Psychopathia: A Horror Suspense Novel (19 page)

Then sat there in the bright light and smoked her brother’s cigarette.

Tully woke to frying bacon and her step sister howling. Her father yelled up the stairs at her.

‘Tully, come help with the baby.’

Groaning, she turned over in the bed and stared at the wall, wondering what the time was, knowing it was early. Everyone got up early in this house. Even on the weekends. And she wasn’t a babysitter. Just because she’d had to move back home didn’t mean they could use her as a live-in nanny or something. She had her own life.

Her father yelled again, and she rolled her eyes, throwing back the covers and setting feet on the floor. There was no point staying in bed. He’d just yell a couple times more, face growing redder, then he’d be at the door, sticking his head in, ordering her downstairs, telling her that as long as she was living under his roof, she could be a productive member of the family.

All very well and good, but she’d had enough of the babysitting the night before. Watching over Toby as he slept, until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. She’d turned off a couple of the lights
, the brightness had given her a headache, and Toby had rolled over, muttered, but stayed asleep, fortunately. Eventually, she’d slipped away to her own bed.

Pulling on a pair of sweat pants, Tully padded out the door and downstairs. She hoped there was coffee, at least. About a swimming pool full should do the
trick.

Her father was sitting at the table, the weekend paper spread out in front of him.

‘I’m here,’ she said. ‘Reporting for duty.’

‘Don’t be smart. You know the rules.’

She sighed, making for Mary, and plucking a squirming baby from her stepmother’s arms. ‘Yep, I know the rules. Must be a productive member of the family.’

‘That’s right. Everyone pulls their weight, everyone gets along. Where’s your brother?’

Tully sat down at the table, bounced Hannah on her lap and handed her a piece of toast to chew. ‘Still asleep I should think.’

‘You were very late in last night.’

She shook her head. ‘Actually, we weren’t. Got home about eleven. We were just out in Toby’s room.’

Her father glanced at her over the paper. ‘You two are getting too old to be hanging out in each other’s rooms all the time now. It’s no longer appropriate.’

What? ‘No longer appropriate? What does that mean?’

‘You’re both growing up. It’
s getting to feeling a little off, spending all this time together. You need to get out, make your own friends, have your own lives. You won’t always be able to live together, you know.’

There was a bad taste in Tully’s mouth, and it had nothing to do with the cigarette she’d had last night. ‘
Eww, Dad. What you’re suggesting is gross. You know that’s called incest, right?’ She shook her head. ‘It’s also about five years too late. We’re already grown up.’

‘Tully. I was suggesting nothing of the sort.’

‘Like hell you were. We’re twins, Dad. Doesn’t mean anything like that is going on. Yuk. You’ve got a filthy mind.’

‘Watch your mouth, young lady. I never said anything about incest. Just watch what you’re saying.’

‘You didn’t say the word, but you might as well have. You’re disgusting.’ She got up and stuck the baby in her highchair, then made for the door, glancing again at her father and shaking her head. But she couldn’t think of anything more to say, so she just closed the door behind her and looked up at the garage, hoping Toby was back to normal. Fear wriggled inside her belly and it had nothing to do with her father’s insulting accusations.

It was way too early to wake Toby up, of course. But she’d check on him. Just quickly. Stick her head around the door and well, make sure he was still breathing,

The stairs creaked and Tully grimaced. She really didn’t want to wake her brother up. But all the same, she climbed the stairs, a heavy feeling in her belly, a wormy knot of worry. Still, it should be all right – she’d taken more than his tobacco from him last, night – she’d searched his pockets after he’d passed out, and found his stash. No more of that for him. Not from this bag, anyway, and she suspected that it would be a good idea for him to lay off the wacky baccy for a while. It was messing with his head, especially after all the stress they’d have with that goddamned spirit.

