He would much rather hide in the silence than have judging eyes hunt him down.

Clay winced, grasping his leg as he erupted off the mattress. At first, all he saw was white, his eyes struggling to adjust to the indoor lights. Was this a sick joke? For him to have died in high school before experiencing genuine enjoyment would have been terrible.

"Where am I? WHERE AM I??" He repeated in a panic, haunted by the pain he felt in the nightmare. Small arms constricted around his shoulders, forcing him to calm down.

"You are okay." 

Grace's voice immediately brought a feeling of safety to Clay's ears. It allowed him to cease his struggling and take in his surroundings. Even though he continued pounding like a serial killer trying to break down a door.

"You are in the nurse's office." She responded uneasily. He reassured his best friend that it was okay to let him go; giving a subtle nod.

A breath of relief came from him. There was no longer a lingering scent of blood or moss. Instinctively touching his face, there was an absence of dirt as well. 

None of what occurred was real. 

Or was that what he wanted to tell himself?

Sweat continued to rain down his face and back, sticking his shirt to it like wet tissue. His dream had done a spectacular job at leaving him mortified.

He took notice of the pale orange sheets draped under him to cover the bed. It was sitting at the centre of the cramped room with two others right next to it. From how it looked, it would not surprise him if the nurse walked in with a stray-jacket and said 'put it on'. 

All the walls along with the roof were white, matching the tiles and not a sharp object or mess in sight. The bed to his right was empty with ruffled sheets and a misplaced pillow. On the other sat Grace and her cousin. 

"What am I doing here? I thought I fell asleep in class." There was a shimmer of hope remaining for Grace to confirm his beliefs so he could move on with his day. That was all he required to push all the unnerving feelings to the back of his mind forever.

Grace clung to her elbows, arms folded. She had something on her face that Clay couldn't quite make out. It was as if she was attempting to solve a mystery without looking at the clues. Something that did the opposite of help ease his worries. At this point, anything he heard would be better than what was already haunting him.

"You had a seizure in class."

Anything but that. 

She said it calmly, switching beds so that she sat a few inches away from him. The bed sinking more because of their combined weights.  

When she saw he wasn't saying anything, she continued. "It was scary to see you like that. You just fell to the ground convulsing and shaking, I was not sure what to do."

"Where's the nurse?" he questioned. 

Also, how did he get here? 

He doubted Grace could carry him down the hall with her twig arms. Not to mention Michael would never bring himself to talk to, much less help him, so that was out the window too.

"She stepped out. She said if you had another one, don't touch you and to go get her."

"And why is he here?" he motioned to Michael sitting opposite them He just sat there trying his best not to make eye contact, huffing now and then. 

For some reason, Clay always got on the other boy's nerves no matter what he said. He tried many times to talk to him even before the entire school started ignoring him but it always ended in Michael walking away from him with a frown. 

The boy didn't want to be here, no one blames him for that either. Grace definitely forced him to keep her company.

"Michael helped me carry you here. Well technically, he carried you here on his own."

 What?

"Believe it or not, he was helpful in getting you here unharmed, mostly. He even stayed when I told him he could leave."

The words completely flew over Clay's head. It was near impossible to believe Michael of all people would care whether or not he was okay. He would much quicker believe the earth was flat. Grace had to have been stretching the truth in order to make him feel better. No, he would know if she was lying. Not to mention, the other boy wasn't denying it. 

"But you look fine, so job done," he growled, ready to get up and leave. "We should get back to class Grace." 

"Every one of them in there are idiots. They thought you were faking it for attention. I swear Brett is such an airhead," Grace clenched her fists in frustration, ignoring her cousin's words. 

Clay was too busy focused on whether someone could have such a vivid daydream during a seizure. 

His head still had a throbbing sensation, but it wasn't his headache returning. Thankfully, it instead stung as if something large had slammed into the back of his skull. 

Thinking back to before the dream, he remembered the pain that occurred in his head and neck then the lack of control in his hands and room spinning. Was that a part of his seizure?

In a moment of weakness his body lunged forward, reaching for the small bucket by his feet. It didn't take long for the sound of his puking to fill the room and leave him disgusted. A metallic taste lingered around for a few seconds before he noticed the black liquid he had expelled from his body. 

"What is that?" Grace's nose wrinkled in disgust. 

"Nothing, I'm fine." He set the bucket back down, unwilling to delve deeper into any of this. 

"You keep saying your fine but look at you. Clay, you are not fine, you need to go see a doctor." 

"You sure you mean doctor and not psychologist like everyone else?"

"Well, look at who we're talking about here." Michael sounded "It's not out of the box to think you need some extra help to sort through your shit."

