"What!"
The noise irritated him deeply. Clark couldn't help but pat his own head. It seemed to help a little, but in truth, it didn't. The pain in his head merely distracted him from the overwhelming noise, giving him a brief moment of relief.
"Clark, what's wrong?!"
Clark's mother, Mary, was woken up by the commotion and rushed into his room, only to find Clark clutching his head. With no other choice, she wrapped her arms around him, worry written all over her face.
"I feel terrible. It's like there's someone constantly talking inside my head. It's too loud."
Clark held his head, looking heartbroken as he spoke.
"It's okay, it's okay. John! John! Come here, quickly!" Mary called out to her husband as she held Clark tightly.
"What's going on?" John asked as he walked in, throwing on his robe.
"Clark seems to be sick. He looks really uncomfortable."
"Put on your coat. I'll drive. We're going to the hospital."
"Merciful heavens."
···
"Based on what you described, I suspect this could be auditory hallucinations. This is a psychotic symptom and is quite common in conditions like schizophrenia. So, I recommend that you consider taking him to a psychiatric hospital for a thorough diagnosis. If it turns out to be schizophrenia, don't worry or panic. With proper medication and cooperation, there's still a good chance for recovery."
After the doctor said this, the entire clinic fell into silence.
Clark's mind went blank after hearing that. He wasn't sure if he should speak. God… schizophrenia? He felt his thinking was clear, and the voices he heard weren't imaginary—they were real, external sounds.
"No way. Clark is just a child. How could he have schizophrenia?" Before Clark could say anything, his mother, Mary, firmly objected.
The doctor simply shrugged in response. He had seen this reaction countless times—parents unable to accept the idea of their child having a mental illness. In truth, he had seen it too often. He knew that trying to convince them at this point would be pointless. The best approach was silence and to let the parents come to terms with it on their own.
"Mary, let's not do this here. This is a hospital. Let's go home first," John said, knowing it wasn't the place to argue.
Back in the car, Mary finally calmed down.
"John, how about we schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist tomorrow? But I will never let Clark be admitted to a psychiatric hospital."
"A hat?" Clark felt uncomfortable hearing that. When his mom said it, didn't she realize it kind of implied he might be mentally ill?
Go see a mental health expert? Who knew how they diagnosed people? Clark remembered a story from his previous life—the Rosenhan Experiment. In it, perfectly healthy individuals were sent into psychiatric hospitals, and none were identified as impostors.
Later, the same researcher told the hospitals that he'd send more fake patients. Over the next few months, hospitals reported detecting 19 impostors—except none had actually been sent.
The conclusion? Psychiatric diagnoses are inherently flawed. There's no standard to prove someone is ill—or prove they're not. After all, not all mentally ill patients exhibit symptoms at all times.
That's why Clark didn't dare go to a psychiatric hospital. He didn't know if he'd ever be allowed out. What if the doctors wanted to hit a quota and diagnosed him just for stats?
So after hearing his mom, Clark quickly insisted that he was fine.
"Mom, I'm okay now. No more voices in my head."
"Really?" Mary looked at him suspiciously.
"Yeah, maybe there were just too many people at my birthday party. I probably had a bad dream."
To avoid being labeled mentally ill, Clark did everything he could to suppress the buzzing in his head, pretending to be perfectly normal.
Clark thought, If I didn't have the soul of an adult, would this kid even be able to pretend like this?
"Alright, let's go home. Clark, if you still don't feel well tomorrow, promise you'll tell me, okay?"
Mary glanced at him. Seeing he looked fine, she finally relaxed. After all, no sane parent would believe their child had schizophrenia over one strange incident.
Once they got home, Clark said goodnight and returned to his room. But in truth, he still felt awful. It was as if the entire world was buzzing in his ears nonstop. He couldn't calm down for a second. People who've never felt it would find it hard to imagine.
For the next while, Clark was tormented by this buzzing every day. He couldn't sleep. He felt like he had nervous exhaustion. If this continued, he might actually develop schizophrenia.
Fortunately, the symptoms didn't last long. Whether it was due to adaptation or something else, Clark eventually learned how to tune out the noise. But once the auditory issue was solved, his eyes started to become a problem.
At first, his vision just seemed blurry—but not in the usual way. He started seeing white flashes and overlapping images.
Still, it wasn't painful—just disorienting. And oddly enough, when he got a pair of glasses, things improved drastically. Even though the glasses had almost no prescription, they solved the issue.
After fitting him with glasses, Mary reminded Clark not to overdo his studies and to get enough rest. Looking at his perfect score on a test, Clark couldn't help but wonder—Did I overthink this?
He never studied. As a college graduate, he should easily ace elementary school tests. If not, that'd be more concerning.
But after the vision issue, Clark suspected something was happening to his body.
After adjusting to the changes in his ears and eyes, he realized his senses had improved massively. Not just slightly—unbelievably.
He could hear a mosquito's wings flapping from 100 meters away and clearly see the tiny hairs on its legs.
Clark thought, This is not normal for any human, right?
Then one day, while eating, he accidentally bent a spoon.
And it wasn't some plastic spoon—it was a thick, stainless steel one, over 1mm thick. Even a strong adult would struggle to bend it.
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