When Caitlin finally pulled away from Shanna, she had a beaming smile on her face...until her eyes moved to the door of her hospital room. It was her mother, Anne, and her stepfather, Stanley, standing in the doorway that made the smile turn to a grimace. But it was the sight of her stepbrother, Billy, standing behind them, that made the blood drain from her face.
Caitlin hadn't seen Billy since the day she left home for college. She had suffered over three years of psychological torture and sexual molestation at the hands of her older stepbrother. His threats to break apart the family and ruin Caitlin's reputation forced her into a silent, private hell. She was unable to tell anyone, even her best friend Shanna, who was Billy's older sister. Shanna had already left home for college when the abuse began, and had no idea what kind of a twisted sadist lurked in her baby brother.
Now, five years later, Billy had changed little. Always a bit overweight, with an unattractive face and muddy brown eyes, Billy had not been blessed with good looks. It seemed that everything he lacked in looks and social skills had been poured into his considerable intelligence. With an I.Q. well above the "genius" level cut-off, he lived a lonely, unhappy life dreaming of being successful at something other than math and science. Caitlin believed that Shanna's presence had kept him somewhat human, and when Shanna left home for college when Billy was sixteen and Caitlin was fifteen, Billy lost any kind of moral compass he'd had. He began visiting Caitlin's room at night and exposed the dark demon that hid inside of him.
Caitlin knew that she was about to put on the best performance of her life: acting as if she was happy to see her deeply dysfunctional family. Lowering her head, she slowly exhaled, imagining that she was expelling every negative interaction she had ever had with her family. Forcing a bright smile onto her face, she raised her eyes to meet her family as they hesitated uncertainly in the doorway.
"Mother, Stanley, it's so nice of you to come!" Caitlin cried. "But honestly, you didn't have to travel all this way, I'm fine!" Her smile hurt her face, but she kept it glued on.
Anne rolled her eyes and smirked at her husband. "See, Stanley, I told you she was fine. That long flight for nothing!" she sighed dramatically.
Stanley moved quickly to Caitlin's bedside, putting his hand on Shanna's shoulder as he peered down at Caitlin. "I wouldn't dream of letting you stay overnight in the hospital alone, thousands of miles away," he confided to her, giving her a lingering kiss on the cheek that made her skin crawl.
Billy remained standing in the doorway, and Caitlin knew she had to acknowledge his presence in order to avoid suspicion. "Hello, Billy," she said, unable to keep a hint of icy coolness out of her voice.
"Hi, Caitlin," he said in his whiny voice, moving to her bedside. When he leaned down to give her a kiss on her cheek, she felt like she was going to throw up. 'I can't do this, I can't act normal around him,' the young teenage girl inside of her moaned in misery. 'Yes, you can!' the college graduate trained in self-defense shouted.
Her false smile painted on, she forced herself to ask Stanley how life was back in California. Anne was ignoring them, leaning out the doorway to keep a lookout for cute doctors that she could fuck in the men's bathroom.
"Oh, things are going fine," Stanley answered. "Billy is doing well with his internet company, working from our home."
Turning to Billy, she struggled to keep her voice from tightening. "That's great news, Billy," she said in a light tone.
His smile was snakelike. "Yes, Caitlin, I'm quite happy. Of course, I was deeply concerned when I heard about your accident. It fills me with joy to discover that you're alright," he replied.
She cringed inside at his words. His formal way of speaking was something that seemed to have developed with his I.Q., and it only reminded her of the way he used to speak to her when he visited her room at night.
Stanley patted her arm. "But we should be asking about you! What kinds of things have you seen and done on this trip? You know, I'm so supportive that you're exploring the country like this, and I admire the efforts you've made to be safe about it." His tone was smug as he subtly insulted Anne, who had refused to even discuss Caitlin's travel plans.
As Caitlin started to answer, she noticed that Anne had wandered out into the hallway. 'Typical,' she thought to herself. 'She must have found a candidate for a quickie.'
"Well," she answered Stanley, "it's so hard to say. I mean, I wouldn't even know where to begin."
"Then at least tell me what you were doing in Pennsylvania," he smiled, leaning uncomfortably close to her.
As Caitlin opened her mouth, she noticed Anne come back into the room with a bright red, embarrassed expression. 'Huh?' she thought. Then she realized that Jack was right behind her mother.
*****
Jack rushed down the hospital hall, anxious to see if Caitlin was alright after her grueling day of tests. Suddenly, he was stopped by an attractive redhead who reached out to grab his arm.
"Hey there, handsome, you meeting anyone?" she purred, a look of seduction in her eyes.
He shifted uncomfortably, looking around at the room numbers nearby.
"Yes, I'm just looking for 217," he said distractedly, trying to move away from her.
A look of shock came over the woman's face. "217?" she repeated.
Confused and more than a little annoyed, he replied, "Yes, 217, what room is this?"
Her face bright red, the woman muttered, "I suppose you're the man who put my daughter in the hospital."
Realization dawned on him. Dear god, this was Caitlin's mother? Caitlin's mother had just hit on him?! Meeting her gaze coolly, he answered, "I am the man who brought your daughter to the hospital when she was hurt, yes. I'm Jack, pleasure to meet you." He shook her hand formally.
She gave his hand a limp shake, her face still red. "I'm Anne. She's in here."
As they walked into the room, he saw Caitlin stare at them with a look of distress on her face. He hesitated, uncertain about how to greet her in front of her family. 'How much has Shanna told them?' he wondered. Erring on the side of caution, he nodded to her.
"Caitlin, I'm glad to see you're looking better," he said a bit stiffly. Caitlin looked confused. Jack was at a loss as to what to do, so he moved to the bedside and introduced himself to the three people gathered around Caitlin's bed.
"I'm Stanley, Caitlin's stepfather," an older man standing next to the bed explained.
"I'm Shanna," a young, pretty, blonde woman smiled, with a very subtle wink.
"And I'm Billy," a chubby, unattractive young man added in a whiny voice.
