Time was the worst enemy for the victims of DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). They could neither use it, nor waste it. Within a snap of a second, Amelia might turn into a hideous beast.Not all the time she could sense what she was going to become, but this time she can feel it apparently. Coldness ran through her nerves, filling her brain with homicidal thoughts.

Don't waste time. Just kill him. Murder him mercilessly. He is a disgrace. Wash him away with his own blood.

She remembered this happening before. She didn't have a clear memory of it. The scene was more like a deja vu. Her ears started ringing with unbearable high pitched sounds. Instinctively, both of her palms sealed her ears. Her head throbbed with pain, like a nail was hammered into her skull. She was accustomed to the side effects of personality changes. It was just a deep disturbance less sleep. But her current symptoms were unusual and drastic. It happened only once before.

She tried to utter few warning words for Jake. "I have multiple..multiple..." Attempt failed.

"What multiple? What is happening?" panicked Jake. He was holding Amelia's shoulder and shaking it so hard, attempting to get her out of the crazy trance she was in. Typical human perspective.

Jake became frantic. Something said him that the girl before him was innocent and harmless, just a victim undergoing a painful life.

How is that possible? He saw and have been with the same girl last night!

But what if she doesn't knows that?

Amelia's legs trembled and her entire body shivered. Jake felt it. He realized she didn't fake those symptoms. It was natural and torturing her on the inside. He knew how she felt. Automatically his brain recalled the scariest memory of his life.

Back then, there was blood. A pool of hot blood around him. Nobody knew what happened..

"SHUT UP" he growled. Even Amelia's pain stopped for a minute to look up at Jake's sudden outburst. Since there was no one around them except for her, she felt hurt. Jake didn't mean to be rude. But she didn't know that. Jake was mad at himself for letting in such memories.

He considered running away like nothing happened. Then he could easily forget about her and all the drama she created. The doors were always open for him to go back to the way he was living.

Amelia gnawed at her lip. The pain was the only thing keeping her awake.

It was time for Amy to make her call. She was left with two chances. Either she could give in for the personality change and later mail Jake's body to his house packed in a box, or else stay conscious by any means, enduring the skull hammering and ringing ears, not giving in for the personality change.

P.S: Amelia Hamilton might end up insane in a mental asylum if she chose the latter.

She couldn't go in for both the options. Neither she wanted Jake dead, nor herself insane.

Amidst her rambled thoughts, a brilliant idea shimmered. It was probably the most craziest idea, compared to which the first and second ideas were better. But it was the only possible choice she was left with.

In the spur of the moment she sprinted to the kitchen like mad. Jake followed her recklessly, which was dumb of him.

In the colossal kitchen, there were numerous closets in silver and black combination. Amelia scanned all the closets to find the thing, that she hid the previous time. She recalled hiding it in one of the storage containers, so she pulled everything out.

The flour container opened with a 'pop' inside which she searched using her sweaty hands. The minutes flew away, leaving her with less and less time to stay awake. While searching, she felt something solid at the tip of her fingers. A smile played at the edge of her lips, on pulling out a white plastic bottle from the flour.

You are so dead Hyde

Amelia could've given a thought before executing the dumb idea, whose consequences might be savage. But she realized that she had less than a minute to do anything. She felt her heart beating rapidly and blood pressure increasing in an abnormal rate.

She opened the bottle and poured out its contents, which were pills in the size of a tic tac. Without considering the heavy dosage and its future effects, she swallowed four to five pills in a go.

She gave up her efforts to stay awake.

*************

Amelia lay unconscious on the kitchen floor. For the past twenty four hours Jake had no idea what was happening in his life. He got arrested for something he never did, got bailed for it by an unknown person, got warned by a girl to run for his life who turns unconscious after that. This was the most intricate puzzle he had to solve in his life.

The air felt uneasy, as dead silence of a grave yard prevailed in the atmosphere. Considering Amelia's warning, he must've run out of the house by then. Jake didn't know whether it was due to his sympathy for Amelia, or just a stupid human inquisitiveness, he walked closer to her.

She sat up straight in a sudden jolt, like nothing happened to her in the past few minutes. She looked around the kitchen when her eyes caught his. Amelia's eyes were covered with dark circles which were missing before.

Jake offered a hand for her to stand up. He didn't expect her to take it, but surprisingly she stood up using his arm for support. "Now could you tell exactly what the hell happened?" Jake scoffed. She grimaced, seemingly not making any efforts to reply. Her expressions were blank.

"Amelia?" No reply. Her grip on Jake's arm kept tightening, blocking the flow of blood through his arteries and veins. Astonishingly, she gave a tight blow on Jake's chin, which sent him stumbling with black spots floating before his vision.

"What the fuck?" he yelled, struggling to get on his feet.

"That's for the disgusting pronunciation of my name" she said, running a hand through her hair. The way she spoke was strange. Amelia's voice which was soft toned , became deep and gruff.

"Who the hell you are bitch?" Jake demanded. Thanks to his rebellious nature, he got another severe blow at the chin. He tasted blood at the corner of his lips.

"Listen carefully. It is F-I-N-N-I-C-K. What do you pronounce it as?" she retorted.

"Finnick?"

