Chapter Four :
Chapter Title : A Coward For A Brother
Three days passed, but still nothing changed.
Annalisa barely spoke. She ate only when someone placed food in front of her.
Sometimes she stared out the window for hours.
Other times she simply slept.
The doctors filled page after page with observations uet no one could explain her condition.
Then...
On the fourth morning...
A loud crash echoed down the hallway.
A metal trolley had tipped over. The sound exploded through the silent ward.
Inside Room 17...
Annalisa's body froze, her breathing stopped. For a single heartbeat everything was still.
Then.
"NO!!"Her scream ripped through the hospital. It wasn't the scream of someone in pain.
It was the scream of someone reliving hell. She clutched her head with both hands.
"No..."
"No..."
"Don't..."
Her entire body trembled violently, tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
The doctors and nurses rushed into the room.
"Hold her!"
Before anyone could reach her, her eyes landed on the glass of water beside the bed.
Without hesitation...
She grabbed it.
The glass shattered against the floor.
She picked up one of the jagged shards.
The guards immediately raised their weapons.
"Drop it!" But Annalisa didn't hear them.
Her terrified eyes weren't looking at the guards...
They were looking at someone else.
Someone only she could see.
"Eliora..." Her voice cracked.
"Run..."
"Please..."
"Run..."
She stumbled backward until her back hit the wall. She shard shook violently in her trembling hand.
"No..."
"You promised..."
"You promised we'd always stay together..."
The room fell silent, even the guards hesitated there wasn't rage in her eyes.
Only unbearable grief.
Then...
She suddenly turned toward the nurse.
Her pupils widened.
"No..."
"They're going to kill you too..."
She lunged and the nurse screamed before Annalisa could reach her, three guards tackled her to the ground.
The shard slid across the floor.
She struggled wildly.
"KILL THEM!"
"LIORA, RUN!"
"I SAID RUN!"
Her screams echoed throughout the ward.
The doctor quickly grabbed a syringe.
"Sedative!"
The needle plunged into her arm.
Seconds passed and ber movements became weaker.
Her voice faded into broken whispers.
"Liora..."
"I'm sorry..."
"I was too late..."
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
Then...
Silence.
Her body went limp and with it the room remained deathly quiet.
No one spoke no one dared moved.
The oldest doctor slowly removed his glasses.
His expression was heavy.
"...Clear the room."
The doctor looked through the observation window at the unconscious woman.
"...Call the psychiatric board."
"This case is beyond me."
The observation room was silent.
Beyond the thick glass, Annalisa sat on the edge of her bed.
Her wrists rested quietly on her lap.
Her head was lowered. She once again looked harmless.
Three psychiatrists stood in front of a table covered with reports.
One of them adjusted his glasses.
"Patient number seventeen."
"Female."
"Twenty-three years old."
"Observed for four days."
He closed the file.
"Present your findings."
The youngest psychiatrist stepped forward.
"Catatonic episodes."
"Emotional detachment."
"Flashback-induced violence."
"Periods of childlike regression."
He hesitated.
"...None of it follows a predictable pattern."
Another psychiatrist nodded.
"I've never seen symptoms shift this quickly."
One moment...
She behaved like a frightened child.
The next like a trained soldier.
Then...
Like someone carrying unbearable grief.
The oldest psychiatrist continued reading.
"Interesting..."
"Very interesting..."
"We'll try one last assessment."
A nurse entered the room carrying another chocolate bar, she smiled gently.
"Anna..."
"I brought your favorite."
No response she unwrapped it.
The sweet scent filled the room.
Slowly...
Annalisa lifted her head.
Her eyes followed the chocolate.
Like a curious child.
The nurse smiled.
"There you are."
She held it out.
Annalisa accepted it carefully with both hands.
"...Thank you."
She looked happy.
The psychiatrists scribbled notes.
The nurse sat beside her.
"Can you tell me your name?"
A long silence.
Then—
"...Anna."
"And how old are you?"
Silence.
"I..."
"...don't remember."
"Do you know where you are?"
She slowly looked around.
"...Home?"
The nurse's smile disappeared.
She wrote another note.
Hours later...
The psychiatrists gathered once more.
Stacks of reports covered the desk.
The oldest doctor finally spoke.
"I believe we've reached a conclusion."
Everyone looked toward him, he removed his glasses.
"What we're witnessing isn't ordinary trauma."
He paused.
"The mind has protected itself..."
"...by fragmenting."
Silence.
He continued.
"Different emotional states."
"Different memories."
"Different responses."
"They're beginning to function almost like separate identities."
Another psychiatrist slowly nodded.
"It explains everything."
"The child."
"The grieving woman."
"The silent patient."
"The violent survivor."
"They aren't random."
"They're all coping mechanisms."
The room fell completely silent.
Finally...
The oldest psychiatrist signed the report.
"I'll make it official." He placed his pen down.
"Patient Annalisa Laurel..."
"...is suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder."
The sound of the pen echoed through the room.
No one questioned the diagnosis.
No one doubted it.
No one...
Except the woman sitting alone inside Room Seventeen. Yhe room became quiet once more.
The lights dimmed.
Outside...
The guards changed shifts.
Inside...
Annalisa slowly finished the last piece of chocolate.
She looked toward the observation camera completely expressionless.
Then...
So small that no camera could possibly notice...
The corner of her lips lifted.
A smile.
Not the smile of a broken woman.
The smile...
Of a hunter
The psychiatric report was sealed.
CASE CLOSED.
*******
Years passed.
Spring became summer.
Summer became winter.
Winter gave way to spring once more.
The seasons changed again...
And again.
Yet Room Seventeen never changed.
The woman inside remained exactly the same.
She rarely spoke, rarely smiled, rarely looked anyone in the eye.
To the doctors she was a good patient and to the guards she was a prisoner.
Eventually...
They stopped fearing her.
That was their greatest mistake.
Five Years Later...
Rain tapped gently against the barred window.
Inside Room Seventeen...
A woman lay motionless on a narrow bed.
Her once-short hair now cascaded past her waist. The scars on her wrists had long since faded.
Only her eyes remained unchanged. It was still cold, patient. And waiting.
Five years. One thousand, eight hundred and twenty-six days.
Not once, did she attempt to escape not because she couldn't but because wasn't time yet.
The steel door unlocked aman stepped inside.
Unlike the nurses...
Unlike the doctors...
He wore a tailored black suit, he wasn't here to examine her.
He was here...
To deliver a message.
"...Lady Laurel."
Silence.
Annalisa didn't even look at him.
"Master Liam sent me."
Nothing.
Then...
For the first time in several days...
She spoke.
"I thought..."
"...he was dead."
The man swallowed.
"He survived."
Silence once more
Then a laugh came small, soft, cold but empty
"So..."
"He ran."
The room suddenly felt several degrees colder. The messenger unconsciously took a step backward.
"He wishes to meet you."
Still facing the ceiling, Annalisa asked,
"Why?"
"He needs your help."
For several long seconds nothing happened.
Then Annalisa slowly sat up.
Her movements were calm.
Graceful.
Nothing like the frightened girl from years ago, she lowered her feet to the floor.
Looked directly into the messenger's eyes.
"And why..."
"...should I help a man who abandoned his family?"
The messenger froze.
Without realizing it...
He had just awakened something that should have remained asleep.