This one is a little shorter since I thought of something, and the way I want it to be written I think it will work a lot better if it's its own chapter, so there is going to be another short one following this. Then I plan to put it back at the regular length.

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 14 An Acquisition of Sanity... For the Most Part

After his father had went away, he went over and sat on his bed. He was completely terrified, terrified at what he thought he had done. He knew that it was actually very possible for him to have killed him, and thanked Death that he didn't.

It was also very relieving for him to have seen that he didn't do that to his partner. He couldn't even imagine what would have happened if he had done it. The guilt and terror that would have accompanied it would have been unbearable, and there would be no way that he would ever pull himself out of the madness.

But he didn't, and although he was shaking with terror, he could tell that for some reason the madness had begun to recede. It was almost as if that's what he needed, to cut into something a little bit to relieve the built up tension. His mind was beginning to become slightly clearer, and the noise in his head was getting quieter as well. He reached his hand up and turned the screw, feeling that it actually helped this time.

Shaking and trembling slightly, he moved over and got under his covers. Once he got under he slid down and laid his head on his pillow. The feeling of his mind finally becoming less fogged was extremely relaxing to him, and it allowed him to be calmer. After just trying to focus on the fact that he hadn't actually killed Spirit, he began to stop shaking and most of his fear went away. He closed his eyes, and just felt his mind fill with clarity. He also prayed to Death that he wouldn't have to go through that Hell again.

Even though they were shut, he could feel his eyes get heavy. His mind got foggy again, but not in the same way it had been all day. This kind felt nice in comparison. He rolled over on his side so he was facing the wall, and felt himself relax more. Soon his mind completely fogged over and he was asleep.

He woke up five and a half hours later to the same feeling of clarity that he had felt before falling asleep, which greatly pleased him. When looking at the clock, he saw that it was 8:34 A.M., realizing class had already started. After pushing his covers off, he got up and walked to his door. Opening it, he walked out and went down the hall to his partner's room. When he got there, he opened the door and saw Spirit lying in his bed.

The boy was fairly low in the bed, to the point that his head was just below the pillow. He was lying on his stomach, with his arms stretched out above and in front of his head. As he turned over, his arms remained above him. The way it looked reminded Stein of how he looked on his dissection table. He saw the mark from where he had injected the needle into the boy. He shivered.

After shutting the door, he turned around and left so the boy could sleep. He assumed that he hadn't bothered setting an alarm since he figured he and Stein would not be going to class the next day. Instead of waking him up, he went into his room. When he got there he realized that he had still been covered in blood from the previous day. He grabbed another set of clothes, and sat them in the bathroom. Afterward he took his lab coat down to the basement and stuck it in the washing machine. Once he put the detergent in, he shut the door to the machine, turned it on, and went upstairs.

Shutting the door as he entered, he turned on the bathroom lights. He turned on the water, letting it warm up as he undressed. Once grabbing a towel off a hook on the wall, he sat it next to the shower and got in. The warm water just added to the relaxed feeling he had.

Soon he had a good majority of the blood washed out of his long, gray hair. When he looked down he saw that the water had turned into blood. He knew it wasn't from what he was washing out, as there was too much of it. There was enough that it would have to be coming out as the water had been recently; through the shower head.

He looked up, and saw that it, in fact, was coming out of the shower head. If it was possible for blood to come out of shower heads like that, he would have easily believed it was happening, for his mind still felt clear and he couldn't hear the noise in the back of his head. Those were both things that didn't usually happen when he was hallucinating.

The fact that the madness was still there didn't surprise him at all. It was actually something he expected considering what had happened the previous day. Since he knew blood wasn't coming out, he just continued. Soon the water was actual water again, and he was finished. He got out and dried himself off, then got dressed. After he was fully clothed he grabbed the towel and dried off his hair as much as he could.

He turned off the light, walking out and shutting the door. As he walked down the hall, he realized that he didn't eat a single thing yesterday. He had woken up too late for breakfast, at lunchtime he was busy slaughtering, and he was too zoned out to eat dinner. Actually, he still wasn't even all that hungry, but he knew it wasn't the healthiest to go without food for that long so he went to the kitchen to get something anyway.

Spirit opened his eyes and sat up in bed, hearing the cupboard doors shut. He pushed off his covers and stood up, walking out to see what Stein was doing. When he got out to the kitchen, he saw Stein looking through the freezer. The boy must have heard him or sensed his soul, for he looked back at the redhead.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Spirit asked.

