âConstant, severe headaches, especially when the two mentioned situations take place.â
âYou find yourself in a place but donât remember how you got there.â
âYou find yourself wearing unfamiliar clothes but have no idea how you ended up wearing them.â
âSometimes it feels like the people around you, the objects, or the world isnât real.â
âOr you feel like youâre standing next to yourself and watching âyourselfâ do something, or watching yourself as if youâre someone else.â
âWhen you look into the mirror you feel as though the person in the mirror isnât yourself or you donât seem to recognize yourself.â
âYou feel like youâre in a familiar place, but you realize youâre actually not familiar with it.â
âYou focus on a fantasy or daydream so much that you feel as if itâs really happening to you.â
âTalking aloud to yourself when youâre alone.â
â¦
âYou find that you canât remember if you did something.â
âYou find that sometimes itâs as if youâre observing the world through a layer of fog. People and objects are far away from you, and you canât see them clearlyâ¦â
â¦
Alice rattled off one example after another. Every one of those made Gong Jie shudder. The world of someone with multiple personalities is indeed a scary one.
Gong Jieâs expression grew grave. âIs it difficult to treat?â
âDifficult, but not impossible.â Alice spoke again after a pause. âA dozen years ago, there was a patient with multiple personality disorder in Lima. This patient had 10 personalities, three of which were very violent and rebellious. So the hospital came up with a very brutal electric shock therapy program for this disobedient patient.â
âElectric shock?!â
Gong Jie paled at that. âIsnât thatâ¦â
âItâs painful.â Alice turned to look at him directly. âBilly had gone through such painful treatment in Lima as well. After the electric shocks, Billy was put in the most heavily guarded Ward 9. Most of the personalities gave up hope of living and focused on going into the âland of the dead.'â
âThe land of the dead?â
âUh huh. Once in the land of the dead, these personalities would be brutally destroyed, meaning they would sleep forever, but that does not guarantee they would not awaken again. However, one of the 24 personalities, the Teacher, appeared to take over the body. He was the sum of 23 personalities and possessed the memories and abilities of all of them. Unwilling to bow his head to Lima, he refused to admit defeat by death. He resisted and wanted to announce Limaâs tyranny to the world, destroying this hell once and for all. After that, using his brilliant acting and communication skills, the personality convinced Lima that he had become âobedient enoughâ to be transferred from the strictest Ward 9 to the least secured Ward 6. One of the personalities wanted to kill the doctor in-charge, but was restrained by the Teacher. The Teacher was the most astute of all the personalities. He then set out to collect evidence against the crimes of the hospital. Without pen and paper, he pulled cotton out of the quilt, wet it, and adhered it to the underside of the bed. He used this to keep written notes. He stole a fellow patientâs tape recorder, and reaching through a vent in the toilet, he recorded the discussions of the medical teams and managed to capture evidence that they were overdosing the patients. With this, he threatened Lima into giving him pen and paper, and visitation rights.â
âThis personality is really smart.â
âUh huh.â
Alice continued, âActually, at the moment Iâm more worried about the boy becoming more difficult to manage should he create more personalities.â