Obsessions

  • 18 Apr - 24 Apr, 2020
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction

While we were walking, I saw David standing on the footpath. I saw that Victoria was busy on her cell phone, so I simply asked her to excuse me for a few minutes and then, I went towards David and asked him,

“How did you get here? Did you follow me?”

“Why do you hate me so much?”

“Because you’re screwing with my mind. Tell me why are you trying to ruin my life?”“Am I?”

“Yes, you were the one who started this entire mischief.”

“Who gave you the idea of working on this documentary?” he asked me.

“You did,” I answered.

“No, try to remember, it wasn’t me.”

“Oh please, I would obviously remember the person who gave me extraordinary ideas,” I said with sarcasm.

“I can prove it to you that it wasn’t me who planted this idea in your head, in the first place. I only aggravated it.”

“Then, who was it to plant this idea?” I asked.

I turned and saw that Victoria was shooting our video from her phone.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Who is this guy you are talking to?”

“David McIntyre.”

She kept her phone back in her purse and started walking. I left David and followed her.

“Can we begin?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“Have you ever heard of a split personality disorder?”“Uh, no.”

“Well, it is a disease in which a person forms a separate identity. In this disease a person has two separate personalities, they switch with time. At one time, the person is under control of one identity and the other time, the person lives in another.”

“Oh, so why are you sharing this with me?”

“To be concise, there is one brain but two minds. Two separate personalities. The patient is usually unaware of his other separate identity. He talks to himself. He sees hallucination of his other half, also known as his alter. In your case, it is David.”

“Wait, you are saying that I am suffering from this disease?”

“Wait, let me explain…”

“No, you are telling me that David is not real and just an imaginary figure?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll prove it to you.”

“You better,” I answered getting edgy.

“I want you to first of all, agree with me on this, that you are not a normal person. You are psychologically ill.”

I stopped walking and so did she. I stood for a while and gave her my opinion,

“I don’t agree with you. Yes, I am a little mentally disturbed but not psychologically ill.”

“We should not stop like this. Let’s keep on walking.”

So, as we were walking she began her point by saying,

“I can prove it to you that you are not mentally stable. Tell me what is your name?”

I was speechless as before.

I appeared quite confused before her and she responded by asking,

“Did I ask you a difficult formula or an equation?”

“No.”

“Tell me what sane person appears confused while he is asked about his identity.”

“I don’t know, yesterday I found the name David on my identity card. David claims that I have stolen his identity, and I think he’s right.”

“No David, no! That guy is not real. He exists only in your mind as a hallucination. Trust me, David McIntyre, the guy you know doesn’t even exist. You do, your name is David McIntyre.”

“So my imaginary friend has the same name as mine?” I asked.

“Yes, of course. I have consulted plenty of patients.

I have seen people confusing their identities with their imaginations.”“Oh, really?”

“Mocking me won’t help your case, trust me you are talking to yourself when you think that you are talking to David.”

That instant, I remembered how David used to say the same thing.

David asked me when I was sitting alone at the restaurant,

“Why are you feeling sorry for yourself?” I responded him,

“Oh, so it’s you! What are you doing here?”

“I’m listening to you, talking to yourself.”

I then, came back to the present moment and asked Victoria,

“Can you prove it to me now?”

She took out her phone and said,

“I was expecting this reaction, so I was prepared for this.”

I was curious as to what she might show me. She handed over the phone to me and said,

“Watch this video.”

As I watched the video, I was brutally surprised to see the video of a while ago. According to the video, when I was talking to David, he wasn’t even there. It was like, if I was talking to an invisible ghost.

I had no other option but to agree with her, so I responded,

“Okay, but can you tell me the cause. I mean why did my mind form a separate identity?”

“Yes, that is a reasonable question now. Well, you know when a patient suffers a serious trauma in his life, he gets through severe pain, an emotional one. So this is your case, you faced a serious breakdown when your family died. You were guilty about it, and as an outcome, your mind formed a separate personality that shared the same name

as yours.”

“Oh, my God! I wish, I could believe it.”

“I’m telling you the truth,” she said with confidence, “The first time we met. What were my intentions? My intentions were nothing more than finding the truth about your psychological stability.”

“But, I was a stranger to you right?”

“Actually no, I lied to you back then. I knew you were David McIntyre like everybody else knew. I even knew about your social media issue. But as I heard you calling out your own name, I got curious and decided to get involved in your life.”

I shut my eyes and remembered the time we met at the bus stop.

David, David, David. I was speaking in a low voice.

“Excuse me?” she said to me.

I turned and looked at her. She said as I turned to her,

“You were saying something?”

I answered her nicely,

“No, I was just calling out this name, David.”

“David?” she asked with an expression of curiosity.

“Yes, David McIntyre.”

“David McIntyre?” she repeated with an expression of astonishment.

“Yes, why is that surprising?”

“No, I’m just, I’m just curious to know who this David McIntyre is.”

I now understood, why she was astonished on something I had no clue of back then. I opened my eyes.

“Why didn’t you just tell me back then?”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t. I wanted to examine you closely.”