"Fine," Stein said as he turned back to look into the freezer again.

"That's good," his partner said, trying to keep in mind that he could easily trick him. He wasn't so sure that he had done that, though, as he had noticed that he wasn't wearing his lab coat (which would indicate that it was in the washing machine), and he was no longer covered in blood. There was also the fact that he was looking for something to eat. But nonetheless he knew he still had to be cautious.

"Hey, do you want me to make you waffles or something?" Stein said, holding out a box of waffles to the boy.

"Sure, that would be great. Thanks." After he said this, Stein shut the freezer door and walked over to the counter, setting the box down. He plugged in the toaster, and opened up the box.

"I'm just gonna go to the bathroom real quick," Spirit said this, starting to walk off slowly.

"Alright."

Instead of going to the bathroom, he slipped into his room and grabbed his phone. Then he went into the bathroom, knowing that Stein could possibly use his soul perception and see that he wasn't there but instead in his room, which could lead to the boy questioning him. Once he got to the bathroom, he shut the door and started dialing. He was calling Mr. Collins.

Mr. Collins was also making breakfast, and jumped at hearing his phone ring. He hit his hand off the pan, and felt the hot iron burn him. He winced and rubbed his hand as he walked over to the phone. When he got to the phone, he began to worry because he realized that something else could be wrong.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Mr. Collins." At hearing this, he was slightly relieved because he knew that judging by the way he was talking, nothing urgent was happening.

"Good morning, Spirit. Is there something that you need?"

"Well, I was more wondering what I should do. When I woke up, I heard the cupboards being shut so I went out to check what Stein was doing. When I got there, he was look through the freezer. He had showered and changed his clothes, and his coat is apparently in the washing machine right now. He asked if I wanted something, and now he is making waffles. He really seems like he is fine, but with the way he tricked me yesterday I am not sure if I can believe him."

"It sure does sound like he is himself again, but you're right in saying that you aren't sure." He paused to think. "You're just going to have to watch out for today. If he seems normal throughout the entire day, then he is probably fine."

"Alright, I will make sure I keep an eye on him."

"If you'd like I can stop by a little later and check on him myself."

"That sounds good, but only if you're fine with coming down. That would be the third time you've had to walk up here in the past not even twenty-four hours."

"It's fine. I will be down in a bit," Mr. Collins said this, smelling smoke. He looked over to see that his food had begun to smoke, and he jumped a little.

"Okay, see you later."

"Bye," he said this, quickly hanging up and rushing over to his stove.

Stein grabbed the plate of waffles and stuck them on the table where Spirit usually sat. Then he got the syrup, and placed it in front of the plate as Spirit walked out.

"You were back there for a while," Stein said, heading back over to the toaster to put more waffles in.

"Yeah, I guess I was. Thanks for making these." As Spirit said this, he began to put syrup on his food. Stein threw out the empty box, and realized he hadn't gave utensils to his partner. He got a fork and knife, and brought them over to the table. Spirit slightly flinched when he sat the knife down, but Stein didn't pay any attention to it.

"It's no problem."

He walked over to the counter where the toaster was, and saw that Spirit was looking at the mark on his wrist. He stiffened slightly.

"Hey, Mr. Science, do you know what this is?"

Stein walked over, hiding the fact that he feared the possibility of him finding out what he had done. He held the boy's wrist up, and made it appear as if he was trying to determine what it was.

"It's just an insect bite. Don't worry about it." Stein let go of the boy's wrist and went back over to the counter.

"Are you sure? It's looks different than that."

"Yes, I am sure," he said this in his regular bland tone, showing Spirit that he knew what he was talking about.

The redhead squinted and looked at the mark up close, but after a few seconds he just shrugged and began to cut into the waffles. He began to wonder what it was like to cut through skin, just out of pure curiosity.

"Hey, Stein, what does it feel like to cut into skin?"

"Do you want to find out?" he asked, looking at the boy.

"No, I'm good." He looked down at his plate, and shoved his fork down into the first part of waffle he had cut.

The next set popped out of the toaster, so Stein grabbed a plate and put them on it. After unplugging the toaster, he went over to the table and sat down across from Spirit.

The redhead watched him put syrup on his, and watched for any possible signs of the madness still being there. He couldn't see any, and thought that if he was pretending he was pretty damn good at it. From the fact that he had been as normal as he had been for this long, he was beginning to assume that somehow overnight he had gotten himself under control and that the wavelengths had went down.

