Stark, standing by the door, was taken aback. He didn't immediately understand the logic behind Shiller's behavior.
Hiding in the closet out of fear of strangers? But the young Shiller didn't stop them when they walked in. If he was scared, he could have refused to open the door.
Stark hesitated then walked into the bedroom. It was a tiny one; the bed seemed to have been converted from a crib. It appeared that the young Shiller hadn't been sleeping alone in this room for long, as if he had just started to sleep away from his mother.
Stark walked past the little bed to the closet. He lightly pushed the closet door and found it was completely immovable.
He slid his fingers into the crevice of the closet door, trying to open it. But it wouldn't budge. Stark retreated a few steps and scrutinized the closet.
It was a giant solid wood wardrobe that looked handmade from a previous era. There were cartoon stickers on the closet door; placed at a height suggesting they were stuck there by the young Shiller.
Looking around, Stark noticed that the gap in the closet door was actually very small. The inside of the closet was pitch-black. Unless one was standing at a specific angle, in a certain light, it was impossible to see Shiller in the closet especially with Shiller making no sound, it was hard to realize there was a child hiding inside.
After a long observation without finding other clues, Stark had no choice but to squat down, aligning his sight with Shiller in the closet. They stared at each other through the narrow gap in the closet door.
At this moment, Stark realized that Shiller was not looking at him; he was staring at the spot where Stark had been standing before. Stark stood up, stepped back, turned around, and walked to the bedroom door. There was nothing unusual about where he had been standing.
Steve also walked over. As they both stood by the bedroom door, they both noticed Shiller's gaze. Steve looked back at the living room and said, "He seems to be looking into the living room through the bedroom door."
Upon hearing this, Stark walked swiftly into to the living room, checked again the direction of Shiller's gaze, and then took one step forward to stand by the couch.
He found that Shiller's gaze seemed to fall on the couch. Stark searched the sofa to see if there was anything unusual. When he moved the sofa, the rug in front caused a wrinkle. Steve, following him noted:
"Do you smell it? There seems to be a scent of blood..."
Stark rose, looking around, and then rested his gaze on the crumpled rug. He took a deep breath; he seemed to have a foreboding. After Steve moved the coffee table, Stark lifted the rug.
Underneath was all blood.
What appeared to be a normal rug on the surface, when lifted, revealed a large round dark bloodstain. It looked like it had dried long ago, but it still had an odd smell.
In an instant, Stark turned around and fixed his gaze on the family photo, which he had randomly put aside.
He picked up the frame, pressing his fingers on the photo. His knuckles were white from the force. It was clear that the answer he suspected made it hard for him to breathe.
Steve looked down at the bloodstain, then turned his gaze back to Shiller, hiding in the closet. He went back to the bedroom, squatted down in front of the closet, and looked at the young Shiller through the gap. He said:
"Don't be scared, we are not bad guys, can you open the door? We will protect you…"
The young Shiller didn't answer, he didn't look at Steve's face, only at that one spot, as if absorbed in seeing something. Steve took a deep breath, then heard footsteps behind him; Stark, looking quite pale, appeared behind him.
They walked to the bedroom door, with Stark holding that photo frame. He said:
"This is Shiller's consciousness world. All things that exist here are actually 'symbols' which represent certain memories of Shiller."
"The first time entering the Thought Palace, I tried to explore my consciousness space after touring here. Thus, I realized some things within the consciousness space aren't what they seem on the surface. They are symbolistic."
Steve turned and looked at the blood-stain beneath the rug, and said, "I am very certain that it's human blood. However, no human's blood loss would present as such a perfect circle and be perfectly shielded by a rug. This could indicate …"
Steve's voice lowered, "...there was a tragedy here."
"In the psychology books I've read, it's mentioned that when people remember things, they instinctively focus on the stimuli. It could be that witnessing a tragedy, Shiller was stimulated by the sight of blood and the smell of it, thus, the symbol of this catastrophe in his memory is the blood under the rug."