He was on his back, sheets twisted around his body like he was an Egyptian mummy.
They were wound tight, like he’d rolled himself up in them, and she wondered how the hell he’d managed it. It obviously hadn’t been a restful night’s sleep. The sheets were wound right up to his neck, and she realised on a gasp he was lucky he hadn’t twisted them further, over his mouth.

Tully didn’t know what to do. Toby was going to be awfully cramped wound up like that, but if she tried to loosen them, he’d wake up, and she was convinced he needed his sleep. He needed to sleep off whatever crazies he’d caught the night before. So did that mean she should try to unwind him from his sheets? They looked like a shroud, wrapped around him like that. Or a straightjacket. She shied away from the comparisons, and chewed on a fingernail, staring down at him.

A decision had to be made. Going inside and talking to father and stepmother about it was out of the question. If her father found out about Toby’s nuttiness of the night before, he’d ship his only beloved son right off to the nearest rehab.

It took a good few minutes for Tully to decide that wasn’t what would be best for her brother. She’d try to help him first. His drug use was strictly recreational, anyway. He didn’t have a problem, except for some reason this last bag he’d bought was a dud. She wondered if he’d tried a new supplier, or if something along the supply line had changed. Maybe the buds he’d bought this time had been soaked in something. Supposedly to enhance the experience, but maybe Toby was allergic to whatever it was.

She huffed out a deep breath. One thing at a time. What to do, right now? Turning on quiet cat feet, Tully tiptoed to the door and down the steps. Out of the garage and back into the house, hoping like hell her father wouldn’t catch her on the way past the kitchen and deliver another lecture. A shudder of disgust passed through her. How could he have suggested that she and Toby were…too close? Why would that thought have even entered his mind?

‘Tully.’ Speak of the devil. She should have known she wouldn’t get through the house unscathed. ‘Come here, please.’

Honestly, she was too old for this sort of thing. It was like being dragged before the principal at school, which just made it even more wrong, because she’d left school years ago. A year ago. She’d been at university a year.

‘What?’ she asked, giving her father a hard
look.

The man hesitated, folded his newspaper,
cleared his throat. It was going to be a good one. ‘Look,’ he said. ‘I made no such insinuation that you and Toby were...were…’ he faltered.

‘Committing incest. Fucking. I’m sorry Father, but you pretty clearly did.’

His face went red. ‘No, I didn’t. I’m sorry it even sounded like that. I just meant that you’re both old enough to be building your own lives now. Looking to the future, instead of clinging to each other. Making new friends, dating, looking to settle down and marry.’

Tully blinked.
‘Who said I want to get married?’

‘Well, I’m sure you will one day.’

‘One day, maybe. Not today. Not tomorrow. Jeez.’

A
n impatient sigh. ‘You know perfectly well what I mean, Tully.’

She matched his sigh and raised him an eyeball rolling. ‘He’s my brother,’ she said, speaking slowly as though her father were dim-witted. Which he quite frankly must be. ‘We stick together and look out for each other because there’s no one else to do that. You haven’t taken an interest in us since forever, so it’s him and I. We’re
twins.
For fuck sakes, we shared a womb and now you think it’s inappropriate for us to hang out together?’ She shook her head. ‘You’ve always managed to let us down, but by god you’re taking it to new levels this time.’ She pressed her lips together and tried not to burst into tears.

Her father stood up, hitched his trousers up and stood there looking at her, hands on hips. He cleared his throat again, and Tully saw how red his face was, and took a wholly unconscious step backwards.

‘I think you need to look for another place to stay, Tully. You’re not welcome here anymore.’

‘Tom, no,’ Mary said from the kitchen where she was bouncing the baby on her hip, her face stricken. ‘She’s your daughter.’

He shook his head. ‘No, Mary, I’m afraid I’ve made up my mind. You heard how she spoke to me.’ His eyes never left Tully’s face. ‘I want you – and your brother – out of my house by the end of the week. And I want you to stay out of my way until then.’

