Well, I had seen myself in that mirror. I saw myself every time I turned down a chance to go to Aunt Karen’s and set Harvey free. Every time I made an excuse or rationalization for my inaction. Every day as I pushed myself further and further away from Rusty rather than ask him the hard questions.

How was Harvey doing? Was he still trapped in that basement? And the hardest question of all: Just what are you doing to him when you go to visit?

By the time I left for college, I barely saw Rusty at all. It made it easier, you see. Easier to not remind myself of the strange and disquieting young man my brother had become and the weak coward I had always been. Easier to half-deceive myself that my memories of Harvey were all just the fanciful fever-dreams of a young boy who was losing his friendship with an older brother.

That’s why I felt a wave of panicked nausea when my phone started buzzing and I saw that it was Rusty responding to my condolences about his girlfriend. That’s why after three days of messages that moved from “Thanks for reaching out” to “We need to talk soon” to “Answer your phone, Tommy”, I just turned it off.

That’s why I didn’t open the envelope I got in the mail until a few minutes ago.

It was a burnable DVD with a sticky note on the front that just said “Watch this and then call me.—Rusty”. I felt like all the air was leaving the room as I put the disc in my computer and hit play. At first I didn’t understand what I was watching. It was a home movie of some kind, and it was in Aunt Karen’s house. Or I guess it was Rusty’s house now.

That’s actually what was being talked about on the video. It sounded like Rusty was recording the video with his phone and his girlfriend—Alice, not Alicia—was being given a tour of sorts. He was talking about the remodeling he was doing and how excited he was about it. At first it seemed normal enough, and I found myself missing my brother as he talked to Alice and joked with her. He sounded more like his old self with her.

But then he said he wanted to show her the basement. She seemed willing enough, but it was clear that she was expecting more than the bare room that the camera was showing. There was no sign of Harvey, but there was an area of the concrete floor that seemed rougher and more worn than the rest.

It was in the rough shape of a circle.