On the Verge of Madness
By: Yuki Mizuno
Summary: The fourth story out of five in a series of EEnE stories I've been working on. Please read the following stories before this one in this order: "Melancholy Times" "The Unity of Chaos" and "A Place to Call Home". This will also be my first M-rated story due to what happens in it. Please, I beg you, do NOT read this story if you are under 17 or 18, PLEASE, and thank you!
A few years have passed since the Eds and the rest of their friends started high school, with all of them finally making it to the final semester of their Senior year. It was also close to Zoey's 18th birthday! Eddy wanted to do something special for her but could not think of anything special. But, two days before her birthday, Zoey snuck into Eddy's room for a short moment, scared to death from a nightmare she was having all week, as well as to break some important news to him about her father. The nightmare was about her and a spiteful figure from their past, coming back to haunt them both, and in the worst way possible. Little did they know, the very same man from her nightmares had escaped prison. He had only two things on his mind: a deep grudge to let out and to get his revenge against the two people who ruined his life.
OtVoM: Chapter 1
It was a very cold afternoon here in the little town of Peach Creek. The 4th of February was today's date. The Winter season was still around the area, with the snow on the ground having about an inch of thickness to it. It is here in this town that was came across a local high school that was about to end for the day. Three, two, one… RING! The school bell rang throughout the school. All the students walked or rushed out into the hallway from the classrooms they were in; not all at once, of course.
One of the many students leaving the classroom she was in was a seventeen-year-old girl. She had long, dark blond hair with a part of it covering her right eye, revealing that her left eye was a bright blue color. She wore a dark purple winter jacket over a white shirt with a yellow star design on it, a pair of thick black jeans, and some black snow boots. She wore a lavender scarf around her neck which was covering up her necklace; it had a beautiful silver ring with an amethyst jewel hanging from it. Her name was Zoey Wheeler.
Zoey walked down the hallway towards the entrance of the school to meet up with her boyfriend. The entrance outside was usually the spot where she and all her friends would meet up to walk home together, but lately, it seems that everyone has been too busy with other things to do that anymore. Instead of all of them meeting up at the entrance after school, they have been using both private and group DMs on Discord to keep in contact with each other and what they were doing. This was understandable, seeing that all of them were now Seniors who were in their final semester in high school.
Zoey made a small sigh as she stood at the entrance to the school, looking around to see if she could see her boyfriend. Thankfully, it did not take her long to see him approaching her.
He was a seventeen-year-old boy who had very short, spiky dark blue hair, with three big tuffs of spiked hair sticking out, and dark blue eyes. He wore a yellow winter jacket over his yellow shirt that had a purple collar and sleeves with a vertical red stripe going down the left side of his shirt, a pair of blue jeans with a chain for his wallet around his pocket, and dark red snow boots. He was also wearing a dark purple scarf around his neck to try and stay warm. His name was Eddy McGee.
Zoey smiled as he came up to her. Eddy had grown a lot since she first met him, with him finally hitting a late growth spurt shortly before his fifteenth birthday. He was now almost the same height as her, if not just a few centimeters shorter. The growth spurt made him gain more confidence in himself afterward; no one ever called him short again. "Now that we're almost the same height, I can hug you without it feeling completely awkward for me! Not to mention I can give you a kiss when you want one from me without you leaning over to me!" Eddy said to her with a huge smile and a wink back then.
"Hey there Zoey," Eddy greeted her, kissing her on her left cheek for a second before smiling, "I hope you weren't waiting that long."
"Nah, I also just got here," Zoey replied with a smile of her own.
The young couple began to walk down the sidewalk away from school, with Zoey holding Eddy's left hand with her right hand.
"You know your birthday is on the 6th, right?" Eddy started to say to Zoey, "Do you wanna do anything to celebrate?"
Zoey thought about it for a short moment before replying, "… Not really."
"Huh? Really?" Eddy questioned in surprise, "Why not?"
"I… I'm not really feeling up to do anything this time, sorry," Zoey replied with a small shrug of her shoulders.
"Not even with the others?"
"… No."
"Okay…" Eddy muttered a little. He could tell that she was acting a bit distant all week, something was troubling her, "W-Well, why don't you come over to my house that day? Maybe we can watch a movie or find something else to do."
Zoey glanced at him before making a small smile, "I'll think about it."
The two continued to walk back toward their neighborhood without much trouble, coming across the entrance to Zoey's neighborhood first.
"I think I'll go home for today," Zoey started to say to Eddy before noticing the worried look on his face.
"Are you sure?" Eddy asked as he turned to her, "If you need to talk, I can…"
He was interrupted by a kiss from Zoey on his lips before separating from him, "It's alright, Eddy. I'll… try to message you about it later, okay?"
She then started to walk back to her house, leaving Eddy standing there for a moment, looking back at her.
'The way she's been acting all week is really making me worry…' Eddy thought as he started to walk to his house, 'She said she would message me, but would she even tell me what's bothering her then?'
He made a small sigh to himself, 'Whatever it is, I hope it's nothing too serious. Time has been too harsh to her already.'
About a month and a half ago, Zoey's mother was killed in a car accident; a drunk driver ran into her on her way back home. Zoey and her father were beyond devastated when they heard the breaking news, Eddy had not seen Zoey upset like this in a long time, and it broke his heart.
Eddy continued to walk back to his house, taking out his cell phone from his jacket pocket. He opened it to see that a notification window had popped up; it was some breaking news from his local news app that was reported on about an hour ago. Apparently, there was a convicted criminal who escaped from prison a few towns away earlier this morning. He narrowed his eyes before swiping the news away, "Geez, what's the world coming to?" He grumbled, not having any interest in reading that kind of news right now.
Eddy then clicked the Discord app on his phone to check if he had any messages from his friends. He could only see one ping; it was a message from Ed, but it was just a picture of a random dog with meme text on it. Not important.
He started to click over to Zoey's DMs to message her before realizing he was already back home at his front door. Eddy walked inside his house after unlocking it, "Another night alone, huh."
Eddy's parents had left town two days ago to visit an ailing friend who was farther away from here, leaving him in charge of the house for a few days. Not like there was anyone else here besides himself to take care of.
After taking off his shoes, scarf, and winter jacket, Eddy sat down on his couch to go to Zoey's DMs again, 'Zoey, can you please tell me what's wrong? I'm worried about you,' He typed to her before sending the message.
He sighed as he placed his phone down on the side table next to the couch, "Geez, when did I get so tired?" Eddy yawned a little to himself, "I know it's the start of the weekend, but still…"
Eddy flopped his back on the couch, looking up at the ceiling. He could feel himself starting to doze off before falling asleep, taking a nap to rest his eyes.
Author's Note (October 27th, 2023): Oh hey! A new story a few minutes after posting the last chapter for the third story for this series? It's more likely than you think!