Alice

brother

When the movie starts, Joe immediately distracts himself by stacking Pringles on his paper plate.

August is loving the movie. The scene with the dog is coming up, I know it is. I wait until just before it happens, and I just cover her ears so she can't hear it. I know it would bother her.

She doesn't move my hands, just looks at me, confused. I motion back to the screen and she very loudly says, "Did he kill the dog?"

I uncover her ears and tell her yes. She pouts at me and puts her face in the blanket.

She hides behind the blanket at several points in the movie. The entire scene when Patrick Bateman has the chainsaw, she hid her face behind the blanket and looked up for a few seconds just to hide again.

Me and Spencer both recite the scene where Paul gets  murdered as it happens on the movie. Patrick looks between the two of us, laughing.

When the movie ends, August is curled up in the corner of the couch.

"So, what did you think?" Spencer asks, turning around to face August. She puts the blanket down and I can see a huge smile on her face.

"That movie was awesome!" She says, excitedly.

Ricky gets a text and looks down at his phone. "Hey guys, we get to the venue in 15." He says. Everyone gets up and starts picking up their mess. By the time we get everything cleaned up, we can feel the bus slow down and turn.

We stop and Ricky opens the window. This place looks so familiar to me and I can't figure out why. It's not until I see a black car parked in the parking lot that I remember.

This is where my brother lives.

I pause, staring out the bus window at the black car that looks like my brothers. It can't be him, can it? I know he mentioned something about getting side job as a security guard to Mom a few months before everything happened, but I assumed it was at a bar.

The guys start getting off the bus, all except Spencer. He sees me staring out the window and stops.

"Mikey? You okay?" He asks. I turn to face him, feeling tears start to fall down my face. I can't make myself move, or do anything. I can't face my brother like this.

If he saw me he would rip away everything I had, my entire family gone in and instant, again. He helped my father ruin my life, why wouldn't he ruin it again?

I can't go into foster care. I can't go into his care either.

"I think that's my brothers car." I say quietly. Spencers expression changes quickly from confusion, to rage, to concern, to some mix of all three.

"You have a brother?" He asks, walking over to me and looking out the window at the black car.

"He lied over and over again to cover for our dad. He used to lock me in a room until our dad came in to--" I cut off my own sentence. The words alone are enough to trigger an episode.

"So we avoid him at all costs." Spencer says. He muttered something through his teeth but I can't understand what he says.

I wipe my face and pick up the sunglasses Patrick gave me for the gas station. "I'll be okay, I think." I say. I know I'm lying, but I also know I can push it down if I have to.

We step off the bus and I see Patrick waiting for us. "You two good?" He asks. Spencer shakes his head.

"Situation with one of the security people." Spencer says.

"what kind of situation?"

"I'll tell you inside."

Patrick looks between me and Spencer. When he sees the look on my face, his facial expressions quickly changes to worry.

"Okay. Let's get to the green room before Joe stacks all the chairs again." Patrick says, making me laugh a little bit.

The show starts early today, and Ice Nine Kills is the second band playing. As soon as we get to green room everyone starts getting ready for the show.

"So, can you tell me what the 'small issue' with security is?" Patrick asks quietly.

"One of them may be Mikey's older brother." Spencer says. Patrick looks at me, confused.

"You have a brother?"

"Yeah but he's a total asshole, and he was always the favorite, and he knew it so he took out all his problems on me because he knew he could get away with it." I say, admittedly starting to get angry.

"What does he look like?" Patrick asks.

"I don't know, steryotypical douche bag with curly hair?" I tell him. I try to not think about my biological family too much, they did awful things to me that I'd like to forget.

"I'll keep an eye out." Patrick says.

We sit in the green room for hours, everyone just setting up their instruments. I hear Black Veil Brides start their set in the distance.

August comes into our green room shortly after. She looks concerned.

"hey kiddo, what's up?" Spencer asks, reading her facial expressions.

"Can I talk to you and Mikey for a second? Maybe Patrick too?" She says. Me, Spencer, and Patrick all stand up, quickly following her out of the green room. Joe and Ricky look at us, confused.

"What's going on? Are you okay?" I ask, immediately assuming someone tried to hurt her.

"I'm okay, I'm okay, but I overheard one of the security guards talking about his missing... Missing sibling and I asked him if he had any pictures so I could keep an eye out and..."

"And what?" Spencer asks.

"This is the picture he showed me." She says, showing a picture of someone else's phone screen with a picture of me on it.

More accurately, it's a picture of Alice. When my hair was red with vibrant blue streaks, the way it was when I dyed it almost 2 and a half months before I went missing.

My heart sinks in my chest.

"What was the name he said?" I asked.

"Alice."

"Do you know what he looks like?" Spencer asks. Patrick stays silent, covering his mouth and nose with his hand, looking panicked.

August swiped on her phone for a second before turning the phone around to show a picture of my brother, taken from a distance. His hair is slightly longer and he's slightly skinnier than the last time I saw him.

"I took this in case the person he was talking about was Mikey. I mean I don't know if they are but they kinda look similar." She says.

"That is me. That picture you showed was me a few months ago. That guy is my older brother." I say, silently panicking. I just stand there, not showing any signs of the frantic way my mind is racing.

"I promise you, I will do anything I can to keep him from figuring out who you are." She says.

"It'll be okay, Mikey, you look nothing like that now. He won't figure it out." Spencer says.

"What if he does? What if he gets suspicious because I look like his missing sister and I'm never without an adult and--" I try to keep my cool but instead I sound frantic and panicked. I am frantic and panicked.

"Mikey, look at me. I can't do anything more about your looks but what if you let me put a tracker on your phone I can let you walk around by yourself. That'll make him less suspicious." Spencer says.

He trusts me enough to let me go alone? I nod and hand him my flip phone. He pushes a few buttons and hands it back to me.

"There. Admittedly I should've added that earlier. If you turn off or break that phone to try and disable the tracker it will notify me, so don't even try it." He says. I nod.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Okay, my dad's set is almost over, so you guys should keep getting ready." August says, turning around and walking away. She turns around and waves at me as she leaves.