Billy

~Your dreams begin to leak into reality. You're afraid to sleep because you're not in control and he wants out~

Dissociative Identity Disorder, that was what they called it.

A disorder characterized with the presence of two or more distinct personality traits.

One man, different identities.

Most people thought he was crazy, he didn't deny it because as a matter of fact he was. They said he was unstable and he didn't blame them because, truthfully, he was.

They told him that he was a danger to himself and others, hence why he was locked him up in a mental institution.

He didn't blame them. Truthfully, that was where he belonged.

It all started when he was twelve.

He'd zoned out in class one day after a bully had messed with him. It'd been going on for a long while now and suddenly Ralph had snapped.

All he had seen was black and red. 

He came to five minutes later with two busted fists. 

Though he hadn't understood the events leading up to him regaining consciousness, his bully had ended up in the hospital with a fractured skull and numerous broken bones. It was safe to say that nobody ever bullied him again after that.

He grew up, went to college and got a descent job as an accountant.

He was told he could curb it, even if he couldn't entirely stop it. At least that was what the family shrink had told him—that he could manage it and that he'd be fine if only he took his pills. A lot of help that did.

He'd wake up screaming most nights into the duck tape he'd wrap around his mouth before he slept. 

He didn't want anyone to know about his disorder and definitely not his neighbours. They still considered him normal and he wanted it to stay that way.

They were nosy and Billy hates nosy people. He was doing it for their own good.

At work though, a particular woman had started paying more attention to him than usual. 

It wasn't that he wasn't handsome, he just always kept his distance.

She managed to catch his attention though and Ralph noticed that whenever he was with her, his mood swings weren't as frequent or as violent as they used to be. 

He wasn't as impulsive and he hadn't self destructed in the time he'd known her. And Billy had been quiet, very quiet.

Slowly he fell in love with her and for the first time in his life, he felt like he was finally going to be free of him—Billy, his not so friendly demon. 

That was the name it called himself.

He'd gone for months without slipping back into the state of altered consciousness he usually experienced most times he was about to wake up.

It seemed like limbo, where he'd stay in between a trance and an ordinary waking consciousness. Sometimes he remembers what happens in between and sometimes he didn't.

He knew it had something to do with her. Lara was supposed to be the woman who saved him from himself—literally. She wasn't supposed to know about him. She wasn't supposed to know about Billy.

But she'd found out that night.

That night she'd looked up at him with the biggest smile on her face with so much affection in her eyes and she'd felt like the luckiest man alive. They'd been dating for three months and she'd told him she was finally ready to take things further with him. He was ecstatic since she was the only woman he'd gotten so close to.

That night, he'd shown her without words just how much she meant to him. He got lost in the wonder and beauty that was her.

They got lost in each other and eventually retired for the night.

He'd been rudely awakened the next morning by a scream—her scream.

He felt that he was sitting up and yet somehow still semi-conscious.

He was holding something. He blinked.

'We got her good Ralphy boy.' He heard his snarky voice.

It was him. 

Billy.

"What have you done." Ralph asked.

'Why don't you open your eyes and find out.'

'She's the reason you've shut me out all these time. I'm just repaying a favour.' He said.

Ralph blinked and felt his left hand clench around something. Finally his vision cleared, and he could see—

"Blood." His eyes widened. He stood up faster than lightening.

He dropped the knife.

"Oh God." Ralph held his hands to his face in panic.

"No, no, no, no, not again!" He stood straight and that was when he saw it. It was a bloody trail. It'd led out the bedroom to the bathroom and he'd hurled everywhere when he saw the grosteque sight in front of him.

It was safe to say that the police never found all of her. Billy had made sure of it.

That day he'd cracked. And Billy had seen it as his chance to get even. 

So he threw him in the backseat.

Now five years has passed and Ralph still calls himself Billy.

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Tada!😊 What do you guys think?🤗❤️

Mental health issues are real, sometimes often caused by a variety of things, trauma is one, stress is another, racism too, even abuse and nurture (your upbringing).

Ralph here is a victim of DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder, you could say bullying was one factor that made the condition worse.

DID is basically one person having two or more personalities each characterized by unique traits and behaviours. Usually a person can go by another name when he/she starts exhibiting symptoms. Even manner of speaking and walking might change.😮

The person can even forget things that happen during the time the other personalities surface.😯

So tell me your thoughts below, what do you think you can do as an individual to help someone like Ralph who struggles with DID?🤔🤔