//------------------------------// // Me, Myself, and Maybe Someone Else? // Story: All Smoke, No Mirrors // by Jinzou //------------------------------// I could feel my heart skip a beat and my mind fill with static. I sat there quietly, staring into space and thinking of nothing, until those two words appeared in my mind. Oh fuck. And just with that my mind exploded with questions. What was going on? Did I just steal the body of this kid? Were the moments I lose control of my own body her taking back over? How had I even gotten into this situation? I took a second to pause and think about how Sunny must be feeling. She was a scared little kid. What would happen if this was my little brother in this situation? What would I ask for- "Your sister…" I asked aloud. "Has she ever abused you?" There were several tense moments of silence. "What does abuse mean?" Sunny finally asked. "Hurt you, physically or emotionally. Has she ever hit you?" "Wh- No. Of course not. Why would she do that?" Sunny replied in a stronger tone. "She's my sister, she loves me!" I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Then why did you… uh, we, react like that?" "That's um, kind of a long story." Sunny returned to her quiet tone. Okay, this little kid is not being abused. That's the big important thing out of the way. Now to figure out what the fuck is happening. "Uh, okay. Well, that aside…" I paused to think. How do you even start a conversation in this situation? "My name is Jenny. I have no idea how I got here, and had no idea there was another… consciousness in this body. I'm…" The realization of what I had done to this body felt like a slap in the face when I realized I'd been taking a child along on the adventure. Just in twenty-four hours I could be charged with kidnapping, reckless endangerment, emotionally abusing, assaulting, and drugging a minor. But forget the charges, think of the state of mind this kid must have, having somebody else control her body during all that. "Jesus, Sunny. I'm really sorry. Uh, I don't exactly know what's going on, but can I make things better?" I mean I always knew I was not a good person, and kind of an asshole, but this was… Fuck. I felt like pure scum. "You just woke." She replied quietly. My mind filled with static again. "I… uh, we? We've been awake for at least an hour." "No." She spoke in that mysterious, strong, but quiet tone. "Not woke up. Woke." Well, I hijacked a kid's body, endangered her, and here she was all calm sounding. Maybe I was inhabiting the mind of a crazy person. “You call yourself Jenny? That’s a strange name.” Oh alright, that's one way to respond. "Uh, yeah." I said slowly. “Why did you hurt us?” Sunny asked, still with a calm tone. "I…" My words died in my throat. "Pain can be used to overcome fear?" “Oh. So… whenever we're scared we should hurt ourselves?” And alarms are ringing. Great. "No, that's not… uh…" I stammered. "No! That's a terrible idea!" “Why did you do it then?” Sunny asked in a tone that betrayed nothing but pure curiosity. "That's… also a long story. Why are you so calm about this? If I had somebody else in my head controlling my body I'd be freaking out." Sunny hummed softly. "You're not my first imaginary friend." I think it was about this point a neuron misfired in my brain. "...What?" I managed after several moments. Sunny’s hum turned cheerful. “I've had lots of imaginary friends! They all protect me and take care of me! Even if they woke in a bad time!" "Do... your imaginary friends usually control your body?" I hesitated. "Of course!" I could feel Sunny's smile somehow. "They started appearing after mom died. Like, there was one that liked being called 'Orange'. He was always joking around and playing pranks. One time he misbehaved and shaved a bit of the tuft of hair at the end of our tail off my sister and made it look like she had a mustache! And then he went away, like the others... And then there wa-" "Waitwaitwait," I interrupted. "You've had other voices in your head that could do everything I can?" "Yeah." Sunny replied sadly. "But every time it happened somebody in my family brought me to the village shaman, and she did some sort of magic to me, and they disappeared. I always missed them, but Smoky said it was okay because they weren't real. I hung pictures of them in the front area of our mind room." I stood still for a few moments trying to process what she said. "But..." Sunny hesitated. "Maybe Smoky will let me keep you. You're the first imaginary sister I had. The rest were boys and a little too rough and tumble for me." “What do you mean by ‘mind room?’” I asked stupidly. "Oh." Sunny replied simply. "One sec." With another head rush I found myself… well, in a room. I found I could look around, but the body's eyes stayed fixed. This room had a wooden floor, a table with four chairs, and pink wallpaper. On the wall I had been looking at, there was what looked like one of those old projector screens you'd see in a classroom in middle school or high school. It was showing a POV shot of what I was just seeing through the body's eyes. The adjacent wall to the left had three framed pictures of different creatures. Two were kirin, one looking just like Sunny with shorter eyelashes, a much shorter mane, and blue eyes. One had a dark orange coat, a dark brown mane, and forest green eyes, also with smaller eyelashes. The other was a frog. In order, the pictures were labeled "Orange", "Melody", and "King". The other two walls were blank, save the wallpaper, and the ceiling had an expensive looking glass chandelier that looked completely out of place. "Where am I?" I asked. "The mind room, silly!" Sunny announced. "And you can watch what our body is doing, see?" I turned back to the screen to see Sunny looking around the hospital room, then waving the unbroken forearm in front of her eyes. All I could tell is I felt weak. There was too much to unpack here. I reached out for one of the chairs so I could sit down and catch my breath, just to notice that it wasn't a hoof that touched the chair. It was a hand. Attached to an arm. My arm. I had that one white birthmark that looked kinda like an eight. That was definitely my arm. I looked down. I had my body. I had the purple t-shirt and blue jeans I last remembered wearing. "Ooh, what do you look like?" Sunny asked excitedly. "I can't see when I'm in front." I quickly sat, holding my head in my hands and struggling to control my breathing. I wondered if you could throw up in this mind room, and how difficult it would be to clean. “Are you okay Jenny?” "Am… wh-" I wheezed. "Am I okay? Is this fucking normal for you!?" "Hey, don't swear!" Sunny protested. "Smoky hates that! And no. Normally I'd have… Orange… and King." Watching through the screen I could see tears start to appear in her eyes. Dammit, the tears of children. My one weakness. "Woah woah, hey." I interrupted. "I didn't mean to make you sa-" I felt another rush as I found myself out of the room, and back in control of her body. "Sunny?" I called out. "...Sunny?" No response. Okay, she was either gone for now or ignoring me. So… different people, or kirin, or whatever, all in one head, all able to control the body. All distinct personalities. I had a feeling I might know what this was. And if I was right, I was in way over my head. Not only was it me, a jaded asshole with a slight drinking issue in the body of this little girl, but she already seemed to trust me. And if the other… identities were already removed, then that means… I hit the call nurse button. "Dissociative Identity Disorder?" Sweetheart repeated slowly. "What do you know about that?" "I know that I'm a danger to Sunny, and that's the only important thing."