Edited
"Are you okay?"
Edwin was currently feeling half, if not fully, dead as he let himself fall on the chair in the corner of Chad's office. The head doctor had the audacity to ask him if he was okay. How could he be? He felt like he had lost his all, along with the ability to breathe.
"No!" He forced the two-letter word out as he covered his eyes with his palm, head resting on the back of the giant therapy chair.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Edwin. He'll be okay." The doctor patted his shoulder, but the words made his blood boil in a matter of seconds. He sat up feeling all kinds of anxious, and glared at the older man standing by his side.
"Oh, will he? We don't know any certain facts about this disorder. No one knows how it really works. I've been reading all sorts of researches and articles and yet, here I am. I have not a single fucking clue of how we should bring him back." He sighed in defeat and bent down, resting his elbows on his calves, looking at the wooden floor. "It's been three weeks. Three fucking WEEKS! He doesn't give us any info, nor does he talk to us. I thought he would cooperate when he agreed to come here." He shook his head and rubbed his face repeatedly in frustration. "He doesn't even look at me. All he does is mocking and pranking others, making them angry at him, and then hides in Joshua's room in case they come to whoop his ass. I REALLY hate him. He is nothing like Aiden." He took a deep breath after talking nonstop and blinked repeatedly to push the tears back.
Chad sat next to him and hugged his shoulder, making him rest his head on the older man's and he felt how a gentle hand stroked over his hair.
"I know it's hard for you and that you really hate him. It's even obvious in the way you look at him. Hector is really stubborn. More than Aiden ever decided to be. Do you think he'll come near you after all the death glares you've been throwing at him? I think you should take the first step. Go talk to him. Not fight, just talk. See if you can become friends even. Maybe that will help us get information out of him cos I've tried everything in the book and he still doesn't talk. And to think that I thought Aiden was a hard patient to deal with! Phew!" He chuckled, remembering the time he really wanted to choke Aiden the first week he had come to the hospital, being an ass and all. It almost felt like a good memory, compared to the amount of patience he had to come up with to deal with Hector.
A knock on the door made Chad stand up and walk toward it while it opened and a rather handsome man in a suit came in. They shook hands firmly, and the man glanced toward Edwin, who was still seated on the chair, not really caring about manners.
"Edwin, this is doctor Williams. He has several experiences working with dissociative identity disorder patients in Europe. I wrote him an e-mail a couple of weeks back and he was interested in Aiden's case. So he agreed to come help us for a while here."
Upon hearing that, Edwin's eyes lit up, and he jumped up, basically running to the well-built man with how fast he walked. The action must have been funny to the doctor, who chuckled and stretched his arm for Edwin to shake. He didn't hesitate, shaking the offered hand many times more than necessary. Dr. Williams was a bit shorter than him but still taller than Aiden, and he had styled up black hair and a body that Edwin was sure would make the nurses drool after.
"Please, call me Edward." The man smiled kindly at him.
"Edwin."
"I know. I read your thesis. It's a shame you don't work in this field anymore. I could tell you would have a promising future had you continued."
"You read my thesis?! But why?!" He couldn't understand why a doctor from another continent would read something he had written. It hadn't even been that big a deal.
"Why?! It was a rather new topic no one really dared going into and a student had just dived right into it. Of course, I found it interesting."
Edwin smiled for the first time in god knows how long and it wasn't even a crooked one. He was genuinely happy hearing that from the man.
'YOU ARE STILL HOLDING HIS HAND, Edwin!'
His head screamed at him and he looked down at their linked palms with wide eyes. Him being how he was, pulled his hand away in a rushed act instead of acting nonchalant and made himself so embarrassed in front of the doctor who had just talked so highly of him. He bit on his bruised bottom lip and looked down to his feet, head hung low. He heard chuckles from both men and felt a hand on his shoulder, guiding him to the sofa. They all sat down. Edward next to him and Chad across from them.
"So... I've read all the information you sent me, but could you tell me in person as well? I wanna know more." Edward said as he opened the two buttons of his suit and sat back comfortably, patting Edwin's shoulder once to make him collect himself and pay attention.
"As I said earlier, the host's name is Aiden Evans. Hector, the only other personality we've seen who claims there's only the two of them, is the person we're currently dealing with. Or should I say, trying to deal with. There's just no way of getting through to him." Chad explained.
"You said he has mood swings? Did Aiden have them as well?" Edward looked at Edwin, who didn't really look like he was listening. "Edwin?"
Edwin heard his name, and the question registered in his head.
"Uh, he did have mood swings, but it was for when he had an addiction. As soon as he was clean, he rarely had those. He is actually a sweetheart. Nothing like this devil that is possessing his body right now."
"You know, for someone who explained everything so logically in their thesis, you are an extremely emotional person. I'm surprised!" The now-familiar chuckle followed, and the doctor looked back at Chad. "The thing with dissociative identity disorder is that the patients often show signs of other mental conditions as well. We have mood swings, which I think could be more of a borderline personality than a mood swing in Hector's case. And you said he was addicted? What was Aiden addicted to and why did he start?"
"Drugs. Alcohol. He... and his ex had an accident which led to his ex being in a coma for a while and they broke up after, so the trauma led him to the addiction. He even over-dosed several times."
"Over-doses? Were they over-dosing or suicide attempts?"
With this question, Edwin grew pale. Back then, he had been too preoccupied with Lili that he never really thought about the possibility of Aiden having had suicide attempts. Suddenly he felt like his short career as a doctor had been a major failure as he looked at Chad for help. The older cleared his throat and looked at him, concerned, before he started talking.
