Fragmented (526 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.67 on 7 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by girlintheworld (View user info) at 2004-12-05 21:05:07 EST
"Racecar spelled backwards is racecar! R-A-C-E-C-A-R!" she screamed.
"Sarah, calm down now." I said.
"R-A-C-E-C-A-R! Racecar, racecar! Vroooooom!" she giggled happily. "Noon is one too, did you know? I bet you didn't know..." Her eyes flickered, and she stopped.
"Won't you tell that bitch to shut up? She just repeats words over and over again! What the fuck is so great about that? I can do quantum physics, but no one asks about that. No one CARES about that! What the hell?" said Steve.
Steve was one of her less-liked personalities. The staff and I had hypothesized that "Steve" was heavily based on her father figure.
"Steve, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to talk to Melanie. Will you let me talk to her? I need to discuss some things with her." I tried. He could be very volatile.
"Oh, you want to DISCUSS things? You bitch. What the fuck do you know?" he retorted.
"This will only take a minute." He relented. The eyes flickered once again, and she blinked, gathering her surroundings.
"It's happened again, hasn't it? God, I can't remember anything since... 7 hours ago..." she seemed frazzled.
"I know, Melanie. Sarah's been playing with palindromes for quite a while, and Steve just reappeared. I want to talk to you about the reintegration process. Sarah doesn't know any better—she's only 9 years old—so she's willing to do anything, and I was hoping you could talk to Steve for me." I paused. "I've already spoken to Heather and Josh, your less dominant personalities. They're agreeable. And the staff is ready. I think you're ready as well."
After two weeks of finagling, the process was agreed upon by all personalities. Melanie was to be fragmented no more.
"Hi Melanie," I greeted her the Monday after the reintegration. "How are you?"
"Strange," she admitted. "Really strange. I'm afraid they're going to come back," she whispered.
"I wouldn't worry about that now," I said. "Let's just take this one step at a time, ok?"
But there was something urgent in her eyes. "I don't think I can. I don't think I can make it like this. There's too much. Too much!" she sobbed.
"Melanie, it's going to be ok. People with far more personalities than you had have lead normal, fulfilling lives after reintegration. I've charted your progress. Trust me."
She still seemed afraid. A week later, when I came in to check on her, she whispered something in my ear. We talked some more, and then she smiled.
"Thank you, Doctor."
Melanie Warren.
Date of Death: April 7, 20__
Time of Death: 2:05 p.m.
Reason: Apparent Suicide
Next of Kin: Dr. Emily Warren
She had asked me to kill her. Convinced that she could not live a healthy life at 49, she wanted no part of it. She feared intimacy. Relationships. She did not even know me fully, her own daughter. She knew me better as her doctor. After much discussion and grief on my part, I gave in. I nonchalantly made it available for her to "steal" pills. I walked in the next morning as was my routine to find her gasping her last breath, in which she looked at me. Her eyes had never been so clear, so free. I watched my own mother finally have her first coherent thought.
Melanie was fragmented no more.
User Reviews
Submitted by Viciousriffs (user info) at 2005-06-30 19:20:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Have a cookie.
Submitted by Saxon (user info) at 2004-12-05 23:03:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Good concept.
Submitted by wardy (user info) at 2004-12-05 21:41:43 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
meh
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2004-12-05 21:31:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by DrPresident (user info) at 2004-12-05 21:24:18 (#)
Ranking: -1
Started off interesting... slipped into trite... ended badly.
Submitted by tinactin (user info) at 2004-12-05 21:27:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
You did a good job of establishing character, but there was essentially no plotting.
Submitted by DrPresident (user info) at 2004-12-05 21:24:18 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
Started off interesting... slipped into trite... ended badly.
Submitted by comicbookguy (user info) at 2004-12-05 21:17:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
not bad