He expected nothing less from someone like Michael. It was preferred when the other boy said nothing. Instead he used the opportunity to spit those words directly in his face. 

"Michael stop," Grace warned annoyance ringing in her tone.

"Have you forgotten who his mother is? What she's done to this town? They think he's crazy because maybe it runs in the family."

"You and your brother had a big role to play in her case didn't you?" He glared at Clay intensely. "Then again, maybe crazy runs in the family. I'm just saying."

"I SAID STOP!"

"no- it's fine," Clay bit the inside of his cheeks to avoid yelling.

"You can say what you want about me and my family sure. You can say that I do everything for attention. You can even say that I faked a seizure if you want. It took me a while, but I think I know how this school operates. All of you only care about yourself and feel the need to find other weaker students to insult, tease and humiliate to distract from your own problems. So if you need to use me and my family to distract yourself from your slipping grades, failures on the basketball team and overall crappy personality, then go right ahead. Glad my situation is so amusing to you."

Something had clicked on during his argument with Grace this morning. In some aspects, she was right. He had no reason to care about what any of them thought about him because no matter how much hetried,d that's not going to change. 

He wondered whether the pain he experienced in his dream was worse than the pain in his chest now. There was little hope for him here, and all the signs pointed to that scary thought. Jonah knew it, Michael knew it, he knew it. Clay just wanted this feeling to go away, but there was only one solution for that. '

He needed another one. Just this once to make it all go away. One pill was all it would take for everything to calm down.

"I'm just gonna go." The statement forced its way through the awkward silence. 

Before Grace could reach out and stop him, however, he was already out the door and into the halls. Having all the whispers and tiny noises escape the holes in the walls made him wish he could go back to the silence. Everyone just stared at his frantic movements. Whether they were near the lockers, or in their classes, they all had a proud smile on their faces. He was giving them the show they were craving for.

The proof that he was crazy. Word of his seizure likely spread like a forest fire. It gave them the validation for isolating him. It was no longer because they didn't like him. Now, they could say it was because they were scared that the crazy boy might hurt them. He had no intention of being here for any of it, though; the comments, the insults, the laughter.

Clay didn't bother retrieving his belongings. That was a problem for another day. 

The feeling of being judged was soon killed and buried when a much worse sensation started to creep up from behind. One of dread that continued to loom over even after the dream ended, walking with him through the halls and choking him once he walked through the doors.

He just wanted to make sure that there was no possibility that it could be real. Jonah was supposed to be at work. The forest wasn't too far from here. It would not hurt to check with his new found extra time. If it would eradicate what he was feeling, he would do anything. 

It didn't help when his eyes landed on a dead crow spread across the stairs with its entrails leaking out. Its flesh moving from the ants and flies that made their way into the corpse for lunch, a mix of blood and maggots everywhere.

...

"What is wrong with you?" Grace fumed. 

"What do you mean?" Michael played dumb, raising his eyebrow at her question. 

"You know what I mean. Is that why you stayed when I told you to leave? To verbally abuse him and act like Brett and all the others? Why did you even help me carry him here if you would say ALL THAT?!!" 

Grace clutched her head, frustrated. This was supposed to go differently, but Michael ruined everything. She grabbed hold of a nearby pillow, hurling it at the boy who immediately dodged it. 

"I carried him here because if I didn't you would try to do it yourself. I stayed here because I knew you would do this again." 

"Do what exactly? Try to help my friend?"

"The same friend you had a huge argument with this morning because he didn't want your help? And here he is again, refusing your help. You try to help him over and over and I like that about you but you cannot keep trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved. Just give up already."

"So you take my parents' side."

"Yes, I am taking your side over his because your my cousin."

"Family sticks together right Michael? That's why you ran away from your mother and sister years ago to come here? Save me the sentiments, I don't care what you and my parents say, I will not abandon him because of something he couldn't control like everyone else." 

Grace got up and started heading for the door. Michael didn't stop her, nor did he turn around when he continued to speak. 

"He couldn't control it, but he helped cover it up. That sounds like just as bad to me. Not to mention he's letting you destroy your social life by having you baby him all the time. Peace of advice Grace, he's sixteen, he can survive on his own."

She stopped for a second wondering if there was anything left to say at this point but decided against it, closing the door behind her.

Clay finally had enough with these narcissistic homeschoolers. They are all horrible, to be honest. Why would you assume someone faked a seizure? If I was in his shoes I would most likely leave as well. Where do you think he will go from here? To the forest or home to grab his pills? The dead crow was definitely not a good sign.

How is everyone doing today? I hope we are all occupying ourselves with all this free time.

Don't forget to leave a vote and comment. Next chapter up on Wednesday!