"I'm trying to keep myself together, to keep myself sane through all of this, but there are moments when I am completely losing my mind."

"I still don't think this is a good idea," I stated my worry as we glided through Death City. We woke up a little past noon, both agreeing to get up and get something to eat. To our surprise, the fridge was almost empty after having visitors, and none of us felt like eating crackers. Instead, we ended up going out to eat, as if everything was normal. We needed that, to do something mundane to forget about problems and worries for a short while. Soul, he had been acting normal for the past hour as we ate a sandwich at a small cafe half an hour away from home.

It was not until we headed back towards our apartment that I started to question his behavior.

He had stopped at a shop window, smirking as he waved for me to come and see. He was looking at a pair of rollerblades. "Have you ever tried those?" He asked and I nervously nodded. "Yeah but it was a long time ago, I'm not sure that I remember how to use them."

That was how he ended up buying two pairs of skates and safety equipment. I was barely able to hold my balance as we glided down the street, the headwind making it almost impossible not to fall as we clung to the things closest to us.

"Stop worrying so much Maka, we're just having a bit of fun! Having fun never hurt anyone."

"As a matter of fact, fun is one of the main causes of accide-!" He cut me off halfway through a sentence by grabbing my arm to avoid falling. Since when was his balance worse than mine was?
"Maka, really, just try and have a bit of fun alright? That's why we're outside in the first place. You can go back to worrying later."

"I thought we went out to eat, not this. You're unstable remember?" I pointed at the sunglasses he was wearing and he frowned. "This isn't safe and you know it."

"It would be cool if you didn't remind me of that every half an hour. If my soul wavelength starts to act up, stop me and we'll head home. Till then, lets race!"

"W-wait, how am I supposed to stop you?" It was too late to get an answer as he drove off as fast as he possibly could without tripping. Where did that sudden balance come from? He could barely stand straight just a minute ago, and now it looked like he had been training for years. That was so uncool of him, and I would be sure to tell him that once I caught up to him. If I caught up.

The wheels underneath my feet forced me to glide instead of running, an unusual sensation that forced me to lean forward ever so slightly. Every bump on the road made me unsteady, and the path he was heading towards had nothing to hold onto, as well as small rocks laying around.

Why was he doing this? I watched as he started to slow down a bit after almost falling head first, which made me gain a bit of speed. I just knew that he would get hurt. He would do the same thing that he did earlier, space out and be impossible to get into contact with no matter what you did.

Back then, I had to contact Stein after twenty minutes of him starring intensely at the ceiling, barely even blinking or breathing. The professor was about to cancel his class and come to check on him, when Soul suddenly came back to reality and called out my name, confused as to where he was.

I promised to take my partner back to the infirmary later for a checkup, yet instead of going there as promised, we were here, racing for no apparent reason other than Eater wanting some adrenaline. Was this one of the signs of madness? A sudden spike of energy as well as elevated mood? Maybe he was just happy not to be bedridden. He was able to go outside and do something exciting, at least for now. Rollerblades was not as exciting as a fight, I will admit that, but it was different and not supposed to be dangerous.

Yet a sudden spike in our soul wavelength, one that I had no idea where itcame from, made me fall backwards as a certain albino fell forward, landing on the nearby grass. It felt like someone had pulled us apart, breaking the bond I had created between us to ensure that he did not go haywire. By the time I had collected myself and reached my partner's current location, he was sweating and shaking.

"I told you this was a bad idea. Come on, let's go and see Stein, I promised we would be there before dinner."

"My blood is black, as black as oil." He laughed loudly, a maniacal smile as he looked at his scraped hand covered in dark plasma, the shaking increasing with the laugher.

"I know, I helped stopping your nose bleed earlier, remember? That was black as well. We have known for a while. You really should get up n-ah!"

I found myself jolting back, avoiding his sharp teeth as he bit out after me. Was his behavior due to the strange occurrence that kept me from reaching his soul? In that case, I had to find a way to bring him back.

"Soul, come on, it's me, Maka, your Meister?" It did not work; he was still laughing and now licking his hand. "I swear if you don't snap out of this I am going to Maka chop you so hard!" Nope, no reaction. "Okay then, you give me no choice!"

I lifted a hand, about to do it when he blinked and looked up at me, suddenly coming back to his senses as he covered his head with his arms to avoid the chop. Nice, I just had to threaten him. His soul wavelength reappeared as well, making it possible to read him. Whatever happened had only been temporary, but what if it was not the next time? Had this been some sort of soul protect? No, for that there had to be a witch. Grabbing him by the arm and pulling him up to his feet, both of us almost fell again. I wrapped one of his arms around my shoulders to keep him steady.

"I'm fine you know. The landing wasn't that hard."

"We both know this isn't about your fall."

"So, no more skating huh?"

"You can't run away from this, we both know that."

He sighed, soon followed by a weak smirk, nothing like the manic one he showed earlier. "I know, but it was worth a try."

I lead us to the nearest bench where we took off the rollerblades, then headed towards the school infirmary on nothing but socks as we left our shoes at home after buying the death traps on wheels. Good thing that it was not cold today.

"Hmm, interesting… It seems that your hand has healed in a matter of minutes." Stein stated as he examined Souls hand. "That is the fastest I've seen you heal." The professor moved closer to measure his blood pressure, then checking for a fever as well as asking some fairly simple questions like "where do you live?" and "What's your name?" just to make sure that he was out of any possible trance he could have been in. Last thing to do now was to check his eyes. I watched as Stein took off the sunglasses, leaving Soul's eyes exposed to the light. At first, he only narrowed his eyes, but within a few seconds, he had to cover them with his hands. What happened then was unfair. Stein removed Soul's hands, forced an eye open and shone a light into it, making his eye water. Thanks to that, my partner started to see spots and gained a migraine. He refused to go through any more tests until his vision was back to normal. He allowed himself to lie down for a few minutes.

"Eyes still light sensitive." Stein wrote down the information he had gained before turning towards me. "You told me that he had an episode earlier after you temporarily lost his soul wavelength. Care to explain further?"

"Well, I don't know what to tell, there was this, force, it felt like we were pulled apart, physically as well, it felt like being pushed away from each other. After that, he started to act strange, a higher level of manic than earlier. He snapped out of it rather fast though."

He continued to write things down as I tried to explain, but by the time I got to the point where he tried to bite me, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the boy in question started to tremble again, a nosebleed soon following. I stood up from the chair I was sitting on and walked over, watching as he placed a hand on his chest with a pained groan.

"The scar, it hurts," was all he managed to say before he went into his second seizure.

Thank you all for the reviews, faves and follows! They keep me motivated. The exams will be over soon, then hopefully I will have more time to make longer chapters. Reviews are highly appreciated.