Although everything seemed fine, he still wanted Mr. Collins to come over. Since he had dealt with the boy's father's madness for as long as he had, he would probably be able to tell if something was off better than he could. He knew how easily he had taken down Stein when he had tried to attack, and this reassured him that if anything did go wrong, he would be able to take care of it.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Stein asked, seeing how Spirit was watching him so intently.

"Oh, no." Quickly he looked away from Stein and down at his plate, and just thought to himself more.

Stein's thoughts were directly on how much time he had lost. From yesterday's events he hadn't been able to read, or do any experiments. He didn't count what he had done to Spirit as an experiment, as it was more of a madness driven craving. He hadn't even been fully aware of the entire procedure. The only way it could be used to find out something was to see how self-aware the boy was.

The experiment he was currently working on did require subjects that were at least alive at one point, and he knew that there was no way Spirit would allow him to get any after what had happened. It would be a while before that could happen. So for today he would just have to catch up on his reading.

After they finished, Spirit went to take his plate and knife and fork over to the sink, but stopped when Stein took them from him.
"I'll get it," he said this, walking over to the sink.

"Thanks."

Spirit stood for a minute, but then started walking off toward the living room. When Stein looked back, he saw Spirit focused on the mark again. He shook his head, and started washing everything.

Spirit stopped looking at it as he plopped down on the couch, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV. As he began to flip through the channels, he saw that almost nothing was on. So he turned it off, and looked over at Stein, who was now getting out a drying rack to set the dishes in.

When he thought of Marie and Kami, he realized that there were probably rumors spread throughout the entire academy. Stein was almost guaranteed to get more funny looks than usually, also from the fact that not many people had seen the screw at that point. He just prayed to Death that Stein didn't try to scare them off; he figured that everyone would be more jumpy around him as well, which was expected.

He sighed as he leaned into the couch and rested his head on his hand, elbow against the arm of the couch.

Stein finished rinsing off the dishes, and put them into the drying rack. Reaching into the sink, he pulled the plug that kept the water from going down the drain. When he faced the counter, he realized he still had to put away the toaster, so he did that and went across the living room.

He saw Spirit watch him go into his room, and then shut the door once he got in. Knowing that the boy could possibly come to check on him, he didn't bother with locking the door to spare his partner the feelings of anxiousness. When he turned to face his desk, he saw his book on anesthesiology sitting on it.

He sat in his chair that was away from his desk from when he had fell out of it the morning before, and slid over in front of the desk. After grabbing the book, he opened it to the page he had currently been at.

Once he had read for a bit, he realized that his coat should probably be done washing at this point. He put a sticky note in the book to keep his place, sat it down on the desk, and got up. When he got through the hall, he saw Spirit asleep on the couch, his right arm dangling over the side.

After getting to the basement door, he went down the stairs and saw that his coat was done washing. He took it out, putting it into the dryer afterward. Turning out the lights as he left the room, he started up the stairs and went back to his room.

Mr. Collins had just finished getting showered, dried off and dressed, and was going around his house turning off all the lights. He had a habit of leaving them on when he left a room, and usually only remembered to do it before going somewhere.

He went over to the fish tank that sat on a table at the left side of his couch, and fed the betta that lived in it. After he put the food in, he watched as the bright red and teal spotted fish swam up to get the pellets. The fish tried to swallow one, but spit it out back into the tank, swimming over to try to get it again. After the third try, it managed to get it down, and Mr. Collins went over to the table next to his door.

He grabbed the keys that laid on it, and opened his door walking out after. Once he locked it, he stuck the keys into his pocket, sticking his other hand in the other pocket as he started down the stairs.

The man was optimistic that Stein really had been better, but he knew that they still needed to be cautious so he offered to go down and watch him. He knew that if he was, in fact, just tricking them again, he would know the best way to handle it, and could most likely detect it.

As he went down the road, he saw that his neighbor was sitting out on their porch swing. When he went by, she called out to him.

"Good morning, Anthony!"

"Good morning, Mrs. Garcia. How are you doing?"

"I am doing well, thank you for asking."

This lady was in her early seventies, and had been his neighbor for quite some time. He would often go over and help the old couple out when they needed something to be done that they couldn't quite do themselves, and most of the time they didn't even ask him; he just saw they needed some assistance and would come over.

