“No, there’s something wrong with him. He’s not himself, Zeke.” Her voice cracks on every other word and the hoarseness of it makes me wince.
She pulls herself off the bed and wraps the sheet around her body. I watch her rush to Brody’s side and grab his face in her hands.
“Brody, look at me.”
“I can’t believe you would want anything to do with him after what he did.” I know I sound disgusted but fuck, I am.
“It wasn’t him, Zeke. His eyes were blank, his body was like stone, and even his voice was off.”
Fuck.
“He kept talking about himself in the third person, ‘Brody is too soft with you.’ He just kept repeating that and then I passed out.” Her fingers find her throat.
“He was choking you.” I snarl. “Why? What was going on?” If she says he was raping her, I will kill him right now.
“Oh god.” She reaches under the sheet and her hand disappears between her legs. “We were… oh fuck.” Her hands come out glistening with what only looks to be his cum.
“I can see what he was doing, but did you consent to this?” I’m shaking with anger and it only grows every time her bruises come to light.
“Yes.” She whispers, still staring at her fingers.
His groan has us both grabbing him and pulling him up to the bed. I got a few good hits in as his face is starting to bloom with a few bruises.
“Fuck.” He groans and grabs onto his head.
“Brody.” Her voice is a whisper and he looks at her. “What happened?”
“Brody has a disorder…” I begin but he stands abruptly and gets in my face.
“Stop!” He grits through his teeth, his spit flying.
“She’s here to learn about us, right? That’s what you told me, that she’s here to learn everything and finally accept us for who we are. She needs to learn about you, too.”
“What disorder?” She asks.
“Dissociative Identity Disorder.” I say as Brody stalks out of the room. “Take the fucking meds.” I yell after him.
“Zeke, what is that?”
“He has a split personality that he’s constantly fighting with. When his parents used him as a punching bag, he would dissociate and become the Monster.” I tell her and watch as her face betrays her horror.
“The Monster?” She whispers. “Oh no.”
“What? Did he call himself that when he hurt you?” I walk to her.
“When did this disorder start?” She asks, her eyes filling.
“He was diagnosed freshman year but he said the Monster has been with him since he was five or six. As he got older, it was harder to control it.”
“Oh god.” She moans and sits on the bed. “This is all my fault.”
“What? Bebelle, he has a disorder that couldn’t have come from you.”
“But it did.” She nods and I watch as her shoulders shake. “When we were young, Brody would tell me about when his father would hit him or his mother would yell at him and I told him he had to be brave. I told him he had to become like them so that when he was older and bigger, he could fight them back. Zeke,” a sob catches in her throat. “I told him to become the Monster.”
When he was older and bigger, he could fight them back. I feel the goosebumps flare across my skin and my mouth dries with a realization. Kailey planted the idea in Brody’s head and it became what it is today.
“I ruined him and then I dropped him. Oh god Zeke, you were right, this is all my fault.” She begins to cry and I stand still, letting everything absorb.
Brody walks back in with his hand clasped in front of him and a bottle of water. He opens his hand and sitting in his palm are three different pills.
“Happy?” He asks as he pops them in his mouth and guzzles the water. “I don’t like that they make me foggy and slow thinking.” He faces Kailey, “I didn’t want to hurt you that time, he just…”
“The Monster, Brody.” She cuts him off. “That’s who he is right?”
Brody’s face becomes still and I recognize this as his business face, the one that reveals nothing.
“Zeke told me.” She says quietly.
Brody looks at me with his jaw clenched and his hands in fists, the knuckles white.
“She deserved to know what happened. You could have killed her, look at her neck.” I implore.
His head turns slowly and he surveys her sitting there wrapped in a sheet, battered, and bruised.
“I must say, you do look sexy as all hell with my handprints on you.” He grins at her and shockingly, she has a hint of a smirk on her face, too.
“Fucksakes, what is this?” I look between them. “What was I called here for?”
Kailey gets up and makes her way into the washroom and Brody sits on the bed where she vacated.
“I need to tell you both something I found out.” He says as his hand swipes through his hair.
“Are you feeling alright?” I ask him.
“Yeah, I just know I have to say it fast before these pills numb my brain.”
“She told me where the Monster came from.” I tell him as I lean against the wall. “Y’all created him when y’all were kids.”
“We didn’t create him, he’s always been there. We just gave him a name that day.” He mumbles.
Kailey comes out of the washroom and hurries into Brody’s mother’s closet. He’s watching her closely and I can see his demeanor has changed from earlier. She steps back out in a bright pink velour tracksuit and I snort.
“Think that’s funny?” She turns and I full out laugh when I read ‘Juicy’ on her ass.
She sits next to Brody and he reaches over to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. Almost sweet, until I see the marks on her throat.
“What did you want to tell us?” I ask.
“Kails,” he turns and looks at her. “What I am about to tell you next is the complete truth and if you want to call him after, you can do so.”
“Okay.” She says quietly.
“The Ballons have a deadly assassin on their payroll, he has to accept one hit per year and agree to train others when they ask him.”
“Fuck.” I groan under my breath. I know where this is going.
“No.” Kailey shakes her head vehemently. Apparently, so does she. “No, Brody. I won’t believe it.”
“Let me finish and then you can call him if you want.” Brody says calmly.
When neither of us disagree, he continues.
“That’s how he got his name, the Teacher. He trains other assassins although his father has yet to find one like him. He has the expertise to kill every target and dispose of them, too. He’s never missed a target.”
“The Teacher.” Kailey looks at him. “That’s why you call him that.”
“Yeah. We know Charles was working with the Ballons to kill me and now that they haven’t been able to get a hold of him, they asked the Teacher to do the job.”