Jake wondered how can a person have three names? First it was Barbara, then Amelia, and now Finnick? Who was she actually? A spy? A terrorist?

"Guess that's my real name, but I always prefer Nick. Finnick gives me a chocolate boy appearance." she said

It took a while for Jake to perceive the truth. The same person appears one day as Barbara, the next day as Amelia, and the same day as Finnick. Considering the incomplete clause, 'I have multiple..' said by Amelia a few minutes before, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle came together, forming the complete picture,

Multiple personality disorder.

"What are you? Sadistic alter or something?" Jake said cautiously, picking up a knife from the kitchen table behind me.

"Sadistic alter?Hmm.. I like that nickname too" said Finnick.

"Why have you showed up?" Jake acted fearless while his fingers tightened around the knife.

"I thought you knew. You also got a warning about my arrival, didn't you?" said Nick. Jake didn't reply."That means you've got one, and yet you stand before me cowardly hiding a knife at your back" he smirked. Jake dropped the knife in horror, which clattered on the floor.

Finally everything came down to the old school principle. DO OR DIE.

Nick charged at him, with his fist aimed at Jake's face. Jake ducked below, and before Nick could retreat, he locked his arms around Nick, disabling him to fight. Though Jake was dealing with a female body, it was a male mind that fought, making it hard for him to hold longer.

Elbowing Jake's gut, Nick freed himself. He held Jake's wrist, and within a blink of an eye, he turned to the other side and flipped Jake over his shoulders. Jake made a flip in the air and landed on his spine, over the marble floor. He wouldn't be surprised, if he had any major spinal injuries in the near future.

It wasn't over yet. Jake still lay flat on the floor, without being able to get up. His bones and joints were too affected to do a coordinative movement. As Jake turned to his right, he closed his eyes instantly on seeing Nick swing his foot at him. Like kicking a football, he kicked at Jake's temple, making everything dark.

************

With great difficulty, Jake succeeded in opening his left eye. Opening his right eye was not present in his current bucket list, as it was swollen red like a cherry tomato. He was afraid whether he had to wear a pirate's eye patch to cover it up, throughout his life. Using one-eyed vision, Jake found his legs tied along with the legs of a chair. His arms and torso were immovable, as they were also tied along with the chair.

"Jake Andrew Turner" said a voice, which obviously belonged to the one who tied him up.

Jake didn't remember telling his middle name to Barbara or Amelia. But he didn't want to ask Nick about it. Jake barely noticed with his good eye, Nick hid Amelia's long hair under a beanie. Being a male, he would've felt queasy about having a long hair.

"Why are you silent?" pleaded Nick. Jake was devastated. A few minutes before he gave him a black eye and then he talked like they were in a profound relationship.

"You know, you act like a petulant teenager at his puberty, who has mood swings. One time you act nice, and the next minute you kick my butt" Jake frowned. Nick chuckled at Jake's statement.

"Okay, now is the time where I act nicely, so feel free to ask"

Answers were the only things Jake was craving for from the moment he arrived at the mansion. Though his life was at mortal danger like putty in Nick's hands, Jake was brave enough to shoot a series of questions.

"Are you going to kill me?" Jake asked, which was the base for all other questions he prepared. Nick nodded.

"Why, just because I yelled at you?Doesn't it sound silly?" Jake didn't deserve to die for that silly reason. Nick rubbed the back of his neck.

'Was he always a shithead like this, or is this a prodrome of insanity' is what Nick's reaction expressed.

"I have my own reasons" scorned Nick. He snagged a apple from the counter and peeled it using the knife in his hand.

"I'm the one who is dying. Don't I deserve to know?"

"That's out of your limits. Watch your words because I do things unexpectedly" warned Nick, placing the tip of the knife on Jake's Adams apple. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead in nervousness.

"Isn't Amelia doing fine without you? Why can't you just leave her?"Jake was choosing the wrong question to ask while he was the one at vulnerability. But interviewing an alter of someone made him curious enough to forget himself.

"She's the one holding onto us. When we all leave her, she'll be a dead body like you'd be in a few minutes" said Nick. Now it went from an interview to intimidation. "Jake, have you heard the saying curiosity killed the cat? If I were the one to write your biography, this would be its title" smirked Nick.

Killer with sarcasm. That was something new.

Jake wasn't sure whether it was his intuition or inclination, he had a positive hunch that Nick won't kill him if he could keep him talking. Jake decided to kill time, so that Nick would get diverted from the thought of slaughtering and butchering, meanwhile there could be a change in personality.

Credits to the movies he watched, by bunking classes during high school

"Do I have any last wishes?" said Jake, trying to extend the time of his execution. He broke his knuckles repeatedly.

"Killing time, huh?" snapped Nick. Jake gasped, as Nick exactly said what was going on in his mind. The tip of the knife, scratched its way from Jake's Adams apple, to his collar bone.

"Sorry Jake, I warned you earlier that I did things unexpectedly"

Jake let out a groan, as a sharp pain made its way from the bottom of his throat. Looking below, Jake noticed that the tip of the knife has pierced his throat.

AN: When Amelia becomes a male personality, she would be described as a male,i.e.'he' would be used instead of 'she'.

Please express your thoughts about the new personality in comments.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Happy reading :-)