"You've been walking by here more often these past couple days," she said.

"Just going to check on the boys."

"You've always been such a sweetie."

"Thank you, Silvia. Tell Javier I said hello."

"I will do that."

"Have a nice day!" he called up, now farther from the woman's house, making him have to yell a little louder for her to hear him.

He continued up the road, and soon got to Stein and Spirit's road. After a bit, he got to their house. Once he got up to the door, he knocked a few times and waited. Within a couple minutes the door opened, and he saw Stein standing in front of the door.

When he opened the door to see the man standing there, he had a confused look on his face.

"Hello, Mr. Collins, is there something you need?" Stein asked, trying to figure out why he was there.

"Nope, just came to see you guys."

"Oh, well come in," Stein said this, stepping back from the door and going over to the living room.

He went up to the sleeping boy and touched his shoulder, slightly shaking him.

"Mr. Collins is here." As he said this, Spirit jerked up on the couch, remembering that he had fallen asleep.

"Why am I not surprised that you were sleeping?" Mr. Collins asked, walking to the other side of the couch.

"Because you know me too well."

"I suppose I do." After he said this, Stein started off to go back to his room and read more.

"And I am not surprised that he did that," the man said, looking back the hallway that led back to the boy's room.

"Now anyone would have guessed that."

"You're probably right." Mr. Collins took a few steps forward and sat down on the couch next to Spirit. "So he's just been like that?"

"Basically. If anything, better. He's definitely been more productive at least. The closest thing to being creepy he has even done today was when I asked him what it felt like to cut through skin. He just asked if I want to find out, so I gladly declined."

"Are you sure that when the madness left Stein it didn't go to you?" the man asked jokingly.

"Ha-ha." The boy's tone showed sarcasm. "Yes, I am sure."

Spirit reached to grab the remote, and Mr. Collins looked over as he did this, seeing the mark on his wrist. Unlike Spirit, he instantly knew what it had been from. His eyes widened slightly, but when Spirit looked over he made sure they weren't anymore. From the way Spirit had been talking, he knew that he either didn't notice it, or just didn't know what it had been from.

Spirit just looked at the TV and turned it on, trying again to see if anything good was on. As he did this, he began to unconsciously pick at the mark. When he looked over, he saw how Mr. Collins was looking at it.

"Stein said it was just an insect bite and that it was nothing to worry about."

"Of all people, he would know. I am surprised he didn't tell you what kind of insect it was," the man said this, trying to go along with what he was saying.

"Oh yeah, I guess he didn't." He looked back at the TV, and sighed in frustration. "I swear, there is nothing on today."

"I know. I couldn't find anything either," as he said this, he looked back the hall at Stein's door.

As Stein sat in his room, he realized that the madness was still there more than he thought it had been, but even this was relieve from how it was affecting him before. As he read, he could hear the noise in the back of his head very faintly.

Putting the sticky note back in place, he shut the book and stuck it on the edge of his desk. He propped his elbows on it, and began to run his fingers through his hair. When they had ran through about half the length of his hair, his hands stopped moving and stayed propping his head up.

As he ran them through the rest of the way he leaned back into his chair. From moving back, he had knocked his book off his desk and onto the ground. He leaned down and went to grab the book, but when he was about to touch it the thing basically dissolved. He looked up to see it was still sitting on his desk.

As he sat up, his door opened and Mr. Collins came in. The man sat at the bottom edge of the boy's bed, resting his arms on the footboard.

"Spirit said that you were feeling better today."

"Compared to yesterday, definitely."

"Glad to hear it… Listen, I saw that mark on Spirit's wrist." Stein didn't say anything, but just looked at him.

"Did you, you know…" he said this, making hand gestures along with it.

"Yeah, I did," Stein said this in an emotionless tone. Mr. Collins looked at him, his eyes widening slightly.

"What got you to?"

"I wanted to anyway, but my father had something to do with it."

"How often do you see him?"

"Constantly… I hate it," he said, almost sounding haunted.

"I get why-"

"No, it's not just him… It's everything. It's terrible, all of it." Stein's eyes showed fear. "Last night when I was… cutting into Spirit… You had come and tried to stop me. I told you that if you took another step forward, I would kill him…"

He began to shake.

"When I kept doing more and more, you tried to talk me into leaving him alone… But I wouldn't listen. Then when you came near me to try to take the knife away, I… I killed him…" Stein said, his voice sounding low at the end.

