I used to look up to my older brother. Matt was smart, handsome, athletic, and the kindest person you’ll ever meet. Everyone wanted to be him and all the girls wanted to be with him, Matt truly had it all. That was until he met her…his girlfriend Samantha. They started dating in their senior year of high school, the two most popular kids at school who were meant to be. He was in love with her and he spent every waking moment attending to her every need. His love soon turned into a sick obsession.
Matt and Samantha set out for a university a few cities away. My family and I hadn’t heard from him in months, but we assumed he was simply preoccupied with college. It was nearing the end of spring when the whole world flipped upside down. I’ll never forget coming home from school and seeing my parents seated at the kitchen table. My mother was crying her eyes out, while my father sat there blankly staring at my mother’s phone.
“M-mom? What’s going on?” I asked reluctantly. My mother tried to compose herself but ended up crying even harder. My father cleared his throat and with a wavering voice he said, “Your brother…” He paused for a moment to think over his next few words, “Something happened to your brother..” My heart sank when the words left his mouth. I thought that Matt had died, but after hearing what happened I wished that he did..
Samantha’s friends had noticed that she hadn’t been to her classes and had gone to check on her. She shared a small apartment with Matt near campus, and when they arrived, they could hear sobbing from inside. There was no response after knocking several times and calling out Matt and Samantha’s names. Their concerns grew by the second, so after a few more failed attempts they eventually called the police.
When the cops arrived they were able to force the door open and inside the once happy lovers’ home was a scene from a horror movie. Pictures of the couple were strewn across the floor, furniture was toppled, and crying could be heard from the bedroom. The officers on the scene found my brother covered in blood hunched over Samantha’s corpse and her abdomen had countless stab wounds.
He was quickly arrested and the police conducted a very thorough investigation of what happened. Inside Samantha’s phone and laptop were a collection of evidence of Matt’s abuse towards her. There were pictures of bruises and cuts on her body along with detailed descriptions along with time stamps of what he did to her. She talked about how he would get jealous of her talking to other men and how angry he would get when she would try to have a moment away from him.
She went on to say that he had repeatedly threatened to kill her if she even considered leaving him. The worst part was a video…a hidden camera in their bedroom captured a horrifying assault scene. Throughout the interrogation, Matt was almost catatonic, refusing to answer any of the police questions. My parents pleaded with him to explain his actions, but he remained deafeningly silent.
The love for my brother turned into scorn. One by one the people around him expressed their hate for him, calling him a murderer and wishing for him to be put down. My family tried to support him despite what the public thought of us, but it was a heavy weight that was slowly crushing us. My parents became the people that gave birth to a monster and I was the little brother to a demon. I used to look up to my brother, but I wished every single day that he would just…disappear.
The investigation eventually came to an end, they gathered all of the evidence, and they were ready for the trial. My parents went to great lengths to find the best lawyer for my brother’s case. After a tense week, it was determined that Matt…well, he was innocent. They ruled out suicide, but how could someone do that to themselves? Despite all of the evidence, my brother was able to flee freely.
I couldn’t believe it; I had prayed so desperately for Matt to be arrested…to be held accountable for his actions. As I watched Samantha’s parents cry in front of me, tears welled up in my eyes. Matt just stood there staring as Samantha’s father cursed him to go to hell. After that, we simply went home, and Matt had since locked himself in his room. He stopped attending school and refused to leave the house.
A few years had passed since then and I was preparing to start college while Matt continued his exile in his bedroom. After all this time I would barely see him even though we lived under the same roof and his room was across the hall from mine. My parents still felt the need to take care of him so they would always leave food outside this door. Every now and then they would ask me to go check in on him, but there would be no response.
There was just silence beyond that door. I thought that he died, but late at night I would hear him leave his room to use the restroom and clean up a bit. I felt disappointment each time I heard his footsteps go through the house. One night I caught a glimpse of him, I only saw his silhouette in the dark hallway. He seemed to have gotten a lot skinnier since the last time I saw him. I recall hearing a low whisper coming from him.
I was surprised because it had been so long since I had heard him speak that I had forgotten how he sounded. I should have said something to him at the time, but he ran back into his room. The creaking of the wooden door, followed by the click of the lock, seemed to reverberate throughout the house. Even if it was only for a fraction of a second, seeing my brother reminded me of Samantha and made me sick to my stomach.
A couple of days after that encounter my parents sat me down on the couch to tell me they were going to leave for a few days. Of course that wasn’t an issue until they asked me to make sure that Matt was being taken care of. “Just make sure he eats and you know…just check in on him.” my mother pleaded. I agreed, but I was nervous thinking about being home alone with that man..
It was a Friday when my parents left, they were going to be gone until Monday. It was just a few days of being home alone with Matt. That night I ordered some pizza and quickly devoured a couple of slices before setting a few on a plate to bring to Matt. On my way I noticed that his bedroom door was cracked open. I slowly took a few steps closer, it was pitch black inside of this room.
I strained my eyes to try and peek through the darkness when a pale gaunt face emerged. I jumped and the paper plate I had in my hand fell to the floor. I looked down to see the mess I had made and looked back to see that Matt’s door was closed. “Fuck man..” I cursed under my breath as I set the food back onto the paper plate. I left and came back with a new plate of food and placed it on the side of his door..
I knocked on Matt’s door and called out, “Hey, I brought you some food…just…eat when you want I guess..” I expected to hear silence but I could hear whispering coming from inside of his room. I decided to leave him alone and went straight to my room. I spent the rest of the night lying in bed listening to music until I fell asleep. That night I dreamt of Matt’s white mask-like face staring at me from the end of my bed..
