Part Three: The Fourth Revealed…

As far as I’ve known, there’s always been three:
The Professor, The Aggressor, and then Me. 
But writing down deep from the depths of my soul,
I remembered the Fourth with the masterwork role. 
The one who created from the very start,
The Architect sitting right at the heart. 
The one who wielded the protective net,
The compartments, the rules, and the power to forget. 

She didn’t build walls out of anger or whim,
But to keep out the nightmares when shadows grew dim. 
When violence was routine and danger was near,
She needed a weapon to conquer the fear. 
No adults to shield her, no safe place to hide,
So she turned all her genius and power inside. 

She split up the memory, she buried the pain,
To build up a fortress that could carry the strain. 
She mapped out the darkness in long, silent halls,
And raised every room behind high stone walls. 
She turned down the volume, and locked up the light,
So a terrified child could make it through night. 

She drafted the rituals, the counting, the prayers,
To quiet the terror that crept up the stairs. 
She reasoned that rules could keep danger at bay,
If she spoke every word in the proper, exact way. 
She bargained with heaven, she bargained with fate,
To keep out the monsters that stood at the gate. 

And then the most brilliant, tragic sacrifice played,
She slipped into the shadows, let her own image fade. 
She built a false ceiling, a floor with a trap,
And erased her own name from the face of the map. 
She hid in the engine room, silent and unknown,
So I’d never feel I was standing alone. 

She drafted The Professor to calculate threat,
To count every step so no trap could be set. 
She birthed The Aggressor to stand at the door,
To burn down the world before you hurt anymore. 
And she made me The Passenger, numb and detached,
While she held the fire and guarded the match. 

I see her now clearly, through all of the haze,
The Architect who survived those impossible days. 
She thought that the violence was normal and right,
Yet she fought like a giant each day and each night. 
So clever, so brave, standing fierce in the dark,
The brilliant child-mind that protected the spark.