The Other Brother

by Brandon Massey

  "I'll help you. I'll make calls, help you with paperwork, whatever it takes. You can't let this get you down."

  "He's pushing me to the edge" Gabriel made a tiny measurement with his thumb and index finger. "I'm this close to getting a gun, going to my parents' house, and blowing that motherfucker away."

  "He'd want you to try something like that," she said. "You'd go to prison just like he did. You'd be locked away for years. He wants that, Gabe. You'd be playing right into his hands. Don't you see?"

  "Fuck it." High on angry adrenaline, Gabriel got up from the table. Blood pounded in his temples and sweat oozed from his pores. He'd never tasted fury like this.

  Visions of Isaiah's smirking face swirled in his mind.

  Taking it all away .. .

  Gabriel found himself at the door without realizing he'd walked to it. He was reaching for the knob when Dana took his hand.

  "Don't go," she said. "Cool down. Stay here with me ""

  "I've had enough of letting this guy get away with this shit."

  He pulled his hand away from her and groped for the doorknob. Dana slipped around him and blocked the door.

  "Dana, get outta the way. I mean it."

  She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't budge.

  "I'm not letting you leave and do something you'll come to regret," she said. "This isn't just about you. This is about us, our future. I don't want my husband in jail-or dead"

  Gabriel dropped his hands to his sides. He unclenched his fists and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans.

  "You're right," he said. "Isaiah's trying to play me. I can't give in."

  "We can't give in," she said. She came forward, pulled him into her arms, and hugged him close.

  "Thank you," he said.

  "When I said I'd have your back from now on, I meant it," she said. "Let's go eat and figure this stuff out, okay?"

  Chapter 42

  ack at the table, Gabriel shoveled a piece of omelette into his mouth, chewed eagerly. With his mood change, his appetite had returned.

  Dana had taken out a pen and notepad and placed it beside her plate.

  "We have a lot of ground to cover," she said. "First things first: why, exactly, did your accident trigger these psychic powers?"

  "I did some research on that. I think that when I wrecked, I had a near-death experience. I remember it quite clearly. A tunnel, a bright white light, just like in the movies, you know. But it seemed real."

  "So you got a look at the Other Side, and when you were sent back, you were given psychic powers?"

  "Seems like it. As crazy as it sounds."

  Dana scribbled on the notepad and then looked at him. "But why? Everyone who survives a near-fatal accident isn't able to bend spoons. Why you?"

  "I don't know. But remember that a similar thing apparently happened to Isaiah, according to my dream. When he woke up in the morgue, he made that guy freeze in place like he was some kind of puppet. Then he went out and killed some other guys, I think."

  "That's so scary." Dana made quick notes. She tapped the pen against her bottom lip. "And it's weird that you would have a dream from his perspective, with his thoughts, too. I'm wondering .. ."

  "Wondering what?"

  "I'm wondering if Isaiah's had a dream from your viewpoint, too"

  "I never thought about that" Gabriel put down his fork. "Where'd you get that idea from?"

  "Have you ever heard of connectedness?"

  "Never. What is it?"

  She twirled the pen between her fingers. "I know about it only because I was working with twin girl patients, once. They both had lupus. They had the exact same symptoms, would experience pain in the same limbs, often even at the same time. I was fascinated and did some research and discovered this theory of connectedness. Some people-usually twins, but they can be siblings close in age, or a parent and a child-seem to have an emotional or physiological connection."

  "Isaiah and I were born within a few minutes of each other," Gabriel said. "Although he was born in Chicago and I was born here. That in itself is pretty weird to me"

  "It is," she said. "It's possible that, due to you guys having the same father and the same birth dates, there is some sort of connectedness phenomena going on. How likely is it that he would also have a near-death experience and then come back with psychic talent? Pretty damn unlikely unless you and Isaiah share a link."

  "Do you think he's seeing visions in mirrors, too, then?"

  "It's possible."

  "And having hallucinations of water moccasins?"

  "Maybe he is. Unless he tells us, we won't know."

