Dark Spirit | muke au

16.

It's been two weeks and Michael has not left his room in over a week other than to use the restroom and take a shower. Sometimes late at night he'll sneak out to get something to eat, but he's afraid he'll bump into Ashton so he stays in his room. Ashton still isn't the same Ashton Michael has known him to be. Ashton is mean and dark and scary and Michael doesn't like to be around him.

Ashton likes to push at Michael's buttons until Michael is a crying mess on his floor, tangled in his sheets as sobs rack through his body. He stopped going to Uni, he even stopped going to work and if he didn't go in soon, if he wasn't fired, he was going to lose his flat.

Things were falling apart and Michael didn't know what to do. He isn't even sure if things have started to mess with him again, or if it's just his mind making things appear that aren't really there.

Michael swears he saw Luke come in a few times, but he isn't sure if it was the real Luke or the Luke his mind conjured up. He isn't even sure if the food Luke brings in is real so he doesn't touch it. And no matter how loud his stomach growls Michael will not touch something that isn't there. Even with the smell drafting through his nose, making his mouth water. He will not let his mind win.

It's day twenty-one, Michael is in the fetus position on his floor. He ripped the sheets off his bed to use because he was hot but he needed something covering him.

His light is on and his throat feels scratchy but he's humming lowly, the only sound in his room. His phone is somewhere around, he can't remember where he put it but it's somewhere.

Things weren't right in his mind anymore. He has a little sanity left, something keeping ahold of that part and he doesn't know what but he's so thankful it has held on this long.

His mind won't stop showing images of everything that has happened in the past three weeks. Everything from the fortune teller to now, and somewhere along he lost his mind but he isn't sure where. Sometime in the past three weeks he lost, and honestly he doesn't know what caused him to lose it.

Was it the paranormal activities happening? Luke? Or was it his best friend turning against him? It could even be everybody making him out to be crazy. He met Calum, and now they say Calum never existed. Same with the flickering lights. All of it happened, but only to Michael. Maybe it was all, but why.

Why did his mind give in so easy?

--

Luke is standing at the bottom of the stairs, listening for sounds coming from Michael's room but he can't hear anything and Ashton is just staring at him.

"What're you doing?" Ashton's voice floats in the air and echoes off the walls.

And Luke only shakes his head, casting another glance to Michael's room before he plops down on the couch next to Ashton.

"He still won't come out?" Luke asks.

Ashton snorts, shaking his head quickly. "Nope, still hiding away. I haven't seen him in days." He laughs, and then says under his breath, "fucking pussy."

AndLuke just sits there. He doesn't utter a sound or cringe when Ashton talks badly of his best friend. And if Luke didn't need this for his plan to be completed, he would have felt bad.

Luke smiles in satisfaction, relaxing back in the couch as he releases a deep sigh.

"Things are going good." Luke says aloud. "Real good. We're almost there."

"Take the faggot some food, will you?" Ashton says, sitting up to grab his phone off the table. He doesn't hear Luke speaking simply because he doesn't care. "He'll starve if he doesn't eat and I don't want to be charged with anything."

And so, Luke carries a plate of left over dinner to Michael's room, replacing it with the previous dinner. He glances at Michael for a long minute, letting his ears soak in the words Michael is muttering, and then lets a wide grin stretch across his face as he closes the door behind him.