Chapter One: Max
My brother died.
For as long as I can remember, it was always Jack that was there for me. After Mom died, he was the one who raised me. Uncle Harlan was our guardian, but he was always busy. It was just Jack and me. He really believed in me. He supported my art.
He was the only one I was certain loved me.
Holding Diana’s hand at the funeral was the first time it felt real. Standing there in the cold over an empty coffin, my mind went blank. I was being choked by the silence, the emptiness.
His lab blew up. He died trying to save people. I should be proud of him. But I wasn’t. I was angry at him. He left us behind. He left me. What did I have now? Diana and I needed him. We were alone.
Alone.
It’s a word I am all too familiar with. I have felt alone all my life. Mom was always busy. Uncle Harlan was always busy. But Jack was always there. He even forfeited his dream college so he could stay close to me.
I let him down.
I failed him. Dropping out of college. Taking menial jobs. Floating around without thinking about how, in an instant, it would all be gone.
They never tell you time is always running out.
One second to the next. It could always be your last.
“Max?” A voice and gentle rapping on my door frame stirred me from staring blankly at the computer before me.
Diana stepped into my room, picking dirty clothes along my floor like a trail of bread crumbs. “I’m going to start a load of laundry.” She held out the basket to me. “Fill ‘er up for me.”
Diana’s eyes gave away her sadness. Like me, she lost Jack, the love of her life. Childhood sweethearts to high school lovers, and growing together so much Jack proposed. She still wore the ring on her finger.
“Okay.” I sighed, standing up from my chair.
Diana painted on a smile like a clown. She’s trying to be strong, but I’m not asking that of her.
“After I get that started, I’m going to go grab some groceries.” That explains why she’s wearing clothes, and not one of Jack’s shirts. “Wanna go with me?” She sat on the edge of my bag while I grabbed clothes and shoved them into the basket.
“I’m still doing a few commissions.” I muttered like I was talking to no one. Diana didn’t deserve that.
“Okay.” She spoke slower than before.
“I can cook tonight.” I offered to ask forgiveness. I handed the basket over to her.
She pushed the basket back. “I’ll cook. How about you do the laundry for me so I can get back quicker.”
“Sure.” I offered her a smile.
She smiled back, the sadness between us echoing back and forth. “Check around the house for more stuff.” She patted my arm before leaving my room.
I continued filling the basket. I heard her leave and made my way down the hall. In the living room, I saw one of my hoodies draped over the sofa. I gave it a cursory sniff, and found it smelled foul.
“God, I’m gross,” I grumbled at myself as I shoved it into the basket.
The door opened and closed. Did Diana forget something? I turned. “Do you need me to call your phone?”
“Max?” Harlan seemed shocked to see me.
I was the one who should be shocked. “Harlan?” I took a step to face him. “I didn’t know you were coming back.”
Harlan slicked back his peppered hair. I wish I had gotten his genes instead of Mom’s. I wanted to be an attractive older man one day. “Yes, uh-” he let out an unsure laugh. “Wanted to check up on you, Maxy!” That sounded off the cuff.
“You just missed Diana.” I deflected.
Harlan’s expression turned to hurt. “Now Max, you know that’s not true.” He approached me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “You remind me so much of your mother. Sometimes, when I miss her, I want to see you. She would handle all of this…better than me.”
I pouted a bit. “Don’t get sappy on me. I was just teasing.”
The front of his shirt bulges strangely. He lays his hand over it and gives me a smile. “Doing some laundry?” He took long strides towards the kitchen. He first checked the coffee pot, then moved to the cabinet and took down a canister of coffee grounds.
“Diana asked me. Do you have anything you want me to wash?” I walked to the kitchen counter to face him, setting the basket down beside me.
Harlan was engulfed in making a pot of coffee. He didn’t hear me.
“Harlan?” I asked.
The side of his coat flapped out without a breeze in sight.
His eyes shocked me as he looked at me. They were wide. Frightened. My face must have reflected that expression, because he broke into a smile soon after.
“Laundry?” His eyes darted to the basket. “I’m sure there is some stuff in my room. You know what a mess I am.”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t over that face just yet. “What’d you come back for?”
The coffee was filling the carafe. But Harlan didn’t like coffee. He was strictly an earl grey sort of man.
“Hm?” He was rubbing his chin. “Oh. Won’t be here for too long! Probably a week. Maybe.” He coughed and fussed with his hair again. “Max I-” He hesitated as our eyes met. He exhaled and shook his head. “How are you holding up?”
This was a genuine question. “Fine.” I lied.
He leaned against the counter. “Fine, huh? Yeah, me too.” A sad smile came to his face, enhancing the lines around his eyes.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to respond to that. It’s that I couldn’t. Physically, I was incapable of accepting it. “Sure.”
“Sure,” he kept himself from scoffing as best he could. He put his hand over his chest again. “I know I’ve not made things easier. But, all you gotta do is ask me to-” He started without knowing where he was going. “Well, all you gotta do is ask, Maxy.”
I’m here if you need anything.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
Call me anytime.
There are no words.
Then shut up! Don’t say anything. I don’t care that you’re sorry. How the fuck am I supposed to respond to that. I don’t want you here. There’s only one person I want here. Why the hell don’t you call me?
I shook my head. “So anything on the floor is fair game?”
Harlan's jaw went stiff. “Yeah. You and I share that huh?”
“Yeah.” I gave him a stuff nod as I went down the hallway to the stairs. This was his place, but he was barely around. So he had given Jack, Diana, and me free reign as long as we left his room and office alone. As such, it got even messier than my room.
“Geez,” I recoiled at the mess. The lumps of what I hope was clothes, stakes of books, cardboard boxes. There was a great big black trash bag full of stuff. Rather than face that level of chaos, I turned and went to his office across the hall.