"Oh geez, Stein-"

"You were furious…" There was a brief silence before he continued. "What if I really had done it? What if I do someday? We both know I very well could…" There was another pause. "I couldn't live with myself."

"Listen, Stein, I know me saying this is not going to really be of any help to you. There isn't much you can do about it, but you need to try your best to not do anything to him. That's all you can do; to control yourself as much as possible."

"What if I can't stop myself? What if it's uncontrollable?" Stein asked, his tone of voice now sounding normal again.

"If you can tell you are about to try something, just get away from him. Go into another room or something. If it happens without warning, then just hold on and keep trying until it's over." After he said this, Stein sat there, silent.

"Seriously… If you had him in front of you, in a position that you could do anything to him that you wanted with your dad influencing you on top of that, and you still hadn't done it, I know you can stop yourself any other time." Yet again Stein didn't say anything, and then looked up at Mr. Collins.

"And by the way, next time maybe you should tell him what insect it was that bit him. It would be more convincing," he said this, standing up from the bed and going to the door.

"I will make sure I do that next time."

Mr. Collins looked at him.

"I was kidding."

The man shook his head, a slight smile crossing his face as he left the room. Stein sat for a while, just thinking. He thought of what his teacher had said. All he could do was try his best, and hold on.

He got out a notebook, one of the ones he used for experiments, and began reading through it. Having read a bit of it, he grabbed a pencil and began making revisions to some of the things he had previously wrote down.

After doing this for a bit, he realized that his coat was probably dry by now. He shut his notebook and stuck his pencil on top of it, getting up and opening the door. As he went past the other guys, he saw that they were just watching TV; it appeared to be a show that they had decided was the least worst, and the most bearable to watch.

He started down the stairs, flipping on the lights when he got to the bottom. Going to his left, he went into the next room; the room that they used for doing laundry. Pulling on the door, he opened the dryer and reached in to grab his coat. He took it out, and could tell it had just finished minutes ago by how warm it was.

When he put it on, he could feel the warm fabric touching his cold arms that had been exposed for the morning. He shut the dryer door and slipped his right hand into his pocket, realizing that he never did check to see if his scalpel was in one of the pockets. He stuck his other hand in, and didn't feel it when his hand hit the bottom. He went over and looked in the dryer, but luckily it wasn't in there.

He took his right hand out as he left the room, and flipped the switch off as he started back up the stairs. Halfway up, he stuck his hand back into his pocket once more.

As he went by, Spirit said, "Thank Death, it was weird seeing you without it."

"Imagine how weird I felt without it."

"Stein, wanna make a bet?" Mr. Collins asked.

"What's the bet?" Stein asked, sitting down in a chair that sat turned, next to the couch.

"Let's see if you can go an entire day without wearing your lab coat. It has to be when you're at the academy, so it'll be when you go back. If you do it, me and Spirit loose. If you don't, you lose."

"What's the punishment?" Spirit asked. Mr. Collins sat for a minute, thinking of what it could be.

"Stein's going to like this." He turned to the boy for the next part. "Seeing as how you always have something to dissect, I need you to help me get the most commonly dissected animal."

"The frog," Stein said.

"Yep. Since me and Spirit both find that stuff absolutely disgusting, if we lose we both have to dissect a frog, one frog for each of us."

"And it can't be that you just cut it open and dig around for a bit. You have to, after examining everything, completely gut it; and then you have to take out the brain." Spirit looked sick.

"Okay." When Mr. Collins said this, Spirit eyes widened. "Then if you lose, you will also get to dissect a frog. You will cut it open so that everything is showing, including the brain. Then you have to sneak it into…" He paused to think for a couple seconds. "Mrs. Smith's room, and stick it on her desk. That way when she goes to teach her next class, she will find it there."

"Why would you want him to do that?!" Spirit asked.

"There is always the chance of him getting caught, which would be his punishment… Besides, she borrowed money from me weeks ago and still hasn't paid me back. This'll make us even."

"So you're basically on both of our sides?" Stein asked.

"I guess you could say that."

"Alright, it's a bet," Stein said. Spirit began gasping.

"I never agreed to this!"

"Too late," Mr. Collins said with a slight smirk on his face.

Alright... Time to get started on the next one. I plan on making this be pretty dang detailed, so I will just have to see if I meet my goal..