The Altercations With Purity

Run

Casey turned around to and saw a different person than she was expecting. She had only met him once before, when he begged her to kill him. "Kevin?" She asked to confirm. He nodded and looked at the baby in her arms. 

"Whose baby is that?" He took a step closer to see the child in her arms better. 

"It's yours, technically."

Kevin kept his distance, but peered at the child with frightened eyes. "Why didn't you kill me?" He cried, looking at Casey with hurt eyes. Casey was surprised at how frail he was. He wore one of Dennis' shirts, but it was wrinkled and too big for him. He looked so broken, like being awake was painful for him. 

"I don't know." Casey confessed. "I was going to, I tried to, but he was so strong. And I didn't want to go back home." Casey explained.

Kevin sat down on the vacant bed and grimaced in pain. "Where are you hurt?" Casey questioned, laying Baylor down in his crib. "How are you awake?" 

Kevin shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. One minute, I was talking to Patricia and the next I woke up in a room and heard a baby cry. I had blood on me, my hands, my chest. None of it was mine." Kevin wiped his clean hands on his pants, as if there was still imaginary blood on him.

"Don't rub your hands raw." Casey warned him. "It's going to hurt." Kevin ignored her and kept doing it. 

"Why are you here?" Kevin asked. Casey did didn't have a good answer for him. "We set up shop here. Living here and killing people on the the third floor." Kevin flinched when she spoke of the third floor. "I fell in love with one of your personalities. I got pregnant. There's so much more to the story, but you won't like it." Kevin squeezed his eyes shut, as if that could wake him from this nightmare.

"How long has it been since the first time we met?" Casey thought about his question in her head, trying to give him an accurate amount of time without scaring him. 

"Over a year." She finally said. Kevin opened his eyes and looked into hers. 

"How long have you been unhappy?" Kevin's question threw her off. 

"What? I'm not unhappy." Casey said.  

"It takes an unhappy person to recognize another unhappy person." He stated. Casey knew he was right. He was the unhappiest person she ever met and he could tell.

"Not that long." She confessed. "Two men died because of me. Because of what I helped do. And the Beast, the alter of yours that I'm in love with, we had a fight over our child. I never feared him before, never questioned him, but now? Now I don't know what to feel."

 Kevin listened to her as she spoke, struggling to understand what she was talking about. "I've heard of him from the others. I didn't know he was real. He's the one who talks about the pure race?"

Casey nodded. "That's him. 'Through pain, we can achieve our greatness.'" Casey quoted. "And he wants to do something to your child? Make him pure?" Casey nodded again, glad that he was able to pick up on this so quickly. "I don't know what he'll do. How far he'll go to make our son pure. I don't want him to hurt Baylor." 

Casey bit her bottom lip and sat down on the bed next to Kevin. "This is usually where I go to Barry for advice." Kevin told her. "Ask him, he'll help you."

Casey couldn't believe he didn't know. "Barry doesn't get the light anymore." Kevin was taken aback. 

"What?" 

Casey turned to face him. "Only Patricia, Dennis, Hedwig, and the Beast can have the light." Kevin sunk further into his seat, as if the information weighed him down. 

"Makes sense it would be them helping. I just thought maybe Barry was still around." Casey kept quiet, she didn't want to inform him of anything else he didn't need to know.

"Patricia is a mom. At least to me. Appeal to her. Try and get her on your side. She won't let anything happen to a child." Kevin told her, thinking about how Patricia still went to visit him, even though she didn't have to. 

"Now I know why you sleep." Casey told Kevin out of the blue. "It's better than being awake and facing all the pain. All that paralyzing torture that haunts your every waking moment." Kevin was scared at how much she understood him.

"It's easier to sleep than face the pain." He told her, getting up off the bed. He walked over to Baylor's crib and looked down at the sleeping infant. He felt no attachment to this child, even though he knew it was his. But the baby didn't feel like his. He felt unfamiliar. But even though Kevin didn't feel any attachment to his child, he still didn't want the baby to get hurt.

"There is something you could do." Kevin told Casey, turning around to face her. "It's something not even I could do." He said, his mind spinning at the idea. Casey stood up and went over to him. 

"What?" She asked, his excitement running through her veins.

 "Run. Leave this place and never come back." Casey felt her excitement drop to the floor. 

"I can't leave the personalities, but you can. Take your child and run."

Casey shook her head and went back to the bed. "I can't. I don't have anywhere to go." Kevin sat next to her on the bed. 

"Do you have any money saved up?" Casey nodded, thinking about the $27,000 she got from her supporters. 

"Then what is stopping you?" Casey thought of the Beast, of Patricia, of Hedwig, even Dennis. Could she really leave them?

Kevin saw the look on her face and realized what was holding her back. "Oh." He said simply. "I should go, before they find out I was out." Kevin got off the bed and went to the door. "If I ever come out again, I hope I don't see you. Or your child." 

Casey gave him a sad smile. "Thanks, I think?" Kevin smiled and left the room.