Hi! I'm back with a new chapter of ' To Save Myself'. Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Taken By Trauma?

The beeping sound was back. His dark sanctuary brightened little by little as his senses reawakened one by one. What happened? Pain. He remembered that. And the dirt road...why had he been outside again...? He fell unconscious...and someone screamed for 911. Bright lights, and that same beeping sound. Had he been dying? According to his reflection he might have been. People in blue surrounding him as his reflection left him... Blood-and the high pitched sound, people shouting hands holding him down, a knife in his line of sight-blood all over! His eyes shot open and his world came in to focus. He looked around himself his eyes darting everywhere trying to comprehend what he was seeing. The walls were white, and the room was warm. Stiff, white sheets covered by a soft blue blanket was draped over his body, his head resting on a pillow propped generously. No, the bed was elevated somehow. Oxegen wafted to his nostrils conducted by some kind of tube stretching across his face. And that beeping sound ( Which had become quite erratic in his nervous state) was a heart monitor, resting just beside his bed. He turned his head and a plump kindly looking woman met his eyes.

She seemed just as startled as him at first, then her eyes became more...softer? Sympathetic. Pitying...? " Well. Hey there, handsome. No one expected to see those stunning eyes for awhile." He took in her appearance slowly, noting her light green scrubs and white coat. Then it all clicked in to place.

" I'm...in a hospital?" She smiled and patted his shoulder gently. He didn't feel all that comforted.

" You're safe now." So he was in a hospital. That would explain him hearing that damn annoying monitor earlier. And those blue people must have been doctors. And that would mean he woke up while they were... What were they doing? Why was there so much blood? Why did they hold him down? His heart rate picked up again and the monitor told on him again.

" What happened?" It came out as a demand but his voice shook with the fear he was unable to completely hide. The nurse took her hand from his shoulder and gave him another sorry look. Would she stop doing that!

" I'll-I'll just go get the doctor for you." She bustled her way out of the room and he slowly sat up. He looked down at himself and at once felt cold with dread. He was wearing a blue hospital shirt, and he could feel the pants on underneath the blankets. But what he saw was unnatural. On the left side of his body the outline of his leg could be seen perfectly. And his left hand was resting on the blanket. On the right side there was a very prominent dip in the formation where his right leg should be...just below the knee. And his right hand? He slowly bought up his hand...and felt his stomach turn as his body shook with fear. His right hand was gone. In place was a stump wrapped with white gauze and bandage stained red at the end.

" No...No. No." He shook his head. He refused to believe it. His hand was right there just a minute ago wasn't it-! His leg was just there! But if that was true then why was his sight proving to him-his left hand touching the bandages proving to him he didn't have them anyomore? He wanted to scream. He should scream. But his voice left him. He was simply unable to. The door opened and his head snapped to the side as three people hurried in to the room. A man in a white coat, black hair and glasses looked at him steadily. That must be the doctor. Two others were dressed in blue scrubs. A woman with red and black hair. And a man with black hair and crimson eyes. Man and woman stood on either side of him. Kira Sennen had tears running down her face. Aknam was somber, taking in the sight of his son. Still he mustered a smile and looked down at him.

" Hey there, Champ." Aknam said. He didn't say anything. Kira smiled with her husband and stepped closer to him.

" We'll have you home in a few days, Sweetheart." A blink. The doctors wanted to take him home? Sweetheart? Why did she call him that? He blinked in confusion, trying to understand what was happening. Why was she acting like she was so familiar to him? What did she mean she'd have him home?

" Home?" Kira nodded and ran a hand through his wild hair and smiled. He leaned away from her. He didn't like being touched like that. Who did she think she was?

" Yes, home. We can just put this whole thing behind us, Atemu." Enough. What were these people talking about! Atemu? His eyes narrowed and his jaw tensed as he tried to control the storming emotions in himself.

" Who...is Atemu?" He asked. It was as if someone had hit the mute button on all of the sound in the room. Aknam worked his mouth yet no sound came out. His breth became shorter with settling fear as his fist clenched the blanket. " Who are you?" No one moved. No one spoke. The anger and fear that had been lurking beneath the surface welled up inside of him and his voice became unsteady again as he leaned as far away as the bed would allow from the strangers. " Who are you?" Kira placed a hand over her mouth and waked away, bracing herself with her hand gripping the end of the bed's metal rail.

