Rusty: Fine. See you then, Tommy. I’ve missed you.

****

Of course, I wasn’t going to the mall in Glen Cove or to Glen Cove at all. I was going to Karen’s house to finally finish this for good. I left home early in the morning, but with the drive time I still didn’t reach it until a quarter til twelve. Parking up the road and out of sight, I walked in far enough to see there were no cars or other signs of Rusty hanging around. I still found myself wanting to hesitate, wanting to wait longer to make sure he had really gone, but I forced myself to stop. The time for excuses and waiting was over. It was time for me to stop being a fucking coward.

The exterior of the house looked the same aside from a fresh coat of paint and some flowers planted along the front of the porch. Climbing those steps was hard, but it wasn’t just sadness that I felt. There was anger there too. Anger at myself for all the mistakes I had made and things I had left undone, but also anger at Rusty. He had betrayed Harvey and me, but what’s more, he had betrayed himself. The version of Rusty that he could have been. A good brother and a good man. For what? Aunt Karen’s house and becoming more of a monster than Harvey had ever been.

It took three kicks for me to get the front door open. Stepping inside slowly, I looked around to make sure I wasn’t walking into a trap. I didn’t know Rusty at all anymore, and I couldn’t assume he wouldn’t kill me just as quickly as he had the poor girl on the video.

But as I walked through the house to the basement door, there was no sign of him or anyone else. Well, that’s not strictly true. Because even at a distance, I felt like I could somehow sense Harvey stirring down in the dark below me.

Blood thrummed in my ears as I opened the door and started down the stairs. The basement was well-lit with fluorescent lights, but at first I didn’t see anything different than what was on the video. A sparse room of cinderblock walls and a concrete floor that seemed peculiarly worn in the middle.

I stood at the bottom of the steps for several seconds before pushing myself closer. I thought I saw a slight disturbance in the air, but I couldn’t be sure. Then I heard a rumble that came and went quickly as a summer thunderclap. It was Harvey growling at me.

Stepping closer to the edge of the unseen circle, I knelt down. “Harvey? Do you know me? Oh God, I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry. Do you know me at all?”