Sorry for being so damn lazy with this one... I actually got over 7,000 words of this chapter done yesterday. The ending went WAY different than I thought it would.. But it's too beautiful to change, even if it does leave me at an awkward spot. I seriously hope you guys are as thrilled by it as I am.

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 10 The Looming Madness

Stein had slept through the entire night sitting at his desk. It was starting to get close to the time that he would need to be up, and he started moving a bit. He turned his head so the other side was down on the desk, and at the same time he brought his arm up to itch his nose. He was still half asleep, so when he was done he just let his arm drop to his side. When he did this, his arm had fallen fast enough that it caused him to turn over. With that, his chair went flying from under him, and he fell onto his back on the floor.

He layed sprawled out on the floor, now completely awake from hitting his back so hard. He rolled over a little, and brought his hand to his back and rubbed it a few times before he looked up at his clock. He saw that it was 7:00 A.M. He quickly got up off the floor and went to the bathroom to get ready, opening Spirit's door and yelling at him to get up as he went by.

Spirit started mumbling as he rolled over in bed, pulling his covers over his head in an attempt to ignore the fact that he had to be up to take the exam. Stein, on the other hand, definitely did not want to ignore this. He brushed his teeth and did all of the things he needed to do in order to get ready, then went back into his room. He saw that it was now 7:10, and Spirit still wasn't up.

He went back to his partner's room and yelled at him to get up, earning more mumbles and groaning noises. He went back to his room to grab his scalpel, hoping he could scare him awake. He got to the corner of his room that had all of his equipment, and grabbed the scalpel, seeing a small beam of light hit it.

He ran back to his parnter's room and got up to his bed. He got over top of the boy, who was now laying on his stomach, and put the dull side of the blade on his neck. Spirit felt the cold metal touch his skin, but surpisingly he didn't react. He knew that Stein did this to get him up, so he wasn't too concerned.

After seeing the way Spirit reacted to this, he went back to his room and put the scalpel in his pocket. He opened a drawer that was full of chemicals and syringes, then grabbed the particular one he was looking for. It was a stimulant that he could use to wake him up more efficiently.

He left his room once more, and started back down to the red head's room. He got there, seeing he had turned over onto his side. He went right up to him and held out the syringe.

"Don't make me inject you with this, Spirit," he said this with a serious tone to his voice, holding out the needle towards the boy. Spirit heard what he had said, and his eyes shot open. He turned to face Stein, seeing just how close he was to him with that thing. His eyes widened and he jumped back, going so far that he fell out of his bed.

"At least I am on the opposite side of him now," he thought.

He was tangled in his comforter, trying to catch his breath. Stein had a slight smirk on his face as he said, "Good," and slipped the syringe into his pocket, walking out of Spirit's room. He sat there for a minute until his heart rate when back to normal; then untangled himself from his covers and threw them onto his bed when he was finally out of them.

He started getting ready, and saw that it was actually 7:20. He hurried as fast as he could, finishing in five minutes.

Stein was starting to get rather impatient, and was about to threaten him again; but he saw his partner come out to the living room, now ready to go. Spirit had to catch his breath a bit, yet again, because he had been going so fast.

"Ready to do some running?" Stein said this to Spirit, earning a groan.

"Yeah," Spirit said this in a whining kind of tone, rolling his eyes a bit after.

"It's not my fault you wouldn't get up."

"Whatever, let's just get going if you're in such a hurry."

With that, they both started running, basically as fast as they could. Luckily, they had been training for a while, so they were a lot faster than the time they raced each other in the woods; they could also run a lot farther than before.

They were at the end of their road, and turned onto the next. Spirit looked up at one of the houses, seeing that the owner was looking out at them, and almost fainted when they saw Stein. He then remembered that people would be giving his partner weird looks all day, and that he would probably go around scaring people by turning the screw.

They started getting closer to the academy, and it was starting to become visible. The second Stein saw the building, he remembered what Spirit had thought of a bit ago. He knew that there was no way people would stop staring at him, no matter how much he glared at them. He figured he could just turn the screw to get them to leave him alone; that would definitely freak them out if the screw itself wasn't weird enough.

Since they were a little closer to the academy, they picked up their speed a bit more, and soon they were running up the stairs of the academy. They sprinted up the stairs, and opened the doors to see that everyone was just starting to go to class now. They had made it just in time.

They were told to go to Mrs. Smith's room to take the exam, so they started walking there as they caught their breath. Stein saw that no one was around them, so he didn't have to be stared at quite yet.

Miss. Parson was now a Smith, because she married a man who was in his late 30s. His name was Adam Smith, and for a while he was all she talked about. It was all the students could do to get her to shut up about him, and even then she would let things slip out about him.

They started getting closer to their room, and there had still been a couple kids out in the hall. They did a double take when seeing Stein, and their jaws dropped slightly. He just rolled his eyes and kept going, seeing them still staring out of the corner of his eyes. He knew this was going to plain out suck.

