Introduction of The Journals of Jacob and Hyde

The Journals of Jacob and Hyde is the prequel to Jehovah and Hades. It follows their father, Jacob Stevenson, and his battle with the Hyde gene. It also sets the stage for the book Jehovah and Hades and helps clarify a few points. I’m including the introduction here on my blog to give everyone a preview. If you've never done so before, reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would probably be a good idea. It's actually free on the Kindle and you can download it from Amazon here.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Randall J. Morris
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or book reviews.

INTRODUCTION

I’m a schizophrenic. That might frighten some of my readers away. It shouldn’t. I’ve told you what I am right from the start. It should make you feel more comfortable. As humans we always fear the unknown more than we fear things that we can classify. We might not know a whole lot on a subject like schizophrenia (or many of the mental disorders) but we feel better when each mental patient is put in their proper category, subdivided into his particular class. Yes, it’s unpleasant, but at least you can go to Wikipedia and type in “schizophrenia” to return an article on all of my possible symptoms. It should answer many of your questions. It should make you relax. I’ve put myself in a category to help you breathe a sigh of relief. Feeling better now?

Time for some honesty. I’m not a schizophrenic. What I have doesn’t fit into a Wikipedia article or a neat little sub-category of mental illness. I have symptoms but I have very little information how to control or manage them. Everything I’ve learned about my particular case has come to me from my mother, a book that is supposedly fiction, and my own personal observances up to this point. Let me attempt to put you at ease again by sharing with you the information that I do have on my condition.

I told you a half-truth when I said I had schizophrenia. That’s the popular diagnosis for a very broad range of symptoms. The subcategory I would most comfortably fit in would be dissociative identity disorder. I’m trying to make you feel comfortable again. Go to Google or Wikipedia. Look up “dissociative identity disorder.” Feel better? Good. Remember that I said I would most comfortably fit in that category. It really isn’t much of a comfortable fit at all though. I am not a subcategory. I am not easily identifiable. I am a monster.

Let me introduce myself before we continue any further. My name is Jacob Stevenson. I’d shake your hand, but this is a book. Speaking of books, I mentioned that a supposedly fictitious book does contain some information on my condition. Let’s start with that. The book is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Have you read it? I have, many times. The first time I experienced the story though, it was told to me by my mother. I was a little boy when she told me the story of Jekyll and Hyde. It was an unusual departure from her regular bedtime story routine. The subject matter really wasn’t all that different because she had read many other books to me that generally would frighten bad little boys into becoming good little boys. Dracula. Frankenstein. Lycaon the werewolf. I loved all of my mother’s stories. When it came to Jekyll and Hyde, mother didn’t get out a book. She told me the story from memory. I’ve read the book and mother never stopped it where the book stopped. She took the story on to Jekyll’s descendants and Hyde’s descendants. The descendants of Hyde were much more numerous as his posterity had a tendency to seek out prostitutes.

Jekyll hid from society when his condition became unmanageable and only allowed his friend Robert to write the story of his life because he knew it would be branded fiction and never given a serious thought. Mother always said we could learn a lot from fiction if we took it seriously every once in a while. Apparently his condition was passed down genetically. It doesn’t discriminate between male or female, I’ve had my run-ins with members of both sexes who carried the “Hyde gene.”

I’ll introduce you to everyone I’ve met in my life who carries the gene. Often the trigger that released the Hyde monster was different. Each case I’ve seen is worthy of further study. I don’t believe I will solve the Hyde problem within my lifetime but it’s possible that one of my sons might. If they don’t, the legacy passes on and one of their sons might solve it. It will eventually take someone in my lineage to solve our family’s condition because, as far as I know, we’re the only ones keeping a record of the triggers, the symptoms, and the collateral damage we’ve caused. Everyone else just causes chaos. I pray that my sons will eventually clean up the mess like their ancestor, Dr. Jekyll, attempted to do so long ago.

What follows is a record of every incident related to the Hyde gene that I’ve witnessed in my lifetime. Hopefully the account that follows is useful in discovering a cure or something that will manage the symptoms. When any of us go into a Hyde-controlled rage, we are truly terrifying. It feels odd to use the phrase “Hyde-controlled.” That monster has no control.

I’m a descendant of Dr. Henry Jekyll. He was a real person. Disbelieve it all you want if you think that will make you feel better. I’ll even make you a deal. If you find my story too horrible to be real, brand it as fiction when you finish and never give it another serious thought. It wouldn’t be the first time that horrifying facts were dismissed as fiction.