The memories of a time where he had been younger and gotten more shattered filled the boy's head. He covered his ears to block out the voices and he yelped out, shivering as they came.

"Wanna go to the disco with me, Bruce?" A girl had asked him back in Year Five.

He had shrugged back then. "Sure, I got nobody else to go with anyway."

The days had passed him by back then. He and his dad argued constantly and it never seemed to stop. Eventually, his mum had enough.

"I'm just going out for a wine with a colleague," she had said.

But then she never came back and eventually his Dad argued with him again.

It began with someone phoning them up and saying, "Nadia Eastwood was pronounced dead as of last night."

"This can't be true!" His father had roared out of the blue. "You heard her! She had a WINE with a colleague! They must be lying!"

"After she told you that pretty little story, she took a dive into a road off the top of a tower."

"How the FUCK do you know that shit!" His dad hollered at the phone, placing it back down.

He had turned to Bruce and screamed in his face. "This is ALL your fault, you little fucking brat!" He shouted.

His dad punched him in the gut. And then at school, he was shouted at again by the only girl that he thought trusted him.

"You... I hate you!" She snapped at him. "You promised you'd come with me and you stood me up! I know your type! You were hanging around another girl, weren't ya?"

He gritted his teeth at the girl. "You don't fucking know me, Isla!" He yelled at her.

"I know your type, Bruce!" She shouted back at him.

"You're not listening to me!" He screamed. "I had a death in my family! I lost my mum, my dad fucking hates me and now I've lost YOU!"

"Well, maybe it's because you're a mean criminal!"

"Isla, listen—"

"YOU STOOD ME UP! I'm not listening your excuses!" She shouted at him.

"Isla—"

"You think I would listen to you after WHAT YOU DID?!" She sneered.

...

All he could do after remembering those sad times was whine out in sadness. All he could possibly do was yelp out in pain as the stings of the past welled up within him. He knew it himself. He knew that he wasn't worth anyone seeing him or knowing him

The voices still taunted him as Cornelia's words of apology fell on deaf ears. He couldn't listen without thinking that nothing he did was worth it. Nobody seemed to care about him anyway.

His worries begun to fade as he watched the world around him pass him by. He felt someone touching his shoulder as time began to gradually flow on from its original point, but he barely flicked his head in the direction of the sensation. He looked down at his knees. He was lost in his own thoughts.

He watched the world around him leave his very sight as he glanced around the room to make sure nobody was there. When he felt content, he shut his eyes and imagined the ghosts from his past shouting at him, telling him that it would be best if he left the world he was living in.

For some strange reason, the boy enjoyed simply filling himself with torment so intense that it left him shaking. He felt awkward and alone as he let the world he was really in escape from him. This was his true form of escapism, where he let everyone that once cared about him distance themselves. He liked and craved the feeling of being alone when he was in this closed of mindset.

He covered so that he didn't have to think about any sounds that would surely surround him, and he knew that anyone that once cared would leave him anyway. He was questioning himself about the purpose of his existence. Whether friends or family, all they had ever wanted was for him to be gone.

That was how it had always in his mind.

"Let her go..."

"What'd the point of loving her if all she is going to do is leave?"

"Leave your problems to yourself! Nobody cares about your problems! They're futile!"

"Weeeaaaak..."

"LEAVE THEM! You're only causing them pain!"

"All you are is just a worthless buuurdeeen..."

"Burden! Burden! Burden!"

"You're better off deeeead..."

"Die!"

"Worthless freeeaaaak..."

"All you want to be is an echo of your faaaatherrrr...."

He yelped in torment as he saw the images of those who had loved him before facing their backs to him, discarding him like he was garbage. He had been walked all over and treated like the most bruised banana in a fridge, only there to be thrown out later on.

He was shaking and crying as he watched everything he loved and wished for leave his sight. He opened his eyes, only to feel them overflowing with fresh tears that he had never thought were there. They fell on the cover of the now closed book of legends and stories.

He got up from the seat below him and sighed, trying to let go of the pain and put the book back on the shelf. He smiled psychotically in order to cope with the pain that was being caused by him listening to the voices in his head. Everyone wanted to leave him as far as he was aware, and he felt so very annoyed because of it.

Yet, his warped personality began to shine through due to the awkward circumstances that he was in due to his newly reborn torment. He began to feel proud that people had realised how weak and worthless he was. All he felt he deserved was pain and suffering.

What he wasn't aware of was that Cornelia was following him along the library, attempting to apologise to him.

"Are you alright?" The mahogany haired female asked him softly, smiling at him calmly. "I'm sorry if I came at the wrong time. All I wanted to do was to say sorry..."

But instead of her apology, all he heard were the voices. They were mocking him and scolding him for his wrongdoings, all of his mistakes.

"STOP! LEAVE ME ALONE!!" The boy screamed out in torment.

Cornelia held him back before he could do anything dangerous. "Bruce, please. I'm sorry..."

"YOU'LL LEAVE LIKE THEY ALL DID!" He yelped out at her without realising the impact of his words. "You'll go... like Isla... Like Dad... LIKE MUM!"

"Bruce, I know there's stuff going on, but I'll be there for you!" Cornelia told the boy, attempting to hold him back. She grabbed his arm before he could do anything destructive. "Please, Bruce. I get if you hate me. But try to trust me."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" The boy roared loudly at the girl. "I love you..."

And thus begun Bruce's descent into madness...