They got to Mrs. Smith's room, and walked in to see everyone in their seat already. They had been given assigned seats for when taking the exam, and Stein happened to be placed next to Marie. He didn't mind, though; and she certainly didn't. Marie already knew that he would be sitting next to her before hand since the teacher asked if he was there yet, so she pulled out her hair brush and made sure her hair was nice. She finished brushing her hair, and reached down to put it away. When she looked up, she saw Stein and jumped a little. She also let out a very light yelp, and the air left her lungs for a second.

Stein went up to the seat that was next to Marie's, and sat down in it.

"Franken! What did you do?" Marie instantly started questioning him, which he more than expected to happen.

"It's just an experiment. Don't worry about it," Stein said this, basically brushing off her question. She knew how he tended to do this, so she lightly smacked him in the arm, which was something only she dared to do.

"Don't worry about it? How could you expect me to not worry about it?" She wanted to give him one of her bone crushing punches instead, but had decided to settle for a smack. She really didn't want to hurt him or anything.

"I expect you to not worry about it, because it was just an experiment." He once again brushed it off, seeing that the teacher was starting to pass out tests.

"You're off the hook for now, but you have some explaining to do later," she said this in a tone that showed she was a little angered with him for the fact that he wasn't providing her with any sort of explanation.

"Alright, Marie, I promise I will explain after the test." As he said this, the pile of tests was passed to Marie.

"You better," she said this as she turned to her right and handed Stein the pile, which was starting to get pretty small since they were at one of the top seats.

"You guys will have an hour to complete the test, and no longer than that. Good luck!" she said this in her usual cheeful voice, starting the timer she had sitting on her desk; the one she used every year when taking the exams to keep it at exactly one hour.

Stein started taking the test, and it was beyond easy. Because of all the studying he had done, he knew the answers like the back of his hand. He flew right threw the first five questions, which were fill in the blanks, and got to the first written response.

Spirit, on the other hand, was not doing as well. He was just sitting by a random kid, but he was thankful that he wasn't annoying. He started his test, and got through the first five at a regular pace, one that was more humanly possible than Stein's. He felt pretty confident about his answers, but one he wasn't too sure about.

Kami had been stuck in an other room than the other three had been, and she was doing fairly well herself. She was going at a fast pace, and knew she was getting them all right. She had been caught sneaking back into her room and got grounded, so she just studied for the rest of the night in her room. She was glad that she had, because apparently it had helped out quite a lot.

Marie was doing really well, too. She had studied a lot more than Kami had, but still less than Stein. She wasn't going very fast, though. She liked to take her time and make sure she wasn't making any mistakes. She had no trouble at all with the questions, and was making some good progress. The only problem was she kept getting distracted with Stein sitting next to her.

She was really anxious to find out exactly what he had done to himself, and couldn't seem to keep the thought out of her mind. She kept looking over at him after every few questions that she answered, and luckily he didn't see that. He was too absorbed by his test to notice much of anything else but that.

He was almost half way done, and it had only been 20 minutes. If he kept that pace up, he would finish with 20 minutes to spare.

There is no way Spirit would finish with that amount of time left. He was only about 2/5 of the way through the test, and was having a bit of trouble. He could answer some of the questions easily, but then others he really had to stop and think of what the answer was; then sometimes if he didn't know, he just had to guess. He cursed himself for having such a terrible attention span, and continued taking the test.

Some of the other students weren't doing so well either. In fact, the kid that was sitting next to Spirit only had the first seven questions done, and was now sleeping. Other kids were guessing for a lot of the questions, and were sweating from being so worked up about doing badly. Compared to them, Spirit was doing quite well.

Kami was getting a lot of her test completed, and still had yet to find a question she couldn't answer. She was naturally smart, and didn't need to constantly study, so what she did was enough for her. Stein didn't really need to study that much either, but for some reason he felt the need.

"You guys have 20 more minutes left to complete the test. Don't rush, but try your best to get it done before time runs out," Mrs. Smith said this to the class, looking at the timer that sat at the edge of her desk.

Spirit still had a good amount of questions to answer, but if he hurried he should be able to get it done. He thought it better to hurry and have a chance to get it right, rather than to take his time and not even get to answer some. He had to stop and think for a lot of them, but didn't allow himself to pause for long. He just needed to get this done as fast as possible.

Kami was getting closer to being finished, and felt very confident that she would get it done within the time limit, leaving time to check over everything.

Marie had a little more left than Kami had, but she too knew she would finish. She didn't necessarily need to check over it because of the way she took her time, but if she had time left when she was done, she would.

Stein was on the last section of the test, and he was flying through that as well. In five minutes he was done, and started checking over what he had done. He didn't find any mistakes, and just thought of different experiments he could do when he was done. He also thought of how he would go about explaining the screw to Marie. If she wanted, he would tell her how it was done, even if she wouldn't really understand the terms.

