"STOP. PLEASE."

"I.. just can't take it anymore."

He looked around.

Everyone fucking hates you.

Your annoying personality ticks off everyone.

The whispering voices were back.

Nobody ever thought you were funny.

"Please.." He winced.

They're being friends just to be nice with you.

Darkness surrounded the area, the pitch black adding to Grian's anxiety. Purple wisps and shadows obscuring his vision, all whispering intrusive thoughts. He crashed his knees against the ground, which almost seemed like it was pulling him down. He covered his ears in an attempt to stop the voices, but they just were louder.

Nobody ever cared. Not Mumbo, Impulse, Scar or Pearl.

A shook Grian woke up. He panted, a cold sweat dripping down from the side of his chin. He glanced around the room, nothing had changed. He sighed as he grabbed his communicator and typed frantically in the Boatem groupchat, also called "WHO EVEN LIKES THE BIG EYES?", thanks to Scar.

Grian: anyone down to hang out? ik its like 2 am but like i wanna hang out :D

He set down his communicator, and sighed. He had been dealing for them for so long, but he still couldn't get used to their mumbling. They could appear at anytime, and it had happened several times when he was talking with his friends. He had done his best to keep it in, but nothing worked. He tried many pills, but nothing worked.

He slightly jumped, communicator buzzing. It was Pearl.

PearlescentMoon: yeah im down, couldn't sleep anyway, ill meet u at the grain

Grian sighed in relief. He got out of bed, and quickly changed to a comfier version of his casual jumper since it was colder at nights. He had to learn that the hard way. The jumper was thicker. He wiped his eyes, not really noticing his deep, heavy, purple eyebags. He brushed his hair that slightly draped over his eyes, and got out of his starter base. He flew off to the G-Train.

"Pearl!" Grian said, trying his best to sound enthusiastic, as his tired grumbly voice shone through. He swooped down swiftly in the middle area between the 2 tracks.

"Hey Grian!" Pearl waved, then slowly lowering her hand as she got a closer look at him. She had just noticed his deep eye bags. A concerned look grew on her face. Grian tilted his head at her, trying to understand.

"Hey, what's up..?" Grian squeaked quietly.

"Grian.. do you have insomnia?"

Grian's eyes widened, then went back to normal. He hadn't really noticed the symptoms. He made a mental checklist in his head, and compared his sleeping schedule and habits to insomnia. Grian and Pearl locked gazes together, as Grian quickly shook his head around.

"No, no- Insomnia? Of course not! I'm doing perfectly- yawn" He said as his wings stretched out.

"Haha, what a perfect time for you to yawn. Grian, you really should get some sleep." Pearl joked.

Get some sleep? What if the voices came back? There's no way in absolute hell he would be able to sleep. They're too intrusive. They stop him from doing anything. And what about projects? And restocking? And editing? And hanging out with friends? He doesn't have time to sleep.

"Pearl, I'm fine. Can we go stargazing or something?" Grian re-assured her.

Pearl shook her head in disbelief. "Alright, alright, but only because you said you are fine."

-

Currently, Grian and Pearl had taken off. They were soaring into the night sky, flying over many people's bases. Grian did some tricks every once in a while, Pearl pouting because she had the inability to do that. She popped another rocket as she tried to catch up with Grian, soon turning into a race to see who can get to the point faster. They were heading off to an island far away from the continent.

"Can't catch me!" Grian's voice faded away from Pearl as she ran out of rockets, rummaging her inventory for another one. She eventually catched up to Grian.

That's when they came again. Voices surrounded Grian's head, as he lost with reality and soon started to fall. The black surroundings and purple wisps came back. His eyes closed, as his body temperature started to heat up. He felt like he was in a really bad fever. Pearl noticed in shock as a rush of adrenaline went through her.

"Nonononono.. GRIAN!" Pearl yelled as she flew down, Grian almost touching the ocean's surface. When he was introducing himself, he mentioned he didn't know how to swim, at all. Pearl scooped him up at the last second, as she flew back in the sky. Their clothes were slightly wet. She studied Grian.

"What is this..? Purple..?" Pearl mumbled as she saw thin veins of purple, slightly spreading across Grian's face. It came on the left side, as it was just peeking into the right. It was spreading down into his neck, then on his shoulder. But then, as quickly as it came, it disappeared. It flashed away in a blink as it left Pearl astounded. She put her focus back into the sky, still on her goal to send the both of them to the mountain.

"Ngh.. huh? Pearl?" Grian rubbed his eye as Pearl drifted her eyes to Grian. They had just made it there, as Pearl set Grian down.

"Are you ok?"

"..! U-uhm.. Yeah! Look, I have to go..!" He said, suddenly standing up, as Pearl still sat down. He had tears forming in his eyes, furiously trying to wipe them away.

W-wait.. But Grian! We just arrived!" Pearl tugged on the back of Grian's jumper as he was about to take off. He looked back at her, starry night sky behind him. He shook his head, as Pearl let go.

And that's when he flew off into the night sky.

"No.. No.. she's still my friend.. the voices were lying.. she wasn't going to kill me.. right?" The boy squeaked curiously as he flew back, watching the sun peak out.

"There's no way.."

-

After that incident with Pearl, Grian had started to slowly drift away from everyone. He isolated himself in a place, away from the bustling and recent activities in Boatem. He stopped showing up to meetings. He hadn't worked on his base in forever. He didn't post anything for a while.

No meetings had been called for over 5 months. He didn't respond to the groupchat, and he felt empty inside. The voices would get louder everyday, and he hated that.

Look how lazy you are.

You shouldn't have ever joined Hermitcraft.

You should have been left dead with the others.

That finally broke him. He was like a piece of rope, on it's last string.

And it just snapped.

Grian broke out in fear, crying out.