  "I don't want to tell him a damn thing about what's happening to me" Gabriel said. "The less he knows about me, the better."

  "I agree. We shouldn't show our hand" Dana jotted down a few other comments. She rested her chin on her palm, rapping the pen against her lip.

  Gabriel cupped his hands around the coffee mug. "What're you thinking, Dana?"

  "Thinking about what Isaiah can do. We're saying he's got some kind of mind-control ability, right?"

  "Right. I saw him doing it in my dream and then he did stuff to Nicole."

  Dana nodded. "What if Isaiah is causing your hallucinations?"

  "You think he's behind the figure in the mirror and the snakes?"

  "I'm not sure about the shape in the mirror ... but the snake ... well, snakes scare you to death. Does Isaiah know you're afraid of snakes?"

  "I never told him," Gabriel said. He was about to sip his coffee, and then reconsidered. "Wait a minute. The first time I met him we were in my office and he made a comment about my aquarium. He told me I should keep a snake in there instead of fish, and I said something like, `I hate snakes."'

  Dana snapped her fingers. "And that was all you had to say to him. He knew then that he could use snakes to scare you, make you doubt your sanity. He's been doing it to you from the start, Gabe. I'm willing to bet on it."

  Gabriel remembered when Isaiah had distributed gifts to the family the first night he'd met them. He'd given Gabriel a wooden statue of a man entwined with a large snake.

  What a sick joke.

  "Jesus." Gabriel shook his head. "Those snakes ... they look so real. How the hell could he get into my head like that?"

  "Same way he got into Nicole's head. It's part of his gift."

  A chill tap-danced down Gabriel's back. The possible insight into Isaiah had brought a greater, more profound fear of him.

  Rushing out to confront Isaiah would have been the most dangerous thing he could possibly have done.

  Dana was writing notes.

  "There has to be a way to block him from screwing with my head," Gabriel said. He put his hands around his skull, protectively "Whatever it is, I have to find it."

  "I have one idea," Dana said. "Overcome your fear of snakes"

  Gabriel chuckled. "That ain't happening. Hell, naw. I was bitten, remember?"

  "I was in a car accident once, Gabe. That doesn't keep me from driving."

  "That's different."

  "Oh?" She cocked her head. "How so?"

  "Snakes are deadly."

  "Cars have the potential to be deadly. Look at all the fatal accidents that take place every day. You were almost killed in a wreck, babe, and yet you still drive."

  "How would you act if I put a poisonous snake on the table here?" he asked.

  "I'd run and scream my head off," she said. "But we aren't talking about me. This time it's solely about you and what you fear. Your fear is all up here" She touched her forehead with the pen. "As long as you're terrified of snakes, Isaiah will be able to use that against you."

  She was right. He didn't want to admit that she was right, but he understood the wisdom in her advice. Fear was emotional, and, sometimes, entirely irrational.

  But he could not envision himself seeing a snake even if he knew the snake was an illusion-and not being deathly afraid. Although the fear was only in his mind, it was as palpable to him as a lo
cked door, and just as capable of confining him.

  "I'm going to have to work on this," he said.

  "You do," she said. "But I have confidence in you. You'll overcome it. Honestly, you don't have any choice."

  Dana was right on that score, too. He would never beat Isaiah until he conquered his fear.

  "I'd like to talk to Nicole," Dana said. "At this point we need as many allies in the family as we can get. I think we should loop her in on everything we've discussed."

  "I left her a message last night. She hasn't called me back"

  "Why don't you call her again?"

  Gabriel checked his watch. It was a quarter to ten. On weekends Nicole slept in and hated to be called before ten o'clock, but these were unusual circumstances.

  He flipped out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for her home number. She didn't answer. He called her cell phone. No answer.

  "She must be asleep," he said. A yawn came over him suddenly. "Speaking of sleep, I could use some. I got barely two hours last night."

  "You can take a nap in the bedroom. I'm going to take a shower and do some cleaning. Saturday is housework day for me, you know."

  "Wake me up in a couple hours. I don't want to sleep all day-I might miss something."