The girl was always so involved in the things Stein did, so he was actually fairly open to her about things. She would always listen to him ramble on about science, even if she didn't understand a single word of it; she just loved hearing him talk, hearing the way his voice sounded. Sometimes when he would actually feel like talking, which was not often at all, he would go on for quite some time.

The other students were doing about just as well as Spirit. A lot of them were rushing and panicking to get done, while others didn't really care much about whether they had blanks left or not. The kid next to Spirit was still sleeping since he hadn't bothered to wake him up.

"You have five minutes left." Mrs. Smith looked up at everyone as she said this, and she saw Stein sitting up near the top, bascially staring into space; he was deep in thoughts of science. She started wondering the same things everyone else did, and planned on asking him about it after class. She knew how he loved science and how he was a little different than the other students, but she still didn't get why he would have done that.

Spirit zipped through the last parts of the test, and finished with a minute to spare. After he finished, he shook the kid next to him. He lifted his head up, noticing that everyone was finished with their test, and looked down at his. He said, "Man..." as he dropped his head onto the desk, an audible smack accompanying it.

Marie finished her test, not minding the fact that she didn't have any time to check over it. She looked at Stein, seeing how he was staring at nothing. She waved her hand in front of his face, and he looked over at her. She smiled at him, forgetting the fact that she was supposed to be angry with him. Stein just looked at her, scientific thoughts running through his mind still. He started going back into a stare, but she didn't care this time since he was technically staring at her.

Kami finished looking over everything, just as the teacher told them to pass in their tests. Everyone started handing them up front, and as the kid next to Spirit did, he kept his head on the desk as he whined.

"I am dead..." Spirit thought it was pretty funny, and didn't really regret not waking him up. There was someone on the other side of the kid, that was just as capable of waking him as Spirit was. He looked across to Stein, seeing him just staring at Marie. He knew that he wasn't really looking at her, but that it just happened to be the way he was when he became lost in thought.

Marie started studying his facial features, and especially noticed the color of his eyes. She just loved how deep of an olive color they were. She stared into them, also noticing the way the light caused them to glisten. She herself got a little lost in thought, and after a bit Stein noticed that she was looking at him. He just looked at her, seeing the way she was almost in awe.

"I guess I am supposed to tell you what I did to myself, huh?" She just seemed dazed, and also seemed to have not heard him completely.

"Huh?" she said this, still staring into the boy's eyes.

"I said I guess I am supposed to tell you what I did to myself, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. We're done with the test, so you have to tell me now." She tried to make herself seem angry with him again, but she really didn't do all that well at it. She knew she could never stay mad at him. She wasn't overly surprised that he had done that; it's something she almost expected of him.

"I am not going to explain it in detail, but I will tell you what it does. It's supposed to help me think more clearly, and it also helps with the madness."

"I knew it!" Marie blurted out. She knew he was affected by the madness, but she never really wanted to ask him.

"You did?" Stein could tell by the look on her face, that it wasn't the purpose of the screw that she knew. It was something else.

"Uh, yeah." She was trying to cover up what she had done, and she had a very slight blush now. She really didn't mean for that to slip out, and she was mentally scolding herself for the fact that it had.

"And how exactly did you know?" He was just messing with her now, and had a slight smirk on his face.

"Lucky guess?" she said sheepishly.

"I suppose it was." He said this as he got up from his desk, since it was time for them to go to their next class. She was thankful that he didn't pry into it or anything, and just got up and followed him down to the front of the room.

People were staring at him, just like he had expected. When he got down to where Mrs. Smith's desk was, he turned the screw three times, which sent shivers down Marie's spine. Everyone looked terrified, and just about ran out of the room.

"Franken, can I see you for a moment," Mrs. Smith called to Stein while she waved him over.

"Sure." Stein turned around and took a few steps back to her desk. Spirit was just coming down, and stood next to Marie.

"What exactly is that?" she asked this, pointing to the screw at the end.

"I am going to give you a general description. I am sure you don't want to hear it in detail." Mrs. Smith stopped him before he could explain.

"Actually, I would love to hear it in detail. I took a class on neuroscience before I taught here, so I am sure I can handle it." Stein's perked up slightly, and was intrigued that she wanted to hear about it. He was glad that he could finally tell someone about it the proper way.

As Stein started explaining it, Spirit and Marie walked out of the class since they knew it would be a bit. They turned around before leaving, only to see Stein now sitting next to Mrs. Smith's desk, thoroughly explain everything. He was even making hand motions along with what he was saying.

As they turned to leave, Marie let out a sigh.

"I'm really not too surprised, to be honest with you." Marie said this as she looked over at Spirit.

"When I found him laying in his room, I wasn't really either."

"Do you know anything about it?" He thought of the notes he had read, and figured he could let Marie know a little about it.

"Actually, I do. If you want, I can even tell you a little on how he did it."

