The Disappearance and Reappearance Of Mr. Kingsley

The Half-Brother

Running Seth through their database was easy. What wasn't easy was trying to find his house.

"When Monica said suburban she meant suburban," May concluded, looking out the window at the clumps of trees. The bushes of green and the deep brown barks reminded her of the emptiness. The emptiness of this town. The emptiness that would be her life if her husband found out about what she had done. No wonder James wanted to get out. It was a cage and she didn't have the courage to break free.

"I think we'll run into Spock before we find this guy's place." Although he kept it hidden, Ethan was a geek of sorts. Always watching Star Wars on his rich boy television and reading the Spider-Man series, first edition, in full. He felt he could be open with May. Even though she thought the exact opposite.

"May, we need to talk."

"No. No, we don't." Her voice was stern. She was fed up with his foolishness. Did he somehow find the word "no" to be foreign? Or perhaps he just blocked the word out of his mind. Either way, she wasn't ready for another "talk." She would never be. But, he wouldn't realize that.

"You deserve better." His voice deepened.

She was in complete, angry, shock. "Oh, and you're better? What kind of psychotic thoughts make you think that you could ever be better than Ryan?"

"He can't give you what I can give you." His knuckles turned a ghost white. He was gripping the steering wheel like it was the last bottle of water on earth. He was trying to grasp onto May. Keep her for himself.

"And what's that? You are the most disrespectful, arrogant, childish— no, you know what? I'm not going to give the pleasure of irritating me. You'll just be white noise."

He snapped, for the first time. He let go of the wheel, breaking laws already, grabbed her arm and squeezed. Circulation cut off to the rest of her arm just as quick as she grew terrified.

They both stayed silent for a moment. The longest moment in May's life. She could see the pure rage in his face. His entire face was as crinkled as a soda can, his teeth clenched. His jaw tightened ever-so-slightly as he let go, shoving her arm away.

He kept driving. He kept going, showing little signs of just having a violent episode. No remorse; no fear. It angered her to the bottom of her very soul, but her fear overpowered any rage that would sneak up behind her.

Not another word was said for the rest of that ride; twenty minutes. May watched the clock in the car tick by, as her heartbeat quickened.

What was that? She thought, sliding slowly away from him. She knew two more inches away wouldn't do any good, and even if it did do anything she was trapped in the car. But, it gave her a little peace of mind.

This would be the first rage of Ethan Price.

He killed the engine and ripped out the keys, slamming the door behind him. May sat there, eyes wide and breathing heavily. What gave her enough courage to get out, was that fact that there would be another person around. A junkie, yes, but someone. She couldn't bear the thought of having to spend one more agonizing second with him.

"What do you think we'll find in there?" He asked, ringing the doorbell. It made a chime that would brighten May's spirit any other day. But, this was that day.

She stayed silent. She feared he would act out again, but a man opened the door.

He had an unkempt beard that reminded her of a dying rose bush. He wore a floral shirt that looked like the ones tourists in Florida and Hawaii would wear. Short, denim shorts fit too tightly on his unshaven, disgustingly hairy legs. He was a sight.

"What'd you want?" He asked, scratching his cheek.

"We would just like to ask you some questions about your half-brother, James," Ethan said, holding up his badge.

At the mention of the name James, Seth's face contorted just a little bit. Unnoticeable to the common brain, but they were trained to look for these kinds of things. And they noticed.

"Uh, yeah, sure." He told them, opening the door so they were able to safely and without strain, walk in. The house was just as messy as Seth was. Having the slightest hint of OCD, May began to breathe even more heavily as she analyzed every crack and corner of the place. Papers, books, pens, couch cousins and, everything but the kitchen sink was on this man's floor.

He led them into a small room. Presumably, the living room. May gently brushed away the dust bunnies and overall germs off of the seat and sat, uncomfortably shifting. Ethan had little care for germs, even though there weren't any in his prestigious childhood; full of ponies and trips to Europe. Ethan knew nothing of hardship. That was probably why he felt he could have May. He got whatever he wanted.

"What can you tell us about James?" Ethan started this time. His rudeness was gone, just his usual arrogance and face of stone. His personality resembled that of the Greek statues that would forever be frowning. Doomed to a place of discontent and tragedy of their stories.

"We have the same old man." Seth answered, shuffling his feet gently.

"Anything else?" Ethan's rudeness was back. May didn't have the strength nor want to glare at him for what he might do.

"I only just met him a few years ago. All I can say is that he didn't seem like the type to go missing."

"So everyone has said," Ethan muttered, feeling like this was just a repeat of Monica's blabbering. In his mind, everything was a waste of time if he didn't get any kind of reward out of. He was reward-driven if you will.

"What about you, Seth? Tell us about you." May said, trying to sound as spring-like as her name. Her sweetness normally wasn't forced, but the current situation with her abuser right next to her made it so.

"High school dropout and I never made it to college, obviously. I ended up working as an air-conditioning installer for a couple of years, but then switched to car mechanics." Seth's voice wasn't exactly monotone, but it didn't seem to have an emotion. Even if he only just met James a couple years ago he should've had some type of remorse. Maybe Ethan and he had that trait in common.

"And why is that?" May asked, needing to get more information in order to make their terrifying adventure in the middle of the woods, not a complete energy waste.

"I needed to get my brain working," His voice hitched, "and you're probably wondering about the drugs. Yeah, crazy ex-girlfriend."

Something about his tone, or maybe the way his voice changed when he said that, made his statement unconvincing to May.

And she would find out why.

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First author's note! I just wanted to thank those of you who are giving me feedback! I feel like it's very important to support each other in the writing world.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave your theories, if you have any, on what you think is going to happen next! I would love to read them.