Ripped and Stitched

31: What Love Does

Max, Brady, and Julia made their way into a coffee shop. Hidden in the back booth from the rest of the customers, they all sipped their tea quietly. Julia had insisted everyone order a mint tea, apparently it would help soothe nerves after seeing a dead body.

"Ali and I agreed to never talk about it, but I think I might have to break that promise," Brady said, ending the silence.

Max looked up at his old friend.

"Is this going to be the whole truth, like even the parts you didn't tell the cops?" he asked.

Brady nodded. "It stays between us though, okay?"

Julia and Max nodded seriously.

"Alison and I got kidnapped walking back home from the party. That was years after Kiera got kidnapped. She had been with Leonard practically her whole life. When we woke up in that basement, Alison and I weren't as easy to manipulate as her. He used to send her down to convince us to listen to him. When that didn't work, he resorted to other more atrocious methods," Brady explained, looking at his arms where some scars were clearly visible.

Julia's eyes drifted as well. She was looking at the permanent marks of electric torture running up and down the arms of her ex boyfriend who used to hold her so protectively with those very same arms.

"Leonard convinced Kiera we were a family. That Alison and I were her real family and he was uniting us. He manipulated her into doing whatever necessary to keep us down there."

"And you became friends with her, Stockholm Syndrome much?" Max said sarcastically.

Brady rolled his eyes. "I don't feel anything but pity for her," he corrected.

He took a sip of his tea before continuing.

"Kiera was just as much a victim as me and Alison, but she was also severely messed up. She had no sense of right or wrong, just what Leonard told her. When we were freed, things took a turn for the worse for her. Kiera's family didn't want to deal with her. They wanted their baby back, not who she had become. I found her at the diner one night and felt awful for her. I've been paying that waitress to look after her, looks like she's off the hook now though," Brady murmured.

"Okay, but what does this have to do with Ali?" Max asked.

Brady sighed. "Kiera was always a little misunderstood, I thought maybe if Alison went missing again, it might be the girl who was taught to do whatever Leonard wanted that kidnapped her again."

Julia and Max thought about that as Brady finished his tea. This much talking had taken its toll. He went to get a water bottle. When he came back, Max began grilling him.

"You said you would tell us about the basement," Max said.

Brady took his time opening the water and taking a sip, finally he looked up at Max across from him.

"What else do you want to know?" he said finally.

"Well, for starters, what happened down there? I mean I get it you were tortured, but the whole time? No way. Something else must have been going on."

Brady frowned. "I guess I did promise the truth," he said. "But I can only tell you my truth."

"What does that mean?" Julia questioned.

"He used to separate us," Brady explained. "We ate and slept in the same disgusting basement but in between that," Bray looked away for a minute. "Well in between that we were taken upstairs by Leonard separately, and all we could hear were each other's screams."

Julia could feel all the mint tea in her stomach now. She felt sick all over again.

"What happened to you?" she asked softly.