"Spirit, tell me anything you know. He didn't really say much about it to me." She sighed again.

"Well, he actually had to remove part of his skull."

"He what?"

"He removed the front part of his skull, and some parts of the sides. He even had to move his brain around. I came into his room and when he was sleeping, I read some of the stuff he had written in a notebook."

"You just went in and read it without asking?"

"It's not like I was snooping or anything. The notebook was already open and on his desk. I was putting it away for him since he fell asleep at his desk, and I just started reading it. I read that at one of the positions he had to move his brain to, he was paralyzed for a bit."

"How is that even possible?"

"I don't have a clue about that stuff. I don't even know how he understands it as well as he does; people usually have to go to college for that stuff. But anyway, he moved it around and was able to make himself not be paralyzed anymore. He had to position his brain so he could have the screw going through properly. It's insane the stuff he had to do. He had to stitch up tissue, skin, everything he had cut through. Apparently the entire time towards the end he was almost unconscious."

"What if he would have gone unconscious?"

"I read that he could have bled out. He could have ended up dying." Marie's face looked absolutely horrified.

"And not just from that. If he would have made a wrong incision, moved something the wrong way, really if anything would have gone wrong, he very easily could have died."

"What's wrong with him! Why would he do that?" She was mad at him all over again.

"I will tell you later; just wait a minute. But anyway, when I woke up in the morning, I had to go to the bathroom. So I went back the hall, and when I got there the door had a sign on it. It said to not come in because there was a mess. I didn't listen, though, and went in anyway. Let me just say, I wish I hadn't. You wouldn't believe how much blood was in that room. It was literally everywhere. There were even foot prints of blood from when Stein had walked out. It was so disgusting." Marie gagged a little.

"I can only imagine what that looked like," she said this as she put her hand up to her mouth. "Can you tell me why he did it now?"

"Not yet. But after I was done reacting to the bathroom, I went to ask Stein about it. There was a sign on his door as well. It said that he would be sleeping for a while due to an experiment, and that he would be up in time to make dinner.

"I went in to see what was up since he had forgot to lock the door, and when I went in I saw an empty vial of anesthetics on his desk, and a sleeping Stein. He was out cold, all day. He only got up once to clean the bathroom, then went to sleep for a few more hours. He finally got up and made dinner, studied, and fell alseep again."

"I can only imagine how exhausted he was after that, and how painful it would have been." Marie shuddered at the thought.

"I know. That kid is tough. But now to the reason. I read that he was having trouble keeping one of his nightmares out of his thoughts.. He had dreamed that he was cutting me open." As he said that last part, she had a look of slight shock on her face.

"He was having trouble keeping the thought out of his mind, so he needed someway to do that. He almost got me one night when I was sleeping, but managed to stop himself before he did anything. Apparently it really scares him."
"Oh my Death... I didn't know he was having trouble."

"It seems that it hadn't been going on too long. But it was enought that he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself much longer. So basically, he put his own life in danger for the safety of mine."

"That's so sweet! I can't believe he did that for you. I never thought of him as someone that would do that. He is such a sweety." Marie started going off, only to be stopped by Spirit.
"But listen, you can't say anything about it to Stein. He doesn't know that I know, and I can't imagine that he would want me to."

"Sure thing," she said this with a smile on her face, seeing Stein walking down the hall. He was getting closer to them, and she couldn't contain how happy she was. She was smiling so much, Spirit thought it would get stuck that way. She just felt so happy to know that he was that caring.

Stein got up to the two, and saw how Marie was looking at him. He just tried to ignore her, and stood next to Spirit.

"Can we go now? We need to be getting to Mr. Collins."

"Yeah, let's go. See you later, Marie." Spirit waved to Marie as they started off.

"Bye guys! See you later, Franken." She paid more attention to Stein, still in awe.

"Goodbye, Marie," Stein said this, still wondering why she was looking at him so weirdly. She walked off, going to meet up with Kami.

"Just ignore her; you know how she gets." Spirit tried to cover himself, praying to Death that she wouldn't say anything about what he had said to her.

"Yeah, she is something."

They continued on, and soon they were at Mr. Tredway's room, where both him and Mr. Collins were sitting and talking. Mr. Collins felt their souls enter the room, so he turned around and got up to head over to them.

"Woah, Stein. What with the?" He started, pointing to the screw.

"I guess I am going to have to get used to explaining. Do you want details, or just a general description?"

"Just something basic. I don't want to take forever; we have something important to do today."

"It's supposed to help me think clearer, and it also helps with the madness."

"Ah, let's get going. We will be starting something that you aren't familiar with, so I need you guys to really concentrate today."

"What are we going to be doing exactly?" Spirit asked this as he moved to the left side of his professor, and Stein was on the right side.

"We are going to be working with another team."

Spirit and Stein stopped for a minute, and gave each other confused looks. Mr. Collins had kept going, but soon noticed that the boys were no longer on each side of him. He stopped and turned to them.

