A story based in the real world. For some reason, a high school boy named J.J. went to sleep and didn't wake up for nearly 3 years. Someone else was awake in his place ...

~o~O~o~

Dr. Ramanathan – ‘Rama’, as he requested to be called – was sitting the next morning in the interview room with Nova.

“I’m ready to start the induction, Nova. Are you? You appear to be tense.”

“Ah, no. I’m not tense. That’s not the phrase for it; what would be more fitting? OH. I know – I’m SCARED SHITLESS. I can’t believe I’m submitting to this. You could really hurt me, you know?”

Rama’s left eyebrow raised high. “Explain.”

“You’re going to hypnotize me, right? How do I know you won’t put thoughts in my head like “forget Rio, forget Sabio, forget being a woman – you’ve got to become a boy named J.J. and spend your life in jail.” How do I know you won’t brainwash me? Or somehow put ME to ‘sleep’, like J.J. has been for nearly 3 years? Forgive me, but there’s only one male I trust – and since your name isn’t Sabio, then you aren’t him.”

“Let me allay your fears some, Nova.” Dr. Rama walked to the intercom. “Ask Mrs. Walsh to come in to this interview room, please.”

In two minutes, a woman in her mid-30’s walked in. She had striking red hair in a butch cut, and was dressed rough – army green T-shirt, fatigue pants, full arm tattoos, roughed-up cowboy boots and fingerless gloves. Yet on her lapel was an ID tag showing her as a staff member of the hospital. She came to the desk where the doctor and patient were and pulled up a chair, then plopped down into it.

Nova stared, confused. “Who are you? The hospital bouncer?”

“HA! I like you,” laughed the woman. “Name’s Nicki Walsh. I’m one of the two patient advocates here – that means I make sure all these other mooks here treat you right. Including the Chief Mook,” – she pointed to Dr. Rama.

“Oh yeah? Where were you when they tied me up for my last session with my Mom? Is that ‘treating me right’?”

“Damn straight, honey. Can’t have you jumping out of any more buildings. So, why was I called, Doc?”

“Hello, Mrs. Walsh. Nova is about to have her first hypnotherapy session. She’s worried that I’ll take advantage of her during that time. Perhaps you can reassure her that you’ll be on her side in this.”

“Sure. Tell me what specifically you’re afraid of, girlfriend.”

Nova repeated her concerns.

“I gotcha,” said Nicki. “Here’s what we’ll do. This session is gonna be taped and timed. After it’s over, they’ll give me the recording; I’ll check it for any sign that you were mistreated or given suggestions to brainwash you. If I see any, there will be hell to pay. And I’ll do a visit with you afterwards no matter what, to tell you what I did and didn’t see on the recording.”

Nova rolled her eyes. “You work here with Dr. Rama. You wouldn’t get him in trouble; you’ll just look the other way.”

“Tell that to Dr. Cunningham, the old medical director from 5 years ago. I caught him making sexual advances towards a patient; turned him in, got his license revoked. I’ve gotten a bad nurse’s aide and an LVN kicked out for harmful or unprofessional behavior. The staff knows not to do wrong to my patients, and corporate wants to keep me around because JCHAO – the national hospital accrediting company – likes my work here.”

“Everybody knows: you don’t mess around with Nicki,” Dr. Rama said.

“Okay. I feel better about this,” Nova sighed.

“Catch you later today, kid,” said Nicki as she exited.

~o~O~o~

Nova was soon a deep trance.. She sat in the small closed interview room. Dr. Rama was guiding her, and was video-recording the session.

“Nova, can you still hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Nova, I want you to try to rest. Sleep, if you can. I’m going to probe your consciousness to see if anyone else is there. I’ll give you a minute to relax.”

A minute passed. Rama resumed.

“I’m looking for J.J. Evarist. J.J., I’m a doctor. Please respond,”

Nothing.

“Okay. Is there anyone else living with J.J. and Nova? If so, please come out. I’d like to meet you. This is a safe place for you.”

Again, nothing – until half a minute had passed, then the young girl in the room began to pull up her knees to her chest, and wrapped her arms around her head. Her face contorted into a grimace, and she began a grunting, humming chant: “NNNnnnNNNnnnNNNnnnNNNnnnNNNnnnNNNnnn…”

Dr. Rama pushed a button, a silent signal for a nurse to come assist. Sue Holden RN arrived quickly.

“Come help me calm her,” Rama urged in a hushed tone.

