by K. Webster
Agatha senses my upset and rushes over to me. She hugs my middle. “You’re doing great, pumpkin. The book you made helps them see. It’s hard to see but they’re getting it. They truly are.”
“How old are you?” Mom asks Agatha.
“Sixty-eight,” Agatha says. “Kady and Bones and Yeo are like grandchildren to me. I’d be lost without them.”
Mom smiles and reaches her hand for Agatha who takes it without hesitation. “Thank you for looking out for my boy.” Agatha nods and then excuses herself from the room.
Dad polishes off another piece of pie and then leans back in his seat. His brows are furrowed together in a scowl. “So who takes care of her?”
I bristle at his question. “I do.”
“For twelve years you didn’t. You were in school. Who looks after her and makes sure she doesn’t hurt herself or that one of her alters don’t hurt her?” I know he’s not attacking me but I can’t help but grow defensive. “Yeo, I know you don’t want to hear this but she needs round the clock care.”
Gritting my teeth, I snarl at him. “I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere ever again. She ran me off hoping I’d find someone better. I didn’t want anyone better. I wanted her. So I went to school so I could help her. I studied every mental illness known to man but I especially studied hers. We’re together now. Everything is going to be okay.”
“But what about when you have to work or leave town for business? What about when you sleep or run errands? Who takes care of her then? You can’t drag her around town with you wherever you go. This is too large of a burden for you to bear alone, son.” His eyes are pained. Pained for both Kady and I. My heart sinks in my chest.
“I don’t bear it alone. They help me.”
Dean shoots Barclay an exasperated look. “Her other personalities help you.”
“Yes,” I growl. “While I was in college, I talked to them on the phone and kept track. They love her and don’t want anything to happen to her.”
Dad speaks, his voice resigned. “You, of all people since you studied medicine, should realize she needs help outside of your abilities.”
Fisting my hands at my sides, I growl at him. “I’m able to help her better than anyone because I love her, Dad. I brought you all here so you could understand her, not give you more ammunition to try and drag me away from her.”
“Whoa, Kitty Muncher,” Bones says with a laugh from behind me. “What’s got your panties in a wad?”
As much as I love Bones, now’s not the time.
Turning to regard him, I cringe. He’s typical Bones wearing nothing but a pair of low slung jeans that hang from his hips and no shirt. To me, he’s just my friend. To them, he’s a half-naked Kady acting strangely.
“Dear God,” Dad murmurs.
Ignoring them, Bones saunters into the dining room and plops down in Kady’s chair. His fingertip runs along Norman’s name carved into the wood. With a grumble, he looks up at me. “That fucker is in hiding. Punk ass child molester.”
Dean is gawking at Bones’s chest. Both of my parents and Patty have chosen to look elsewhere.
“Where’s Agatha?” Dad questions, his discomfort evident.
Bones smirks. “She sent me in here to deal with you fuckers. Said shit was gettin’ intense in here. Said you all were about to drag Kitty Muncher out of here if I didn’t come down here and intervene. Well here I am,” he says and winks at Dean, grabbing his crotch salaciously. “Motherfucking intervening. I’m fucking hungry. What are we eating?”
When Barclay starts laughing, clearly amused at Bones’s behavior, I tense. “You’ve got to be kidding me right now. What is even happening around here? It’s a mad house here. Yeo, bro, I’m fucking exhausted and I’ve only been here an hour. How do you keep your own head sane after all these years?”
I’m about to speak up when Bones rises from his chair. “Shut your fucking mouth, dog.” His entire body quakes with protective rage. Protective over me. It warms me that he’s standing up for me.
“Dog?” Barclay hisses and stands.
“Woof,” Bones taunts.
Barclay’s face burns bright red as he glares at him.
“Dude, calm the hell down,” Dean gripes and jerks our brother back into his seat. “You’re picking a fight with a girl.”
Wrong words.
Fuck.
“What did you call me?” Bones seethes.
