“Was she good?” Taylor asked.
“What?” I snapped.
“In bed.” Taylor nodded encouragingly. “I remember some good moments, some not so good. Then again, when someone’s unconscious…” His voice trailed off as he winked at Lisa. “She liked it, though.”
Her entire body started convulsing as her face paled.
“So?” Taylor folded his arms, the gun resting against his shoulder.
“We didn’t sleep together,” I said honestly. “Not once.”
“Aw, big brother, don’t lie to me.”
“He’s not.” Lisa’s voice sounded strong to my ears. I almost sighed in relief. “We didn’t have sex.”
“Because you still love me,” Taylor said in a serious voice, leaning forward. “I waited for you. I planned all of this…” He brandished his gun through the air. “…for you.”
“It’s… nice.” Her smile was forced as her eyes met mine briefly before looking back to him. “Thank you.”
“I knew it!” Taylor jumped into the air. “Wasn’t it beautiful? The perfect plan. There were so many players, so many conditions I couldn’t control, so many factors.” Taylor sighed as if he’d just accomplished world peace. “But, all good things come to an end… and Jack,” he added with a sigh. “…he needed to come to an end.”
“Jack’s in prison,” Lisa said tightly.
“Easily manipulated.” Taylor waved us all off. I didn’t recognize the man in front of me; he looked like the guy in the picture, but his mannerisms were so… off, so sporadic, not human, just plain crazy. He looked normal but spoke with such weird tones, like he believed himself to be a god among men.
“I should have died, you know.” Taylor shrugged. “I knew if I lived, it meant what I’d suspected all along… that I’m unstoppable, unbeatable.” He spared a glance at the sniveling man I knew as Dad. “Even my own father couldn’t keep me down.”
“Taylor…” Our father spoke for the first time. “…you know I never meant to hurt you. I was helping you.”
Taylor pointed the gun at my father and smirked. “Drugs? Is that the answer? “Here, Taylor, take this it will make you feel better. Oh, and if you could just write down your damn symptoms and the side effects, that would be great!” I was your own personal lab rat! You put me through hell!”
“Taylor!” Tears streaming down his face, my dad held up his hands. “I tried to help you. Please, you have to believe me. We tried everything.”
“You tried to keep me quiet!” Taylor shouted, spit falling from his lips. “You tried to weaken me! But you can’t do it! I should have died! And I’m alive! I’m alive because I’m indestructible!” He pounded his chest. “And now I have the perfect revenge…” He smiled. “…on the brother who was always better than me, no matter what I did… and the father who drugged his dirty little secret then didn’t even have the balls to claim him once he was in ICU for six months. And finally…” His demented eyes turned to Lisa. “…the broken girl who I fixed, the girl who I’ll spend eternity with, even if it is in hell.”
Lisa stood, holding her hands out in front of her. “Taylor, is this really how you want the story to end?”
His head twisted to the side. He shook it twice as if he wasn’t seeing us clearly. “What — what do you mean?”
“You worked so hard, baby,” she soothed. “You worked so hard… for years, the perfect revenge. And look, we don’t even have any proof. No video… nothing but your own admission. This is big — huge. It deserves a massive stage.”
“Yes.” Taylor nodded, his gaze becoming even more feverish. “Yes. You’re right. I should be on TV.”
“The world should see it,” Lisa agreed. “They should see how powerful you are.”
Taylor’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not afraid?”
Lisa uncrossed her arms and answered softly. “I feel nothing.”
“Me too.” Taylor nodded a few times. “Me too. But you make me feel. It’s why I wanted to hurt you. You make me feel now… I don’t like feeling. The pills didn’t make me feel.”
“Taylor,” Lisa held out her hand. “Give me the gun… you don’t want the story to end, do you? After all your hard work?”
He hesitated, the gun held high above his head as if he was either going to throw it or shoot the ceiling. “I don’t know… you’re confusing me. You’re supposed to be… I don’t know… this isn’t right, something isn’t right.”
“Taylor,” I tried, knowing exactly what Lisa was doing, playing into his fantasy, making him feel like a god. ”You win. Take her.”
“She isn’t yours to give!” he yelled, pointing the gun wildly in my direction.