Tully could barely spit out her answer. ‘Fuck you. We’ll be out of your thinning fucking hair today. God knows we wouldn’t dream of outstaying our welcome.’ She spun around and ran for the stairs before he could spew anymore of his poison at her.
Into her room, slamming the door, collapsing against it, the tears coming now, no stopping them. So unfair, so so unfair. She crab-crawled across the floor to grab her phone off the bedside table, then scooted back to sit against the door. It felt safer that way; no one could open it, push inside and say more horrible things to her.

She sniffed and wiped away enough tears to see the screen of her phone, enough to hit speed dial.

‘Lara?’

The voice on the other end was groggy, and Tully knew she’d woken her friend. She couldn’t apologise though, couldn’t say anything, her throat clogged with tears. All she could do was lean forward, the phone pressed to her ear, and sob.

‘Tully! What’s wrong?’

She told her, everything, the words spilling out on a waterfall of tears. Her father, his monstrous accusations, finally him telling her they had to get out of his house. His own son and daughter, and he was kicking them out.

‘Where will you go?’

That was just the problem. They had nowhere to go. Tully used her sleeve to wipe her eyes. ‘We haven’t organised a flat yet. There is nowhere to go.’ She shook her head, even though her best friend couldn’t see her. ‘I’m not staying here another hour, let alone another week. I need somewhere right now, a place to stay until I can organise our flat.’

‘Well,’ Lara said. ‘What about the cabin?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘We paid a month in advance, remember. Which means…let me look at the calendar, yup, there’s still a week until we actually had to be out of there!’ Her voice held a measure of triumph that made a dull throb of anger flare inside Tully. If they’d stayed in the cabin in the first place, none of this would have happened.

‘Will you and Matt come back and stay with us?’ she asked, squashing the anger under the larger thought that she really didn’t want to be coping with all this on her own.

But the long pause before Lara spoke was answer enough. ‘I don’t think so, Tully. I’m sorry, but Toby made me real uncomfortable last night, and well, I kind of told Matt about it – we don’t have any secrets, you know? Anyway, he’s a bit pissed with your brother now.’

Tully’s heart sank. What on earth had gotten into Toby last night? ‘But he was having a bad trip,’ she said. ‘He didn’t know what he was doing.’

‘Tully, honey, you don’t have bad trips on a bit of weed, you know?’

‘So, what? What does that mean, then?’

Another uncomfortable pause. ‘Well, I’m guessing Toby was finally drunk and stoned enough to let slip his real feelings. And it’s just not gonna work, okay? I need to keep my distance from him, until this all blows over. He’s got to respect the fact that I’m with Matt. You know that, right?’

Tully didn’t know what she knew. ‘He doesn’t have feelings for you though.’

‘He practically raped me last night, Tully!’

Stunned, Tully took her phone from her ear and looked at it. Slowly put it back to her ear. ‘You did not just say that,
Lara. Tell me you did not just say that.’

An impatient sigh. She’d heard a few of those this morning. ‘Okay, so that was the wrong word. But it doesn’t change the fact that he grabbed me and tried to kiss me, and I pretty much had to fight him off. He’s lucky Matt isn’t over there pounding the shit out of him right now.’

‘I can’t believe you’re saying these things, Lara.’ The tears were tracking down her cheeks again.

‘I’m sorry Tully, I really am. But we’re just going to have to meet up without Toby for a while, you know?’

Too much. It was just too much. ‘No,’ Tully said very carefully. ‘We’re just not going to have to meet up at all.’ She lowered the phone and pressed the end button’ put it on the floor in front of her and stared over her knees at it, waiting for Lara to call again so she could press
ignore.

But the phone sat silent, and after a while Tully realised
Lara wasn’t going to call back. She sniffed, used her sleeve again, and got to her feet, back stooped, feeling a hundred years old. So. She and Toby really were on their own.

That was okay. They’d manage. Cope somehow. Tully still had the car; they’d all pooled their money to buy the second hand Laser, but
she and Toby needed it. Lara and her stupid boyfriend didn’t.