Multiple Personality
“Behold,” Optimism whispered while exuberantly gazing at my silent figure, “I’m smiling in my sleep. I look as if I could barely wait to share the fair beings of my imagination with the woken world. Alas, great is my desire for dreams to take life; thus we would forsake our fate of mere shadows and loiter around, rejoicing at every ray of light, at every blessed flower whose soft perfume we cannot smell, just like any other mortal.”
“So foolish of you to speak of such things,” the low rumble of a sombre voice glistened in the darkness. “It is our cold immortality,” Spite continued, “that gives us the strength to govern those who perish. Your naivety strikes me. My smile is not one of contentment, it is a bitter sneer used to confront worries and fears turned into nightmares.”
“It is a peaceful smile,” Serenity graciously sighed. “And I want no more of your quarrels. Remember that our stances must form a spectre coexisting in the same mind. There is no “us”, there is no “you”, there is only “I”, the one entity we are part of. How can I succeed otherwise?”
“Success comes from faith in one’s potential. Through self-suggestion, everything becomes possible,” said Optimism.
“Once again you are mistaken,” Spite gladly argued. “’Tis ambition, brought to the brink of self-destruction, ‘tis the blind fury to surpass oneself at all costs that helps us reach our goals.”
“’Tis the blending of the two, the mosaic of character traits, of feelings, of divergent guiding forces. A soul has many voices and to discover them all claims a lifetime of experience.”
“Am I…”
“…the first step?”
Serenity patiently smiled, then gave a silent gasp. “I am awaking. Swiftly, act as one!” Three shadows let themselves borne by the wind towards my still faltering eyes.
I woke up with a startle, under the impression that I had heard my own voice, used in different tones… My last thought before going back to sleep was how realistic reveries seem. Perhaps when we dream we are aware of our deepest fears and desires, which we dare not reveal during consciousness, not even to ourselves…
Have you ever taken a few moments to analyse your own will? Have you noticed how it splits at a closer glance, just as the light does when it hits a prism?
