Valley Hill Mental Hospital

Psychiatrist: Dr. William Branton

Patient: Marcus DeWitt

Date:14 Mar

Prep Notes:

This weekend was great. Katie and I were out looking for cribs and other baby things to start filling our home with. We have a room picked out that we are going to convert to a nursery so I have already starting moving things out of there. Once we find out the gender she will pick out the paint and we can get started decorating. Until then it's all gender neutral stuff.

After pulling out and reviewing Mr. DeWitt’s file, he seems to be having a much harder time since the hypnotherapy. While my other patent became less energetic, Mr. DeWitt has been having more and more outbursts and even attempted to harm himself a few more times. As of now he is being permanently restrained to the point that the staff is having to feed him. It is quite frustrating because the therapy was supposed to help but seems to have done more harm that good.

He is also known to go on near unintelligible rants. Occasionally he has to be sedated to calm him down. He is certainly deteriorating and becoming worse, so I hope I can get through to him today.

When reviewing the other similar cases mentioned previously this was the path that many went down prior to an early death. These deaths were a mixture of suicide, self defence by someone the patient was attacking, or simply unknown causes. One strange case stated the patient was in isolation and under surveillance and yet drowned. The individual’s lungs were filled with seawater and nobody could explain it.

Well, I have no concerns about Mr. DeWitt drowning. However there are still numerous concerns about him still.

Meeting Minutes:

Note that an orderly wheeled Mr. DeWitt into my office in a wheelchair and straitjacket. I checked and he had been given a half dosage of a sedative prior to our meeting so that he would be calm enough to make some kind of progress.

Myself: Mr. DeWitt, how are you today?

Mr. DeWitt: His head is drooped and he is looking towards his lap. I’ve been better.

Myself: I understand, and I am here to help. So can you tell me about the problems you have been having recently?

Mr. DeWitt: The sound is getting worse Doctor.

Myself: How so? Can you explain it?

Mr. DeWitt: It is occuring more frequent. It is louder. And there are even other sounds mixed into it now.

Myself: Other sounds?

Mr. DeWitt: Yes. Now I can hear people screaming as the sound gets closer. It is as if the sound is chasing someone and they are trying to outrun it. The banging gets faster and the screaming gets louder. The booming gets louder and the screaming turns into shrieking. By the end of it I am in so much pain I cannot tell my own screams from the ones I hear. And then abruptly all the sounds stop. No more screaming. No more banging. But my pain is still there.

Myself: And this got worse after the hypnotherapy?

Mr. DeWitt: Yes. Well, yes and no. The therapy helped me recall some details of that first night. But I think it is because I have a better understanding of the events that it has gotten worse.

Myself: Can you elaborate?

Mr. DeWitt: Doctor, have you ever forgotten something?

Myself: Of course, all the time.

Mr. DeWitt: What was something you forgot recently?

Myself: Well, this weekend I went shopping with my wife and I forgot my wallet at home.

Mr. DeWitt: Chuckling I bet your wife wasn’t happy about that.

Myself: I certainly got an earful. Luckily I keep a spare credit card in the car so I just used it instead.

Mr. DeWitt: So how did you forget?

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Myself: I just got caught up trying to get everything together and it slipped my mind.

Mr. DeWitt: But can you pinpoint the very moment that you forgot your wallet?

Myself: That’s hard to say. Looking back on it I can remember when I last told myself to get my wallet, and then I can remember a specific point where I had completely forgotten. But the point where I actually forgot? That would kind of be paradoxical.

Mr. DeWitt: Exactly. And let's say that right now you had forgotten something. Your keys, an anniversary, anything. How would you know?

Myself: That's the paradox. You cannot know what you forgot until you remember.

Mr. DeWitt: So with your wallet, did you notice you forgot it when you reached for it or when your wife asked you for it?

Myself: When my wife asked for it to select the specific credit card she wanted to use.

Mr. DeWitt: So her asking you for the wallet sparked your memory of the wallet and then allowed you to realise you had forgotten it to start with?

Myself: Yes, exactly.

Mr. DeWitt: So what if she had not asked for your wallet? When would you remember it?

Myself: Maybe when we got to the register. Or when I needed it for something.

Mr. DeWitt: So without that spark to bring forward your memory, there is no telling when, or even if you would ever remember your wallet. If you ended up not buying anything you may have made it back home without ever realising you forgot your wallet. Even this morning when you came to work you could have grabbed your wallet but not remembered that you forgot your wallet yesterday.

Myself: That is a logical assumption. But where are you going with this?

Mr. DeWitt: Because I am the only person who remembers the wallet. I am the only person who remembers Sarah. And try as I might, I cannot spark anyone else's memory of her. You may as well be standing at the register ready to buy something, the cashier asking for your money, and yet you are still unable to remember that you even have a wallet. You are stuck perpetually in a ‘forgotten’ state and cannot be jared out of it.