"Well, are you coming?"

"Yeah," both boys said in unison, clear confusion showing in their tone of voice as they started off again.

"Today you will be working with another team, and it looks like they are here now." As he said this, two kids came up to the group, one having short black hair and pale skin, the other having dark hair and skin.

"Stein and Spirit, this is Azusa Yumi and Sid Barrett. You will working with them for the next week or so."

"Hey Stein, Spirit," Sid said this, extending an arm out. Stein shook it, then following him was Spirit.

"Hello Sid, it's nice to meet you," Spirit said this, pulling his arm away as he did so. They looked over at Azusa, and saw how she was standing there with a sort of arrogant look about her.

"I don't like you, Stein. You never stop trying to cut people open," she said this as she looked Stein up and down, showing an obvious disapproval of the boy. He was surprised that she didn't call him Franken; every other girl did.

"It's science; I need subjects. But anyway, I never really have the intention of doing so. Not by force at least." She huffed at him, and looked at Spirit.

"And you. You never stop chasing after girls. I swear, if you try to go after me-"

"Oh, don't worry. I don't like bitches."

"Come on, guys. That's enough." Mr. Collins huffed. "This doesn't seem to be going very well," he thought aloud. "You guys are going to have to set your differences aside for this lesson."

"What is the lesson anyway? All you have said so far is that we will have to work together," Sid said this to Mr. Collins, trying to get everyone to direct their thoughts more towards that than each other.

"Today for our lesson, you guys will be working together, to learn how to resonate as team. As in, all four of you will need to get your souls to resonate as you have done selectively with your partner so far."

"How do we do that?" Spirit asked this, not having a single clue how it was supposed to be done.

"There's not much I can do to explain this; it's more of a learn by doing sort of thing."

"Then we'll just have to try it for ourselves," Sid said this in response, looking at the other team members after. Mr. Collins turn towards Stein.

"Stein, with the way your wavelength is already extremely flexible, this should not take you long at all. That is really going to help speed up the process. I can guarantee that you will be the leader of the team, and you will strengthen the resonance." Stein nodded, thinking of all the times he has manipulated his wavelength to cause more damage to opponents, and how many times he has done it to nullify attacks as well.

"Yeah, thank Death Stein is working with us," Spirit said this, know just how flexible his wavelength was from going on so many missions with him.

"You certainly are lucky that you are being introduced to this with him on your team. That will give you an advantage that most people don't have," Mr. Collins said this as he looked at Stein again. Stein just stood there expressionless, not exactly liking the attention he was getting.

"I know this may sound strange at first, but trust me with this; it will help you in the long run. Before you learn to link your souls together, I want you guys to fight." Everyone's expression changed to a one of shock and confusion.

"It will be helpful to fight against each other, as it will help you get used to each other's fighting styles. This will also lead to understanding each other better, which always helps resonance link be preformed better." Stein looked intrigued at this, and looked forward to fighting. He didn't like this Azusa girl, but he didn't mind Sid. He almost hoped that Azusa was a meister, just so he could pound on her a little.

"Okay, when do we start?" Sid asked this, looking at Mr. Collins.

"Actually, it would be nice if you guys started as soon as possible."

"Okay, are you guys ready?" Stein asked the rest of the teens.

"We're ready if you are," Azusa said this, also seeming to want to fight a bit. She didn't get the same pleasure from pain that Stein did, for she just enjoyed the fact of beating people.

"Sure, let's go then." Spirit said this, then became engulfed in yellow light. His body started morphing, and soon he was a large, black scythe. Stein caught him, and brought him to his side.

"You ready?" Sid asked this of Azusa, and she nodded in response. She transformed into a crossbow to Stein's disappointment. Sid held her out, seeming to find it very natural to do.

"Okay, begin," Mr. Collins said this as he backed up and went over to a tree that was a short distance off, being close enough that he could still observe them well, but far enough as to make sure he didn't get hurt by one of the couples.

Sid was excited to fight Stein, as he is very well known at the academy for completely slicing up any of his opponents.

"Stein, just make sure to not kill him," Mr. Collins said this as he crossed his arms. He had a very serious tone to his voice, which let Stein know he was being more than serious. He didn't like the idea of holding back, but if he had to he would.

Sid charged after Stein, hoping to get a little up close. He wanted to prove himself to Stein and the others, so he would have to make himself look like he was willing to take risks. He, obviously, wouldn't need to get up close with a crossbow, so it was just for that reason.

He got up to Stein, and before he could do anything, Stein reached out and grabbed Sid by the throat. He lifted him up in the air, and by the look on his face he had been calculating something.

"Hmm... 184 pounds. Not the heaviest I have delt with." As soon as Stein finished saying this, Sid kicked Stein and he released his grip. Sid tried to shoot Stein, but he quickly swung the blade in a circular motion, blocking the attack. Sid tried again, but Stein only swung the scythe counterclockwise this time, blocking it yet again.