The nurse gently stroked Nova’s arm as the doctor sat to the side, talking. “It’s going to be okay. You are in no danger. I’m a doctor, but I will only have women touching you. Do you have a name?”

The girl stopped chanting, but kept her eyes squeezed shut. Yet, there was another response: a slow, definite nodding of the head.

“You have a name. Can you tell me your name?”

A barely audible whisper came from the girl’s lips, not clear enough to comprehend.

“I’m so sorry, I could not understand that,” said Rama. “Can you repeat it, louder?”

The whisper answered, slightly stronger. “Meow.”

“Your name is … Meow?”

The girl’s head shook back and forth in a clear ‘no’.

“You sound like a kitty cat,” remarked nurse Holden. “Are you … a cat?”

Again, a ‘no’ response.

Dr. Rama ventured a guess. “Is your name Kitty?”

The head nodded emphatically.

Rama smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Kitty. You’re not much of a talker, are you?”

Head shake, ‘no’.

"How old are you, Kitty?" Rama was guessing that he might be dealing with a preschool aged alter. "Can you hold up your fingers to show me how many years?"

'Kitty' held up her ring, middle and pointer fingers on her right hand.

I don’t know how long we’ll have her with us, so I might as well jump into the deep questions, Rama mused. “Kitty. I have to ask you some hard questions now. Some of them may remind you of really bad things, and you not want to remember them. I need you to be very brave, and answer them if you can. Do you understand?"

Kitty nodded her head.

"I need to know the answers because other people may get hurt if I don't know them. I promise you will be safe here, and nothing bad will happen when you answer. Nurse Holden will be right with you, and we are going to protect you here. Will you help us, Kitty?"

There was no response at first; then, one single but firm nod of the head.

"Good girl. Okay, Kitty. Here we go. Do you remember a girl named Missy Renquist?'

Nod.

"Tell me: is Missy still alive?"

The head shook "no".

"Did someone kill Missy?"

Nod.

"Did you ... see them kill her?"

Nod.

"Can you tell me - or show me - what you saw?"

Kitty opened her eyes - they had been mostly closed since she'd appeared - and reached over to Rama's hand that held his ball point Mont Blanc he was writing with. She wrapped her fingers around the pen and tugged. Rama had mixed feelings about letting a patient have a sharp device, but allowed her to take it.

"Be careful not to hurt yourself, Kitty." Or us, he thought.

Kitty held the big pen in her hand as one would hold an icepick. She raised her arm, and then slammed the pen down onto the desktop, ball point first. She rapidly repeated this action over and over. Dr. Rama nodded to the nurse, who squeezed Kitty's upper arm, and rubbed it.

"That's good, Kitty. You can stop now."

Rama felt numb in realization of what they had just been told by the alter. He glanced up at the video monitor to make triple-sure that the red RECORD light was still on; of course, it was. He turned back to his patient.

"Kitty. Did YOU do that to Missy?"

Vigorous head shaking no.

"So it was someone else. Did you see who stabbed Missy?"

There was a long pause; then a nod.

"Do you know this person? Do you know their name?"

Nod.

The doctor and nurse glanced at each other, both aware of the gravity of what they were hearing.

"Please tell me that person's name, Kitty."

There was no response to that, even after patient waiting and repeating the question.

Blast. I’ll just stick to yes/no questions, thought Rama.

"Kitty. When Missy was stabbed, did something bad happen to you - your body - right before or after?"

The girl nodded; then pointed to her buttocks with her left hand.

"Someone touched you in a bad place, then. Missy - do you know what a 'rape' is?"

Multiple head nods.

"Are you saying - that someone raped you when Missy got murdered?"

Kitty's head nodded slowly, as a tear began running down her cheek.

"Is the person who raped you the same person who killed Missy?"

She started sobbing as she clearly nodded her head yet again.

The nurse held her breath in shock.

Hang in there, child. Just answer one more question, and I'll stop. “Kitty – can you whisper the name of that person to me?”

Kitty did not respond with a word or head movement. She was still and silent for a moment, then the humming came back –

“NNnnnNNNnnnNNNnnnNNNnnn…” – except it got louder and louder until it was almost a guttural scream, accompanied by increasing thrashing, so severe that Nurse Holden could barely maintain her in the chair.

Dr. Rama punched the intercom – “Bring me one of the shots!”

~o~O~o~

Becky and Bob Evarist arrived separately at Passages. Both had been called there urgently, so Becky came from a luncheon she’d been attending and Bob took off work. Bob walked up to his wife who was sitting on one of the waiting couches just outside of Dr. Rama’s office. Then the door to that office opened, and Dr. Rama stepped out.

