Duality: The Darkness Within

First Session

Joseph Walker held the cigarette loosely between his lips. He pulled the ornately decorated lighter from his pocket. The graphic on it depicted a beautiful, well endowed woman in exaggerated Victorian getup. Walker's slim and bony fingers reached up to light the cigarette, then quickly pocketed the lighter. Tilting his head back and closing his eyes, he inhaled the toxic fumes.

Dr. Samantha Shepherd sat across from him, eying him and biting her pen. Despite her level of expertise as a psychiatrist, even more impressive given her age, she wasn't assigned very many cases. She had earned a reputation of apathy. She tended to treat patients not as humans but rather test subjects. This turned out to be ideal as Walker had proven to be rather... difficult with other doctors.

The two contrasted each other greatly. Despite Walker's insistence on wearing suits, he didn't wear them very professionally. The tie was always loose around the collar and the shirts he wore often displayed slight wrinkles. Dr. Shepherd, on the other hand, had found a perfect balance between beauty and professionalism. Walker's jet black hair stuck out in all directions while Dr. Shepherd drew her dirty blonde hair into a neat ponytail. She sat straight, upright, and attentive while Walker slouched and spread himself across the couch.

"Have you given it a name, Walker?" Dr. Shepherd asked attentively.

"No," Walker replied shortly. "Giving it a name would be acknowledging it, making it real."

"Oh, but I am real, Joseph," the voice echoed in Walker's head. It was a deep, dignified voice. Somehow both charismatic and monstrous. Walker shrugged it off.

"And when did you first start hearing it?" Dr. Shepherd asked with a kind of masked concern.

Walker didn't answer immediately. Instead he pulled out and lit another cigarette. He hated this. Shrinks pushed your buttons until they got the right response. It was a game. Nothing more.

"Right about the time I found my daughter's corpse."

There was no emotion in Walker's voice. There rarely was.

Dr. Shepherd was beyond irritation. They had been at this for weeks. Walker had carefully guarded himself during every session. No matter how hard she pushed, Walker remained a locked box.

She knew there was more. She had seen video footage from his room. Certain nights had shown him tucked into a corner, rocking himself back and forth, sobbing uncontrollably. Surprisingly, despite a career of chasing criminals and a damaged mental state, Walker never displayed so much as a hint of violence. Perhaps that was a good change of subject.

"Walker, anyone else in your situation would be prone to fits of violence. Why are you not?"

Walker only smiled at first. Then there was a little chuckle. It continued to increase until it became hysterical laughter. In his mind's eye, Walker saw the shrouded figure smiling at his momentary flint of madness. Walker quickly composed himself.

"It's simple really. Violence for the sake of violence suggests an inability to regulate one's emotions, a weakness. I refuse to allow myself to drop that far."

The session drew to a close and Walker went back to his room. Once there he began to hear it. He could call to a nurse for some pills but he preferred to handle it himself.

"I'd like to kill that woman," the voice he refused to name said.

"You say that about everyone."

"That's because every pitiful human on this planet deserves to die," the voice said with a cackle.

"None more so than you."

"You mean us?"

"No, I mean you."

"Don't be a fool. We are the same. Our desire to kill, to punish. No matter how much you hate me, you cannot deny that you share the same desires, the same resentment towards others. We are the same."

"I know..."