Chapter 28: Chapter 27: Alters
"Joy." Cammy whispered at Joy who was busy watching Ren as he ate. "Something is wrong with this kid."
Joy looked at Cammy who seemed very worried- then he looked back at Ren. He was still eating, and Joy can't seem to see the strangeness in Ren's actions.
"Do you want to order more?" She asked Ren and he looked up to her. He smiled in an eerie way that startled Joy and Cammy.
"Y-Yeah, pwease. I'm swo hungwy." Ren said with a child-like tone which was really different from the way he talked before. Furthermore, he acted like an innocent child and pouted cutely at them.
"R-ren? W-why are you acting like this?" Joy asked him and he smiled again at her. "What's the matter?"
"I'm nowt Wen." She took out another chunk of meat from the plate in front of him and ate it. "I am Quiela. Who are you?"
"How can you be Quiela when you are Ren?" Joy asked and pushed the plate nearer to him because he almost dropped his food because he was so hungry.
"Oh, I'm nowt Wen. I am Quiela." He chewed and gulped water. "Wen is boy, Quiela is a girl." His voice was pristine, and it is so child-like. Cammy, on the other hand, thought of a certain illness that he had encountered when he read about disorders.
"Oh, okay." Joy said, unable to comprehend what was happening. Just then, Ren started murmuring to himself. He blinked heavily, he adjusted his clothing and he cleared his throat before speaking. "A-are you okay?" Joy asked and Cammy came near him.
"Oh yeah. I am fine. Don't worry." Cammy and Joy was startled again because his tone completely changed again, and his voice sounded deeper than the person she was having a conversation with a while ago. He massaged his forehead using his tiny fingers and he seemed to have a headache that he held his head tight. Ren looked at Joy and Cammy in a suspicious manner and after a while, he had removed his hands on his head. "Who ah you?"
Cammy and Joy looked at each other as Ren's eyes travelled to their positions. "Who ah you?! Ansah me!" Ren stood up from his position and glared at them. Joy stood up told him to calm down, and when Ren looked on the table, he had realized that the people had given him food. "I'm sorry. I thought Quiela was in trouble."
"N-no.. you were just eating here." Joy said. "I am Hope. And you are?" she seemed to have adapted to the conversation already- but the person in front of her really wasn't like the Ren she had talked to a while ago.
"I am Kyle. I protect all of us." He sat down and ate. Cammy, after having been able to analyze the situation have come up with a conclusion.
"Joy, ask him about their numbers"
"What numbers?" Joy asked.
"I mean how many they are that resides in his body."
"Uhm, who are you talking to?" Ren [Kyle] asked while he was eating.
"Oh, no one." Joy said as she observed him. "Say, Ren- no, Kyle, how many are you? I'm sorry I am not very knowledgeable about this but-"
"There's Ren, Quiela, Me- Kyle, and there's another one." He answered.
"Figures. Joy, he might have Dissociative Identity Disorder." Joy gave Cammy a confused look. "Dissociative Identity Disorder is a rare condition in which 2 or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in- and alternately take control of an individual. Ren is the host, and Quiela, together with Kyle are alters."
Cammy looked at super hungry kid eating in front of them and his face had a bitter expression. "You know what saddens me the most? Joy?" Joy looked at him "people with DID have experienced repeated childhood trauma we can never imagine. This person has been through a lot. DID can only be formed before the personality is fully integrated in normal development. When we are still young, our brain was still forming a concrete personality, but since he's young and he doesn't have a [complete] personality yet when he experienced abuse, his brain couldn't handle it, so it like [programmed itself] that 'I can't handle this'. They don't feel safe and have nobody to help them. The brain will create memory loss to prevent those parts of your consciousness from fully integrating. This memory loss is what goes up between alters- and when one of the alters is fronting, you won't have any memory or little memory because of amnesia. DID exists to protect the child and the adult they become from the knowledge of the horrific trauma that they have experienced."
"Why did the alters come out now?" Joy asked Cammy.
"Maybe they were triggered by our actions. Some alters have roles, while some doesn't. Maybe Kyle is the protector of their system and Quiela is their little [the child/little alter]."
"Pardon me?" Kyle asked. "Who're you talking to?"
"OH, sorry, it was no one, I always space out like this so don't worry." Joy said. "By the way, where do you live?"
"I live everywhere." Kyle answered, still eating his food.
"Where are you from?"
Kyle's mind was like spinning and he felt like he was getting dragged away from himself. Joy was alarmed and she didn't know what to do. It was his third time switching now, and Joy was afraid to know who it might become, but after a few minutes, he was blinking too much again, and he seemed dissociated from reality.
"K-Kyle?"
He looked up at them- but Joy felt that it wasn't Kyle anymore because his aura is different. The kid in front of them now is scary.
"Not Kyle. I'm Akuji Nerezza. Who are you?" the sweet, caring and lovable boy earlier was now gone and this person in front of them had fronted and his tone was cold like Light but there is a scary anger that lied underneath it.
"I-I am Hope." Joy said, but the name of the alter had intrigued her because she has already encountered them before. Akuji is [dead and alive] while Nerezza is [darkness]. She triggered Ren by asking where he was from.
"So you gave us food?" Akuji asked and he seemed to calm down, but the coldness in his tone still stayed.
"I-It was nothing, really. Eat until your heart's content." Joy said.
"I don't trust humans. You might run away afterwards. Humans are so terrible. They hurt us. They abused us. I hate them. I hate them. You might run away. You will run away." Akuji murmured and held his head again, but Joy held his hands.
"I will not run away, and you have been eating for like 30 minutes now and I still haven't left." Joy smiled. Akuji looked at the table and saw that he had finished many plates of rice and bouillon. He looked at her again, reluctantly sat down and ate a spoonful of rice which he obviously liked.
"No offense Akuji, but are you a-"
"I'm not a human."
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