“You’re both here! Excellent. Please come inside – I have significant news to report on your child’s case.”

“I hope it’s good news,” replied Becky. “Despite the progress you and I had with Nova yesterday, I’m starting to despair. I miss my J.J.”

“Come in, please, and sit down,” urged Rama.

Both parents entered, to an unexpected sight. There was Nova, sitting in a chair. She was in full head to toe restraints, though, and she was asleep, with her head leaning up against the back of the chair.

“What’s this?” barked Bob. “I thought I wasn’t allowed to be in her presence?”

“She’s currently sedated. I want to play the recording of this morning’s session for both of you.” Rama turned on the big monitor in the room.

Fifteen minutes later, the video ended.

Becky was agape. “Doctor – will we be able to find out more from her? From this Kitty alter?”

“I think it’s not only possible, I think it’s likely. And since we had a breakthrough with producing an alter other than Nova, it makes me hopeful that we can see J.J. soon. I had to sedate Kitty at the end there – you saw how she got – but sometimes an antipsychotic shot can stimulate the emergence of other alters. Maybe even the main personality – J.J.”

Bob snorted. “Forgive me for remaining a skeptic, but this is all pretty convenient for you, isn’t it? I put my foot down demanding results and voila’, major breakthrough! Why couldn’t you achieve this a week ago? And this Kitty ‘alter’ – she is fingering someone else for the murder, but that doesn’t prove anything. A good prosecutor is going to claim that J.J. is doing a hell of an acting job, all to garner sympathy and create reasonable doubt. Are we really any closer to J.J. coming back? It just seems like you’re producing more and more alters, and they’re getting weirder and weirder.”

Dr. Rama was crestfallen. “I thought you would be happy to see the progress.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” said Bob. “I’m happy to see anything happen at this point. I just don’t trust that it’s all real yet. I don’t trust this – this Nova person. If she really is a person, and not just some perverted imaginary thing. Hell, I don’t know what to believe anymore. Except this: I still think you, doctor, are a quack.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Bob,” said Rama, shaking his head.

Rebecca broke in. “Doctor – I’m so heartbroken today. That person over there is my son. My missing son! Yet, he’s somebody else. I miss my son. I miss him so much. When will I get my son back? Will I ever get him back?”

“Ma’am. I need your patience,” pled Rama. “This injection is in him, working; as soon as the sedation wears off, we’ll see if he returns to us. Don’t give up. I know how horrible this must-“

“Shut up. No. No you don’t. You DON’T know,” wailed Becky. “Unless you’ve been in my position – our position – you have NO idea about what we are feeling. And we’re not even the main victims here! Jacoby – my sweet J.J. – God, what horrors he’s gone through! I’m sorry; forgive my rudeness, doctor –“

Bob jumped in. “Don’t apologize to the quack. He doesn’t deserve it.”

Becky held her face in her hands. “Doctor … I must have J.J. back. I need my son.”
She then raised her head up. “Bob needs him too. We are living in hell right now, with J.J. being so close that we can touch him, yet this – this girl –“

“This IMPOSTER,” snarled Bob.

His wife resumed. “This stranger has taken over, and I don’t know her, and she refuses to leave! Doctor, put yourself in our position and tell us that we shouldn’t be hurting and fearful and angry and – and -” She stopped as she broke into tears.

Suddenly there was a scraping on the floor, a loud one, coming from the direction of the chair that Nova was in. The doctor and the parents all fell silent as they saw the child’s eyes open, and scanning the room. There was a new look on Nova’s face – one of bewilderment, disorientation. Yet, there was something familiar in that face; something Becky had not seen in nearly 3 years.

The mother’s heart jumped into her throat. “J.J.?”

The child looked at her, still confused and a little panicked. “M - Mom? What’s going on?”

Jacoby Jesse Evarist woke up.

~o~O~o~

Please refer to the last half of chapter 1 to see what happened immediately after this point in the story.

~o~O~o~

To be continued tomorrow.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to an actual person or situation is purely coincidental.

Thanks to cyclist, whose advise and editorial skills have elevated this tale to 100x better than it was when I submitted it to her. She is one of the shining stars of our community!

Thanks to JenaJumbled for the awesome picture.

If you've gotten this far, leave a comment! Don't make me reach through the screen and tweak your nose!

Thanks for reading! **Sigh**