Stein ran up to Sid, and swung at the boy's head. Sid went back into a limbo-like postition, and came back up as soon as Spirit's blade was past him. Right when he went back up, Stein swung the other way, and Sid jumped back. He fired again as he did this, and Stein ducked down and he ran towards him again, getting just barely low enough.

Stein got up to him again, and energy crackled around his hand. He was going to try to use soul force. Since he always manipulates his wavelength depending upon the opponent's when using this technique, it would be a good way to become more familiar with Sid's. He swung outward, and Sid just barely move out of the way. He was close enough that he could start to feel the energy that surrounded Stein's hand, and he could tell the attack was powerful.

He had been too busy thinking about how he was thankful to have not been hit with it, that he didn't properly dodge the next attack. Stein swung at him, and Sid moved out of the way only slightly. It was enough that Stein only made a cut in the boy's arm. It wasn't too thick, but it was thick enough that blood started running down his arm.

Sid looked down at his arm, seeing the blood pour out of it. He looked back up to see Stein staring at the blood, with a slight smirk on his face. He started running to Stein again, and shot at him as he did so. Stein ducked and swung, a full smile now on his face. It wasn't a grin yet, but he could feel it start to creep up on him.

Sid ducked down, and grabbed onto Stein's ankles. The boy that was being held onto looked down at the other, and kicked at him with all his might. He got him in the nose, a drop of blood running out as he released his grip on Stein. Sid quickly got up and took a few steps back, grabbing onto his nose as he did so. He had no clue Stein could kick so hard. His nose was throbbing terribly; he knew he had broke it.

"Jeez, Stein," Spirit said this to Stein, seeing how badly he was bleeding, from both his nose and the cut on his arm. Stein didn't have a single scratch on him.

Stein ignored Spirit and ran to Sid again. Sid's eyes went wide slightly as he let go of his nose and sidestepped the blade that was being swung at him, more violently this time. Stein was starting to get into this, and he couldn't think of anything else but slicing the boy's throat open. He had felt how warm it was when he grabbed onto it, and hadn't been able to stop thinking about it since then.

He wanted to see deep red blood rush out of it, but he knew he wouldn't be allowed to see such a thing. He reached up and grabbed onto the screw as he crouched down to avoid another shot coming from Sid. He turned it four times, until a final and louder click was audible. This made Sid cringe, and he almost didn't miss the next attack of Stein's. Stein swung his hand at the boy again, hoping to shoot his wavelength at him. Sid moved to the side, and Stein's hand brushed his side slightly.

He felt his wavelength enter his body very slightly; it was enough that he could feel it, but not enough that it hurt. Stein knew he was getting closer to defeating him, and it thrilled him. He just wished that he could cut him open. Since he turned the screw, the desire wasn't as intoxicating and luring, but it was still there in his subconscious.

Sid pulled his arm back to try to punch Stein, but Stein just grabbed his fist and twisted his arm behind his back. He got right behind Sid, to the point that he was breathing on his neck. A grin spread across his face as he brought the blade of the scythe up to his throat.

Sid used his free arm to elbow Stein in the ribs, and he released his grip on his arm. Sid slid from under the scythe, and turned to face Stein. The grin made him shudder, but he quickly ignored it and backed up to take a shot at the boy. Stein sidestepped the attack, and was beginning to grow quite impatient.

Mr. Collins sighed at seeing Stein, and he knew what he wanted. He just hoped that Stein would listen to what he had said to him in the beginning. He leaned into the tree, and folded his arms again. "That boy sure is something," he said aloud to himself.

Stein ran after Sid, and swung at him, green electricity covering his hand. Sid had stepped with his one leg too far, and ended up tripping on his own feet. He fell to the ground, right next to a tree. Stein changed the direction of his course, and slammed his hand down onto Sid's ribs. His wavelength coursed through his body, causing him to tremble violently. Mr. Collins cringed and said, "Ooh," at seeing this.

Stein stepped over him so he had one leg on each side of the boy. He grinned and looked over at Mr. Collins, remembering what he had said to him.

"Can I at least cut into him a bit?" Stein asked Mr. Collins this, earning a sigh and an eye roll from his instructor.

"Only a little bit, but nothing major." Stein's grin extended to be the width of his entire face.

"Let's see what we have here," he said this in a very menacing tone as he brought the scythe blade right over top Sid's face. A drop of sweat rolled down the boys face as Stein made a small incision on his cheek. Blood dripped down his face, a drop falling to the ground and soaking into it as Stein brought the blade to his neck. He brought it across his throat in a slow motion, obviously, as to make sure he could feel his skin slit open.

He did it fairly deeply, so blood instantly started running out. He did the same to a spot a little higher on his throat, then made a short cut veritcally, joining the two horizontal lines. At this point, blood was covering the ground around him, and was on the back of his neck as well. He started trembling, and Stein smirked at this.

