A/N:Time for the next chapter. Try playing Numb by Linkin park while you read this. It fits wonderfully with how I've written Shinichi's character.

Chapter 10 Insanity

Ran Mouri cried out upon seeing her best friend collapse in her arms. He had just been acting so odd lately that he was starting to scare her. It was almost like he was becoming a different person. She had immediately called the hospital and they had come to take him in yet again. Her childhood friend had been twitching and talking to himself in his dreams yet again.

'What on earth is wrong with him? It's like he's going into a different world...a world I can't see or access...I want him to stay with me...'

It was at times like this that she felt useless; useless to do anything but cry and worry over her best friend as he scared her half to death with the dreams and his eye bleeding, over and over. He had told her that he loved her, but if he did, why would he worry her so much over this?

Then he woke up. She felt her heart relax a little when she saw the familiar blue eyes of her childhood friend, Shinichi. Not the cold Shinichi or the traumatized Shinichi she had seen so much of lately...she shuddered at the thought and smiled, hiding away her sad feelings like she usually did.

"Shinichi...are you all right?"

"No..." He muttered huskily. He looked extremely worn out, she thought.

I didn't know what to do anymore. No matter how many times I tried to figure out what was wrong with me, everything would just become more complicated over and over again until I couldn't control anything anymore. I was becoming a stranger to everyone I knew and I couldn't help it.

Ran was starting to feel I was insane. I could tell she did by the way she refused to meet my gaze now. She didn't even want to talk to me anymore because I would bother her with my mental difficulties and my constant nightmares.

"Ran," I whispered. "Look at me, please. Ran, I'm truly sorry-"

She looked away from me, and I knew she was angry with me. Looking at the circumstances, I couldn't blame her. How could any friend deal with a friend like me who kept on scaring them half to death and passing out? Normal people don't just do that. I wasn't normal; I never would be. Normal people didn't have their eyes bleed at random times, normal people didn't pass out or have constant nightmares.

"Shinichi..." She whispered, and I could see a faint trail of a tear going down her cheek. "You're horrible for making me worry like this, Shinichi. Why can't you just stop with all of this? You're making me worry so much."

"I know," I said hoarsely, looking into her eyes, even though she wouldn't look into mine. Was she afraid that my eye would bleed or something if she looked into it? That was ridiculous, but then I soothed myself by telling myself that surely I was mistaken. "Ran...you...hate me, don't you?"

"Hate you...? No, Shinichi, I hate how confused you are now...how warped you're becoming...you're just changing into a different person, Shinichi, and it's scaring me. It's really, truly, scaring me. Please, stop all of this."

"I wish I could, Ran. I really wish I could, but it's not like I can control this if I don't even know what's causing it in the first place." I said, but she wouldn't listen.

"No, you're lying again! Stop lying to me, please!" She cried.

"...Ran, I'm absolutely fine. You need to stop worrying about me so much." I said before smiling gently at her.

"Shinichi...you're a horrible liar. Stop lying to me..." She said.

"Ran, I am fine...I am..." I said, but then recoiled as another burst of pain went through my head. Instantly, my hand went up to my forehead. 'It feels like there's someone inside my mind who wants to be let out.'

I was truly insane, I knew that. I was losing it. "Ran...I have a headache again..."

Ran just rolled her eyes and looked away from me. "Shinichi...I'm not going to fall for it...my god, Shinichi...what's wrong with your...?" She looked at me in horror.

"What's wrong, Ran? What's wrong with me?" I said, but she looked away from me.

"Just look at your eye now..." She trailed off. I gasped as soon as I looked in the mirror. My eye wasn't bleeding anymore...instead it was a blood red in color, with a strange insignia in it. What the hell had happened to my eye? I gasped and tried to rub my eye in an attempt to get it away, but then everything started to swim again.

'Calm down...you have to calm down...you're making everything worse.' I said to myself.

'Everything will get much worse, detective. Just pass out now.'

I passed out then.

When I woke, I found myself in nothing but complete pitch-black darkness, all around me. Once again, I was immobile. I couldn't even turn my head. "No, not this again..." I moaned. "Stop it, whoever you are...let me go..."

"I can't do that," The same voice from before said coldly...I heard footsteps and I saw a shadowy figure leaning over me. I could see his blood-red eye and another eye that was...purple?

"Leave me alone, please," I whimpered.

"Listen to me. Stop denying my existence. I can't stand to be in here any longer with a person who keeps on denying my existence. I need you to relax. I can control that thing; I can prevent it from taking over you again. Just close your eyes and relax..." The figure said.

"How can I listen to you when all you do is torture me? You're the one who's put all these thoughts in my mind, you're the one who makes me see things I never did, and thanks to you, everyone now thinks I'm crazy! Just leave me alone!" I screamed.

The voice was silent. "...Perhaps I did go too far." There was a hint of regret in that icy voice. I found myself becoming more intrigued about the voice.

"Who...are you?"

The figure chuckled darkly. "I'm glad you asked. Perhaps now I can finally come out of the shadows of your mind. I am one who was supposed to have passed on, but still lives on, as a ghost, as a phantom of his former self. I am one who is looking for a way to move on. My name is Lelouch."

"Lelouch...?" I said, remembering what the visions in my mind had called me.

The figure took off the mask and stepped into my field of vision, showing me a dark-haired boy with one purple eye and the other red. He only seemed to be around my age, if not a little older. "That's me. I am your past self, Kudo Shinichi."

"Past...self?" I repeated in confusion.

"Let's see...I was supposed to die, but somehow I was reincarnated into you and my mind somehow is still inside you...when I was supposed to disappear altogether. Since then, I have tried to become aware of your existence. I have been trying to get you to remember me, but no matter what I do, you always deny and reject every part of me. Do you have any idea how that feels?" He said softly.

My eyes widened. "So I'm not losing my mind..." I said in awe, unable to believe this was happening.

"No, you're not. You are perfectly sane and rational, just as I am." Lelouch said matter-of-factly. "The dreams you have been suffering from are due to my trying to make you remember who you used to be. I sent you deja-vu...I even had to resort to hurting your eye...my intention was not to scare you...it was to get more info about what was going on."

I looked away from him, both satisified and awed by the sudden presence inside of me. "So there really is another me inside of me."

"Yes, and I am just desperate to have attention. Can you not understand how I feel, dealing with being invisible to your whole world? It's not fun being stuck in your mind-it's boring and unpleasant."

"I'm sorry..." I said, looking away from him.

"It's all right. I'm sorry if I frightened you. You can regain consciousness now. Everything should be fine now."

"Shinichi...!"

Ran, there she was, crying over me.

You little fool...I'm not worthy crying over.

"Shinichi...wake up!"

"R-Ran," I said softly, "I'm fine now. There's nothing wrong with me."

"S-Shinichi, are you sure you're all right?" Ran sniffed again as I sat up and looked at her before smiling gently.

"You are an idiot...Ran...why would you cry over someone as insignificant as me?" I said slowly.

"Baka Shinichi...you matter to me more than anything in the world," She said softly.

"Hey...Ran...a hypothetical question...by any chance, would you ever...consider," I began, but stopped as the door opened and Sonoko rushed in.

"I came to see the idiot. Is he okay?" She said.

"Fancy seeing you here," I said sarcastically.

"Idiot...I came because Ran wanted me to."

'Ha, yeah, right,' I thought sarcastically.

"Shinichi, Sonoko-chan does care about you." Ran said, while laughing slightly at my sarcasm.