The haunting stillness lingered even as I tried to keep my mind off ‘it’. The doorbell rang. The sudden ring cut threw the frozen air like how scissors cut paper. I rose from my throne holding nothing but my conviction. I knew what would come next. He, my brother, was here. With each step closer to the door, my fears crawled up my back. They weren’t fears for my own sake. As they slithered up my spine, possibilities of what might happen next flooded my mind. One possibility was that he would get arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. Another was that he would get divorce raped and lose everything.

I reached for the door and placed my hand on the door knob. What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to do? I thought with my hand stuck to the black and shiny door knob as if my hand had been stuck to it. Jeremy, you need to do this. I thought to myself. I turned the doorknob, and opened the door wide enough to see my visitors. There were two people outside my home. My brother, and a woman that I didn’t recognize. She had patches of skin that were kept together with stitches, two pillow-like horns on the top of her head, and her hands were massive. Her hands must’ve been at least twice as wide than her head. The woman clutched Matthew’s right arm with her left.