Dean’s gaze drops to Bones tattooed chest and he laughs. “I called you a girl because you are. If you’d drop your pants right now, we’d all have our proof and—”
Dean doesn’t get another word in before Bones scrambles up on the table and attacks my brother. My brother doesn’t have a chance against my best friend because one is crazy while the other is not. One has no boundaries. One will claw his heart out and feed it to him for dinner. Bones’s fist makes contact three quick, furious times before I jolt out of my frozen stance. Sliding my arm around him, I drag him away from my brother and out of the dining room. I can hear Dad bitching my brothers out as I haul Bones up the stairs to his room. He fights and squirms, ready for a fight but I’m stronger and don’t let go.
Not until I’ve slammed the door behind us and pushed him against it.
“Calm the fuck down, Bones,” I order, my breaths coming out in quick succession.
His eyes are dilated with rage. He’d wanted to hurt my brother. For me. Bones always looks after Kady because she needs it. It makes me realize just how much he looks after me too.
“Look at me,” I demand.
He meets my gaze and it softens slightly. “Fucking assholes, those two.”
“You’re just mad because Kady’s upset. Because Norman made an appearance. Chill out, man.”
“You tried and fucking failed,” he seethes. “They just don’t get her. They don’t get us.”
Leaning forward, I rest my forehead against his. “They don’t matter. I get her and you and Agatha and all the rest. That’s all that matters.”
He pulls his hand from my grip and slides it down my chest to my slacks. When he grips me, my cock jolts to life at his touch. “That night,” he murmurs and squeezes my dick, “we both know it wasn’t the last time. There will never be a last anything between us.”
I groan and let my lips crush his. He kisses me like Kady kisses me. With love. “Fuck, Bones. You’re so damn difficult.”
He laughs as he slides to the floor on his knees. The moment he frees my cock and slips his hot mouth over it, I’m a goner. So much for last times. So much for closure. I’ll never rid my heart of this man. He filled a void when Kady hid from me, and now, I’ll be fucking empty if he ever leaves that hole in my heart.
“Bones,” I mutter as I fist his hair. “I love you.”
And not because he’s practically swallowing my dick. I love him because he’s been there for us both since the beginning. I love him because he’s crazy and fucked up and my best friend.
His teeth scrape against my shaft in such an exhilarating way, I find myself tilting my head back and groaning in pleasure. The desire to come is overwhelming. When his mouth hums a bit with a small moan, I lose control.
The heat from my orgasm explodes from me and drains deep into his throat. He swallows every drop. As soon as my dick stops twitching, he pops off of it, making an obscene sound loud enough I fear my family may have heard. When he rises, he wipes his chin off with the back of his hand and flashes me a salacious grin that barely hides his true feelings for me.
“Back at ya, Kitty Muncher.”
In Bones’s words…I love you too.
* * *
Kady
“Wake up.”
A deep voice rumbles me awake and I sit up, rubbing sleep out of my eyes. As soon as my eyes focus, I realize we’re in a dark room that smells of weed. “Why are we in Bones’s bed?”
Yeo grins at me and runs his fingertip down along my ribs toward my hipbone. “This is where the night took us.”
Rolling my e
yes at his answer, I flicker my gaze over to the nightstand. A bottle of lube sits on top beside a condom wrapper. My eyes find Yeo’s and I know. They had sex.
“Is he happy?” I wonder aloud. Bones is never truly happy. The closest he’s ever become is when he’s been with Yeo.
“I think so.” Yeo’s black eyebrows furrow together. His handsome face is twisted up as if he’s in pain. “Are you mad?”
Blinking at him several times, I try to harness the feeling in my heart. Is it anger or jealousy? No. I feel…glad.
Bones deserves to be happy.
Bones deserves so much more than I could ever give him.
“Do you love him?”
“Like I love you,” he admits. His fingers rake through the hair at my temple and his thumb slides over my cheekbone. “I seem to always hurt him. I’m tired of hurting him.”
My heart aches at the way Bones has felt lately. Ever since Yeo came back. The longing in his heart hurts—physically hurts—me. But when Yeo gives in to him and gives Bones what he desperately craves—physical connection and affection and sex—he’s content and satisfied. His heart is filled with love. A love I both recognize and share.
