmly, but as soon as she saw the state of the two teens, she dropped the clipboard in her hand, and ordered Tara to call an ambulance while she checked to see if they were still breathing.

Well, they were, but Riley's was ragged like he had been running, and Artemis's was rough like she had been crying. The nurse had never seen something like this, and it worried her. Eventually, the ambulance arrived, but Reilly had woken up, and was not happy about his situation.

"No, get her out of there, Belladonna! I don't want her there, she's gonna get hurt more!" Riley kept screaming this, and wouldn't answer any of the questions given by the paramedics and the police officers who had to restrain Riley. They almost never had to use the straight jacket on anyone, let alone a teen, but they were waiting for a signal to put it on the hysterical teen.

"Riley, who is Belladonna? Who's gonna get hurt? We need you to talk to us!" Riley's breathing started to slow, and he fell to the side, but when the paramedics caught him, he bolted out of his seat.

"Don't show her the others Belladonna, she doesn't need to see them, they're dying, stop!" He held his head, and pulled on his hair, dark red tears streaming down his face despite the fact that his eyes were in no way damaged. He crawled to a corner, and wrapped his arms around his knees, rocking himself back and forth. They couldn't coax him out, so the paramedic finally gave in, and told the officers what to do. They pulled Riley to his feet, and put the straight jacket on him. He didn't even struggle. Not even when Riley's parents burst through the door right as he was being loaded onto a stretcher to take him to the ambulance. They started yelling to the officers and paramedics that they shouldn't've even touched Riley or questioned him without them there. While everyone was arguing, Riley used the trick he had used many times before, and wiggled out of the jacket, throwing it on the floor, and crawling to the dimly lit corner again. When they finally realized it, Riley was just sat again, and they stared, wondering how Riley could've gotten out.

"It was a trick I learned off YouTube, I tried it out a few times with a straight jacket I borrowed from a buddy a while back." They pulled Riley to his feet again, but he yanked his arms away, and leaped at the officers, clawing at them with his sufficiently long and sharp nails. By the time they pulled him off, he had done some serious damage. He laughed as they bound his hands and he watched the officer cover his face in pain.

Huh. Must be weird to feel that. Thought the crazy teen as they placed him in the ambulance, making sure his limbs were firmly tied down.