Warnings: Blood and violence. If you aren't comfortable with that, I'll private-message you the chapter summary. :D

Nothing was clear anymore.

All of Callum's thoughts were jumbled up as if someone had tied thousands and thousands of knots. His vision was like a kaleidoscope- blurry and he could only see dots here and there. But his mind was nothing but a blank, a clean slate. It was kind of like he was stuck in this huge, pit of cotton-- no, his brain was cotton.

The feeling of being under the serum would have been described as numb. 

"This isn't so bad," Callum would have said if he was able to think straight. Maybe this was the definition of, "the feeling is neutral." Because all his thoughts were now cotton and dunked into molasses. It was a sticky, odd, humid feeling. That would have been the only way to describe it because otherwise, it wouldn't have made any sense.

But then it happened.

A burning, twisting feeling like someone was spraying acid into his brain erupted, and he screamed-- or tried to. His voice wasn't working, as if someone had purposely put a muzzle of some sort over his mouth.

He was scared.

See, he knew that some people feared not being in control. For instance, being dunked into a box full of sharks and the person who's controlling the sharks is someone you don't know at all. Now multiply that panic by a thousand, and you still wouldn't be close to the panic Callum felt.

There were voices.

Voices in his head.

All speaking to him.

Ruining him.

Taunting him.

It was as if there was a loud row of cars and fireworks, bombs, breaking glass, polyester rubbing together, nails on a chalkboard - all the worst sounds were put together and it wouldn't stop. 

I can help you.

It's alright.

Just relax.

Simply concede.

Give up.

Callum nearly did. There was no point in continuing, after all, all he would do was... hurt the people he loved.

You're useless.

Why are you still here?

A mistake.

Stop.

A killer.

No one needs you.

A murderer.

Stop.

A monster.

Then it clicked.

He didn't know what it was, because then there was... silence.

Silence?

Silence was an odd thing. You never know if the silence is just the world holding its breath to release something worse, or it was finally stopping.

In this case, where Callum was standing, this wasn't right.

It was wrong.

Very wrong.

Within seconds, the feeling of acid in his brain intensified and went all the way through his head down to his toes. You could try pinching your lip as hard as you can for one minute, and after multiplying that by a million you could understand the pain he was in.

But that was also an understatement.

Because within seconds, every single memory that he every had rushed through him, haunting him and making his hair stand on end. Then one thought came: blood.

He thirsted for blood.

He just wanted others to feel the pain he was in.

He wanted them to understand because no one could understand unless he was the one who conflicted it.

No one understood him. Anyone could have said, "I get it" but they didn't. They didn't understand the days he spent crying into his pillow when his mother left. They didn't understand how hard it was to lose three parents who looked after him. They didn't understand how much he missed everyone who was there for him before.

So to him, all the numbers added up. Yes. This was normal. It was alright for him to act this way.

Callum instantly felt an adrenaline rush and snarled, not caring who he was hurting.

He could hurt anyone he wanted.

He was free.

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2 n d  P O V

Within the next few seconds, Rayla found herself strangling with a version of Callum who... just wasn't him. His eyes were wild and filled with pure hatred and his motives even more so-- his hair was disheveled, and his veins seemed to be popping from his forehead.

"Callum!" Rayla shouted, fumbling, and attempting to get up. Her hands skid against the wall behind her of rotting would. Splinters went up to her palms as she winced. "I-it's me!" Callum ignored her pleas for help and snarled, thrust her shoulder against the wall, pinning her until she cried out in pain. 

Look at her. Callum teased. How weak.

"Rayla!" Soren called, who was now also just as busy trying to aid Claudia who looked like a mess, almost as bad as Callum. The dark magic from before began to spread and her pupils seemed to have dissipated and faded away, leaving no trace of any iris. Her eyes were pure black and purple blood began to fall from her wounds. 

Soren's heart broke into pieces when he saw Claudia's hands shaking in his. "Soren, what's- what's wrong with me?" 

Tiadrin and Lain placed a hand on her shoulder. Tiadrin sighed lovingly and said as fast as possible, "If you learn how to control the dark magic that runs through your veins, everything will stop, I promise you. But the only way to do that is to kill the source, the thing that made you start doing dark magic. If you don't get rid of this, you'll become just as a strong weapon as Lord Viren and Callum put together. So please," 

Tiadrin made sure to shield Claudia in case someone else got hurt, while Janai and Amaya sprinted over to help Rayla who was crying out in pain.

Tiadrin continued, saying, "Do you know the thing that caused you to start doing dark magic?"

Claudia pursed her lips, her eyes lined with red through the darkness spreading. "I..."

"Take your time," Soren attempted. He heard a screech from Rayla behind him and shook his head vigorously. "Could you actually go a bit faster-"

"Dad," Claudia said, dumbfounded. "I- It... it was dad. Lord Viren."

"Wait, so that means-" Soren hesitated.

"I'm going to have to kill him."