He reach down to his throat, and Sid tried to crouch back, but he was already as far back as he could possibly go. Stein peeled back the square of skin he had cut, examining the tissue as soon as it became visible.

Sid tried to use his remaining energy to kick Stein, but as soon as Stein saw him try to bring his leg up, he let go of the flap of skin. He grabbed onto Sid's throat with a death grip, and violently brought the boy right up to his face as he clenched his teeth. He dropped the scythe, and drew his scalpel from the pocket of his lab coat. He held it over Sid's eye, and Mr. Collins immediately ran over to them.

"Hey, Stein! Let go of him right now," Mr. Collins said this in a stern voice as he got right up to the boy. Stein threw Sid to the ground, and he put his scalpel away and walked off.

Spirit transformed back, and so did Azusa. They all watched with a concerned look on their face as Stein stormed off towards the academy. Spirit started trying to go after him, but Mr. Collins put his hand in front of him and stopped him.
"Let him go. He just needs time to calm himself down." Spirit's face looked a little sad, but he obeyed the professor and stayed with the rest of them.

Stein got closer to the academy, but just went past it. He was breathing heavily, and had both his teeth and fists clenched. He reached up and turned the screw a good six times, and stopped walking for a minute. He could feel the madness just looming over himself, and it was all he could do to not laugh. He started going again after looking behind him, as to make sure that no one was following him.

He continued on, and was soon away from the academy. He didn't know where he was going, but he just had to be gone from there. He felt his hand involuntarily slip into his pocket and wrap around the scalpel. He needed to just slaughter something, but he didn't know what.

A slick grin spread across his face as he walked on, and he started thinking of things he could do. He needed to find a subject, he needed to get his hands on something; his hands itched to wrap around something's throat.

He went down his road, and one of the neighbors was sitting on their porch. They gave him a weird look when they saw the screw, but their face turned into one of horror as he looked at them with that grin and a look of insanity in his eyes. They ran into their house and locked the door behind them. They went to their window, and looked through the curtains. He just kept going, and they sighed in relief.

The woman's husband saw her, and asked, "What's wrong?"

She looked at him, and walked over to the wooden table he was sitting at.

"I think he's finally lost it."

"Do you mean Franken?"

"Who else would I mean?"

"I guess that was a stupid question." After he said this, he continued reading the newspaper, and his wife went over to the back window, only to see Stein slip into the woods behind his house.

He started rushing through the branches and thorns, paying no attention to the fact that his coat kept getting caught on the plants. He was getting deeper in the woods, and he spotted a fox. He started rushing towards it, and turns out the fox was a little jumpy today, as he ran towards Stein and tried to bite onto his extending arm. Stein caught the animal by the throat, and held the squirmy thing up to his face. A grin split across it, and a loud cry could be heard echoing through the woods.

Spirit sat in Mrs. Smith's class, and he couldn't sit still. He kept bouncing his legs up and down as his mind raced. Stein wasn't in class, and he was more than worried about him. Up until he read his notes about his experiment, he had never thought that he would ever hurt someone. But now, he wasn't entirely sure. He just wanted school to end, so he could get home to see where Stein was. He couldn't believe how slowly the period was going by, and he still had to go to Mr. Reignhardt's class. He just sat there in her class, hoping that he wouldn't do anything he would regret later.

During the entire lunch break, all he could do was worry. He told Marie and Kami in full detail, and they seemed to share the same worry that he had. Marie expressed it more than Kami did, and she seemed like she was about to jump out of her skin. When Spirit told the part of how he peeled back his skin, and when he grabbed Sid by the throat, shivers went down her spine.

Right now Sid was sitting in the dispensary, and his throat was being stitched up. The nurse was amazed at the damage Stein had caused him. He had a broken, bloody and bruised nose, a fairly deep cut in his arm, a thoroughly and incredibly smoothly cut open throat, along with bruises covering the area of his rib cage.

Spirit sat next to Marie and Kami, and was still shaking his legs in an effort to get rid of his nervous energy.

"Do you have any idea why he is just like this all the sudden?" Marie asked this, trying to do something other than just worry.

"I have no clue. Things actually seemed to be going really well lately. I couldn't see anything wrong with him, at all really. The only thing that pointed to something being wrong was that he was having trouble with thoughts of dissecting me. And it was me, not anyone else."

"Besides, he took care of that when he did the whole screw thing, didn't he?" Kami asked.

"That's what I thought at least. I just need to get home and see what he is up to. Who knows, maybe he is just sitting in his room."

"Or he could be hurting someone," Marie said, her voice catching slightly from fear.

"Don't say that. I don't even want to think of that possibility."

He went through the rest of Mrs. Smith's class crawling out of his skin, praying to Death that he was at home. It seemed like hours, but he was finally in Mr. Reignhardt's class, doing exercises to help concentrate on his soul. He could barely concentrate at all, but luckily with the kind of exercises they were doing, his thoughts somehow were able to shift from that slightly.