It too was a mess, but a way more manageable mess. It looked like my room. Only there was more clothes, paper, and books. I guess this was genetic. I started picking up cardigans from the floor. Sifting through papers to find socks and a few wrist braces.
My phone chimes. I set down the laundry basket and take a seat at Harlan’s desk. There’s a message from Julio.
“My folks are letting me play tonight at the restaurant! Come down and I’ll comp your meal.” he also sends a string of excited emojis.
“I’ll see what I can do.” I message him back.
“My uncle is back home, so I don’t know if he has plans or anything.”
“Bring him! The more the merrier!” Another spring of friendly emojis.
I smiled at my phone. Julio was so nice. He had been one of the few people (only people) to keep a check on me since everything happened.
“I’ll let you know when Diana gets home.”
You hesitated a few seconds before sending another.
“Thanks bro.”
“Groovy bro!”
You chuckled, standing back up. Something fell from the chair. It hit with a rather surprising thud. You moved the chair, trying to find what it was.
“Max!” Harlan shouted from downstairs.
He startled me, and I stepped backwards. There was a sickening crunch under my foot. My guts instantly dropped into my ass.
“Fuck no.”
“Max?” Harlan called again.
“Almost done!” I hurriedly shoved clothes into the laundry basket, along with whatever I stepped on.
“Don’t worry. I was just wondering if we could talk for a bit.”
My chest constricted, heart pulsing. That didn’t sound great. “Sure! Let me take the basket to the laundry room.” I zoomed down the stairs, trying to avoid him as I headed for the basement door.
I set the basket down and started tossing clothes into the washer until I found what I stepped on. “Maybe I can fix it.” I whispered wishfully to myself. I moved the shirt off it and saw it was a test tube like thing with large metal caps. The glass was cracked, but luckily, none of the contents were spilling. But, it was moving.
“What the hell is this?” I turned it over in my hands, which caused the red and white…stuff to shiver and squirm around.
On one of the end caps there was a sticker with a name and date. Jack. 07/23/xx. I almost dropped it. It was dated a week before Jack…before the lab… My hands were shaking, sweating. My chest squeezed even tighter and I struggled to breathe.
“Let me out,” a voice whispered. “I’ll make that feeling go away. Let me out.”
As I blinked, tears fell from my eyes onto the tube. “Whose there? Who said that?” I was choking on my own words.
“I know what it’s like to be helpless,” it whispered to me. Red began bleeding up at the cracks of the glass.
“Max?” Harlan called from upstairs. “Are you okay?”
“Oh fuck, not that guy.” The voice scoffed.
Shoving the tube into my hoodie pocket. “I’m fine.” I sniffled and wiped my face off. I took deep breaths and went back upstairs. “Sorry,” I muttered as I joined him in the kitchen.
“It’s okay.” His smile was uncertain. “I just wanted to talk somethings over with you. You’re here more than I am so uh-” He was fidgeting with a cup of coffee at the counter. “I was thinking about selling the place.”
It was a gut punch. “What? Why?”
“New start, for all of us!” He tried to laugh it off. “I thought you, me, and Diana could travel a bit, then find somewhere new to settle.”
The idea sunk like food poisoning in my gut. I didn’t want to leave this place. I didn’t want to hand it over to someone else. Jack…what would be left of him if we left home?
“I don’t know-” I trailed off, reaching into my hoodie pocket for my phone. Instead I clutched the tube.
Harlan plastered on a big smile. “Think about it! Japan, Italy, Switzerland. We could go anywhere! Live wherever we’d like. And when the house sells we can dream even bigger.”
I slipped my fingers along the cracks of the tube. Back and forth. Back and forth. There was a slight crunch if I pushed. “Harlan I-”
“I know. I know.” Harlan sighed as she came to sit beside me. “This place is special. But we all miss Jack. And wasn’t it his dream to travel?”
More crunch under my finger, and then a sort of silky, creamy coolness along my fingertips. “Yeah but-”
“Don’t we owe it to him to see what he couldn’t?” He put his hands on my shoulders.
That really got to me. See what he couldn’t? Are you kidding me? Jack was dead! What was the point of doing those things? The whole point was that he would be there! I wanted to see Japan because of him! I wanted to go to Italy and tour museums because of him! It doesn’t matter now without him!
A very audible crunch made Harlan’s expression drop. That coolness crawled up my arm, swirling and gripping under my hoodie.
“Max? What’s wrong?” His eyes expressed worry, but for something else. Not for me. Rather himself.
“No!” I roared, jumping to my feet. Somehow, I stood several inches taller. “You want to travel to try and forget! You want to get this guilt off your shoulders because it was you who got him that job! It was you who put him int he lab! It was you who made him work that day because, yet again, you couldn’t show up!” I bellowed in his face.
Harlan’s expression melted more, becoming one of terror. “Max, what did you do?”
“No!” I screamed into his face again. It felt like I had fangs jutting out of my mouth. “I am done saying I am fine with everything! Of moving along at everyone else’s pace! Jack is dead! And you aren’t going to make me move until I am ready!”
An arm colored like a candy cane stretched out before me, striking Harlan dead center in his face. He fell back onto the floor like a rag doll.
“Oh my god!” I screeched as the arm recoiled to my side. “Uncle Harlan?” I bent over, and my hands were also made of peppermint candy. “What?” I gasped, looking at my palms, flexing my fingers. “What-” I was losing breath.
“Nice to meet ya, Max.” A slithering, husky voice whispered through my entire body. “Welcome to the party.”
I raced down the hallway where there was a mirror. I stared at myself, gaping at the face that stared back at me with wide, red eyes and a jagged mouth. My body was coated in candy cane latex. No. A second skin. A breathing, squeezing, silky skin.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
The husky voice laughed. “Spite.”