Page 3 of Echoes From Within
Venom
Ghost:Get your asses over here. There’s someone here who is asking for help.
Steel:Help for what?
Ghost:No idea. He just said he needs help. I’m having him wait until you all get here to tell me what it is he wants. So, hurry the fuck up.
Blaze:Yeah, yeah. We’re on our way.
Shoving my cell back into my pocket, I look at my brother, the President of the Obsidian MC, and raise my brows.
“What?” he says. “Those two always take their time getting here.”
He’s not wrong. Steel and Blaze are rarely apart and are always the last ones getting here. Even with Ghost sending out the message in our group chat, we’re still going to have to wait at least ten minutes before they walk through the door.
Viper is currently with his new bride, Bitsy, visiting her family. Lucky bastard.
I look over at the man who came asking for help. He’s sitting in one of the chairs in the office anxiously looking at his phone.
“He looks nervous,”Miles observes.“Well, more like exhausted. Almost as if he hasn’t slept in weeks.”
“Maybe I should front and check him over,”Doc suggests.
“Probably wouldn’t be a good idea,”Xander tells him. “It’s always easy to tell when you’re the one fronting.”
“Will you guys shut the fuck up?”I tell the voices in my head.“I can’t focus right now with all of you pulling my attention.”
Sometimes having Dissociative Identity Disorder is a good thing. When things get emotionally overwhelming, all I have to do is take a step back and let either Doc, Xander, or Miles take over. But that doesn’t happen all that often these days.
When I was five years old, I watched my mother raped and my father killed only to be left alive to deal with the aftermath. My mind shut down to try and protect itself and in place of me, it created other personalities, or alters, that could easily deal with the situation.
It didn’t happen immediately. Actually, the firstalterdidn’t even show up until I was in high school. That was Doc. Xander and Miles came along shortly after, though.
Typically, when a person has DID and one of thealtersfronts, or takes control, the person isn’t aware of it until they regain control of their mind. Almost as if they’ve developed amnesia. While thealteris in control, they have absolutely no memory of what they did.
They know thealtersare in their head, but they can’t communicate with them.
I have the type of DID where I have strong communication and co-consciousness when it comes to myalters.I can hear them, I can see them in my mind, I can feel their own individual emotions.
I have some semblance of control when it comes to whofrontsand when. I can’t always control it, though. Xander has a powerful mind and if he wants tofrontthere isn’t a damn thing I can do to stop him. Luckily, those instances only happen when he knows he’s the best man for the situation that we’re in. Even then, he tells me what he’s about to do.
When I’m not in control I can either sit back and watch through my eyes as myalterslive their moments, or I can just cease to exist until I’m ready to take back control.
It’s a complicated system. But, if Doc, Xander, and Miles were to disappear, I don’t think my mind would be able to handle it. I’m grateful for all three of them.
“Your eyes are out of focus again, brother. Are you still with us?”
Colt, our only prospect says as he flops down beside me. A prospect is someone who is seeking to become a full-fledged member of the club. The probationary period lasts a year, longer if the president thinks it’s required. Colt is one month out from being patched in.
“He’s still Venom,” Pops says from another seat.
“How can you tell?” Colt asks.
“It’s the eyes,” Ghost answers. “His eyes, the way he watches people, is vastly different than any of his alters.”
“You do know that I’m in the room, right?” I ask. “Anyway, Colt, why are you here? This is a board members meeting only.”
“I just came to deliver a message from King.”