“I don’t want Bones to hurt either.”
He leans forward and presses a soft kiss to my nose. “We’ve never really made sense to anyone, you and I, but to me we make perfect sense. And somehow, Bones fits into our mess. It’s always been the three of us in some way, shape, or form.”
“So what’s going to happen now?”
When he doesn’t answer, I lean forward and kiss him softly to urge him on.
“I don’t know. I suppose we’ll just make it work,” he says with a sigh.
His words fill me with hope. If Bones could be happy right along with us, then that would make me happy too.
“You’re my girl,” he whispers. I like it when he whispers. “And he’s my best friend.”
I smile. “The Terrible Three.”
He chuckles at the nickname Grandma gave us. “I don’t suppose it will ever be any other way.”
This morning felt…normal.
Such an odd word.
Not at all something I’m familiar with.
Now that Yeo’s back, my cloudy world seems more clear. I find that I’m myself more lately than not. For once in a really long time, I’m not so tired. Hiding from what scares me is a full-time job. A job I can never take a break from. But with Yeo? I can at least take a moment to breathe and just be Kady.
A smile tugs at my lips as I gather Bones’s dirty clothes, which are scattered about his bedroom. Normally Agatha does the washing, but I want to do something nice for her today. She stayed with Yeo as he explained my afflictions to his family. I can’t thank her enough. Laundry is the least I can do.
When Yeo left this morning, my heart ached a bit, but I knew he wouldn’t be gone long. And now that Bones senses Yeo isn’t leaving him, his satisfaction hangs thick in the air. Things are beginning to look up. I wish I would have never asked Yeo to leave me in the first place. I missed out on him for twelve long years.
I scoop up the half-full laundry basket and head down the hallway. I’m always careful to avoid her room. The room where nightmares are born. The room where Norman now resides. Normally, we all manage to keep that room locked up. It’s a place none of us like to go. We all hate my mother’s old room. A shiver quivers through me when I see the door is cracked open. Sometimes Whiskers goes in there to lie in front of the big window where the sun pours in. I’m about to scold the old cat when memories begin latching their thick tendrils around the sane part of my mind. Those wicked memories drag me into the darkness and I immediately begin to drown in them.
Voices.
Whispered hisses that slowly become roars.
They’re not in my head this time. This time they’re real. The voices don’t come from Grandma or Yeo. They don’t come from Bones or Presley. They come from Mommy. And him.
When something crashes, fear laces around my heart and squeezes painfully. I slip out of bed and tiptoe toward my bedroom door. After I tug it open, I hear the voices more clearly.
“You’re not supposed to be here, Norman.” Mommy’s voice is wobbly.
“She’s my daughter. I miss her,” he seethes. He hisses something I can’t hear, which makes her cry harder.
Scrambling down the hallway, I make my way to Mommy’s bedroom. The door is ajar and I can see shadows moving around in the darkened room.
“You hurt her,” Mommy says in a fierce tone. “I can’t let you hurt her anymore. Leave before I call the cops. I’m not yours to destroy anymore.” I’ve never heard her sound so brave before. I’m aching to run and hug her. To tell her how proud I am of her.
But I’m scared.
What if he gets me?
“Kady, go back to bed,” Bones says with a grumble from behind me. “If he sees you…”
I turn to look for my friend. I don’t see him. I never see him. But I always hear him.
“What if he hurts Mommy again?” I ask tearfully.
Bones’s warmth cloaks me from behind. I feel comforted and safe with him behind me. “What if he hurts you again?”
A cold, sick feeling pours over me. It reminds me of how we watched that science video in class. The seagulls that had become covered in oil from a spill in the ocean. How the slippery black substance was glued to their tiny bodies. No way to get it off except to scrub and scrub and scrub.
I wish someone would scrub the feeling off of me.
Daddy is dirty and scary.
He poisons me from the outside.
One day I want to be completely clean again. Just like the gulls after the volunteers wash away the grime. But who will help me wash it all away?
Big brown eyes.
Black, straight hair.
Crooked grin.
