Page 102 of Kiss the Villain

You shouldn’t have moved away, then. You can always come back and finish school here. Drag your brother, too. Your mom hates having her boys away, and I’m the one suffering.

How about we visit instead?

Small compromise.

Limited offer. T&Cs apply.

I see you’re pushing your luck. Kill’s influence, I presume.

Speaking of Kill, how is he doing?

Can’t ask him yourself?

You know he barely replies to me. And I don’t want to push him.

Because Dad said Kill was defective at a young age and my brother heard it.

He came to talk to me about it. I was eleven at the time.

“Gary,”he calls me by the nickname I hate most, just because he knows I hate it.

I’m in the garden practicing archery when he strolls over and flops onto the grass in front of me.

“What?” I snap, annoyed at the interruption.

“Why am I defective and you’re not?”

“Because you’re stupid,” I say, drawing my bowstring and releasing an arrow that lands just shy of the bullseye.

“I think Dad hates me.” His dead eyes fix on mine—those empty, hollow eyes he’s always had. I noticed them long before Dad did, because I saw them in myself.

“Because he called you defective?”

“Yeah. He said he and Mom should’ve only had you. Mom scolded him, but she gave me a weird look when I showed them the dead mice.”

“Then maybe don’t do that.”

“But I wanted to see inside them.”

“You shouldn’t let Mom or Dad see inside you.” I notch another arrow and fire. Bullseye.

“Why can’t they just be proud of me?”

“Because you were born different, and they can’t handle that kind of different.”

“How different?”

I pull another arrow and aim it at his throat, and he doesn’t even flinch. "How do you feel when I do this?"

“I want to hurt you for wanting to hurt me.”

"That’s different. Most people would feel scared, frozen, or nervous—that’s how their brain works.” I raise the arrow and fire again. Bullseye. “If you want Mom to stop looking at you like that, watch how your friends act and mimic them as best you can. It’ll get easier with time.”

He jumps up, a grin breaking through his usual blank expression. “Will Dad stop hating me, too?”

“Maybe stay away from Dad. I don’t think he’s ever going to accept you.”

So I might have unknowingly contributedto the rift between Dad and Kill. I think Kill wanted to try when we were young, but it faded out.

---