Chapter Text
Liu lives in a suburban home now. The parents have a fake potted plant in the living room which they let their biological child water when she remembers. Her mother pinches her cheeks, when her daughter brings out the watering can, and tells her, "You have such a green thumb." Liu never corrected her because he doesn't have enough knowledge about plants to know if she would have kept the plant alive and because the mum always looks pleased when he nods in agreement to her white lies. If it were Jeff, Liu would have grabbed him by the back of his shirt and told him if he couldn't be bothered to learn how to take care of the plant, it deserved to die. If it were Jeff, Liu would have told him it was a fake plant and to stop wasting his own time. It isn't Jeff though, it's a young girl and people aren't that harsh to young girls. It's also a suburban house with parents who care enough about interior design to own a fake potted plant. Even if it were Jeff, Liu's brotherly affections don't have a place here.
They eat around a wooden table at breakfast. Susie, Liu's younger sister now, eats cereal with a red sugar warning. Liu burns his toast and doesn't use enough butter to compensate for its bitterness. The news is on. It's familiar. Susie is chattering away about nonsense. Liu listens to her because the current drama the eight year olds at the local primary school are going through is more interesting than the weather and increased taxes on private school. There's only one thing he listens out for on the news but it's been quiet recently. He doesn't do much besides nod along as Susie talks but that's enough for her. The news channel shifts to show a fire, three dead but not because of the fire. The parents turn the news off as soon as the reporter starts talking about possible perpetrators. They stare at Liu, as if he's about to snap. When they realise he's noticed them staring, they look away immediately.
"Then Nancy changed her mind and decided she didn't want to be a witch, she wanted to be a fairy!" Susie continued.
"Why don't you focus on your cereal honey." Her Mum says. Susie does just that. The table is silent.
People at school only talk to Liu to ask him about his scars. His last name's been changed from 'Woods' to 'Wilson' so people stop asking him questions. It hasn't worked. People start friendly but once the bandage of small talk is ripped off, they pounce with the invasive questions. No ones been able to figure out why he has scars just yet but it's a matter of time. The people who want to know have a certain look about them, their eyes leer too long on his face. No one did that three months ago, before he was scarred. He gets good grades. His new teachers ask if he needs extensions, because of his trauma. Liu refuses. Everything is fine. They ask the next time they hand out homework.
His therapist, after school, asks him what he's thinking.
This is where Liu believes he starts to get weird.
He has always had a voice in his head. This itself isn't weird. The voice used to say things like 'where's Jeff?' and 'God fucking damn it Jeff, stop getting detentions it's dark by the time you're let out' and 'I'll need to make sure the knives are out of Jeff's way,' among other things. They were daily reactions to his daily life. Nothing to be concerned about. Since his throat was slit, his voice has become raspier, the voice in his head hasn't changed. It sounds childish in comparison.
His therapist says that's normal for Liu to be upset by reminders of how he's changed. When he explains what it says, his therapist calls the voice an intrusive thought. It wants him to go to Jeff. It's important he doesn't act on visiting the places he thinks Jeff is hiding out in. She tries to get the locations out of him. The voice in his head, "Don't trust her, she'll kill him." and Liu seems to lack the ability to develop a new voice to reason with it. The voice is telling the truth, even if he could dismiss it. His therapist might not make the killing shot but she'll send the police to Liu's location and they'll kill him.
The only advice of hers Liu does take is to separate the voice from himself. He calls it Sully. When Sully is too loud, he writes their thoughts in a book, blacks out any compromising information about Jeff, because Sully tells him too and Sully knows what's best for him and Jeff right now. His therapist doesn’t like that he’s still protecting Jeff. She says that “healing takes time” but Liu only has five sessions left with her. She won’t be able to help him if the compulsions to help Jeff get worse.