Myself: So you are stating that everyone has mass amnesia aside from you?

Mr. DeWitt: Yes, but even more so. The world has forgotten about Sarah. Her very existence was wiped clean. Anything she ever touched, or influenced was wiped away like our own memory.

Myself: As a fellow medical professional you understand how that sounds, right? You are claiming the rest of the world is sick and you are the only healthy person. And what is more, the physical world itself has been altered to fit the amnesiac version of the story. .

Mr. DeWitt: slowly looking up at me. I know, crazy right? But I have a theory of how it works. That thing that I saw in the aquarium, somehow it takes people and all evidence they ever existed away. Family, friends, coworkers all forget about that person. Even things that person had one in their life are wiped away as if they never existed. And that trigger, the spark to remind people of the missing is forever gone leaving the world in a state of amnesia. Stuck in that place of having forgotten your wallet but unable to recall what it is that you forgot. Or worse, not even knowing that you forgot.

Myself: And let's say that your theory is true. Why do you remember Sarah when nobody else does? How are you the only person whose memory was unaffected?

Mr. DeWitt: I, I don’t know. Maybe because I was close to her? Maybe because I was there that night as well? I honestly do not know. His head sulked back down as he thought through the situation.

Myself: Mr. DeWitt, I want you to remember that the reason that you are here is because you are trying to hurt yourself. While your theory is certainly interesting, we need to get you feeling better. We need you to stop trying to hurt yourself. That is step one. So can you tell me why you feel compelled to hurt yourself?

Mr. DeWitt: Looking back up at me once more with tears in his eyes. Because I can hear the people who are going missing. At first I just wanted the banging to stop, but now the screaming is just too much. I can hear it chasing them. Each step it takes, Boom...boom….boom, faster and faster until it feels like an earthquake. At first they don't seem to notice it, but when they do the screaming starts. As it gets closer they scream louder. Louder and louder. Every time it is a different voice. Every time they try and fight. Every time they all go silent.

He paused and looked towards my window.

Mr. DeWitt: It is starting again. The thing that took Sarah is staking someone else now. The steps will be paced out almost 20 seconds apart, and over the next few minutes will quicken. I don't hear any screaming yet but soon, soon it will start. That is what I think I can hear. That thing that I saw. I don't know why but I can hear it. And I will be the last person to hear the voice of whoever the victim is this time, as well as likely the only person to ever remember their voice.

Myself: So you want the pain to go away? You feel that you are being forced to listen to the death of others time and time again?

Mr. DeWitt: It is too much to tolerate. I want to die.

Myself: Reaching forward and placing my hand on his shoulder. I will help you. We all will. Once we can get to the core of this issue, these sounds, and fix them then you will be able to live a happy life once more. You are my patient and therefore I will take care of you to the very best of my ability.

Mr. DeWitt: Glanced up at me with a weak smile. Thank you. He paused and dropped his head again, the smile fading.

Mr. DeWitt: I can hear someone screaming again. This time it sounds like a teenage boy.

Myself: Can you tell where the sound is coming from? Can you describe any details to me?

Mr. DeWitt: All I can tell you is that it sounds far away. I don't know any direction or distance but somehow can hear it loud and clear. Oh god. He started struggling against his restraints at this point. What about this kid’s mother. His father? Will anyone remember him? Is anyone there even trying to help him? I don't even know how many people I’ve already listened to disappear. .

At this point he started flailing around in his wheelchair. He was securely strapped in but he was starting to become highly unstable so I pressed the panic button under the armrest of my chair.

Myself: You need to calm down Mr. DeWitt.

Mr. DeWitt: Calm down? How can I calm down when people are getting abducted or worse? How many people have we already forgotten about in our lives? 10 people? 100 people? More? I don't know, I forgot. And you forgot as well. We all forgot. Who were they? What were their names? Their faces?

Several orderlies came in and held him still long enough to inject him with a sedative. He was too far gone for our session to continue.

Post Meeting Notes:

Mr. DeWitt is quite the troubled young man. He is in pain and we need to relieve that pain. Anyone can be introduced to enough pain to make them commit self harm and even suicide. So to stop those impulses we need to stop his pain.

The problem is where to start?

We have been cycling him through several drugs to see if any can help his delusions but so far none have proven effective. Hypnotherapy only worsened his symptoms so we will not be trying that again. Maybe we should consider a more surgical solution.

His words do ring a bit of truth though. In my reviews of similar cases (which I will not tell him about for fear of it over exciting him again) the few coherent people said similar things such as the missing people being forgotten by everyone. And how can you remember what you have forgotten? You cannot without something to spark that memory.

Even still, we need to treat his pain first and foremost.

That is all for the day as my wife and I still have many things on my to-do list for the baby. The next few month are going to be very busy. Well, the next several years are going to be quite busy.