Shane went to his room and had a shower.

He let the cool water saturate his hair and spill down his back in an icy cascade. It burned his wounds, and dried blood washed away, tingeing the crystal clear water scarlet.

Eventually, Shane got out of the shower and got changed. The small scars on his body were still hurting, stinging incessantly.

Going to the common room, he decided to maintain a tight pressure on his biggest scrape, a cut on his arm. That would stop the bleeding if it started up again.

Fernando, Camila and Ava all came along. They didn't talk, just stayed in silence. No-one seemed ready to make any sound, to create a single noise. Nobody wanted to shatter the silence, the silence that was so fragile and transient and terrifyingly ethereal.

The friends didn't want to speak to each other, they all just wanted to be together. For strength, for comfort, for security.

After a while, Shane grew tired of keeping pressure. His wound still hadn't bled, so he let go of his wound.

Except... it wasn't there.

The cut was just... gone. In its place was normal, healed skin.

Not even the purplish-black hint of a bruise, or a sore red scar.

Shane blinked.

He must have lost a lot of blood. The nausea had gone to his head and made him see more injuries than he really had, to worsen his desperation. 

Luckily, these imaginary injuries seemed to be vanishing.

In the form of a fuzzy lightheadedness, his shock from the conflict had infected his brain and made him imagine things that weren't there.

Shaking his head firmly, Shane clambered to his feet. He was drowsy, the lure of sleep was pulling him out of consciousness and reason. He had to stay awake, to stop the hallucinations.

Shane clamped his hand over his second largest wound, a deep scrape on his other arm. After half a minute, he grew impatient. 

His fingers were sore from applying so much pressure and holding so tightly. 

Shane lifted his hand.

And then something so strange happened, something so impossible, that he was sent stumbling backwards until he collapsed into his chair.

What did this mean?

Was he going crazy?

If you've enjoyed reading this story, don't forget to vote, comment and add it to your reading lists. I will be adding a new chapter every day. If you have any tips for how I can improve my writing, or what I did well this time, please feel free to tell me (in a nice manner). Thanks so much for reading my story!