The next day went by like normal; I got some errands done, talked with some friends, and played some video games. It wasn’t until that night that I noticed that the plate of food I had set aside for Matt last night was left untouched outside his door. I called out to him, “Matt! You should eat!” I stood there for a moment, but there was no response. Then I knocked on his door and when my fist made contact with the wooden panel it slowly pushed it open. I could hear crying from somewhere inside his bedroom’s darkness.
As I called out, “M-Matt?” I felt a wave of dread wash over me. I pressed my hand against the cold wall until I found the light switch. Before I could turn on the light, I felt a hand grab my wrist. Matt’s face was barely illuminated by the light from behind me as he stared at me with a terrified expression on his face. I was close enough to see the outline of his cheek bones beneath his pale skin, his hair was a tangled mess that flowed down the side of his head, and his eyes were bloodshot.
His face twisted from fear to pain as he let out an agonized wail. “I’M SORRY!!!” he screamed and I looked in horror as a set of pale hands grabbed his shoulders to pull him backwards into the dark. My heart sank into my stomach and I quickly retreated to slam the door shut. I couldn’t comprehend what I had just seen. I thought to myself that it was probably my eyes playing tricks on me. I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard Matt whispering inside his room, “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry..”
As much as I hated my brother, something inside of me was telling me to help him. Matt continued to whisper and each apology was grating in my ears. Something felt horribly wrong…so I took a deep breath and opened the door. I remembered where the light switch was and I reached out and flipped it. The light turned on and immediately started to flicker. Within the strobing light I could see Matt curled into a ball on the floor with..something hovering over him.
It was a woman, or rather something shaped like a woman. It was so skinny that I could make out each bone underneath its light gray skin. It was completely nude and I saw that its stomach was ripped open to reveal its exposed insides. The woman looked up and stared at me with large white eyes, it had a smile that showed its sharp teeth. It opened its mouth and a large fork tongue writhed out of its maw.
“M-m-mine….Miiiiine…” a high pitched distorted voice croaked out of its throat. Its small hands grabbed Matt and lifted him to his feet. I began to shake in fear as it took its tongue and licked up and down his neck. “M-miiiiine…Miiiiiine..” it wailed again. “GET OUT OF HERE!” Matt screamed, breaking me out of my stupor. I looked at him and I was reminded of the brother that I once loved…that somewhere deep inside I still loved.
The lights continued to flicker around us and I could hear something thud onto the floor. The woman’s intestines were slithering on the ground, slowly wrapping itself around Matt’s leg and crawling up his body. She took her arms and pulled him into an embrace, she didn’t care about me…all she wanted was my brother. I didn’t know what to do. I rushed forward without a thought in my mind as I clutched her rotten intestine and pulled at it to set Matt free.
His body began to lift up and in an instant came slamming onto the floor. The intestine retracted back into the woman’s body as she quickly stepped to me. I tried to take a step back but her hand grabbed a fistful of hair on the back of my head. She pulled my face to hers and I finally realized that this thing, this monster was Samantha. She opened her mouth and I was hit with a decaying stench as she shouted, “MIIIIIIIINE!”
She opened her mouth wider and wider. Her sharp teeth seemed to go on endlessly as she opened her mouth around my head. Slowly she began to bite down, the ends of her fangs slowly piercing my skin. My skull felt the pressure of her teeth effortlessly sinking into it. “Stop it…just take me…” Matt whispered at our feet. My gaze went down to see him grabbing her ankle. “Just end it please..” he said..
She removed her mouth from my head and bent down to look at Matt. She let out a terrible squeal of delight as she began to sink her hands into his chest. Blood began to spray out of his open torso and he screamed…his screams were so horrible as she slowly…carefully removed his beating heart. She stood up and started at the throbbing organ in her hands, her eyes upturned into glee.
She took a free hand and stabbed it into her chest, the sound of her ribs snapping filled my ears. I watched as it took Matt’s heart and forcefully thrust it into the open hole in her chest. Samantha began to let out a discordant moan as the hole in her chest closed, her abdomen began to seal with new flesh, and her gray skin began to regain color. Her body twisted and morphed back into the visage of the Samantha I had seen when she was alive.
She looked at me and back down at Matt, she smiled…even though the face was different I recognized the monster I saw before. “All mine.” she said in a cutesy voice and as I blinked she was gone. Samantha was gone and the mess of blood that filled the room had disappeared. The lights stopped flickering and it was only me and Matt’s corpse in the room. I fell to my knees beside my dead brother and I just cried.
That was when I noticed a stack of papers underneath my brother’s bed and I pulled them out. The papers were details of what had actually happened between Matt and Samantha. The whole story was twisted and it revealed that Matt wasn’t the obsessive one, it was Samantha. She was the one that threatened him if he would leave and he was the one that felt powerless to her demands.
That video of the assault was a complete fabrication, she forced him to do those things to her while she threatened to hurt the people around him. Her stab wounds were self inflicted after he finally told her that he was leaving her. Matt felt trapped by her…in life and in her death. My brother kept the truth to himself despite all of the hate because he still truly loved her. Her real self…the true monster would’ve shattered her family…so my brother took the blame.
Samantha took everything from my brother and even after she died she continued to take from him. I regret everything, just like everyone else around him I jumped to conclusions. I wish I would’ve taken the time to reach out to him, but now he’s gone. I’m left with an empty inside of me that’s created from the things I’ll never get to say to him again. My brother took the blame for everything…and he did it out of love.