Embers of Embers

Chapter 481 Schizophrenia
"So...how long has he been like this?"
The airtight office was filled with the smell of disinfectant. Lorenzo was sitting upright, and behind the desk in front of him was an old woman.
This is the temporary base of Black Mountain Hospital. They directly requisitioned some vacant houses in the old Dunling area and turned it into a hospital. However, although it is called a hospital, there are not many patients here. After all, most of the patients in Black Mountain Hospital have some problems. Yes, they are all located in suburban strongholds.
Lorenzo is currently in a stronghold that has little to do with demons, and relatively ordinary spiritual research is being conducted here, so it is actually no different from an ordinary hospital.
"So he's been like this since you've known him?"
She flipped through the diagnostic records, scribbling on them, and asking Lorenzo questions.
"Well... when I first met him, he was not like this. At that time, he knew clearly that Poirot's voice was just his hallucination, caused by a mental disorder caused by the shipwreck."
Lorenzo said and turned his head. There was a large window hanging on the other wall of the office. Behind the window was a white ward. Hercule was lying on the bed. He didn't know whether he was asleep or in a daze. , motionless, like a corpse.
"Then he had symptoms since then, but it was not triggered until your last action."
After the woman learned about it, she continued.
"I said, has he been like this lately?"
Lorenzo looked at Hercule with some worry. It could be said that it was because of him that Hercule became like this. As one of his few friends, Lorenzo would come to see him when he had nothing to do in the past few days. , and also at Lorenzo's request, Hercule was transferred here to receive the most formal treatment.
"Do you mean like a dead body? Pretty much, since we separated that chinchilla from him, the voice in his head has disappeared, and he's pretty boring by himself, just doing nothing, just laying there ”
The woman thought of something and continued.
"But don't worry, he is very good at entertaining himself. The last time I talked to him, he also told me that he was reminiscing about the past, and he has recalled the memory of six years old. He is very happy to be locked up here."
"Very happy?"
Lorenzo began to think that Hercule was truly mad.
"Yes, he said that he rarely had time to reflect on himself like this. Looking back at his past self, he has spent so many years in a hurry. Looking back now, he feels like he is looking at another person's memory, strange and frightened... He has some I can’t recognize myself in my memory.”
The woman raised her eyebrows. She didn't know how to describe this kind of thing. In her long career, this was the first time she encountered such an interesting case as Hercule.
"Sounds bad," Lorenzo said.
"Indeed, but it's normal. Everyone is like this. Under the baptism of time, they have changed beyond recognition. If you don't believe it, you can also look back at the past. Mr. Holmes, think carefully about your past. You You will find that you have become another stranger."
Facing the woman's words, Lorenzo fell silent. She was right. Sometimes Lorenzo would be shocked by this. The children who once wandered on the banks of the Tiber River could now turn into such terrifying monsters... ...It would be hard for anyone to believe this kind of thing.
"Lorenzo!"
A vague sound came from behind the window, and Hercule sat upright, threw himself in front of the window in a panic, and smashed the glass hard.
"Oh, the corpse has spoken. Do you want to talk to him?"
The woman asked seeing this.
"Open the door," Lorenzo said.
……
"Lorenzo! It feels so good to see someone you know!"
As soon as he opened the door, Hercule hugged Lorenzo. Judging from the strength of the hug and the tragic sound, Hercule was sincere this time.
"You look fine, alive and well."
Seeing that Hercule was so energetic, Lorenzo was not worried about him anymore. He was not going to die for the time being anyway. Lorenzo was thinking about whether he should go home now.
"Okay, so when can I leave, and where is Poirot?"
Hercule sat back on the bed and his attitude became bad.
"I feel like I'm a guinea pig here, being played around by these guys."
"You are indeed a guinea pig. If I hadn't strongly dissuaded you, you might have been sliced."
Lorenzo remembered how excited Dean Abigail was before. It can be said that the attitudes of these doctors worried Lorenzo the most. He was afraid that if he didn't take care of them one day, Hercule would be sliced.
Think about it, the ethics of these doctors are pitiful. They study monsters and humans every day. Many weapons against monsters were discovered from bloody experiments. If Lorenzo hadn't been defeated, Lorenzo would have felt He had long been pressed on the operating table and studied.
"It's not your fault!"
Hercule's voice grew louder, and every day he spent here made him regret his original decision more.
"Okay...so, the doctor said you were schizophrenic."
Lorenzo remembered what the woman said to him. After so many days of testing and diagnosis, they initially confirmed Hercule's illness. He was schizophrenic, and his consciousness was divided into Hercule and Poirot. That terrible Memory seems to be just a by-product of the disease.
"Me? How is this possible! It must be some kind of corrosive influence!"
Hercule couldn't believe it. He could only attribute the problem to erosion. He knew this. This thing could affect a person's consciousness.
"No, the erosion just triggered your illness."
A woman's voice sounded, and she walked in calmly with a notebook in hand.
"It would be better if Mr. Holmes is here so we don't need guards or anything like that to control him."
The woman looked at Lorenzo, then continued to speak to Hercule.
"Hercule, do you remember what you told us? Regarding the details of your shipwreck, you were lost on the sea and lived with a chinchilla. When you were about to die, you heard the chinchilla. Talking to you, the voice talks to you until you are rescued.”
Hercule was silent for a while, then nodded, confirming this.
The woman sighed helplessly.
"Don't you realize the problem yet? You had symptoms when you were shipwrecked, but you classified it as a hallucination. You also said that the chinchilla had died long ago and was dried into a mummy by the scorching sun.