" Oh, my god!" She gasped. This couldn't be happening! Her son... The doctor came over and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as the tears came harder and faster. Aknam looked at his son with worry and tried to put his hand on Atemu's shoulder. The boy jerked away and shook his head feverently.

" Don't touch me. Don't fucking touch me. Don't touch me. I'm Yami. Yami." His voice was little more than a whisper, each word gasped out as if it hurt to even speak. What happened to Atemu?

" I don't understand! What has happened to our son?" Honey eyes looked over wire-rimmed glasses at the worried father. A hand running through golden locks and the man folded his hands on the desk watching the couple on the other side calmly. The name plate read on the desk Dr. Joseph Wheeler. The hospital had called him from home to have him come down and discuss what might be one of the most serious cases he had ever heard of in his profession. The police had been by earlier today and he was familiar with Atemu Sennen's case. In fact he had been working with the authorities for days as a profiler. Trying to find a mental link to lead them to the man responsible for the double-nearly triple murders. To the relief of everyone around Atemu Sennen had been found alive. To everyone's confusion the boy seemed to have suffered severe memory-loss.

The chief of staff had called him in half an hour ago and he met with the boy's parents. He had asked them to describe his behavior. It sounded serious. He had rejected their comforting advancements. And he didn't know their faces...or their names. Even his own name was lost to him. Replaced with a name that was seemingly unfamiliar to everyone but himself. " Look, Mr. Sennen. Ya need to jus' calm down and look at what we got to work with." The psychaiatrist's voice was laced with a heavy brooklyn accent. " From what I know, your son has been tourtured for nine days. Brutalized for nine days. Hell the right half of his body's been hacked up." Kira sniffled and held the hankercheif to her eyes. " I think we're looki'n at a survival mechanism that's been lodged in him."

" Survival mechanism? What are you talking about? He barely survived." Kira cried. Joseph nodded and leaned back in his chair.

" True. But in my expirience this is considered somewhat normal." Aknam opened his mouth ready to protest. Dr. Wheeler held up a finger and silenced him. " Let me finish." Silence. Expectancy. " Now, it has been shown that when the mind is in a state of stress, or unable to cope with harsh conditions it can essentially...shut out the source. In other words, those who have expirienced trauma can block out the event. A mind's way of defending itself. Now from what we know about your son...can you blame him? His limbs are missing. And 'dere's no telli'n what dat psycho did to him while he was gone. It's not a wrong assumption to say he's just protecti'n himself." The parents processed this carefully.

" So...he's just blocked out what happened to him?" There was something in the father's eyes. A questioning: Whether to hope or despair. And both parents were still very much afraid for their son. understandably so.

" Yeah. But it seems to have gone further than that. While he has blocked out the last nine days it seems he's also forgotten everything about himself. It looks like his mind's defenses overcompensated themselves, and in result he has developed full-blown amnesia." Kira looked like she might faint at any moment. Aknam remained silent, his eyes staring at nothing. " Now these kinds of cases are unusual, I'll admit that. But not entirely unheard of. There are recorded cases of other patients having the same kinds of changes to themselves-especially out a result of extreme trauma."

" But what about this name? The boy... he said his name was Yami." Aknam persisted. He looked up with demanding eyes. The doctor sympathized.

" I have a hypothesis." A tired sigh, then he began. " Well, we all have different sides of ourselves. When Atemu was stressed and forced to forget, he had to develop a thicker skin, so to speak. His survival mechanism created another way to deal with what was going on around him, I'm sure. When he inadvertently brought on his amnesia, his mind was shattered. I think " Yami" is what survived. The side of himself created to handle what was-is goi'n on around him." Kira wiped her eyes and her determination became stronger.

" So...our son is still in there." A nod.

" Yeah, I believe so."

" So what do we do, doctor?"

" Well, Mrs. Sennen first we have to evaluate him and see what he does remember. Then we have to try to help him reawaken his sleeping memories. In time I think as he remembers the two personalitles will intergrate together and Atemu will be more or less the same as he was. Then maybe we can finally get some answers." Both parent's faces became more troubled and Mrs. Sennen tensed at his words.

" More or less? Just what do you mean by that?" Dr. Wheeler removed his glasses and set them down on the table.

" Well after all the tourture and pain he's suffered...can you say he'll ever be the same again?"

All Done! Okay, so next time: " Yami" Tells his side of the story. And is Doctor Joey's theory right? We'll see! Please R&R.