The Path To Perfection

Chapter 5: Crazy

*One Year Later*

Al'ravee followed Ris's advice and started meditation. He did his research and found out that what Ris had said about his father was true, he was starting to wonder what else he didn't know about his parents.

He followed some online meditation sessions every night before going to bed and it did help. Until now.

Al'ravee was currently sitting on the bed against the wall in his room. In his hands was a large math textbook, and beside him was a notebook and scrunched-up pieces of paper. Barking sounds could be heard in the background from the neighborhood.

"Why does he have to make it so difficult to understand? Why must we show our workings, huh? How did those guys do it anyway? If only I could copy how they did theirs" Al'ravee had at some point developed a habit of talking to himself whenever he was alone.

*BARK BARK*

The sound of the dogs barking traveled into the room from the neighbor's house. At this point, Al'ravee's face showed extreme irritation. Because of his daily meditation session, he had learned to have a calm demeanor most of the time, so his current expression was quite rare.

He simply ignored the barking in the background and focused on the equations in front of him. Grabbing a pen and the notebook, he continued his homework.

*BARK BARK*

...

*SNAP*

The pen in Al'ravee's hand snapped into two. His eyes narrowed into fine slits, just enough for anyone to notice the red veins in them.

"Hmmm," Al'ravee took a deep breath to calm down. "What are those dogs barking at?".

He sat cross-legged and put his hands on his knees, straightening his back, he steadied his breathing muttering to himself "All will fade away, all will fade away, all will fade away". picturing an abstract but intricate form in his mind.

This was a method performed by those who had anger issues, it could also be used to calm oneself. Not that he had anger issues, he just happened to learn all the methods on the online site.

Too bad, lately, all the methods have slowly started losing effect.

...

...

…

Silence

Just when Al'ravee was relaxing.....

...

*BARK BARK BARK BARK*

...

This time, the intensity of the barking increased with the seconds passing by.

Al'ravee's eyes snapped open, filled with blood-red veins. He slowly stood up from the bed and walked towards the door, intending to go anywhere that was away from there.

However, before his hand touched the door knob...

*BARK BARK BARK...*

He looked towards one of the two windows in his room and with a deafening howl, he rushed towards it and...

jumped.

*THUD*

A low thump sound was heard outside as he fell to the ground.

Jurdelious and Krene who were downstairs had already heard the strange cry. Krenes's face was very unsightly while Jurdelious was looking at Krene with caution.

"His behavior seems to be on the wild side. This is not the first time that dogs bark in the area, it's like he had just reached his first tipping point". Jurdelious said calmly.

Krene stood up and walked towards Al'ravee from inside the house walking right through the walls in a flash of gold-colored light.

When she was outside she called out in a domineering tone that would make any ordinary person drop to the ground. " Al'ravee!" Her voice seemed to carry forth a golden pressure wave that brushed upon Al'ravee who was lying down on the floor.

Al'ravee didn't respond to her, instead, he stood up quickly with a bloody nose. Technically, he should remain down from all the pain he was supposed to be feeling.

Jurdelious appeared beside Krene. "It's useless, we need to knock him out."

"No, it might get worse. Should we just kill the dogs?"

Jurdelious shook his head, he too had already thought of killing the dogs but he knew more than anyone else that it was pointless, hell just direct the agitation somewhere else. "Let's just watch, he'll exhaust himself eventually. We can always intervene if needed."

*BARK BARK BARK.....*

Al'ravee looked towards the fence of the neighbor's house with a blank look on his face. He walked slowly towards the thick wooden fence, it was too high to jump over so he did the next senseless thing he could do.

*BAM BAM...BAM BAM BAM BAM..*

He started punching the walls with all his might. Although he had never undergone any form of physical training, the walls were already showing small cracks.

Truly, pain plays a huge role in the limits of the physical body.

With every hit, blood was left behind on the wall. Al'ravee's knuckles were bleeding and becoming gory as time went on.

A few minutes later, it was just his bones that were hitting the wall. A small gap had already been made. Maybe in this form of irrationality, he instinctively knew that to get to the barking, he had to work harder.

So with shocking force, he slammed his foot on the wall repeatedly. This time, it seemed to be more effective.

On the other side of the tall fence was the backyard of a yellow-painted duplex.

Two large dogs could be seen barking fervently at a small rodent on the window sill.

Both dogs were black with a brown underbelly which matched the color of their mouth. The only difference between them was that one was slightly chubby with floppy ears, while the other had pointy ears but a slimmer body.

*THUMP THUMP THUMP*

They turned their heads toward the thumping sound. The wooden fence was breaking apart because of a force from the other side until finally, it gave way as pieces of wood and splinters flew out.

Staggering through the now large hole was Al'ravee with a twisted ankle.

*AAAAAAARGH!!!*

As soon as he set his eyes on the dogs, he let out a heart-shaking cry. The dogs also looked at him, baring their sharp teeth in a threatening manner towards the sudden invader.

...

There was heavy tension in the air. The back door of the yellow-painted house swung open as the young couple living in this house walked out, a flustered expression on their face. " Hey, What's going on here!". said the young man among the two.

Al'ravee did not even glance at them, he was completely focused on the dogs before him.

The two dogs also felt an instinctive sense of danger when they looked at this boy.

Al'ravee could be considered to have gone completely crazy.

Jurdelious and Krene quietly watched what was happening from behind.

At this moment, the two young adults had complex feelings about Al'ravee. Anger, caution, confusion, and fear.

The next scene that played out could simply be described with one word; Bloody.