Chapter 519: Secret Exploration of Schiller's Past (Part 1)

Stark, standing by the door, was stunned for a moment. For a while, he didn't react to the logic behind Schiller's behavior.

Because he was afraid of strangers, he hid in the closet? But when the two of them came in, young Schiller didn't stop them. If he was afraid, he could have just not opened the door for them.

Stark paused, then walked into the bedroom. This was a very small bedroom. The bed was modified from a crib. It looked like young Schiller hadn't slept alone in this room for long and should have just separated from his mother to sleep by himself.

Stark bypassed the small bed and came to the front of the closet. He pushed the cabinet door lightly and found that the cabinet door didn't move at all.

He stretched his fingers into the gap of the cabinet door, wanting to pull the door open, but the door still didn't move. Stark retreated a few steps again and looked at the closet.

It was a huge solid wood closet, looking like a handmade product from the last era. Some cartoon stickers were pasted on the cabinet door, and the height should have been pasted by young Schiller.

Stark looked left and right and found that the gap of the cabinet door was actually very small, and the inside of the closet was pitch black. If it weren't for standing at a specific angle and in specific light, one couldn't see Schiller in the closet at all. Plus, Schiller didn't have any movement, so it was hard to find that there was a child in this closet.

After observing for a long time, there were no other clues. Stark could only squat down, align his line of sight with Schiller in the closet, and the two looked at each other through the narrow gap in the middle of the cabinet door.

At this time, Stark discovered that Schiller's eyes were not looking at him, but had been staring at the place where he had stood before. Stark stood up, retreated two steps, turned around, and walked to the bedroom door, looking at the place where he had stood. There was nothing unusual there.

Steve also walked over. Both of them stood at the bedroom door and could see Schiller's eyes. Steve looked back at the living room and said: "He might be looking into the living room through the bedroom door."

Hearing this, Stark walked quickly into the living room, confirmed the direction of Schiller's line of sight again, and then took a step forward, standing next to the sofa.

He found that Schiller's line of sight seemed to fall on the sofa. Stark rummaged through the sofa but found nothing unusual. Just as he was moving the sofa, the carpet in front of the sofa was wrinkled. Steve, who followed, sniffed and said:

"Do you smell it? There seems to be a smell of blood..."

Stark stood up, looked around, and then set his gaze on the wrinkled carpet. He took a deep breath, seemingly having some premonition. After Steve moved the coffee table away, Stark lifted the carpet.

There was blood underneath.

This carpet, which looked completely fine on the surface, had a large circular dark bloodstain underneath after being lifted. It looked like it had been dried for a long time, but there was still a strange smell.

Instantly, Stark turned his head and set his gaze on the family-of-three photo he had casually placed aside.

He picked up the photo frame, pressed his fingers on the photo, and his knuckles turned slightly white with force. Obviously, the answer he deduced made him feel a bit suffocated.

Steve looked down at the bloodstain and then turned to look at Schiller hiding in the closet. He turned and walked back to the bedroom, then squatted in front of the closet, looked at young Schiller through the gap, and said:

"Don't be afraid, we are not bad people. Can you open the door? We will protect you..."

Young Schiller didn't answer and didn't let his gaze fall on his face, just staring at that one point, as if he was intently watching something. Steve took a deep breath. He heard footsteps behind him and turned his head. Stark, with a pale face, appeared behind him.

The two came to the bedroom door. Stark held the photo frame and said:

"This is Schiller's consciousness world. Everything that exists here is actually an 'image', which means they all represent a certain memory of Schiller."

"After I first entered the Mind Palace and toured here, I tried to develop my consciousness space, so I understand that some things that exist in the consciousness space are not what they look like on the surface, but have symbolic meaning."

Steve turned his head to look at the bloodstain under the carpet and said: "I am very sure that it is human blood, but the blood flowing out of any person would not present such a regular circle, and it was just blocked by the carpet. This might mean..."

Steve's tone lowered: "... A tragedy happened here."

"In the psychology books I've read, it was mentioned that when people remember certain things, they instinctively grab onto stimulus points. Perhaps Schiller, who had witnessed a tragedy, was stimulated by blood and the smell of blood. Therefore, the image of this tragedy presented in his memory is the bloodstain under the carpet."