Yeo.
Yeo will wash it all away. I’m his Kadydid. He’s my friend. A real friend.
“I’m real too,” Bones grunts, offended by my thoughts.
I smile. “I know, silly.”
Something crashes in Mommy’s room making both Bones and I jump.
“Go back to bed, Kady,” he urges, a slight panicked tone in his voice. Bones is never scared. If Bones is frightened, I should be terrified.
“But Mommy…”
“Go!”
Bones roars sometimes.
His roars make me run.
Bones
As soon as Kady scampers off into the shadows, I fist my hands and charge into her momma’s bedroom. Fear threatens to tear my chest in half but it’s my duty to protect Kady. She’s so small and so innocent. Her stupid daddy tries to hurt her. I hate him.
“Well, well, well,” Norman’s deep voice growls. “And who do we have here?” A lamp turns on and I see his giant form looming beside the bed. Kady’s daddy looks bigger than he did the last time we saw him. His eyes are darker and wild. By the way he sways, I know he’s drunk.
“Please leave,” Louise begs through her tears. “Momma will wake up and she’ll call the police. They’ll haul you away.”
Norman laughs, the sound evil and sinister. If I didn’t have Kady to protect, I’d run and hide from it.
“You better go before you get hurt,” I threaten, squaring my shoulders. “I will fucking gut you.” Kady’s grandma would make me bite on the soap bar if she’d heard that f-bomb.
Tears stream down Louise’s bright red cheeks. Understanding flickers in her eyes. “Bones, go. Please, just go to Kady’s room and lock the door.”
“Bones?” Norman jerks his gaze to her. “So she is a schitzo just like I fucking knew. Is she channeling our dead son?” he hisses when he meets my furious gaze. “Huh? You pretending to be our Kenneth. Newsflash, ya dumb shit, you don’t have a dick. You’ll never be the son we lost.”
Louise charges at him and attempts to shove him. He’s too large for her tiny frame. Easily, he slings his arm back and elbows her right in the face. Her nose makes a poppi
ng sound and she crumples to the ground letting out a pained moan. With a rage filled roar, I charge for him, my fists tight and ready to pummel. I manage to get one punch to his solid stomach before he grabs my throat.
“So you’re a boy? Is that right?” he snarls, lifting me up to where my toes barely touch the wood floors. I gasp for air and claw at his thick wrist.
He squeezes and sneers at me. My vision goes black for a moment. “Boys don’t wear pink nightgowns. Unless they’re gay. Are you gay, Bones?” His tone is mocking.
My fight has left me as I focus slowly on gasping for air that seems to be locked right above his grip in my throat.
“Bones!” Kady is crying for me somewhere.
Go away, Kady.
Hide, Kady.
Don’t watch this, Kady.
I may not be able to talk but she hears. Kady always hears.
“You know what happens to gay boys?” Norman demands, spittle showering my face. He tosses me onto the bed and I gasp for air like a fish out of water, clutching at my sore neck. “They take it up the ass!”
“Bones!” Kady’s sobs are my only focus.
“Run, Kady!” I hiss out, my voice a hoarse whisper. “He can’t hurt you anymore!”
Norman’s murderous gaze meets mine and he pounces before I can move. He manhandles me onto my stomach and presses his disgusting erection against my butt through the fabric of the stupid nightgown I’m wearing. I wish I had jeans on.
“You’re Kady,” he says with a cruel laugh. “My little princess.”
I squirm and desperately attempt to get out of his hold. “She’s gone. Do your worst, asshole, but she won’t know what you’ve done. I’ll protect her.”
He growls as he yanks my underwear down. I close my eyes and focus on Yeo—my and Kady’s best friend. I think about how his cheeks turn bright red when I cuss in front of Kady’s grandma Ruth. I think about how he’s always got a package of Cheetos for me whenever he comes to visit. I think about how badly he sucks at Monopoly. I think about the time he hugged me when I fell off Kady’s bike and skinned both knees. I’d been embarrassed and told him to leave me alone, but he didn’t. Yeo stuck by my side. Yeo is always by our side.
