Did you know, I was right about Phillip? I was right about being stalked, too. But the question wasn’t what was stalking me, it was who.
From early on in our childhood, I knew Phillip was gay. Mom knew, too, but we wanted to wait for him to tell us. For him to feel comfortable enough to broach the subject naturally. I loved him no matter what. Why would his sexuality change the way I felt? It was just him, and I loved him.
But what I didn’t love was his taste in men.
He liked the strong, arrogant types. I watched him lust after the asshole jocks in his class. In my mind, I always thought he could do better. I always wanted to warn him away from those types. I knew what cruelty they were capable of. My sweet baby brother, with his eyes constantly glued to his notebooks… no one would ever be good enough for him.
I never imagined that he’d go for a psychopath, however.
Based on the interrogation, the police guess that Phillip met Will when he’d first moved to the area. They’d been in a relationship for quite some time when they hit the rocks.
If you talk with Will for two minutes, you’ll see that he’s paranoid. He’s batshit crazy. I’m guessing that my brother didn’t deal with it very well.
Phillip reported Will missing a few months before his death – at this point their relationship was rocky at best, but Phillip was concerned that Will had hurt himself. The cop who filed the missing person report spoke to me about the incident: Phillip had been frantic, crying that it had been his fault, they’d had a fight and now Will was gone.
Except that Will was never gone.
My brother never went into that basement. It never occurred to him that someone could be hiding down there. Will told us gleefully how he’d tortured Phillip. He’d left notes around the house telling him it was all his fault. He’d left dead animals on Phillip’s doorstep. He’d written his own name over and over in blood so that Phillip would be reminded every time he woke up about his missing lover.
But it’s the last part, the very last part, that broke my heart, that sucked away a piece of my soul.