Metanoia.「skephalo」

04 | Promises.

Zak didn't sleep at all that night. Not even a single minute.
His skinny body screamed in pain at the slightest movement despite all the painkillers he took.

Everything of an unusual silence. Even the soft and reassuring chirping of the birds outside the window disappeared, as if someone turned off the volume.

In day like those, the short boy would ditch school, lock himself into in his room and pass the entire day staring at the ceiling. Doing nothing.
But the Principal's words spoken the day before echoed in his head.

'«Don't disappoint him.», uh?' Zak thought, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. 'Disappointing people is literally what I do best, so good luck with that.' he sighed closing his eyes, curling up on his bedsheets.

The short boy, as he stood up after forcing himself to get up from the bed he felt glued on, with the tail of his eye catched his figure in the mirror recumbent in the opposite corner of the room.
It was hidden by a cloth, but that slid off to the side, letting a reflective part uncovered.

Freezing with his arm still stretched towards the phone on the nightstand, just a few inches away from his hand, Zak felt his heartbeat increasing, panic rising.

'Fuck, please, no.'

He forced himself to turn his head in the direction of the mirror, finding himself praying. Praying to a God he didn't believe in. Praying there weren't any visible bruise from yesterday. Praying not to have to live the same hell.

In vain.

Zak found himself staring at his reflection with glossy eyes wide open, pointed on his face. His right cheek was purplish and swollen, the bruise was more intense on his protruding cheekbone. Pain filled his body as he scanned his figure on the mirror, concentrating in several parts of his body

'Holy fucking shit.'

Letting his shaky fingers dance on the bruise exposed bruise with a disturbed expression, the feeling of the floor disintegrating under his feet and getting devoured by that terrifying pitch black overwhelmed him, leading him into one of his worst panic attack so far.

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Zak ended up losing the school bus because of that panic attack, and the time spent trying to decently hide the visible bruises did their contribute.

Sighing while closing the house's door, he walked as fast as e could, ignoring the massive amount of pain he was feeling. He took other painkillers, way more than he should've, but still, the pain gave no sign of diminishing.

'This shit never gets old.' he scoffed in his thoughts, clenching his teeth and shaking his head. 'If only there were dorms for Juniors too... why the fuck only Senior can have them?'

The motives why Zak hated that highschool weren't the typical 'You have to study.' or 'Too many tests.', his were a lot more elaborated and complicated, caused by unpleasant experiences.

It was the biggest school of the state and hosted more than one thousand students, and Skeppy didn't even wanted to go there, he got literally bought for his skills, and he was ashamed of it. Yet, he knew he'd be left without education if it wasn't for that, since him and his father barely made it to the end of the month.

Still, that wasn't even one of the motives he hated to go there. People there, both students and teachers, were stupidly dumb, conditioned by every single thing anyone would say, full of prejudices, stereotypes and stupid rules.

Zak was just so done with that Highschool, and knowing he had to go through two or more years there made him sick.

Sighing painfully and slowing down his pace as a strong sting caused by one of his bruises filled his body with pain, Zak finally arrived at school, arriving with five minutes in advance.