Stein sat alone at home, staring blankly at the computer screen in front of him. He clicked the mouse twice and a small box popped up on the screen.
'Password' it read, with a small text box below it.
"Password..." Stein repeated to himself with yet another unlit cigarette in his mouth, muffling his words a bit, and typed it in, clicking the enter key on the keyboard.
After his desktop loaded, he clicked a word document in his H: Drive called 'Madness Serum'. After doing so, he got up out of his seat and walked up to a table with five cages in which one mad mouse was housed in each.
Number 1.
The mouse in the first cage lay on the floor of it's cage, it's eyes twitching a bit and it grit it's teeth.
"Ineffective. No signs of madness lost. Serum 1; Failure." He wrote what he spoke on a sheet of lined paper that was clipped to a clipboard that he held at his side.
Number 2.
The second mouse laid in a disgusting mess of it's own blood, it's insides dripping down the walls of it's cage like goo.
"Effect: Death. Broken bones and gruesome rapture of innards. No signs of madness lost. Serum 2; Failure." His writing hand froze for a moment as he thought and then he began to write again. "Make a note to get a new cage."
Number 3.
The third mouse within it squeaked loudly, ramming itself into the walls of it's cage.
"Effect: Overwhelming self destruction. Signs of madness gained. Serum 3; Failure."
Number 4.
The fourth mouse looked near to death as it twitched and squeaked in pain as it's teeth rotted out of it's head with a sick odor.
"Effect: Uncontrollable twitch of the limbs and rotting teeth. No signs of madness lost. Serum 4; Failure."
And finally, lucky number 5.
Stein studied the mouse carefully as it didn't move so much as squeak. It just sat there, blinking it's black eyes at him. This one seemed to appear normal. He narrowed his eyes and carefully noted every feature that proved the madness didn't exist. Before he can press pencil to paper, the mouse lunged forward with a viscous growl, causing the scientist to jump back in surprise.
"Effect: Misleading lust for killing. Signs of deepening madness gained. Serum 5; Failure." He growled slightly as he spoke and slammed the clipboard down next to his computer, throwing a massive black sheet over the cages so that he wouldn't have to look at the mice. He also covered them up because if he didn't, Marie would see them and rag his ass about animal cruelty and whatnot and he would have to spend hours trying to explain to her that it was out of science.
And that it was to save his sanity in case he went insane again. But he would never bring that part of his research up to her. He cursed at himself and turned the screw in the side of his head with a shaking hand.
"All failures. Damn it!" He sat back down and typed the first two words that left his lips in the word document under today's date. Then he shut the computer off and sighed, putting his head in his hands. It had been exactly one week after he had first heard Maka's thoughts in his head, and it didn't take him long to find that hearing her in his mind would drive him to near insanity. But during class days from that event, he often heard her and had to bite his tongue to keep himself from lashing out at anyone. Every time he remotely caught a glimpse of her, he found his control slip and he had to force himself to keep it. He couldn't take it. He made up an excuse to Marie so that she can sub for him so that he didn't have to deal with it. Marie believed that Stein was ill.