"I think a couple of them might have been failed suicide attempts. Aiden never confirmed it, but the few times I brought it up, he didn't deny it either. Knowing that he wouldn't lie even if his life depended on it, I think he somehow confirmed by not opposing me."
"What?!" Edwin heard himself asking. "Why didn't I know about this?"
"You had too much on your shoulders back then." Chad looked apologetic almost.
"Oh! I almost forgot. The thing that made me the most interested in this case," Edward shifted enthusiastically, seeming to be looking forward to this case a lot. "you said Aiden heard a voice talking to him. Do you know what they said exactly? "
"He didn't say... But I could tell they weren't friendly. The two-three times I witnessed it, he would just curl up and beg them to stop until I'd find a way to distract him. He said they'd been more active when he was a child and then they had suddenly disappeared until recently."
"What happened recently?" Edward asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I got attacked by one of his fans. Long story. Basically, he thought he was the reason for my injury and felt guilty. He always feels guilty!" Edwin groaned and hid his face in his palms again, helplessness piling up with every passing second. Couldn't Aiden come back already? Was he even trying in there or... had he really given up on them? Edwin felt selfish to think about himself and whether Aiden was somehow thinking about him wherever he was in this whole mess.
He felt a hand on his back, rubbing soothing patterns. "It's okay, Edwin. We're gonna bring him back. I've had several cases with this disorder and have managed to make someone with 24 personalities stable. We're only dealing with two here, so it should be okay in time. You just have to be patient and try to get close to him. Hector, I mean. Maybe Aiden will feel the need to resurface if he feels and hears you around."
Sitting up straight, Edwin barely nodded, thinking about the fact that he needed to spend time with Hector, who was apparently always eating Joshua's face whenever he saw them around the corners. That was all he was going to think they were doing. He refused to think any further. The very kissing wasn't even allowed in the hospital, but both Joshua and Hector could be quite violent, so no one really did anything to separate them, anyway. That was the main reason Edwin had stayed away. He couldn't look at his lover's body kissing someone else with all the tongue and touching and ughhhh....
DeleteCreated with Sketch.
It was lunch time. Edwin was asked by Edward personally to spend the daytime in the hospital and even stay there the whole time if he was able to. He had agreed since he had nothing else to do — he couldn't really focus on dancing and had fallen down too many times for Brad to just dismiss him for the time being — Jobless and frustrated, he spent most of his time at the hospital and went home for a shower or some sleep. This had been his routine for the past ten days. Edward had tried talking to Hector several times, and the other had actually talked to him, but the doctor hadn't started getting any serious info out of him yet, saying he should try to become friends with him first before going into his doctor mode.
Edwin himself had tried his very very very! best to at least talk to Hector, but... yeah, he had failed. Every time, he found him asleep or playing around with some other troublesome patients or making out with Joshua. The guy was beautiful and Edwin had always appreciated beauty, but at this point, he was literally thirsty for the long-haired boy's blood.
Picking on his food and not really eating it, he saw Hector, Joshua, and... Mia?! walking in. Was that Mia?! What was she even doing there? And she was in the nurses' uniform. Curiosity got the best of him as he stood up and walked to them, stopping in front of the girl, calling her, and making the three of them look at him with surprised expressions.
"Mia?! What are you doing here?!"
"Oh, I forgot you guys knew each other." He heard Hector say, but didn't look at him.
"I got transferred here for the replacement of one nurse going on her maternity leave. I saw Aiden and his handsome friend on my way to the dining room."
"That's not Aiden. That's Hector. Haven't you introduced yourself to her, Hector?" Edwin glared at the man who was looking at him like he was rather entertained by his frustration.
"Daaaamn, here you go ruining all the fun! I wasn't gonna tell her yet!" The other replied and grinned in a nasty playful way.
"What?! Hector?! Does Aiden have a twin brother or something?" Mia asked dumbfounded, looking back and forth between the two who appeared to be in some kind of staring contest.
"Nope. Aiden's had multiple personality disorder without anyone knowing. Hector is the other one." Edwin replied without looking away from the older's eyes. It was actually the first time in a month he had looked at him this close eye to eye. For a mere second, he forgot it wasn't Aiden and was about to jump into his arms that weren't as muscular anymore, cos Hector was lazy as fuck.
"Oh! Look at you being so sweet! I actually thought you were gonna say some really mean thing about me, but you explained it just the way it was and not as 'he is the demon who is possessing my boyfriend' or something similar." Hector circled his arm around Joshua's waist who was just looking at them uninterested before walking past him and sitting behind one of the empty tables, starting their food.
"Is it true? Is he... not Aiden anymore? I thought it was strange that he stopped texting me all of a sudden."
Edwin tore his eyes away from the joking duo and looked back at the tiny figure of Mia. "Yeah... I'm sorry, I should've told you. You must've worried." He felt ridiculous now, that he had once felt jealous of the kind-hearted girl. She was the sweetest, and it was no wonder Aiden was so fond of her. Kind people tended to be superb friends, after all.
"No... it's okay. You must be going through a lot right now. Well, I think it's not a bad thing I got transferred here after all. I'll be keeping your company during this. Just... just talk to me or let me help in whatever way I can, okay?" Mia held his hand in her small palms and looked at him with her big eyes.
Edwin smiled and hugged her briefly before going back to his tray of food. Mia sat next to him and they ate in silence. A thought was floating in his head. Did Hector think Edwin was being mean to him?...