Parasites: The Journey

Ep. 02- KC Caged.

November 2013

                It’s cold, Darin’s lab has become shrouded in the agony of having to cage his own brother. Feeling disgusted with himself he moves to the bar swiftly to get a drink. Pouring and drinking. The pain of it growing. After muttering obscenities to himself he swallows his pride and opens a secret passage leading below the house, to go see the man he once looked up to.

                He can barely stand the sight. His brother sitting on a small cot barely long enough for the six foot man. His black coat taken from him, tank top torn from the earlier confrontation. After Jenna had left, K-C had spoken words against her, causing Darin to become protective and enraged.

“Hello little brother,” Darin snapped out of his daze.

“Hello Kyle,” Kyle didn’t move to look at Darin.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of such a spontaneous, drunken visit?”

“I come speaking words of apology,” Darin took a deep breath.

“How do you apologize for beating and locking up your older brother?”

“Like this,” Darin walks closer to the bars of Kyle’s cell, reaching into the collar of his shirt to give back the dog tags that Darin swore to Kyle to protect.

“You kept ‘em,” Kyle smirks, “I’m flattered.”

“I promised I would keep them safe.” Kyle gets up walking towards Darin.

“You also promised a female would never come between us.”

“You broke the promise first.”

“How so?”

“You left us; Me, Penelope, Cris, your nephew Alex,” Kyle cuts him off.

“Helen.”

“No, Alex! He was Alex when you left,” Darin snaps back.

“He was confused when I left.”

“He was happy when he left her,” Kyle lets out a booming ‘ha’.

“He doesn’t know better, what is an 18-year old boy to know? He’s still growing, developing, he’s barely in the early processes of controlling his fire, let alone controlling his mind. That boy is no more a man than Pen—“

                Darin had turned his hand to mist, fazing it through the bars and coming straight in contact with Kyle’s jaw. Darin had punched him.

“Don’t talk about my son like that!” Darin looked angry, and the alcohol getting to his brain wasn’t helping. 

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Kyle sat against the wall, rubbing his cheek.

“Now tell me,” Darin looked intently at Kyle, “Where’d you go?”

                After nearly three hours of explaining, and storytelling Darin finally figured it out. Kyle had gone to for the good of Alex. He had left to keep his anger from affecting him. If Kyle’s anger had intoxicated Alex’s heart; it would have meant bad news for everyone. The only reason why Kyle left his

“So you left to keep Alex from getting hurt?” Kyle nodded answering his brother’s question in silence, “Don’t you know how much it hurt him that you left?”

“Don’t you know how much it hurt me to stay away,” Darin sighed running his fingers through his hair, “You think it didn’t hurt me leaving the kid?”

“You should have stayed.”

“If I didn’t calm down it would have meant pain for everyone.” Kyle looked down, feeling shame for his anger issues.

“You could just calm down, do what I do,” Darin smiles softly at his brother, “You could go for jogs with me, we can spare again, find something to do when you get mad so that you won’t be the—“

“The bad guy?” Darin stopped and looked upon his brother clearly in a state of sadness, “I can’t not be the bad guy; I’m the necessary evil he needs.”

                Darin shook his head, he wasn’t used to this. It was always Kyle telling him this stuff, not the other way around. Darin was the one who was questioned on where his loyalties lied, and if he could be trusted. But, not Kyle. Kyle was the king, everyone loved him. They all trusted him, they looked to him for guidance, the big brother. Why Alex looked to the doctor as a father and not the king is beyond him.

                Darin couldn’t help but feel more guilty and disgusted with how he treated his brother. His brother had never locked him up, even during cravings. Kyle had always helped him, and gotten him through the struggle with thirst. So, why is it now that his brother now sits in a cell like an animal? A cold, scared, defenseless animal….

“You’re not evil,” Darin unlocks the cell and walks in handing his brother the jacket he had on when he came here, “You’re misunderstood.”

                Darin smiled as Kyle took the jacket and put it on shivering into the warmth of the self-heated coat. Kyle looked up at Darin as he left, but he kept the cell door open. Kyle could only think why he did this. He just brought his knees to his chest and laid his arms and head on them, depressed.

“Ya know Kyle,” Kyles ears perked listening to his little brother, “I’ve got some tea brewing and too much food for one guy up stairs, if you’d wanna join me for dinner?”

“I’d love to,” Kyle got up and exited the cell walking besides his brother.

“Don’t ever say I’d love to again, makes you sound gay.”

Kyle punched his brothers arm as they laughed, walking to the dining room. Eating and reminiscing on the ‘good ole days’. But, as far as they were concerned, they got their family back. They had their brother back.