These two men had been the best of raver buddies for nearly five years. They went to their first party together, they dropped their first hits of mdma together, they even tag teamed a couple of raver girls together. They were inseparable friends. Practically Siamese twins. When you saw one of these men at a party, you knew the other one couldn't be far behind.

That changed eight months ago when the younger of the two men up and disappeared one night. It would be three months before he reappeared, and when he did, he was a changed man. The way he looked, the way he spoke, the way he acted -- they were all completely different. He had gone from being a hardcore party freak to simply being a freak.

A year ago, he was a business student studying at Concordia. He had a promising future. He wasn't perfect. He did drugs. He listened to loud music. He had unprotected sex. He got drunk in public. He had his vices, and they were many, but he was still sane. That's no longer the case. Now he speaks to spirits and is convinced that vampires exist, and they want to drink his blood.

When folks ask him what happened, he just gives them a blank stare and ignores the question. No one knows where he escaped to for those three mysterious months, and no one knows what he did during that time. Some folks suspect that he dropped DMT and that the experience left him schizophrenic.

His old BFF spent several months trying to find out what happened. It was like talking to a brick wall. It got to the point where he couldn't even bring him to parties anymore. The last one they went to together, the now-mad raver spent the night praying on the dance floor, blessing the windows of the party by throwing water on them and then kneeling in front of them, and engaging in lively conversations with what he claimed were the little fae folk that only he could see. He was doing all of this without the help of any psychedelic stimulation.

Everyone's concerned about him, but no one knows what to do. Worst of all, the man's gone and vanished all over again. No one knows where he is or what he's up to, but it's probably bad news. For now, they're just wishing and hoping for the best, praying that they won't read about how his body was discovered in some ditch in Chicoutimi.

Ravers are prone to breaking. The rave scene is located at the fringes of society. It's a world full of drugs and mental illness. It can be a real riot, but there's a cost that comes with spending time in this social wilderness. Raving is a world of extreme hedonism, and too much of anything, including pleasure, can cause a person to shatter. Ravers are always at risk of falling over the edge and landing face first into a world of misery and madness. That's why their friends need to keep an eye on them.

When you see someone going too far, you better pull them back before they get into trouble.