“Well whatever, that wasn’t quite ethical of you.”

“I know, but I will help you out of this. I promise you, I will find a way to cure your disease.”

“Okay, well I think you’ve made your point. Now shall we go home?”

“You mean my place?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“Sure, if that’s how I can make it up to you.”

“No, this is not enough.”

“I know, I know, I’m just making a conversation.”

Minutes later, as the two of us were seated inside her room, she showed me a video on YouTube. As she played the video, I watched myself speaking in that video,

“Today, I’m going to disclose the truth before you. I am going to tell you the reality of this show Obsessions. This show Obsessions is not a reality show, I swear upon God this is a scripted show just for the sake of ratings and views.”

To be honest, I was more than shocked when I heard myself talking like this.

Oh, my God! I whispered.

I don’t even remember this.

She paused the video seeing an agitation in me. I said to her,

“Well, I guess you were right. Now everything makes sense.”

“It’s not over yet,” she said regarding the video.

“I don’t want to watch

it anymore.”

For a moment there was silence between us.

I remembered my conversation with my team member days back,

“Tell me the truth, have you leaked this news?” I asked.

“Excuse me? You’re blaming me for what happened?”

“Just answer me, did you or did you not leak this news?”

“I think you have gone crazy. Have you even watched the video.”

“What video are you talking about?”

The video, of course. So, this was the video my worker was talking about. I then, looked back at the paused video on the laptop. I answered my own question,

“So, this video was the one that they all had seen already. Except for myself.”

“Do you need anything else for confirmation?” she asked.

I didn’t answer her and slowly began to realise how people used to claim that I had lost my mental stability and they were undoubtedly right.

When I inquired that actress about who leaked the video, she answered,

“I think, you’re insane,” she exclaimed and hung up the phone.

So, in front of that actress, I was talking to her about myself. Well, this obviously made me look stupid.

Victoria finally distracted me by speaking up,

“There must be several questions in your head. And now they are all being answered, aren’t they?”

I nodded my head.

The question that had always bothered me appeared before me and I answered it myself,

How David entered inside my house without even knocking? The answer is he was already inside the house whenever

we met.

“Can we come to the cure now?” Victoria asked me.

“Sure,” I replied without even looking at her.

She took out her writing pad and started writing something.

I was sitting hopelessly, this cure that she was suggesting wasn’t really cheering me up, so as she handed it over to me,

I simply stood up and left her house without even thanking her.

On the way to my apartment, I found a bottle of petrol on the road. Someone was fixing his car all by himself. Without even letting him know, I picked up the bottle and walked towards my house. It had been a long journey since, I hadn’t taken a can or anything.

Two hours later, when it was half past seven, I poured the entire petrol on my body. The burning candle light was right in front of me on a table nearby. I had decided to end this suffering once and for all. As I threw the bottle aside, I heard my cell phone ringing; it was a call from the producer. I answered his call after checking the caller id,

“Hello?”

“Hey David, so have you considered my offer?”

“For the first time ever you have mentioned my name,” I said bluntly.

“What?” he got confused.

“Nothing.”

“Anyways, tell me have you considered my offer?”

I had no answer. I was really confused as to how I should respond to an offer that had some hope. But, he changed my mind and gave me some confidence as he said,

“I promise you, this project will boost up your career.”

The signals were probably week, so the call got disconnected. As a matter of coincidence, that very moment I received a text message from Victoria that gave me even more hope.

I read it,

“These tablets will end your hallucinations for sure. The evil David will be out of your life for sure.”

Oh, my God! I wondered. What if life is giving me some hope? Maybe I should not commit suicide.

I somehow slipped over the petrol and fell down. My phone fell on the sofa that was behind me. Now, I was in such a dangerous position that I could literally die. The candle might fall and burn me as it was right on the edge of the table.

My life was turning towards

a better direction.

My hallucination was about to get cured and my career was destined to boost up again,

if only I could jump out of the situation that I had created for myself.

I could only think of one thing and that was turning off the fire by blowing air towards it or spitting over it. How good I could aim, was what mattered now.

v v v

Six Weeks Later

My life had changed entirely.

I had survived all the dangers and was finally working on my career. I hadn’t seen David the imaginary figure for quite a long time now and no one in the film industry knew about my psychological disorder. I had been taking my pills regularly and was soon to be cured completely.

One day, I was standing next to Robert at a film premier. The photographers were taking our pictures. I said to him,

“I can’t believe that I’m still famous. We haven’t even started working on the movie, and yet the TV channel reporters are interested for this.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Think about how famous we would be when the movie would be released. Today, we are guests at someone else’s movie premier. Soon we will be hosts to our own movie’s premier.”

and yet the TV channel reporters are interested for this.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Think about how famous we would be when the movie would be released. Today, we are guests at someone else’s movie premier. Soon we will be hosts to our own movie’s premier.”

“Oh, dear! That would be so great.”

The photographers were giving us so much respect that I felt grateful for my life. I remembered my Brother Jonah’s words,

Life is a novel. You don’t necessarily need to move to the next chapter, if you are really enjoying the current chapter.

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