The reason why you didn't have such symptoms later was because you recovered on your own... I can only guess this for the time being, after all, we can't pry your head open. "
"If you put it that way, I had been schizophrenic for a long time, but I recovered on my own and regarded Poirot's voice as an hallucination... So why do I have symptoms again now?"
asked Hercule.
"Didn't you say it? Corrosion, maybe it caused your illness again... and it is actually very simple to prove this."
The woman said and looked at Lorenzo and asked.
"Do you remember what I told you before? Mr. Holmes."
Lorenzo nodded, and then looked at Hercule with evil intentions, but Hercule didn't notice this at all. He probably never imagined that he would be betrayed by Lorenzo again in such a situation. .
This feeling is very subtle, as if it is already miserable like this, how much worse can it be?
Hercule was still too naive.
The woman clapped her hands, and the medical staff opened the door. They pushed a small cart and walked in. There was a cage on it. Only one side was covered with barbed wire, and the rest was sealed. It was dark and blurry inside, and it was difficult to see the details, but You can tell from the squirming shadow that there is a chinchilla trapped inside.
"Hercule!"
"Poirot!"
Poirot's voice sounded, and Hercule responded excitedly.
One person and one mouse, with tears in their eyes, it felt like they were reunited after the holidays. Unfortunately, this encounter did not last long. The woman suddenly stood up and took out a surgical knife from nowhere. The knife was thrust hard into the cage in front of Hercule.
Hercule was stunned. He could hear the sound of steel interlacing with each other. He could hear the chinchilla shrieking in the violent sharp sound, and then everything fell silent.
Poirot's voice disappeared.
"Fuck you!"
Hercule became furious, he raised his fist and was about to hit the woman, but was stopped tightly by Lorenzo, the demon hunter was so powerful that he controlled Hercule like a pincer, and he was powerless to do anything. Even though I struggled, I couldn't advance even half an inch.
"Calm down, Hercule," said Lorenzo.
"How can you tell me to calm down! That bastard killed Poirot." Hercule was furious.
The woman remained calm and said calmly.
"Hasn't Poirot already died once? It was the first generation. I just killed the second generation, so there will always be a third generation to replace it, won't it?
No, there are no generations at all, Poirot is yourself, another you, from beginning to end. "
"What did you say!"
shouted Hercule.
At this time, the woman stepped aside and exposed the cage at the back. She saw that the scalpel was stuck on the edge of the cage and did not hit the chinchilla at all. The chinchilla was hiding in the corner and shivering.
"Help, Hercule!"
Hercule could now hear Poirot's voice again, which softened his anger slightly.
"So I guess it's asking you for help?"
The woman smiled, but this smile became extremely terrifying in Hercule's eyes, no different from those monsters.
"Mr. Holmes."
The woman said and opened the cage, and Lorenzo wisely let go of Hercule.
Before the chinchilla could get out of the cage, Hercule rushed over, fished it out, and hugged it tightly, fearing that someone would snatch it away again.
"Hercule!"
"Poirot!"
There were two more friendly shouts. Of course, Lorenzo and the woman could only hear the Poirot shouted by Hercule. Seeing this, Lorenzo couldn't help but cover his eyes, feeling like he was witnessing a strange love. .
But like many people's love, it was beautiful at the beginning, but gradually changed its quality.
Hercule kneaded Poirot's comfortable fur affectionately, but soon he discovered that there was something wrong with the feeling.
"Poirot..."
Hercule said doubtfully, and at this time Poirot could not make any sound. It seemed to have turned back into an ordinary chinchilla, making no sound, and just staying in Hercule's house. In his arms, it was also at this time that Hercule discovered that this was not Poirot at all, but another chinchilla.
"what happened?"
Hercule was completely confused. The continuous ups and downs of emotions made it difficult for him to think about the current situation.
"Did you see it? Hercule, chinchillas are just a medium that guides the emergence of your 'Poirot' consciousness. When I 'killed' the chinchilla, you subjectively judged that Poirot was dead, so You couldn't hear it anymore, and when I showed you that the chinchilla was alive, you could hear it again.
And now, you realize that the chinchilla in front of you is not yours at all, and therefore Poirot disappears again. "
Hercule fell completely silent. In front of this real evidence, he could no longer refute anything.
"You are really sick, but the good news is that as long as that chinchilla does not appear in front of your eyes, the other consciousness will continue to sleep." The woman said.
"Why...why is this?"
Hercule could only believe what the woman said now, but he still couldn't believe that he had such a strange disease.
"The shipwreck made all this?"
"I'm afraid it's more than that. You have to know that normal people's schizophrenia will be very confusing, and they don't have super memory abilities... You are an extremely special case."
"What do you want to say?" Hercule asked.
"This probably has something to do with demons."
The woman picked up the case and flipped through it. There was a piece of paper sandwiched on top of it, which was a report from the cleanup agency.
"Do you still remember where you are?"
"I can't remember it clearly. It's strange to say it. I can remember everything clearly. Only the shipwreck is very blurry."
Hercule calmed down. He recalled the past. The past stories were so clear. Except for the shipwreck, it was as if an unknown force shrouded it, distorting its original appearance into a shape that was difficult to see. .
This time Hercule looked ready for treatment, becoming as calm and collected as Lorenzo had been when he first met him.
"Really? Then let me tell you. The purification agency investigated your past and found your flight route at that time. Based on the location of the accident and the direction in which you may have wandered, if nothing else...you wandered I arrived on the Silent Sea, and then floated out again through some shitty luck."
"Sea of ​​Silence?"
Hercule's expression changed, and it couldn't be said that it was fear or excitement, but it was very complicated, so complicated that he felt that his illness was not so important for a while.
"Yes, Ji Hai, looking at it this way, you have had at least two brushes with death."
the woman praised.
(End of this chapter)