Her Fragmented Mind

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Kristin sat in her usual spot on the couch in Sofia Kopf's office. She fidgeted with the hem of her T-shirt nervously, her eyes downcast trying not to look at her therapist. She had felt these nerves all week since that afternoon in the park, the term Darby had told her playing over and over in her mind. Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID for short. Kristin had talked to Darby about it for a while, and then when she got home had gone straight to the computer and looked it up on there. There had been so much contradictory information, and much of it she felt she couldn't trust, and so she had waited, thoughts churning all week, till her appointment with Sofia.

"What do you know of Dissociative Identity Disorder?" Sofia asked, snapping Kristin out of her thoughts.

"Um, it means that there's more than one person living in someone's head?" Kristin answered after a moment.

"It can certainly feel like that to someone with this condition. And do you know what causes it?" Sofia continued using her most calm tone of voice.

"I read that it comes from lots of trauma when you're a kid, but I don't remember anything like that," answered Kristin before continuing quieter, "I don't remember much of anything."

Sofia made some notes on her page as she continued to watch the nervous girl, this had been the first time she had admitted to her lack of childhood memory. Could this show some sign that she was beginning to realise that much more had happened in her life than what she was aware of?

The pair continued to discuss what Dissociative Identity Disorder meant and what kind of impacts it can have on a person. Kristin felt herself relaxing slightly as she came to understand what this condition entailed, only to have the anxiety come back as the next troubling thing was discussed. By the end of the appointment, she wasn't sure if this truly was what was going on with her, however, she did leave with more information than what she went in with.

As Kristin made her way home on the bus, she felt a presence sit next to her in her mind. She looked around to be sure there wasn't some physical reason for this feeling, only to realise the bus was mostly empty with only a couple of other passengers spread out through the seats. This presence didn't feel like the others she had experienced previously, it felt smaller as if she was in the presence of a child.

'The bus is fun,' said the presence from within Kristin's head.

'I guess it can be when there aren't heaps of people squashing you in,' Kristin responded finding it calming talking to this presence.

Kristin rode the bus the rest of the way like this, the small presence getting excited when they passed a cute animal or a picturesque location. For her part, Kristin would reply to the presence, which she had not gotten a name from, the same as she would with any child. She remembered Sofia saying that some of the identities that come with Dissociative Identity Disorder can be stuck as a child often due to them having experienced traumatic things, and she wondered if that was the case for this small presence.

The ride went on like this for some time until the bus stopped to pick up a new passenger. The passenger that got onto the bus was a tall, slightly overweight man, with shaggy dark hair that seemed to darken his face. He wore a long dark coloured coat and dark pants. Everything about this man, to Kristin, felt wrong, felt dark, and felt dangerous. She felt a feeling of panic rising from within her, the calming, childlike presence had fled and was replaced by something even smaller. This new presence felt like sheer terror, and as she felt herself slip back into the blackness all she could hear was someone screaming.

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Darby Hanson was sitting behind the counter at ShopMore, a variety retail store at the small shopping mall close by to the park she had met that curious girl at. The name badge pinned to her chest clearly noted her out to be an employee of the store, which was not readily apparent from the relaxed way she sat, feet propped up on the point of sale computer's tower. The day had been going slowly, although that was not really unusual. While the store might be called ShopMore, it was more or less the same people each day.