Stein stood in the woods, looming over the completely mauled fox carcass that was drenched in blood. His hands, scalpel, and lab coat were covered in blood just like the carcass was, and he also had some splashed through his hair and on his face. He still had that killer's grin on his face, and he was not satisfied.

He needed more. More blood. He had to find something else. He went off and started searching for something else to get his hands on, and soon he found a squirrel that was sitting on the ground with a nut in its paws. It tried running off, but wasn't fast enough to get away from him.

He wiped the handle and blade of his scalpel off on his lab coat, and stuck it up to the squirrel. He had his hand wrapped firmly around both the metal and the squirrel that was now having its eyes gouged out. The thing wouldn't stop squirming, so he slammed it into the nearest tree, and in complete and total frustration, shoved the scalpel right through its skull and into its brain.

He started laughing as he felt the way the scalpel tore through the muscle, the tissue, the wonderful organ that controlled used to control everything the animal did. He slowly slid the scalpel out of the bone as his giggles curved up into hysterical laughter, paying attention to just how everything felt. He started digging into the animal's stomach, and once he was done with that, he cut out its heart.

He took the heart out of the chest of the squirrel, and just let the rest of the bloody thing drop to the ground. He started looking at how the wet and bloody heart shined in the little sunlight that was shining through the leaves of the trees. He studied the veins and tissue that the organ was composed of, and started tearing it with his bare hands. He felt the tissue slip through his hands; then ran his fingers through the blood that filled the organ, and was once pulsing through the body. Once he finished, he just let the organ slip through his hands. He was bored with it, and wanted something else. Something different.

Spirit ran through the academy doors, Marie and Kami walked out after him. He started going down the long stairs, cursing that there were so many of them. He needed to be as quick as possible, and that didn't help at all.

He started running down the road, praying to Death, yet again, that in the time we were in class, Stein hadn't hurt anyone. His mind was racing, his heart was pounding, and he was honestly filled with fear.

The neighbor that had been out earlier was out again, and saw Spirit go by.

"Hey, Spirit!" she yelled to him. He ran over to her porch and up to her.

"Hello, Mrs. Torrez."

"Judging by the look on your face you are already doing this, but I would advise you look after your friend. Something seemed off about him."

"He came by here?" He seemed relieved to know that he was at least in the area.

"Yeah, he went-" Before she could finish Spirit started down the stairs, and headed for the house.

"I thought you would at least want to know where he is," she said this, even though she knew he wouldn't be able to hear him.

He got up to the front of the house and opened the door, rushing in and leaving the door open. He ran to Stein's room, seeing the door hanging wide open. He ran in and saw that Stein wasn't there.

"Damn it!" he grumbled to himself.

He ran out, slamming the door shut behind him. He searched the rest of the house thoroughly, swearing to himself again as he saw that Stein was nowhere.

He ran through the back door, and slammed the door behind himself. They still had a large backyard, mainly for the purpose of training, but now he regretted this. He ran through the large amount of land that was behind their house, and that was basically a field. He picked up his speed as he got closer to the woods, and swore to himself once more. He started racing through the trees and branches, wincing at the thorns that were scratching his skin.

He kept going, and saw a deep red off to the side. He raced over to it, and saw that it was a maimed fox. He knew then that Stein had been through there, as the carcass appeared to be fairly fresh. Damn it.

He started going off again, and soon found the squirrel. It laid on the ground in a puddle of blood, next to a tree that had blood rubbed all over it. He took notice that the heart was missing out of it, and looked to his right, seeing the completely torn up organ laying there. He knew he had to be getting closer, as this carcass was even fresher than the last one.

He started running, and running, and running. He took twist after twist, turn after turn, until he finally found a sign of Stein. He could hear him. It was that eerie laughter that he was familiar with by now. He followed the sound of it, and it started getting louder and louder the closer he got.

He went to a dead stop when he saw Stein surrounded by blood and organs. There was a dead deer lying at his feet, completely gutted and in shreds. He had deep bite marks; one on his neck, and one on his hand. Apparently that animal didn't go down without a fight.

Stein stood there, his shoulders shaking from laughter. His coat was drenched in deep, red blood. His hands were covered, just as the scalpel that was hanging limply in his fingers was. His hair and face were both splashed with blood. Stein was turned from Spirit, his shuddering back facing the boy that stood with a look of terror on his face. Stein apparently felt the boy's soul, or heard him coming, as he turned to face him.

Spirit saw a terrible grin on his face; the worst, most disturbing and insane grin he had ever seen. His giggles turned into frantic, maniacal laughter as his eyes showed that he was deeply submersed in the madness.

Well, there you go. Looks like it's getting kinda tense over there, huh? Hahaha, you wouldn't believe how fun it was to write that. I was so into it, that I was writing 2,000 words per hour. Hmm... I have this feeling that I am not going to be lazy with the next chapter since it's getting to the fun part.