Stark sighed and said: "Based on the existing clues, we can probably deduce what Schiller's childhood encountered..."

"The medical records placed in the parents' bedroom show that Schiller suffered from autism. Although those few papers didn't specify what type of autism spectrum it was, his parents found out about his condition very early and actively treated him."

"Schiller had received sensory integration training for a long time. The training lasted for at least two years. In the later stage of the training, he had almost recovered, at least he had recovered most of his language ability."

"However, perhaps in the month when the medical records were interrupted..." Stark pursed his lips, his tone slowing down, sounding like he didn't want to continue:

"His parents might have been murdered."

Stark turned his head and glanced at young Schiller, who was still hiding in the closet, peeking at everything outside through the gap in the cabinet door. He said: "His parents had undergone professional training and couldn't have waited until the other party rushed into the house to discover the abnormality. They might have already known they had no way out when the other party came downstairs or rushed into the corridor."

"If you were Schiller's parents, what would you do?" Stark asked Steve. Steve's face was also very gloomy. He said:

"I would definitely protect my child first."

"Perhaps, his parents did that too..." Stark lowered his head, that voice that couldn't be lower echoed in the room like a heavy twilight drum.

"They would let him hide, hide in the biggest closet in the house, and more importantly..."

When Stark said this, there was already a trace of painful panting in his tone due to empathy. He and Steve both stared at the gap in the closet. Between the changing light of the coming night, they seemed to see the mother who appeared in the family-of-three photo squatting outside the closet, looking at her child through the gap, making a dying-like wail:

"Don't speak! Don't make a sound! Don't make any sound at all, no matter what you hear, don't respond..."

And the child, who had just received language enlightenment and could express his magnificent inner world through language, just like this, returned to that silent world with no door to the outside world.

Steve covered his face and sat down leaning against the door frame of the bedroom wall, just like before. When these details were presented in front of him, it was far more cruel than listening to a story.

"Dissociative identity disorder, that is, patients with multiple personality disorder, often split into another personality just to escape some reality they don't want to face. I think, perhaps because of this, Schiller split into another personality to escape the trauma of childhood..."

Stark's tone became calm instead. He reached out and pulled Steve up, then said: "Don't stop here, we have to find Schiller. No matter what he encountered, I think we can treat him, just like... he once treated us."

Stark in front, Steve behind, the two walked out of this room. After returning to the corridor, their moods still couldn't calm down for a long time.

In their impression, although Schiller was sharp-tongued, money-grubbing, a riddle-maker, loved to watch the fun, and had a bottomless moral bottom line, he was still a relatively cheerful person. In the process of getting along with them, everyone chatted and laughed together, and they didn't feel anything special.

But many times, there is harm only when there is comparison. Stark's parents died in an accident, and he felt he was miserable. When he learned that his parents were killed by Steve's old teammate, the Winter Soldier, he felt even more miserable. But he now felt that, at least, Howard had accompanied him for a period of time. Although he often drank, he was still a good father when he was sober.

And the young Schiller they just saw was very young. Before that, he almost couldn't speak because of autism, which meant he might not have said a few words to his parents before his parents were tragically killed.

And Stark felt that he hadn't faced the scene of his parents' death directly. Otherwise, he didn't know if he would be like Schiller, using split personality to escape reality.

Thinking of this, Stark quickened his pace. He came to the stairs and looked up. The floor above was still quiet.

Stark and Steve came to the second floor. There were few rooms here, and each one couldn't be opened. Stark looked at one of the doorknobs and said: "Did you notice? If the doorknob and lock are special, it means there might be someone inside, and this..."

Stark looked at that doorknob. It was a very ordinary spherical doorknob, exactly the same as the two doors they had seen before. Stark shook his head and said: "There might not be Schiller's personality inside. It might be a place where he stores other things."

"In other words, we have to find a place with a special doorknob to have a chance to find his remaining personality?"

"That's right. Next, you go to the third floor, and I go to the fourth floor, and we will meet after finding a special doorknob."

After saying that, the two started to act separately. Steve was responsible for the odd-numbered floors, and Stark was responsible for the even-numbered floors. The two searched for a long time like this, and finally, Stark discovered a special place on the tenth floor. He stood next to the railing of the patio and beckoned to Steve downstairs: ===== CHAPTER 520 =====