Foreword:

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've read at least some of my other works set in my "Alex Gets Punished" universe. In that case, you should know that Broken Things tells some of the story of Justin's evil alternate (from Fun and Games and Normal Life) and of Max's alternate. The Alex here is the Alex from the alternate universe, and will not behave much like the Alex we know and love. She's much too broken for that.

If none of that makes sense to you, it might be best to start with other stories of mine. The aforementioned Fun and Games and Normal Life should give the background needed.

You may notice Justin switching back and forth between "I" and "he" in the narration here. That's deliberate. For the most part, he's saying "I", since he has these memories, and remembers doing these things, but sometimes, he feels a need to distance himself from things.

Oh, and a warning: the evil Justin is sexually and emotionally abusive to Alex, and physically and emotionally abusive to Max. If you've been abused or raped, there may be triggers here. Use your own good sense in reading, and if something gets too bad, stop.

Some love's just a lie of the soul

A constant battle for the ultimate state of control

After you've heard lie upon lie

There can hardly be a question of why

- Billy Joel, "Matter of Trust"

1: Justin

I looked down at my sleeping sister, traced my fingers across her shoulder, down her arm. She didn't stir at all - she was still exhausted, from what we'd done earlier, and I was happy about that. It made things easier.

Her hair was in the way, and I smoothed it away, to the side, ran my fingers through it as I did. We both loved her hair. He put his fingers against her temple. He knew he didn't need to for the spell, but... he liked doing it, liked touching her, especially when she didn't know, or didn't want him to.

Justin shook his head, paused in his narration. "I have all the memories, but I still don't understand it. He tried to deny it, but I think he loved her, in some kind of twisted way." He looked up at Rose, swallowed, shook his head. "How could he love her, and still treat her like that?"

"I don't know," she answered, "but the fact that you have that question is a good thing, Justin. It shows that you aren't him."

He nodded to that, swallowed, then resumed.

It didn't take much for me to get inside her mind - by that time, I'd done it dozens of times before. Images floated by. A lot of them were of me, and I was happy about that. Most of the rest were things from home, from our daily lives - clothes she was thinking about buying or wearing, bits of songs, images of Mom and Dad and Max, places at home and at school, that kind of thing.

The one that bothered me was Riley. I followed the thought and entered it, explored it fully, triggering other thoughts, other connections. It didn't take long to find out that she thought Riley was cute. She hoped he might ask her out, had been trying to get his attention, and that made me mad.

She didn't have any friends, that Alex - not even Harper. He drove them all away from her, so she wouldn't have anyone to turn to, except family. It made things easier. I knew she was cute, and that guys wanted her. But there was no way he was going to let her date.

I could have told her I knew, told her to stay away from Riley. She would have - she was afraid of what I could do when I was angry already, at that point. But I also knew that she'd resent it, and the more I did it, the more she'd resent it, until finally, she'd try to break free from me. And I was afraid she might be able to.

So I went to Riley. I found him the next day in the locker room at school. He wasn't alone, but that didn't matter - it even helped. They were good guys, but they were still teenage boys, so it didn't take a lot of pushing. I had to suggest the time and place to them, of course, so I'd be able to be there, but... it was easy, really.

"Justin?" He lifted his head, looked at Rose.

"What?"

"You stopped talking. I take it we're getting to the painful part of the memory?"

He nodded to that, grimaced. "Yeah."

"It's good. This is what we need to do. But I think you need to be calmer, before we go on. Close your eyes."

Justin did, and a moment later he was feeling calmer, could feel his heart rate slowing down, the muscles in his back and shoulders relaxing. He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath until he started to breathe again.

"All right. Continue now."

Alex was quite willing to follow Riley off into the auditorium, then backstage from there. The fact that she would set my teeth on edge. It was a good thing I'd acted when I did, it seemed - if she was that willing to go wandering off alone with him, all it would have taken would have been for him to ask her.

I held the crystal before me, sitting in the back of the library with it nestled between book and table, and watched them, ready to act when I needed to.

Riley stopped, looked at Alex, gave her a smile. She smiled back, and I gritted my teeth again. "So, Alex," he said then, "I've been wanting to ask you something for a while."

"What's that?" she asked, and Riley smiled a little more.

"Why you're such a stuck-up little bitch." I grinned and shifted, hunching forward a little to see better. Alex gaped, and Riley grabbed her by the arm, pulled her closer to him. "You're always quiet, never talking to anybody. You think you're better than all of us? Too good to talk to us?"

The other two guys who had been there when I found him came out then, and Alex looked around, then quickly ducked down, grabbing for the wand in her boot. They would've been toast against her, of course - but I - he was ready for this. He released the blocking spell as she cast hers, and she blinked in astonishment as her spell fizzled.

That was deliberate on his part - he wanted her to think her spell had failed, wanted her not to be confident in her magic. After all, if she got to thinking she was good at it, she might try to use it against him.

I seized control of one of their minds, had the guy grab the wand from her hand and throw it back somewhere into the darkness. He didn't even blink at it. It's amazing, really - people think just about any idea that pops into their head is theirs. Sure, they'll say 'I don't know why I did that' or 'What the hell was I thinking?' but almost no one ever thinks it's not them.

I didn't have to push Riley and the other guy to grab her. The lust spell I'd put on them, plus the ideas I'd given them combined with their own teenage hormones, and they did that all by themselves. Alex cried out, "No," started yelling for help, but I'd made sure there wouldn't be any help available.