Ethan Mars, Madison Paige, and Norman Jayden stood in the lobby at the hospital.
"So Madison," Ethan asked. "Where will you go?"
Madison shrugged. "I'm going to write a book about this because I want your babies."
"What does that have to do with... Never mind."
Jayden, who had recently recovered (somewhat) from a few broken ribs, had been particularly quiet, so Ethan tried to make him speak up.
"Norman, how are you feeling?"
"Is Shaun alright?" Jayden asked, avoiding the question.
"Yes, he just needs a bit more rest before he can go back to school."
"Good..." Jayden smiled a bit out of relief.
"So, Jayden, where will you go?" Madison asked.
Ethan wrapped his arm gently around Jayden's shoulders. "He's staying with me. Right, Norman?" He was a little confused by Jayden's hesitance in answering.
"A-... About that, Ethan... I don't think I should stay with ya."
"Wh-what? But what about..."
"What if I go crazy again and hurt Shaun?" Jayden shook his head. "I'm sorry Ethan, but I just can't take that sorta chance again."
Ethan looked disappointed, but not surprised. "If that's what you truly want... but then where exactly will you go?"
Jayden shrugged. "I'll go get my things from the station and then I suppose I'll be headin' back to Washin'ton..."
"What about that Blake guy?" Madison asked.
"I'll just have to try to sneak by him..."
"..." Madison had an idea, and she held Jayden's hand, nearly making him jump. "I'll go with you."
"What...?"
"Ethan told me about how Blake feels about you. Maybe he'll be turned off if I pretend to be your girlfriend?"
Jayden pulled his hand away from her and shook his head wildly. "N-no! No, he'll kill ya! Why d'ya think he tried to kill Ethan?!"
"Come on, Jayden. Think about this. Not only would a ton of fans like this, but there is a good chance Blake would let you be."
"I... I guess...?"


Carter Blake was standing in front of his desk, organizing files in a box. He looked to his right subconsciously and suddenly saw Norman Jayden walking into the building with Madison Paige, holding her hand. Jayden looked incredibly awkward.
"Hello, Norman. Did you come back to get your things?"
Jayden nodded nervously.
"Who's the girl?" Blake asked, pretending not to know her for continuity's sake.
"Uh, this is Madison... Madison Paige. She's, uh..."
"His girlfriend." Madison pat his arm. "I'm his girlfriend." She kissed his cheek, then she used her index finger to scratch his chin. "Right, Normie?"
Both Madison and Blake were surprised when Jayden started breathing heavy and threw Madison away from himself. He fell down and sat against the file cabinet that had been beside him, and he cradled his head, trembling wildly as he started hyperventilating.
"Jayden? Jayden, are you okay?! What's wrong?!" Madison asked as she fell to her knees next to him and grabbed his arm again.
Blake knelt next to Jayden as well.
"I-I'm sorry..." Jayden panted nervously. "Y'reminded me of somethin' I want nothin' mo'e than to ferget..." He looked up at them, revealing that his nose had started to bleed.
"Norm..." Blake discreetly handed Jayden his tube of Triptocaine.
Jayden stared at the tube, beginning to crave its contents. 'Blake, ya asshole.'
"What was that about?" Madison asked, not noticing the tube.
"N-nothin', Madison."
"If you say so..." Madison helped Jayden to his feet with Blake's help.
Jayden swayed, struggling to stay standing; he was already starting to hallucinate. "C-... C-could I get my stuff and then be alone fer a while...?"
Blake smirked. "Sure, Norm." He pat the man on the back. "Go into your office."
Jayden shakily walked past Blake and Madison, disappearing into his office.
"What did you give him?" Madison growled.
Blake avoided her question and grabbed her, threatening to smack her. "You goddamned whore, what kind of sick joke is this? His girlfriend? Really?"
"Hey, you're not any better. At least I don't abuse him."
"You'd better just shut your mouth, bitch, before I shut it for you."