Stark sighed, "Based on the current clues, we can probably expect what Shiller's childhood was like…"
"The medical records in his parents' bedroom show that Shiller has autism. Though the particular spectrum of the disease is not specified in the papers, it was discovered early by his parents that he had this disease and there were active treatments for it."
"Shiller underwent a long period of sensory training that lasted at least two years. Towards the end of his training, he had practically recovered, regaining most of his language abilities at the very least."
"But, maybe in that month where the treatment records were interrupted..." Stark smacked his lips, his words slowing down, as if he was reluctant to continue:
"His parents might have been murdered."
Stark turned his head, glanced at young Shiller still hiding in the closet, observing the outside world through the cracks of the closet door, and said, "His parents had received professional training. They wouldn't have waited for intruders to enter the house before sensing something was wrong. They might have already known they were cornered when the invaders reached the bottom of the building or burst into the hallway."
"If you were Shiller's parents, what would you do?" Stark looked at Steve and asked. Steve's face was grim, he said:
"I would definitely protect my child first."
"Perhaps, they did exactly that..." Stark lowered his head. His voice, already as low as it could be, echoed in the room like a mournful gong.
"They would have made him hide, probably in the largest closet in the house. More importantly..."
By the time Stark said this, his voice was tinged with a painful gasp of empathy. He and Steve stared at the crack in the wardrobe. Amid the changing light descending with the night, they seemed to see the mother from the family photo outside the closet, peering at her child through the crack, uttering a cry like one near death:
"Don't speak! Don't make a sound! Do not make any noise no matter what you hear, don't respond..."
And so, the child who had just begun to express his beautiful inner world through language was thrust back into a silent, doorless world.
Steve covered his face, leaning against the doorframe of the bedroom as he sat down. Just as before, the display of these details before him felt far more brutal than hearing a story.
"Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder, often begins with the creation of an alternate personality to escape a reality they don't want to confront. I suspect it was in this way that Shiller developed another personality to escape the trauma of his childhood..."
Stark's voice became more collected. He reached out, pulling Steve up and said, "Don't stand still here, we have got to find Shiller. No matter what he has gone through, I think we can heal him, just like... he once healed us."
Stark in the lead, Steve behind him, they left the room. Upon returning to the hallway, their moods remained unsettled for a long time.
In their memory, Shiller might have been a bit sarcastic, obsessed with money, a Riddler, a drama enthusiast with little sense of morality, but he had always been fairly cheerful. They would laugh and joke together, never sensing anything particularly unusual.
But often it's comparison that brings pain. When Stark's parents died in an accident, he felt miserable. When he found out that they were murdered by Steve's former teammate, the Winter Soldier, he felt even worse. Yet, at least Howard had spent some time with him. Though he drank often, he was a good father when sober.
The young Shiller they just met was so young. Before, he seldom spoke due to his autism. In other words, he probably hadn't even gotten the chance to speak a few words with his parents before they were brutally murdered.
Moreover, Stark thought, at least he had never directly confronted the scene of his parents' death. Otherwise, he wasn't sure if he would be like Shiller, conjuring up personalities to avoid reality.
Realizing this, Stark quickened his pace. He reached the staircase and looked up. The floor above still seemed silent as ever.
Stark and Steve moved to the second floor. The rooms here were few and all of them were locked. Stark looked at one of the door knobs and said, "Did you notice? If a door knob is special, it means there might be someone inside, but this one..."
Stark looked at the doorknob, which was just an ordinary spherical one, identical to the ones they had seen before. Stark shook his head and said, "Shiller's personality might not be in here. This could be for storing other things."
"So, we have to find a place with a special doorknob to possibly find his remaining personality?"
"Yes, you go to the third floor, and I'll go to the fourth floor. We'll meet again once we find a unique doorknob."
After they each set off, Steve was in charge of the odd numbered floors, and Stark was responsible for the even numbered ones. After searching for quite some time, Stark ultimately discovered a peculiar place on the tenth floor. Standing by the railing of the atrium, he waved at Steve below:
"Come! There's a really special place here, hurry over."
Steve hurriedly ran up to join Stark. The two of them looked up at the sign on the door together, which read in large letters:
"Insane Asylum."