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The bottle spins, spins, spins…
And stops, pointing at Max’ brother’s name.
“‘Billy’,” they both read aloud.
Max looks up at her. “Remember what I’ve told you?”
El nods. “If I see sex, I’ll leave.”
Max grimaces.
El laughs at her expression until it splits and Max joins in.
“Yes,” she says, mirth still clinging to her face. “Yes, exactly. Immediately, El! We don’t need to know anything about that!”
“Okay,” El says. She knows this already, of course. Max warns her every time they do this.
But so far, El hasn’t had to hurry away out of the Void because of Billy. All she’s seen him do is drink and laugh at a party with very loud music, study in silence, stare at himself in the mirror with pouty lips as he fixes his hair, dance to angry music in his bedroom with his hips swinging, and smoke while he sits on the hood of his car up at the quarry.
El holds a finger up to her lips at Max, leaning back against El’s pillows. The window above the bed is open, letting in a cool breeze. It’s May, and hot outside. El reaches for her black cloth and ties it around her head, covering her eyes, as she listens to the quiet hum of the static from her radio.
She opens her eyes to the reflective darkness.
There’s the sound of something swishing through the air behind her, followed by a choked cry.
El turns around.
There’s a green couch in the distance with clothes thrown over it’s cushions. It’s facing El, but the two people there have their backs to her.
El walks closer, sees that one of them is Billy. She recognises him by the hair.
He’s kneeling on the couch, shirtless, his arms resting folded on the couch’s back and his face buried in them. There are red marks and welts all over his back, some bleeding.
And the straight backed man behind him, standing between El and the couch, is swinging a belt through the air.
He does it again, the buckle hitting Billy’s skin with a horrific smacking sound. El jumps as Billy lets out another muffled cry. Her hand clenches, and she feels her bedspread against her fingers, as she watches a shudder go through him.
“El?” Max asks.
“Someone’s hurting him.”
El has seen violence, El has caused violence and shed blood, she’s no stranger to pain but she doesn’t want to see more of it.
Her bed creaks as Max moves, her voice coming from much closer now. “What? Who?”
El rounds the couch, coming closer to Billy’s head. This close she can see him trembling.
The man hits him again. Billy’s breath hitches.
“Tell me what we talked about,” the man says.
“R-Respect and responsibility, sir,” Billy says in a shaky voice. “Please-“
“‘Sir’,” El repeats.
“- please, I understand. Dad, please-“
“‘Dad’,” El gasps.
The man raises the hand holding the belt again.
Papa. He’s like papa.
El throws the cloth off her head, breathing hard. She slowly lifts her gaze up to Max.
She’s staring at her. “Neil?” she whispers.
El nods. She’s never seen Max’ stepdad, but she knows that’s his name.
El jumps off her bed, grabbing the cloth on her way, with Max hot on her heels, and slams her bedroom door open.
Jim’s just outside, sitting in his recliner and watching TV. El stops in front of it, hands on her hips.
“You have to drive me to Max’ house.”
Jim frowns at her. “Can’t it wait until after the show’s over-“
“You have to drive me to Max’ house, or I’ll walk.”
Jim raises his eyebrows. He leans his head back as he calls out to Max, probably thinking she’s still in El’s bedroom, but she isn’t. She’s standing just behind his armchair, in the doorway, staring down at her feet and looking shocked. “Max? You sure whatever you forgot can’t wait twenty minutes?”
“El saw…” Max starts.
The tone of her voice must alarm him, because he sits up straight and turns around to face her fully. “What?“
“El saw my stepdad hurting Billy.”
“ What? ” He turns around to look at El.
“With a belt,” El says. “Billy was bleeding.”
“Oh my god,” Jim breathes. He stands up, putting his feet back into his shoes and his own belt, the one with all the police things, on. He turns the TV off and hurries to the front door of the cabin, El running after him.
“We’re coming.”
He takes his hat off the coatrack and puts it on. “El-“
“ We’re coming ,” she repeats. She puts her shoes on.
Max does the same, and takes El’s hand as El opens the front door. Jim relents, unlocking the car and letting them climb into the back.
He radios the station as soon as they’ve pulled out from the drive. “Flo, it’s Hop. I’m on my way to the Hargrove-Mayfield residence to arrest Neil Hargrove on charges of child abuse. His stepdaughter’s friends with Jane, she told me she feared he would hurt his son. Give me about seven minutes, and then I’ll need you to send another car, and call the hospital, tell them to be prepared for us. Thanks”.
El ties her cloth back around her head and listens to the low thrum of the car. She sees Neil swing the belt, hears Billy cry out. “He’s still doing it.”
Beside her, Max lets out a tiny, hurt sound.
“What?” Jim asks. “El- El, no, stop that. I don’t want you seeing that shit. Max, take the cloth from her.”
El takes it off, and the scene disappears. “Drive faster,” she urges.
“I’m going the speed limit!”
“You’re a cop, can’t you drive faster?!” Max asks, voice heated as she leans forward between the seats.
“Sure, if I put the sirens on so people knew I was coming. But then Neil would know I was coming, and I don’t want to give him the chance to hide any evidence.”
Max slumps in her seat.
El takes her hand. “Okay,” she says quietly. “It’ll be okay.”
Max nods, but El doesn’t think it looks like she believes her. She squeezes El’s hand.
“Where’s Billy’s room?” Jim asks Max as they’re driving onto Cherry Lane.
“First room from the front door, on the right. Just before the fireplace.”
“Your mum home?”
Max shakes her head.
El’s the first one out of the car when Jim’s parked it. He calls her name as he and Max run after her, but she ignores him in favour of stopping by the front door and holding her hand out, slamming the door open with her powers.
“There,” she says as Jim brushes past her. She wipes the blood trailing down her nostril. “Now you can get in.”
Billy’s bedroom door is closed, and El can hear an angry raised voice from behind it. Max takes her hand and pulls her with her further into the house, past the fireplace and into her own bedroom.
They wait until they’ve heard Jim arrest Neil and drag him out of the house before they rush into Billy’s room.
Billy’s not on the couch anymore, he’s in the corner by the foot of his bed, between his closet and music and mirror. He’s sitting on the floor with his knees pulled to his chest, hugging himself. There are tears streaming down his eyes, and he’s shaking. At the sight of them, he seems to fall apart further.
“Billy!” Max calls and runs up to him, falling to her knees beside him.
He sobs, and tilts, and ends up resting his head against her shoulder. At her first glimpse of Billy’s back Max starts to cry.
El sits down beside them, on Billy’s other side. She doesn’t touch him. She knows what it’s like to be hurt by the person supposed to care for you, knows she hated it when people would touch her after they’d done something to her or made her do something to someone else at the lab.
“It’s okay,” she says quietly. “It’s okay. You’re safe now”.