Afflicted


“Now, is it true that you attempted to take your own life?”
“Yes,” the girl said calmly.

“And why did you make that choice?”
“Because it’s not normal to be like this,” she said gesturing to herself.
After a few more monotonous answers to questions about herself, and her condition, tiredness consumed Rosalie Hyde once again. It’s all she felt these days. Hence why she finds herself here, in this dark, dispiriting room, giving short, robotic and emotionless answers to the doctor. His voice was soporific and had a charmingly tranquil charisma to him. For a minute she believed that he might actually be here to help her, unlike the other doctor, who was so egotistical and confident within himself to the point where he recommended she undergo a lobotomy surgery, purely because he couldn’t understand Rosalie. But this thought was erased quickly. Rosalie firmly believed she was beyond the point of treatment, and that she was destined to live an unfulfilled, hollow life.

However, this was merely scratching the surface when it comes to Rosalie.
“Could I speak with Joyce Griffen now?”
“Sure.” she sombrely mumbled.
In no less than a few seconds, Rosalie’s demure, sad and reserved nature completely shifted. Any thick tension in the air totally evaporated. Every single detail about Rosalie suddenly became very unlike Rosalie. Her posture immediately shifted from uptight and tense to carefree and relaxed. The breathy and dreamy alteration in the nuance of her voice, like her voice noticeably going up an octave or a few, and her gesture showing a sense of impish merriment, and without notice, Rosalie was gone.
“How are you feeling?”
“I feel good,” she chirped out, proceeding to slouch down on the chair.
“How long have you been out presenting to the world Joyce?”
“Off and on all my life,” Joyce said with a friendly smile.
Joyce and the doctor continued their conversation shifting from one banal topic to another; from her travel to the doctor’s or from her thoughts on education in comparison to her “other”, Rosalie.
“May I speak to Rosalie Hyde now?”
“Sure,” she said simply. There was just a brief pause and a slight flicker of the young woman’s eyes.
When she spoke again it was hard for the doctor to decipher who it was that was speaking here. This “new voice” didn’t sound as bubbly as Joyce or as reserved as Rosalie, she sounded less emotional and somehow darker.
“Feeling alright?”
‘Yes.”  Rosalie said gloomily. Although the doctor kept a straight face behind his built up wall, he himself was astounded and disturbed. The shocking shift between Rosalie and Joyce suddenly was extremely powerful to witness. This wasn’t acting, this was real and yet in all his years of practice, he had never been so convinced by the presence of two within one. He pondered is it even possible that this young woman has coped with this her entire life? He can’t even begin to comprehend the difficulty and distress she has experienced for as long as she can remember.


Although the doctor believed Joyce’s assurances that she and Rosalie were the dominant personalities, he wondered if there were more lurking within the brain of this extraordinary individual.
“Rosalie, is anyone else with you?”
Rosalie looked panicked for a moment as a child does when their misdemeanor is revealed. Can I speak to Audrey?”
“Sure.”
“How are you finding all this?”
“Well, Doctor Terrain, it’s all very exciting isn’t it?” she said dreamily. Once again, any heavy tension was eradicated instantly, but this wasn’t like Joyce. She wasn’t ridiculously cheerful or annoyingly passive. Audrey seemed the most ‘human’ just by the way her demeanor took a turn for the better. Dr. Terrain also felt far more at ease in the presence of Audrey; he doesn’t need to tiptoe around her as he did with Rosalie, or talk like he’s trying to communicate to an unbothered child, much like how he did with Joyce. He began to question Audrey on her validity and what she knows, and thinks about her other personalities.
“Do you think Joyce will ever be able to love?”
She let off a light laugh.
“No,” she chuckled.
“Ever think she’ll be able to feel emotion or happiness?” Dr. Terrain asked, sounding more intrigued with every question.
“Real emotion? No, I highly doubt it. Happiness, maybe. I’m sure she feels happy in her own little fantasy with herself. I often wonder Doc, how Joyce became to be. She’s just so whimsical and unbothered with life or any responsibilities.” She was admirably confident in saying all this, it’s like Audrey was the most present and conscious in the back of her mind whilst Rosalie and Joyce were ‘out’. She seemed like the most authentic version of herself.
“In a sense, I think that Joyce is a personality manifested by my deepest, darkest, most abhorrent experiences as a youngster. I often find disturbing, infantile like drawings of a girl, spurting out pure scarlet red blood from every angle possible.”
“Do you think this means something?” the doctor queried. Inside he was shaken with an inescapable sense of dread - before the session, he had done a substantial amount of research into Audrey’s case, and the vast majority of cases stemmed from inhumane torture. With more often than not having an overly cheery persona created from the person’s mind when they were younger to suppress the harrowing experiences that they went through.
“Yes,” Audrey said with every ounce of normality in her voice.
“Bad things happened to me Doc, things I don’t necessarily remember. Sometimes I do believe that, you know, Joyce is trying to communicate something a lot more intense to us than what she presents to the world. With all the violent drawings. I do try to live my best life with my condition, but I don’t think anyone will truly understand.” she half sighed out hopelessly.