Linda
David sat in silence with Linda. The sadness he felt at hearing Jo tried to attempt suicide again and what had happened with her since was evident. Linda tried to explain it the best she could, but in truth, she was having a hard time with it herself. How could she explain? How could she explain that someone in the Collective was responsible for beating someone to within an inch of their life? What’s more, how could she explain that all that happened within? She knew to an outsider that didn’t make sense. She knew how that must sound to a non-multiple, albeit one as understanding as David.
“Do you know how Jo is?” he finally asked.
“I have no idea. I don’t even know where she is.”
David laced his fingers and absently tapped them together. He took a deep breath and, after letting it go slowly, he looked at Linda and said “I know you tend to minimalise things for my benefit. You try to protect me from things, from the truth.”
“It isn’t intentional, for the most part.” Linda said, although she knew what he said was true.
“Intentional or not, I would like you to be honest with me. What happened to Jo?”
“I told you. She tried to kill herself again, and Demise and Trudi managed to stop her.”
“Yes, but what happened in between them stopping her, and her being locked within?”
“I’m not sure what you’re asking.” Linda said, although she dreaded that she did, indeed, know.
David sighed, looking at Linda, saying “I think you do. I think you know what I am asking”. He knew he could push Linda further than he pushed many of the others. So leaning forward, he asked “Did Demise punish her?”
Linda looked down, unable to meet the doctor’s gaze.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he murmured. “How bad?”
How did Linda answer that? As good as David was, how could he ever understand what this was like? How could he fathom how a member can be physically attacked, all from within?
“Linda?” he prodded.
Linda felt herself being pulled back. Normally she could fight it, and being a stronger member, she probably would have been able to stay. But today she welcomed the fact she was fading and was being replaced by another member. Although she knew the violence happened, she didn’t like it and it left a bad feeling in her mouth. Whilst she was struggling to come to grips with it, she just didn’t feel she could cope with the conversation.
Sam
Shift, switch. “What the fuck, doc?”
David sat back in his chair, immediately noticing Linda was gone and Sam was in her place.
“Why the fuck are you pushing Linda?” Sam demanded, her eyes narrow and the fists balled up.
“I wasn’t aware I was pushing her too far. I apologise if she or you felt I was.”
“Well, I’m here, so obviously you were. Fuck, this is such bullshit!” Sam said, angrily turning the neck until it gave a satisfying crack.
“I apologise,” he said, looking chastened. “I didn’t mean to upset Linda.”
“Fuck doc, you know she doesn’t cope with all of this shit.”
“I apologise again. I am merely concerned about Jo.”
“Jo? Why the fuck are you concerned about her?”
David looked at her, meeting her steely gaze. “You know why I am concerned about Jo.”
Sam just glared at him, daring him to debate the issue of Jo being/not being a member of the Collective.
“Will Jo be ok?” David asked, gently.
“How the fuck should I know? And more to the point, why the fuck should I care?”
“Sam, I think you know more than you are saying. You know a lot about what goes on in the Collective, more than many of the others, I think.”
“Don’t blow smoke up my ass, doc. You know it’ll ruin my autopsy.”
“I am not blowing smoke, Sam. And I think you are deflecting.” David calmly replied with a raised eyebrow.
“You do, do you?” Sam met his gaze, defiantly.
Avoiding the confrontation, he merely asked “Will Jo be ok?”
“Jo will be fine,” Sam said, waving off his concern.
“Are you sure?”
“She needs to learn her place. She needs to learn the rules. Fuck, she put us all at risk, don’t you get that?”
“I do get that. I know where you are coming from. But the violence, is it really the answer?”
“Well she won’t fucking listen! She can’t do that, she’s gotta learn!” Sam’s voice was becoming more and more agitated as she spoke and her fists were clenched so tight the fingernails dug into the palms of the hands.
“And the only way she would learn that is by Demise beating her up?”
“Well, she didn’t listen the time before that, did she? Trudi wouldn’t let Demise do anything the last time other than smack her around a little and look what happened. She went out and tried it again, the stupid fuck.”
David sighed, obviously frustrated. He seemed to be going over the same ground again and again, yet getting nowhere fast.
Inner Life
As with many multiples, the Collective had an area within where the members could go when they were not out front. For the Collective this was a house and, as hard as it is for non-multiples to fathom, it was as real to them as Jo’s house out front. Most of the Collective could describe the house down to fine details and David was one of the few who had been allowed to hear about the house and how it functioned. It was a source of fascination for him, not only that they had this inner house but also how elaborate in detail it was and what they could do when they were there.
The inner house design is one from a bygone era, one that would have been built around the early 1900s. It has a wide hallway down the middle, with rather threadbare and worn carpet throughout that would probably be called a dusky pink. There are faded images of large white roses and green leaves scattered over in an almost sporadic fashion.
The first room on the right is a library/reading room with floor to ceiling bookshelves and comfy seats placed around the room. Just past this doorway, but on the left side of the hall is the dining room which has a large wooden table down the centre with bench seats. There is also a seat under a bay window which seems to be permanently bathed in sunlight. Off this is the kitchen, a fairly small space yet containing plenty of cupboards, which are a faded yellow with blue trim.
Farther down the hall on the left was a meeting room with plenty of seats for them all, and on the other side another hall which led to the teens and the littles area.
Linda, Jordan and Toni were seated at the table in the dining room within, sipping a cup of tea each. Sam arrived after the doctor’s appointment and made a coffee for herself, before plonking herself down opposite them.
“What I don’t get is why Demise didn’t step in before it got that far. At the very least she should have been aware and grabbed Jo and fucking reefed her inside. I mean, she’s done it before, so why the fuck didn’t she do it this time?” Sam wasted no time in getting to the heart of the matter.
The protectors of the Collective worked in levels of defence. Firstly there was Jordan, who was often called upon to set an outsider straight, to make it clear that ‘she’ would stand up for the Collective, but