  In Dana's bedroom, Gabriel removed his shirt and jeans and lay on his back on the queen-size bed. He closed his eyes for a minute, listening to Dana shower, and then he opened his eyes and contemplated the shadowed ceiling.

  Fatigue lay like sand bags on his body but his mind was wide awake, turning restlessly through his conversation with Dana. He thought about Dana's theory that he and Isaiah shared a psychic link. Connectedness.

  On the surface he and Isaiah could not have been more different people. It disturbed him to consider that he was intimately connected to a violent criminal.

  Because it begged the question: if he had grown up in Isaiah's rough neighborhood, would he have turned out just like him?

  It was the controversial nature-versus-nurture debate. Was a human being a product of his genetic heritage or his environment? Or a measure of both?

  You have this life only because Pops gave it to you, little brother.

  Although Isaiah had never spoken those words to Gabriel, it was something he would say. And Gabriel couldn't help wondering if, maybe, Isaiah was right.

  It was too troubling to reflect on further.

  He directed his thoughts instead to the idea of Isaiah being responsible for his snake hallucinations. It seemed obvious now, but he hadn't wanted to think about it. Admitting that he was so vulnerable to an outside influence was humbling. He liked to believe he was stronger than that.

  He could have told me to jump out the window and I would have done it.

  What chance did they have against someone with Isaiah's ability? Could Isaiah really force someone to do anything he commanded? Or were there limitations to his talent?

  As he lay there, dwelling on these questions, Dana strolled into the bedroom with a bath towel wrapped around her waist.

  "You're still awake," she said. "Hmm. I was hoping you would be ""

  "Why?"

  She climbed on the bed, lips curved in a lascivious smile.

  "We haven't finished making up," she said.

  "Oh." In spite of his exhaustion, desire made his body warm and eager. "That's the best part about making up, isn't it?"

  Positioning herself on top of him, she lowered her head so they were face-to-face, their noses less than an inch away, her eyes so close he thought he could see his face reflected in them.

  "I'll always be here for you, Gabe," she said in a whisper. "I'm sorry I left you out in the cold."

  "I've already forgiven you."

  "I know, but I want to tell you again. Because, well ... I love you"

  Gabriel's breath snagged in his throat. He knew she loved him, knew that as certainly as he knew his own name, but this was the first time she'd ever said it.

  Watching him closely, she smiled. "That wasn't so hard. I could get used to saying that to you"

  "I love you, too," he said.

  She kissed him.

  Gabriel traced his hand down her smooth, firm back, gripped the edge of the bath towel, tugged it free.

  Dana kissed his chin and began to weave a line of soft, lingering kisses down his chest and stomach, the sensation of her moist lips sending ripples of pleasure dancing across his flesh.

  Gabriel's cell phone rang.

  "Not now," Gabriel said. He groaned.

  "It might be Nicole calling you back," Dana said. She moved from on top of him. "Better answer it, babe"

  He grabbed the phone.

  It was Mom.

  "Something's happened to your sister," Mom said in a reed-thin voice. "She's in the hospital."

  "Nicole's in the hospital? What happened? Is she okay

  "She's at Grady." Mom's fragile voice almost broke. "Can you come now?"

  The romantic mood had passed instantly. Brow heavy with worry, Dana was already sliding off the bed and getting her clothes.

  "We're on our way," Gabriel said.

  Chapter 43

  r abriel loathed hospitals. To him they were palaces of pain, I misery, and suffering. He could not remember a single positive experience he'd ever had at a hospital.

  Now he found himself at Grady again, only a few days after he'd been a patient there himself. As he and Dana hurried down the corridor to Nicole's room, he touched the fading bruise on his head, remembering the car accident that was intertwined with so many other improbable things. Psychic powers. Visions in mirrors. Illusory reptiles. A bizarre bond with Isaiah. A veritable treasure box of mysteries.

  He'd come there to visit his sister, but at this point, when every turn of events led to surprising revelations, he wondered if something else unexpected would happen.

