Disclaimer: Soul Eater is not mine, and thus neither are its wonderful characters.

Author's Note: This is actually a scene from the anime, and if you've seen it you'll easily be able to tell which one. This is just a slightly different take on the scene, as it puts you more into Stein's wonderfully insane mind. 3 Although I've done bits of writing before, this is my first fanfiction, so reviews are welcome! I'd love to know what you think, or if you have any suggestions. Enjoy!

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Stein shook ever so slightly and his eyes twitched back and forth incessantly as he stared at the red glow from his computer screen. Words flashed across the screen, tempting him; goading him. Dissection. Madness wavelength. They teased him and prodded his mind. Then the eyes appeared… the eyes calling him in, promising new knowledge, new perspective, and freedom from rules and guilt, if only he would reach out and take it. He wanted so badly all that those eyes promised. He found his face pressed against the screen. Those eyes were his. They were from inside him. The madness was from inside him. He was laughing now, a slow, silent laugh that shook his shoulders. Oh, all that he could learn. Knowledge, investigation, dissection… His mind was chaos. Perspectives were changing and mixing, as if the screw in his head was spinning; spinning faster and faster and faster, the world around him becoming whatever he wanted it to be. Take it all apart…

"Hey Stein." There was hand on his shoulder. Marie. He stopped and smiled a wide insane smile. He would dissect her. "Stein?"

But no. He clamped his eyes shut, clenched his teeth, and held his breath. He paused for a moment and waited until the seething madness receded into a buzz. He put on a calm front and turned to her.

"Marie..."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes," he lied. She looked him in the eye for a bit, as if gauging the validity of his response there. Then she smiled.

"Alright then, I'm going to make some tea. Would you like some?"

"No thanks." And then she disappeared around the corner. Stein turned back to his desk and put his face in his hands. He knew he should have told her the truth. Not only would the presence of her wavelength have been helpful right now, but it would help him work through his thoughts to tell them to someone else. But he didn't want to tell her the truth. It wasn't so much that he didn't want her to worry, though that was partly true, but because he would like to believe that he could hold back the insanity himself. Thinking that he couldn't made him feel helpless. And as long as he could hold it back himself, he didn't have to worry quite so much about when he would really slip over the edge.

His mind was writhing; squirming in his skull. His left hand twitched with the urge to turn his screw, even though he knew it wouldn't help the itching in his mind. It was like the urge to scratch a red, swollen mosquito bite even when you know it won't help any. But the impulse won't go away; it remains until it preoccupies your thoughts and becomes all you can think about. Stein reached up and uselessly gave his screw a crank, then continued with his research.