14.

A few hours later and we we're up in our classrooms deep in school work. We were in the middle of lecture jotting notes down while the professor spoke, and for a moment everything was normal. There were no strange birds standing outside my window, there were no students glaring at me like I was some kind of mistake of a human being. But more importantly, there was no Haru breathing down my neck and throwing false accusations to pin on me. In fact, he wasn't even in class at the time. His desk was empty. If I had to guess, maybe he was on hall monitor duty or something. But I didn't know and I didn't care. All I cared about was my moment of peace and quiet. But even that did not last long.

A minute later and I was starting to hear whispers emanating from the back of my head. I briefly set my pen down and reached into my backpack and grab my medication alongside a bottle of water. I popped a few of the pills in my mouth, took a sip of the water, then stuff my supplies back into my bag before lifting up my pen to resume writing. And for a moment, everything was quiet. But then, barely a minute later, I heard it again.

The whispers.

I was confused. I turned around just to see if there was actually someone whispering behind me. There wasn't. I was seated at the extreme end of the class and there was no one else seated after me. I turned back around to continue writing, suspecting the reason I was still having the whispers was probably because the medication hadn't fully kicked in yet. But the more I tried convincing myself of the case, the louder the whispers became.

Eventually, the whispers got so loud and aggressive that I was unable to make out what the professor was saying anymore. I kept glancing over my shoulder desperately hoping that it was just the other students pulling a prank on me, but there was no one behind me and everybody else was focused on their school work. I contemplated on taking another dose of my medication only minutes after taking the prescribed dosage for the afternoon, But I wasn't sure whether it was safe or whether or not it was even going to help. But the more I contemplated on what to do, the louder the whispers got and the more irritable I became.

"Hiroshi." The professor suddenly called out to me and the whispers briefly subsided. At this point, I already had my head lowered with my hands gripping the sides of my head and I wasn't writing. "Is something the matter?" he asked. "Why aren't you writing?" I lifted my head, stood up, and thought of a random answer in the heat of the moment. "I'm a bit lost sir. “I replied. "Sorry." The professor stared at me for a moment, with a slight scowl on his face. Then, with eyes that was scrutinizing my very existence, he said. "Are you sure you are all right?" He gestured with the marker he was holding towards me. "Your hands." he said. "They are shaking."

I looked down in horror and found that my hands were indeed starting to shake. What was happening to me? The whispers were starting to get louder again and it felt like the insides of my body was starting to heat up. I needed to get some air. "Actually sir, I think I may be coming down with a fever. “I said. "May I please be excused to go visit the school nurse?" All eyes were on me as every student stopped what they were doing to witness my panicked state. As they gazed at me with a mixture of abject terror, disdain, and curiosity, I could only guess what was going on in their collective minds. "All right." the professor finally said. "You may go."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I did not waste another second.

I grabbed my books, stuff them into my backpack, then grabbed the backpack and swung it over my right shoulder. I marched out of the classroom an instant later. Once outside, I headed in the direction of the bathroom, not the school nurse. For some reason, I didn't think she was well equipped to handle whatever I might have been going through that morning. To be fair, neither was I but, I needed to try something. When I finally got to the bathroom, I dropped my backpack by the side of the entrance then hastily moved in to rinse my face with water. The water on my face was cold. Refreshing. And after splashing my face three times with it, I stopped and stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror.

For a moment, everything was normal. The whispers had subsided, and my internal temperature was starting to cool down. The inside of the bathroom was a bit dark as in my haste, I did not bother to switch on the lights. But as I continued staring at my reflection in the mirror, something happened. One moment my reflection in the mirror mimicked my movements and possess similar physical features as I did. The next, my reflection was standing completely still, not blinking, and slowly began developing physical characteristics that were drastically different from mine. Long white hair, deep black eyes, razor sharp teeth, and tiny white horns protruding from the top part of its forehead. In an instant, I was no longer staring at a direct copy of my silhouette in the bathroom mirror. I was now looking at the monster that had haunted my dreams ever since I was a kid. The Black Spirit. The Ghost of vengeance. In all its horror.

Seeing this, I slowly began moving away from the mirror in fear. Was I hallucinating? Was I dreaming? The whispers were starting to creep up the back of my head and my hands were once again shaking uncontrollably. I couldn't believe what was happening. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"Doko. Da."

The words came from my reflection in the mirror. Its voice was inhuman. Demonic. And caused every fiber of my being to shutter in response. Just like the nightmare I had the previous night in Teenyma's apartment, the thing was repeating the same set of phrases over and over again. Phrases I could somehow understand but not interpret at the same time.

"Ore. No. Ken."

It continued speaking, and slowly the bathroom inside of the reflection caught on fire and began burning. I had to be hallucinating. Or dreaming. Or something. I was now huddled up in a corner, desperately trying to block out the whispers with my hands over my ears. But it wasn't working. Nothing I did was working. The whispers were only getting louder, the insides of my body were quickly heating up again, and the face of the Black Spirit now took up the entire width of the bathroom mirror. I had to be hallucinating. It had to be a dream.

"Please stop." I said to no one in particular. "Please. Just stop." The voices in my head only intensified their haunting and incoherent chanting, and the center of my skull felt like it was about to split in two. I rushed out of the bathroom a second later without even thinking, remembering to grab my backpack as soon as I got out. I bumped into someone while hastily moving through the hallway, it might have been Haru, it might have been someone else who possessed a large frame. But I didn't stop to check, I just apologize and kept on moving. When I finally burst out the east side door of the school's main building, I rounded the corner and immediately things got a whole lot worse.

A sharp pain shot through my skull, causing me to stop dead in my tracks, drop to my knees, and scream out in pain while clutching the sides of my head. The chanting got louder as the pain only intensified. My heart was hammering away in my chest, beating faster and louder than it had ever had before. The voice is in my head steadily grew to and overwhelming crescendo, filling my thoughts with ideas of hate, violence, and murder. I had the sudden urge to burn the world to the ground, but in order for me to do that I needed something of mine that was missing. I needed my sword.

So, fighting through the pain and trying my best to stay upright, I began walking towards the front gates of the school in order to exit campus. I don't know why but I suddenly had the urge to get as far away from people as possible. I also needed to find my sword.