  Nicole was in a private room. Mom was already there, wearing a classy ivory dress Gabriel recognized as one of her church outfits. Mom participated in several ministries at their family church and had probably come to the hospital straight from the house of worship.

  "Thank the Lord both of you made it," Mom said. She rose from a chair beside the bed, her eyes rimmed with red. She hugged Gabriel and Dana. "Your father and Isaiah are on the way. They were playing golf this morning."

  "That figures," Gabriel said.

  Mom gave him a sympathetic look. Then all of them turned to Nicole.

  Nicole was asleep, but she looked terrible. Her hair was disheveled. Her lips were chapped. Dark circles outlined her eyes.

  "What happened to her?" Dana said.

  "No one can give me a definite answer," Mom said. "She was found early this morning, wandering on Bankhead-or Hollowell Parkway, whatever they're calling it now."

  "What was she doing on Bankhead?" Gabriel asked. He looked closer at his sister, searching her body for signs of injury.

  "We don't know," Mom said. "But Eunice Johnson, from church-she's the lady who used to baby-sit you and Nic sometimes she was on her way to her job and saw Nic sitting on a bench on the side of the road. Nic couldn't talk, or wouldn't talk, and Eunice knew right away that something was wrong. Eunice said she reminded her of her late husband, who had Alzheimer's."

  "Alzheimer's?" Dana asked. "There's no way Nicole could have that. She's much too young"

  "Eunice got Nic in her car," Mom said, "and called me, and I asked her to bring her to the hospital. Eunice left just before you got here she was running late for work. But she was right on time for my baby, praise God"

  "Amen to that," Gabriel said, disturbed at the thought of his sister wandering, incoherent, through one of the most dangerous areas in Atlanta. "It really is a blessing. Anything could have happened to her there"

  Dana scrutinized Nicole. "Has she been given a physical exam?"

  Mom nodded. "No one touched her. But the doctor doesn't know what's wrong with her. She thinks Nicole is suffering from shock. She's been asleep for the past hour."

&nbs
p; "I'll be back," Dana said. "I'm going to chat with the physician who examined her."

  Dana left the room. Gabriel gently placed his hand on Nicole's forehead. Her skin was cool and dry. Her eyelids fluttered but did not open.

  It didn't make any sense. When he'd talked to Nicole the previous night, she had been fine. What had happened to her?

  Isaiah.

  His jaws went rigid. Isaiah had invaded Nicole's mind once before. Could he be responsible for this, too?

  Gabriel turned to his mother. She had settled in the chair again and was clutching a fistful of Kleenex.

  "What time did Isaiah get home last night, Mom?" Gabriel asked.

  "He and your father came in around eleven," Mom said. "Why?"

  "They came in together?"

  "They did. Why are you asking?"

  "Hold on. Did Isaiah go anywhere afterward?"

  "As a matter of fact, he did," Mom said. "He said he was going out. He didn't say where"

  "Did he mention Nicole at all?"

  Mom closed her eyes, remembering. "I told him Nicole had been over for dinner. I think he asked me what she was doing later that evening. She told me she was planning to go home. That's all I said to him."

  Son of a bitch.

  Isaiah had done this to Nicole. Somehow. He must have found out that Nicole had been snooping through his belongings. This was his way of punishing her.

  Gabriel's fury must have been evident on his face because Mom asked, "Do you think Isaiah had something to do with this?"

  Looking at his mother, stricken with worry, Gabriel no longer cared about concealing the truth.

  "Yeah, I do," he said. "I can't explain how he did this to Nicole. But I know he did."

  Mom tossed a handful of tissue onto the bedside table. She walked to the window.

  "Shut the door, Gabriel."

  Gabriel closed the door and moved to stand beside his mother. She looked out the large window at the sundrenched city beyond, but the clouded look in her eyes made Gabriel suspect that she was seeing something else.

  "I would never say this in front of your father," she said, "and please keep this between you and me. But I don't approve of how he's been handling this situation with Isaiah. He's been unfair to all of us, and especially to you"