By the time they only have two sessions left, Sully gets wise. They know how to get under Liu’s skin, poking at insecurities he didn’t know he had before. The suburban house starts to feel like a trap. Liu’s convinced that if he touches the potted plant it will wither and die. Susie will cry and his foster mum will get mad and hit him. More than anything, Liu doesn’t want Susie to cry. It feels inevitable that his new mum will hit him when he thinks about it. He avoids touching the potted plant. It’s such a small thing to worry about compared to the whole ‘My Brother is a serial killer at large who wants me dead’ thing and how no one will talk to him at school still, isolating him from creating a larger support network. The fact Sully convinced Liu he can kill a potted plant feels minimal. Especially when he knows, rationally, that it’s plastic.
There is a duffle bag under Liu’s bed. It is packed with enough clothes to last a week and is practical for all weathers. He shoves it back under his bed and forgets about it. It’s there for a worst case scenario. His therapist asks what his idea of a worst case scenario is. Liu knows why he has the duffle bag but it wouldn’t really be a worst case scenario if he uses it. He shrugs. His therapist tells him to slowly work through unpacking it. She doesn’t tell him to get rid of it, to settle. It keeps Sully quiet until he tries to move the tinned tuna back into the cupboards. Unpacking the duffle bag is slow progress.
A serial killer comes to the sleepy middle class town. Susie’s no longer allowed to go round play dates with her friends or play down the road. Her mum tries to impose similar, but looser, restrictions on Liu. He’s not meant to be out past 4pm because it’s winter and that’s when it begins to get dark. He’s meant to come straight home from school and tell his ‘Mum’ if that changes.
Liu comes home at five pm, one night. He missed the earlier bus because his teacher asked him to stay behind - something about him coping very well and that he’s allowed to let his grades slip right now because of the circumstances. He ended up walking around thrift stores for the hour he waited for his bus. All the elderly shopkeepers gave him their honest thoughts on the clothes he tried on. None of them say anything about the serial killer or Liu’s scars. The most concern one shows is when he passes Liu the scarf he’d been eyeing the entire time. He was a dollar too short to pay for it himself. The elderly man tells him not to worry about it. He didn’t want Liu to get cold.
When he gets home, he’s quizzed about the origins of the scarf. “Now isn’t the time to be shopping.” His foster mum says, “If you were cold I could have brought you a scarf from Target on the weekend.”
“Nothing happened.”
“But something could have happened. That’s what I’m worried about.”
“I’ve been to juvie.”
“That doesn’t mean you can hold your own against you-” Her hand comes to rest across her neck, the same place Liu has a long jagged scar, “- A serial killer.”
Liu punches her in the nose, to prove he can defend himself.
“You know where Jeff is,” Sully says to Liu.
Liu nods. He does know where Jeff is. Jeff is his kid brother who eats sugary cereal right out of box and only learnt how to double knot his shoelaces last year. There’s little Liu doesn’t know about Jeff. He knew all his haunts in their old town. He knows what Jeff looks for in a haunt and there’s plenty littered about the suburbs, if you know where to look.
Liu grabs the duffle bag. He double checks nothing he needs has been removed from it. When he confirms everything is still in its place, he leaves.
His foster mum is in the bathroom, cleaning her nose and checking it isn’t broken in the mirror. His foster father is in Susie’s room, making sure she doesn’t see the rough shape her Mum’s in. Liu passes a glance at her, a stuffed rabbit sits in a circle beside a bog standard teddy bear and her dad. She laughs and her miniature tea set is light pink. She’s old enough to notice when Liu goes missing but not old enough to recognise the complexity as to why he has to leave. Her dad laughs when she spills some ‘tea’ which is actually just water. Susie will be fine. Susie doesn’t need Liu like Jeff does.
Liu shuts the door quietly and leaves his keys on the stairs.
He walks down the alleyways that everyone else rushes through. The poorer edges of the town accept him. They lead him down quiet roads until he reaches the storage centre that’s been neglected for at least months.
He knocks on the dirtiest garage that’s still functional.
“Jeff.” Liu says, knocking again after a minute again.
The door creaks open. Lit by a singular light bulb stands Jeff, in the same blood stained hoodie that he ran away. “Liu,” Jeff says, “I heard you survived, come on in.” There’s a knife on the floor beside him. Liu swallows, the scar on his neck pulses.
He walks in.