The Court House

"You injured twenty, crippled ten, and killed seven people in the Plaza of Guagua Town, Mr Olimpo. What do you say in your defence?" says the judge of the courtroom, intimidatingly glaring into my soulless eyes.

I kept my posture, appeal, and spoke charismatically, "Well, your Honour, that was not me. It was my split personality. As the files show, I have Dissociative Identity Disorder in my medical records from years ago."

He gave the expression of intrigue and interested, he spoke, "Elaborate."

"Your Honour, I am actually a sane and stable person." I responded, "My split personality in my dissociated system is an entirely different person and I am not aware of his actions.

How DID works in the spectrum of the brain is that through trauma and abuse, a different person inside one body is possessing the host of the system. Even if you ask my psychiatrist, he will say the same.

Different personalities in the DID system have their own memories during their fronts, and the rest of the personalities do not remember, neither are they nor we are aware of the other alter's actions. Is it okay if I tell you more of my story about how this turned out?"

He looked at the papers for a silent moment as cameras were flashing and clicking in the background, taking pictures of me, "Before we continue to your story, your school complained many times of your destruction of property, breaking the school rules and regulations, and always bringing deadly weapons to class. What do you say in your defence?"

"Well, your Honour, I developed Bipolar Disorder before I even got diagnosed. And I was aware of it and had insight into my behaviour and mood swings.

But it was not fully developed at the time before my delinquency. I get bullied often and when I go outside of my house, because of my bipolar I was gifted with extreme intellect and an amazing creativity that makes everyone jealous. Especially, my hypomanic episodes could lead to make people think I am weird, and my depression always makes me become introverted that people think I'm even weirder.

I was too nice, and they all took advantage of that. They would take advantage of my thin weak body, and my kindness as an excuse to bully me and often beat me up for no reason.

My defence for bringing knives when I go outside is none but for self defence because I've grown tired of people always beating me up in the street or at the back of the school.

You see your Honour, the youth in society are not normal, they would go join in gangs as a form of a facade of strength for intimidating respect, without gangs in the youth, such as fraternities, everyone are cowards, because they join in gangs they think they can beat people up for no reason. I didn't know how to fight and I had to do the means of protecting myself.

In fact, I never harmed or threatened anyone. It was just to protect myself. I was not a threat to society, society was a threat to me."

The judge was leaning in showing intriguing interest in my story and asked, "Is that your defence for killing those innocent people, self defence?"

"No, your Honour. I will never admit I did it, for I have no recollection of my split personality's actions. He is a different person than I. But I will tell you his reason to do this, because I know him very well."

"Alright, continue."

"You see, your Honour, my father locked me up for seven years in my house and never let me outside. He never let me go to school, he never let me find a job, he refuse to let me have friends, he refuse to let me have a normal life, he told me he wants to lock me up against my will for the rest of my life, until he dies. Knowing this, I was worried. What if he dies? When he refuses to take me to school or get a job, how can I survive if he dies and no one would take care of me? He refuses to take me to my psychiatrist and would only take me to my psychiatrist once a year when my prescription expires. When my psychiatrist told me, it's crucial to get a weekly check up. That is why my mental health was declining, your Honour. The fact that he mentally and verbally abuses me and would get angry when I plead him to take me to my psychiatrist because of how worse I am getting, especially that he claims to be aware of it anyway, he refuses. He would shout at me to the point he would attempt to stomp the ground, shut the door louder than he usually would, kick the dog's empty plate. And more. I am saying this not to look like the victim with deceit, but I am stating facts. Sometimes when I have a mental breakdown and cry so loud because of too much isolation, he would yell at me or even grab me around and push me onto the bed, he would even hit me when I am too loud in my sobbing during a breakdown.

My split personality promised to my father to be good, he finally saw his mistakes, he learned, he doesn't want to ruin our life anymore, he just wants me to have a brighter future like we both promised to each other, but my father refused to let us out. He would beg him to be good, but his father told him he is stuck there for a lifetime. No matter what my split says.

I am an adult and I deserve my rights to be outside because I am talking with sense, kept my posture and act as civil and stable as possible despite this is the most stressful event of my life. But my father took away those rights from me that I am over 21 as the legal age of independence away from parents. He has no right to take responsibility anymore.

However, if he takes away my rights as an adult, he has to take responsibility for taking care of me. That is the law."

The judge looked at me and said, "As seen in your files, you do speak the truth. Your mental illness and your years of being locked up. You kept your appeal, you sound sane and actually a good person. I'm sorry for what happened to you, but that doesn't change the fact that you, or your split personality, did.

James Klei Olimpo, you have injured twenty, crippled 10, and killed seven people. How do you plead?"

"I plead insanity, your Honour, surely you know how that already works."

He hits the hammer onto the table, "You are free to go, but your father is staying here… you don't have to worry about anything anymore."

"I have a question your Honour!" I stated.

"What is it?" he asked.

"If my father refused to take me to go to school or let me work for seven years without experience. How can I survive?"

"You can always go to the nearest municipality. Since you have a mental disability, you can always ask for insurance."

"Thank you, your Honour…"

I was sent out of the court house and a lot of interviewers and cameras flashing felt like paparazzi to me. It was a beautiful sight.

"Did you actually kill those people?" asked one reporter while the camera on my face on television and I smirked at the camera.

"No, it was my split personality. He's a psycho, but I'm not."

Then, I got into the van and my brother drove me home.