Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“That’s not true,” she whispers back, shaking her head. “I want to help him. We all do.”
“What have you heard?”
She bites her lip. “Mom and Dad were talking. Something about him having something wrong in his head. That’s it. No specifics. Is it really that bad?”
All I can do is nod. “I have to get to him, and I have to tell him he needs help. Otherwise, he could get himself killed. None of this is his fault. You have to believe me.”
“I do.” Her eyes shine when she takes my hand and squeezes tight. “I know he wouldn’t do this unless there was something really wrong.”
“You’ll help me?”
“I’ll do everything I can.”
“Girls?” Mom finds us and begins walking our way. “Are you hungry? Scarlet, you didn’t finish your toast.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” I whisper before we follow Mom toward the kitchen. I still feel like shit, which is putting it mildly, and every second that passes has me a little more worried about Ren and what he’s going through.
But somebody is on my side. I have to cling to that tiny scrap of hope. Right now, it’s all I have.
4
SCARLET
Afew days later, and we’re still not any closer to a solution. Luna and her parents are staying here, hoping to figure something out together. Ren hasn’t tried to contact me and that worries me above all. What if I hit River too hard? No, I can’t think about that. I won’t let my mind go there. I have to believe he’s still at the cabin waiting for me to come back.
A knock on my door drags me out of my thoughts. “Come in!” I Yell, loud enough for the person on the other side to hear.
The door opens, and my father appears in the doorframe. “Someone is here to talk to us.”
I immediately perk up. “Who is it?”
“It’s a psychologist. I’m hoping she can shine some light on our situation.”
Jumping off my bed, I don’t care that I’m still in my pajamas at 11 o’clock in the morning or that I’ve been sulking in my room for the past two days. “I’ll get dressed and be right down.”
My dad nods and closes the door behind him before I quickly get dressed to meet him out in the hallway. Together, we walk downstairs to his office, where a tall blonde woman is waiting for us.
She gets up from her chair as we enter.
“Hello, you must be Scarlet,” she greets me, holding out her right hand for me to shake. “I’m Dr. Stone. I’m a licensed psychologist specializing in dissociative identity disorder.”
“Dissociative identity disorder?” I repeat while taking her hand.
“Yes, that’s the clinical term. You might know it as multiple personality or split personality disorder,” she explains with a bright smile on her red painted lips.
“Please sit,” my dad offers as he takes his own seat behind his large wooden desk.
Dr. Stone sits down, and I take the seat next to her.
“Dr. Stone, could you tell us a little more about this disorder?” my father asks.
“Of course. Dissociative identity disorder or DID for short is a very rare mental disorder that affects less than 2% of the entire population. It’s more common in women, but men can definitely suffer from it as well. People who have DID will have at least two very distinct personalities. Some have up to one hundred personalities inside of them.”
“One hundred?” I ask, astounded by the sheer number.
“It’s rare, but yes, there are cases documented with these numbers. Though it’s more common to have two to ten personalities.”
“Ren has two. He calls the other one River,” I explain.
Dr. Stone takes a notebook and pen from her purse and lays them on her lap. She opens the book and scribbles down something on the paper.
“Would the person not know they have DID?” My dad questions.
“Not necessarily. Some patients do, some don’t. The mind is a tricky thing, Mr. Rossi, and DID often comes along with a few other symptoms like memory loss, hallucinations, and delusions. It is possible that neither of the personalities knows or that only one of them does.”
“Ren doesn’t know; he believes River is real. He even talks to him on the phone. I don’t know if River realizes it or not. I only interacted with him a few times. I think he only called himself River once in front of me.”
Dr. Stone nods while she continues to write stuff down on her paper. “Usually, the separate personalities will be very distinct, with unique character traits and even mannerisms.”
“Yes, I have noticed that. Ren is always kind, easygoing, and fun. River is almost the complete opposite of that. He is angry, distraught, and very hard to reason with.”
Dr. Stone keeps nodding like everything I’m saying makes complete sense to her while my father seems to be unhappy about this new revelation. Or maybe he doesn’t agree with my description of Ren. I’m sure we’ll have a conversation about it later.