The House

Red couldn't feel much of anything as he followed the detective into the old house. He thought he would feel some sort of familiarity being back in this house again, but nothing was there. The detective was coughing into her arm, as she used her other hand to wave away the dust. 

"No one has lived here for almost a decade. To be honest, I'm not sure if anyone will ever want to live here. The history to this place…I'm sorry. That came off a bit rude, didn't it?"

"No. It didn't," he said in a deadpan voice. 

The detective looked at him strangely, and Red attempted to put more emotion into his voice this time. It was hard for him to show some form of humanity, but he wanted to try. For his new family waiting for him back home, he was willing to try. 

"Sorry. I - I haven't seen my family in years. It wasn't a happy one for me, so I guess that is why I came off like I don't…care," Red lied. 

The detective blinked. "Yes. You are the twin brother of Michael…the one who ran away from home. Did you both leave together?"

"No. I ran away first. My family didn't bother to look for me. But I did feel awful…for leaving my brother and sister behind."

The detective had a forlorn expression on her face. Whatever Red was able to muster through his voice, it worked in his favor. 

"It wasn't your fault. You didn't know…of what would happen later."

"What…what did happen here? I heard it was bad, but I don't know all the details. Or what happened to my brother."

The detective cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable. 

"Um, are you sure you want to know what happened? It's not pretty to hear, kid."

"I want to know. Please. It would mean everything to me."

The detective gave a firm nod, an echo of worry creasing her face. 

"Alright. I guess you do have a right to know."

She crossed her arms, staring at the middle of the empty living room. It looked as if she was remembering something awful, and the way she kept on biting her lip told Red that it was indeed something not pretty. 

"Your family…had kicked Michael out of his own home. This is alleged, but his best friend, Katie, acknowledged that this was true. Katie thinks it had to do with Michael preferring the opposite sex, but there was far more to his father than we all thought."

Red wanted to ask if this Katie was still around, but kept this to himself. 

"His father was a bit of a tyrant behind the scenes. Katie claimed she had witnessed him grab Michael by the arm, to the point where a large bruise was left behind. It was enough for Katie to think that his father was possibly abusive, but Michael refused to speak about his father. He eventually split town on his own after he was kicked out, and Katie followed, the two of them going to college."

Red tried to picture what Katie looked like, but no image would come to mind. The detective cleared her throat, this time, appearing to come off very uncomfortable. 

"We had received a 911 call to this home, just a couple of years after Michael had split town. The mail man had called the police, when he noticed that the front door was wide open. And he could clearly see the bodies inside."

She paused for a moment. Red nodded for her to continue. 

"Your mother and sister were in pieces. An axe was used on them. Your father had killed them, and then he had used the axe on himself. It was…carnage. And it was possibly the worse thing I had seen in my entire career."

Red knew this story wasn't true, but that was what the detective and this town was meant to believe. He pretended to go along with this, turning his head away to confirm that he was bothered by this realization. 

"What happened to Michael?"

"He was found in his apartment, dead. He had poisoned himself, shortly after he heard about what happened to his family. Katie found him."

Red felt awful for Katie, but this story was also not true. 

It was meant to look that way. 

"That's…horrible."

The detective shook her head. "I'm sorry you have to hear this. I can't believe that…there was a secret family member that some of us didn't know about."

"I preferred to keep it that way. I wasn't exactly fond of my family. My parents were…a bit much. But my siblings didn't…deserve any of this."

The detective patted Red's shoulder. "I'm sorry. Is there…do you need some time to yourself?"

Red nodded. The detective walked away, leaving him alone in the house. When he knew that she wasn't around anymore, he bowed his head, letting a tear fall down his cheek. He didn't think he was capable of tears, but perhaps he was much more human than he gave himself credit for. 

He couldn't imagine what his family had gone through in their final moments. They knew that the father would be easy to manipulate, creating a horrid picture for the public to think that he was an evil monster. In reality, he was probably a bad father, but he wasn't capable of such violence. 

They made it appear that he had murdered his entire family, and then himself. And they made people think that Michael went crazy and did the same to himself. 

But Michael was also murdered. 

Because they wanted him for their sick experiments, and in order to do that, they had to get his entire family out of the picture. 

Red pulled out a picture of himself, that he had kept in his pocket. It was Michael, or when he used to be Michael. He had a huge smile on his face, and he wondered if Katie was the one who had snapped the picture. He felt so sorry for that man, and it was shame that he was dead. 

Once he awoke on that table, finding himself in a lab, surrounded by vile scientists and soldiers, Michael was dead. 

Every single person who was taken to that lab would wake with no memory. They were a mindless being in a body suit. 

Michael placed the picture back in his pocket. 

"I'm sorry," he whispered. 

He wasn't sure if ghosts were real, but wherever his family was, he hoped that they were in a better place. He wasn't even sure if Michael was somehow with them, but he hoped that his spirit was at least. Red clenched one of his hands into a fist, applying a lot of pressure to his skin. It didn't matter if he spilled his own blood, the wounds would regenerate. 

It was one of the few gifts that the scientists had given him. 

And now these gifts would be used to put a stop to them. 

He walked out of the home, finding the detective waiting for him outside. 

"Are you alright?"

"Yes. I think so."

"I…I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

"Don't be. You have given me…closure."

The detective studied the home. "Good. I'm glad someone is going to heal from this. God knows if I will ever will."

Red stood next to the detective, picturing the kind of man he used to be. Did he smile often? Was he outgoing? Did he have a big booming laugh? He certainly wasn't like the man he is now. Red didn't like to talk. He always keeps to himself, only talking to people that he gets along with, but even then, he uses very little words. 

He thought of his own family back home, wondering what they saw in him. He fell in love with an older man, a doctor who had adopted four children after they their parents were murdered by people as monstrous as those who killed Michael and his family. They always loved spending time with him, and they loved him. 

He didn't think he would be capable of such a thing, but he knew how to love them. He didn't have to teach himself how to do that, but it came to him easily, like how a human knows that oxygen is needed to breathe. Despite what was done to him in that lab, they failed to take away his humanity. 

And now he was going to make sure that the same will not happen to his new family. 

This time, he will take the fight to them. 

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn