An hour into the session, his eyes start to water. The oppressive feeling of the room—well, it did used to be an interrogation room—is beginning to sneak up on him. He can feel Krothe’s eyes on him, like twin lasers, and instead of reacting just turns the page of his newspaper. Daniel’s sure that she has no idea how close he is to cracking. And if he does, he intends to leave before. Breaking in front of her, after his earlier speech of how she’d crack, would be utterly humiliating. Especially for someone with ‘Doctor’ ahead of his name.
And then the silence is broken. Krothe sighs.
He glances up, hopefully.
Her gaze is less like a laser and more like the disapproving stare of a parent or guardian. Her eyes are narrowed, too, letting him know how annoying she finds the whole situation. But they lack the fire of Matsuri’s disapproval, which is violent rather than passive. If it was Matsuri, it would be screaming at him in red-hot rage.
Daniel realizes that he’s not looking at Matsuri. And he’s not looking at Viss.
The third personality—the puppet master, perhaps the true self—is glowering at him.
He also realizes that he might be the only one to have ever felt its direct gaze.
“Hello,” he begins, tentative.
“No, no. Don’t do that. We’re not meeting for the first time, you idiot,” it snaps at him, expression mulling over to pure irritation. “If you’ve made the first jump of discovery, at least try not to trip on the next one.”
“Sorry.” He tries a smile. “You are the one that Viss and Matsuri talk to, aren’t you? The one who issues the orders?”
The lips tighten. “I’m afraid so.”
“What do you call yourself?”
“I didn’t need a name, before.” The eyes fix on the ceiling, and a sigh escapes. Daniel can almost see the latent anger. “I was first, dammit, and that should count for something.” The gaze pans back to Daniel. “If you need a name, Viss calls me Alpha.”
Daniel watches its fingers tighten into fists and slowly relax again. “Alpha. Right.” Something about the physicality of this sullen, annoyed creature screams male to Daniel. He writes that down. Time to make sure, though. “Do you have a gender preference, Alpha?”
“Gender. How quaint.” A snort. “Call me what you will. I don’t care.”
“I know those types of questions are annoying. It’s just difficult to know for sure,” Daniel explains, crossing out his male observation. Neutral it is. “And I don’t want to offend you. You have quite the record, Alpha.”
It tilts its head, the eyes narrowing to slits. “Look, Doctor, I know you’re just like the others. Thick-headed, dedicated to your own view of morality. But please try not to say such stupid things around me. Matsuri so loathes it.”
He decides to change the subject, hoping it will motivate Alpha not to send one of the others to talk to him, instead. “Can you tell me something about Matsuri? She’s not very descriptive.”
“She was born of fire and steel.” Alpha’s gaze is almost pitying. “And rage, of course. Matsuri lives the only way she knows how. She saved the… vessel, if you will.”
“She saved all of you,” Daniel suggests.
“Our dark Knight Templar, obsessed with blood and glory? No. She saved herself from true madness by giving up conventional sanity.” Alpha tilts its head, gaze still deeply pitying. “Now she exists as a different creature to the rest of us. But at least she exists. She didn’t walk into the screaming void.” It grimaces. “Viss did that, the stupid thing.”
“What do you mean, the screaming void?”
Alpha raises an eyebrow. “The place everyone goes when they give up. The people who float rather than walk, who never talk above a whisper when confronted. Viss—Viss could never take anything. Teachers screaming at her were the end of the world. Her mother being disappointed sent her into a shameful spiral. Viss is weak. The void swallowed her whole.”
Daniel glances down at his notes. In elementary school, Krothe’s record stated that she did very poorly and was sent home a lot. That was many years before the ‘accident’ that killed her mother and stepfather.
Now, talking to Alpha, he was more sure than ever that it hadn’t been an accident at all.
“And what of you, Alpha? Where did you come from?”
“I am what my name suggests,” it notes curtly. “I am the first. Weren’t you listening before?”
His eyes widen. Confirmation of Alpha being the primary? On tape?
“Don’t look at me like that.” Alpha’s expression contorts into a sneer. “I know all about your damned psychobabble. You can say what you like, but you’ll never prove what you want to prove about me.”
“And what’s that?”
“You’ll never prove it,” it repeats, smirking in triumph.
Daniel thinks, hard. How does she know that he wants to prove Krothe, as a whole, to be the one who killed her parents? How would she have access to that information? Did one of the other doctors say something?
His silence just makes its smirk more genuine. “Now that I’ve given you something to think about, I think our session is up.”
It’s right. He stands, gathering his notes, feeling numb.
“Will I be seeing you tomorrow? Or will you send Viss?”
“We’ll see how I feel,” it says, yawning broadly. “But right now I’m thinking of making you stay in a room with Matsuri.”
“You know the other doctors won’t let me do that, Alpha.”
Alpha chortles. “I know—Matsuri is terribly dangerous. But she does what I want. She’s terrified of me, my little Knight Templar.”
Before he packs up his notes completely, Daniel scrawls down Alpha’s nickname for the other personality. He wants to ask her about it. Perhaps it will make the violent entity talk.
“Goodnight, Doctor.” Alpha smirks at him. “Sweet dreams.”
(Source: velvetdemon.net)