Norman Jayden sat in his office, holding the tube of Triptocaine and quivering.
"D-d-dammit, Blake...!" He held his head and kicked at the floor, trying not to snort the powder. He tried to put the tube in his pocket, but his arm refused to move any further than to his lap.
He rest his head against the table and shut his eyes for just a moment, and when he opened them, he was in one of the ARI environments, and his head hurt like hell.
"Nahman? Nahman, look at me."
Jayden slowly started to look up; he saw someone in his own suit standing in front of the desk. He soon looked up enough to see that the person standing before him was actually himself, and he started to panic.
His other self smiled.
"Y-yer the one that drowned Shaun!" Jayden shouted.
His other self smiled wider. "Yes, Nahman. That's right. Why don't ya take Tripto, Nahman?"
"It-it's gonna kill me if I take much mo'e..."
"But you're goin' mad without it." His other self taunted. "Soon I'll win and take ovah ya again if ya don't take it."
"Don't hurt anyone..." He pleaded, as if he were accepting the idea of losing his mind to his 'alter-ego'.
His other self raised a brow and looked unamused. "Ya really like that Madison girl, don't ya?"
Jayden looked down at the stone his feet lay upon.
"Don't worry, Nahman, if I do get control, I'll make ha' scream."
"Leave ha' alone!" Jayden argued, not yet getting what his other self was suggesting.
"Ya'd like it, don't lie, and so would she."
"Wh-what a'e ya..."
His other self formed an O with one hand and used the index finger of the other hand to perform a gesture that made Jayden's jaw drop and his face flush from embarrassment and rage.
"Don't ya DA'E! That'd be rape!" He growled.
"Didn't we learn from Blake that that is true love?"
Jayden fell silent, staring at his alter-ego in shock and disgust. He blinked and suddenly found himself underwater.
"How a'e ya doin' this?" He asked shakily due to both pain and fear. "I don't even have the ARI glasses on...!"
"Oh Nahman, don't worry. Yer almost past the point whe'e ya won't need those glasses to have and do whatevah yer heart desiahs."
He then suddenly found himself on Mars, so he sat in the office chair and held his head, gasping. His nose was beginning to bleed heavily, and his head felt like it was about to explode. It was taking everything he had not to cry out for someone or just scream with all his might.
Just when he felt like he was close to breaking point, he found himself sitting in his office in West Virginia. He was so scared that he lost his voice and therefore wouldn't be able to scream even if he tried.
He saw a flashback of himself and his partner going after another serial killer at large.
At that point, Jayden was still being heavily affected by his father's murder, and had yet to experience his first heavy Triptocaine withdrawal phase.
"A'e ya su'e backup is on its way?" Jayden asked his partner without glancing her way.
"Yes, yes. The killer's home is further that way, according to our intel." She pointed deeper into the trees.
Jayden followed where she was pointing until they came across a 'clearing', if it being filled with large shrubbery could allow it to be classified as such.
"A'e we close?" Jayden asked, his back turned on his partner.
"Oh, yes... We're real close!"
Jayden turned to look at her and was so startled that he fell back when she sliced him right on the cheek with a combat knife. Once on the ground, his started backing away, too shocked to feel pain in the deep cut on his right cheek.
"Wh-wh-what a'e ya doin'?!"
"I suppose I might as well tell you everything; you're not going to escape from me anyways, and there's no backup on it's way. I'm the killer, Normie. That girl who murdered your father? I sent her after him to displace you."
Jayden couldn't believe it. He became breathless and felt sick, not taking his eyes off of the woman in front of him. He had only suspected her once, but he had dismissed it. He felt so distressed. "Why...?! Why?! I trusted ya!"
"Aww, Normie, did I take your heart?"
"Y-y-... Yer... I... I can't believe I thought I had feelin's fer someone like ya!"
"Goodbye, Normie. I have to kill you now." She announced, ignoring what he said.
"YOU BITCH!" Jayden flew off the handle from guilt, depression, and pure rage. He threw himself at her, and she swiped at him, just barely missing. He tackled her down, and the two of them fought viciously until Jayden eventually threw her to the ground and aimed his gun at her.
She could see it in his eyes for just a second that he was going to shoot her, and he was going to take great pleasure in taking her life, but soon enough the look disappeared.
"Drop the knife." He ordered.
Grumpily, she obeyed.
"Hands on yer head. Now turn around." After she did those three things, Jayden slowly approached and slapped a pair on handcuffs onto her wrists. As he lift her, he felt this strange feeling beginning to build up inside him and he began to lose his breath.
He wobbled, feeling light-headed, and within a few seconds he had let go of his so-called partner and doubled over from the strange, incredibly discomforting feeling. His whole body quivered like a leaf and he panted, his nose starting to bleed just a little.
'What the hell is this feelin'? It hurts!' Jayden was trying to figure out what was wrong with him when his hand pulled out the tube of Triptocaine again. He stared at it with wide, hungry eyes, and couldn't resist snorting a bit of it.
After a few seconds, he started to feel much better. He stood, and that's when he realized that his captive had escaped.
"Fuck...! Oh fuck, fuck, fuck...!" He leaned against his car and looked around in search of her, but he'd lost her in the trees.
Jayden snapped out of his flashback to see his ex-partner walk into the office. Her corpse, that is.
Briefly, he remembered hearing later in the newspaper about how her handcuffs had got her stuck on a branch, and she'd managed to drown because of it. Jayden had killed her. Despite how indirect it was, he had killed her. He had been almost disturbed by how good it felt to know that he had been the one who killed her.
Her muddy, soaked corpse reached out to touch his cheek, and that's when Jayden knew he couldn't take anymore.

Madison Paige and Carter Blake were still arguing in the middle of the police station when suddenly they heard Norman Jayden let out a blood-curdling scream. They glanced at each other for only a second, and then they both started running for Jayden's office.
Madison got there first, and she ripped the door open to see Jayden holding a tube of blue powder as he covered his eyes and screamed hysterically.
"Jayden! Jayden, snap out of it!" Madison shook him.
Jayden screamed more when his ex-partner's corpse tried to tug his hands away from his eyes. He tried to claw his eyeballs out without uncovering them so that he'd never have to see her haunting him again.
"Jayden, what are you doing?! You're going to hurt yourself! Come on, it's me, Madison!"
Jayden's hands flung away from his eyes faster than ever as he stared at Madison, and into her pretty brown eyes. They reminded him of something, but he wasn't sure of what.
Blake watched, frowning intensely, as they stared into eachother's eyes.
Madison was about to pull away when suddenly Jayden pulled her into an embrace and kissed her passionately.
"FUCK THIS!" Blake slammed the door shut and flipped his own desk with eye lasers of pure anger.
Madison kissed back, and Jayden found that strangely, her kiss was like a less-destructive Triptocaine to him.
Soon they pulled away from each other and went back to silently staring.
"We... uh... You could... You could come stay at my apartment..." Madison shyly offered with a grin on her face.
Jayden smiled nervously. "I... I'd like that..."
Jayden put his Triptocaine in his pocket, then took his ARI and put it in his chest pocket, and then the two of them walked out hand-in-hand, going to Jayden's car.
"That fucking whore..." Blake snarled quietly. "I'll fucking kill her... Just you wait, Norman. I'm not done with you yet."