Hello, my little dungeon-rats! Oh, man, the next-to-last chapter's here already! Where does the time go? ...Who, me? Stalling 'cause I don't have anything interesting to say? Never. So, uhm...Chapter, anyone? :D

Obtained Item: Disclaimers!
The Binding of Isaac, including all related characters (c) Edmund McMillen, because he's awesome.
Original story of 'the binding of Isaac' (c) Genesis 22, not that it applies.

Chapter 5: Taste of Blood

Case Study: Isaac Peterson, Day 21

I've been trying to build up a portfolio of notes concerning Isaac's multiple personalities. It seems all of them have names: Cain, Magdalene, Judas, and Eve. Isaac's shaky history with Christianity is evident. Not only are his stories and drawings inspired by Biblical stories, but even his personalities pull from these infamous characters.

I note this because I discovered the fifth member of Isaac's personalities today: Samson. The old Bible story of Samson and Delilah didn't come to mind until Isaac mentioned that before coming to me, his hair was actually getting quite long. He had just gotten it cut before our first session, which I can only imagine resulted from the most recent story I've heard...

xxx

"Isaac, when are you going to cut your hair?"

Isaac picked at his wavy locks when Father David brought them up. All teens go through a rebellious phase at one point or another, and Isaac had hit his right before his seventeenth birthday. His current trend was growing out the hair that had eluded him most of his childhood; currently, it fell past his shoulders and needed to be tied away from his face with a red bandana. As you can imagine, it's not a look that one expects from the adopted son of a pastor.

Not that Isaac could be bothered to care, really. "When I feel like it."

Father David sighed. He was a teenage boy once, of course, but Isaac's rebellion seemed to be slipping further and further into something much more serious. As anyone left to care for an orphaned child with a troubled past, he was concerned greater forces were at work than Isaac's hormones.

So the breakfast table seemed like a better place than any to spill the news. "Isaac, I've been talking to Mattias lately."

"The town shrink?"

"...Yes. I'm worried about you, Isaac, and I should've taken you in for counseling earlier. I think it'll be good for you to get any sort of worries or stress off your back and-"

SLAM. Father David winced as he heard the door slam shut behind Isaac on his way off to school. He had a feeling Isaac wouldn't take the news well, but this just seemed to be a sign that it was the right thing to do. With a sigh, the pastor grabbed his phone and made a call to the psychiatrist to schedule a consultation.

xxx

Isaac wasn't particularly moody, at least not more than your typical teenager. He was known for being quiet his entire life; never speaking out of turn, never raising his voice, and never looking for fights. Father David loved to brag about how Isaac was always the picture of patience and kindness, especially in the face of bullying.

Anger didn't suit him. And yet, he had been falling back on it more and more frequently. Little things suddenly seemed more aggravating, like when his lock refused to open on the first try and made him late for math class. Isaac was holing up in the art room more and more, even to the point where he was shunning the very few friends he had.

Said friends came to Isaac's aid after watching him throw a fit at the books that just avalanched out of his locker. "Yo, Isaac, you okay?"

"I'm fine," the brunette spat, tossing his books into the most haphazard pile imaginable before attempting to shove them back onto his locker shelf.

"You sure? You look a little...strung-out."

Isaac cursed as his books toppled yet again. "I'm not strung out!"

"Dude, chill out! Why are you yellin' at everyone all of the time?"

"I'm not!" Isaac slammed his locker shut, cringing as he heard all of his books crash to the floor inside it. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

The boys couldn't come up with a response, so one of Isaac's bullies stepped in, putting Isaac in a light choke-hold from behind. "'Cause normally, you're such a puss, Peterson! Now shut yer yap 'fore we gotta call animal control to get a muzzle on that scrawny mouth of yours."

With a growl, Isaac stamped down on the bully's foot, forcing him loose just long enough for Isaac to tackle him into the lockers. Once the bully was on the ground, he let loose in a blind rage, kicking and punching and cursing, letting loose all of his rage and tension. This bully had been running the halls of St. Rebecca for far too long, and this was the day he pushed Isaac just a bit too far.

"ISAAC PETERSON!"

It took two teachers to wrestle the troubled orphan away, letting the bloodied bully scamper off with a whimper. Isaac tried his hardest to squirm free, still not done punching something to high heaven. "Hey, come on, lemme go!"

"Isaac Peterson, I would've NEVER expected this from you! To the office, go!"

xxx

If it were any other student, they'd be suspended on the spot. But Isaac wasn't just another student. He was one of St. Rebecca's best and brightest. He was quiet and non-confrontational. He was also an orphan with a troubled past. You can probably guess which part got brought up first when the teacher dragged him to the principal.

So Isaac was brought in to see the counselor instead. "Isaac, my word. What's gotten into you? Screaming in the halls, late to class, beating up another student?"

Isaac stayed quiet, continuing to pick at his hair.

The old counselor sighed. He couldn't bring himself to be so hard on a child who had already been through so much. And on a first offense? "Let me call Father David in, and we'll discuss what we need to do."

"What's there to discuss?" the teacher snapped. An old and grizzled instructor that was twenty years of tenure too late to be replaced, he had broken up plenty of fights and expected punishment when they started. "Suspend the kid."

Already in a sour mood, Isaac didn't take kindly to being pushed. "How about you shut up?" Isaac snapped, hopping to his feet and crashing his chair into the wall behind the angry teacher.

"Isaac! Calm down! What's gotten into you?!"

"NOTHING'S GOTTEN INTO ME! I'M FINE!" With a snarl, Isaac grabbed a pair of scissors from the counselor's desk, climbing over it and pinning the old counselor to the wall, an arm to his neck and the scissors inches from his head. "And I swear to GOD, if you try to say otherwise again, I'll..."

Before he could finish the threat, Isaac faltered. Between the glint of the scissors and the terror in his counselor's eyes, he spied one thing:

The reflection of a shadowy, red-eyed figure.

What's the matter, Isaac? Finish the job.

Horrified at what he had done, Isaac dropped the weapon and ran outside, cowering outside the doors of the academy until Father David came to retrieve him.

"Isaac? What happened?"

"I...think I need to see the doctor after all."

xxx

ADDENDUM: At this point, I'm frightened for Isaac's mental stability. This dark voice, the one that comes without a name, seems to be violent and dangerous. After today's session, I've prescribed Isaac with Haloperidol - 1.0 mg every six hours should do it, but I'll adjust the dosage as needed. Hopefully, the anti-psychotics will quiet that voice and calm him down.

With any luck, he'll be more coherent in the coming days and I can get to the bottom of this mess.

DRA~MA! Will Isaac come clean about his inner demons to the doctor? Will Dr. Bossi get to the bottom of this mess? Do we have the items necessary to clear the Chest? Or even enough keys to open the four freebies? ...Okay, so a few of those won't be addressed. But for the rest of them, tune in next week for our chilling conclusion! Thanks for reading, guys!

§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §