Chapter One: A Grave Mistake

I remember if there was ever a mistake my family ever did. It was adopting a child. I suppose you're wondering what could possibly go wrong with giving a helpless child without a family a home, well what happens when your adoptive brother living in your home is a psychopath in the making?

The boy named Feitan was a boy who looked innocent upon just looking at him but the minute you looked away he gets that soulless look in his eyes like not a trace of humanity was left in them. When my parents first introduced us the night he was adopted he was quiet and wouldn't ever look me in the eye. He was a boy older than me from what my mother had told me by three years.

I found strange things about him that were little at first, like how he refused to eat any of my mothers cooking or how he would bathe at weird hours or how he hardly would speak to anyone in the household from time to time and the only time he did speak was only if he was asked a question he responds with a simple 'yes' or 'no' or a short explanation. Never once did he instigate a conversation himself and never looked for one.

My father always told me to give him time to warm up to us since supposedly he used to have an abusive parent in his life at one time. He didn't dwell too much on that topic so I didn't know too much about it. Yet I accepted that and one day I spoke to him as a child myself hoping that all that cold air around him he puts out would hopefully warm if he had a friend or sibling he could connect with. I remember the memory vividly to this day when I had gone into his room to see what he was doing.

I had creaked open his bedroom door and asked after peeking in, "Feitan are you awake?" His gray orbs were busy trained on the spare laptop my mother gave to him as a gift. All I saw was that he shut the laptop lid quicker than I had ever seen him move before. His laptop's lid smashed shut and he turned and glared at me. I noticed that he was watching some sort of movie...It didn't look like a cartoon nor any child's movie I seen. He takes his headphones off and then he says losing that murderous look in his eyes "Charlotte...what is it that you want?"

I reply picking at my dress feeling awkward as it felt like I was an unwanted visitor in his room "Well I wanted to see what you were doing..." He raises a thin eyebrow "Why would you be interested in what I'm doing?" He twists his body in his chair to face me directly and stares intently at me waiting for my reply. I scrunch up my dress, balling the fabric in my fist. My eyes look around his room that seemed plain other than his sketchbook lying on his desk next to the laptop. I reply to him "Well, I was hoping we could play... What were you watching earlier?"

He brings his hand to his lips and rubs his lower lip in thought before placing his hand on top of the laptop again "Do you promise to never tell your parents if I show you?" I nod my head in agreement "I promise and it's our parents remember." He then opens up his computers lid and he quickly types in his password before getting out of his chair offering it to me "Then come here..."

I walk to the seat and slip into it and he places the headphones on my head. They were still warm from him wearing them moments ago. He leans over my shoulder and touches the mousepad before hitting the play button again. He whispers before the sound starts on the video "Remember secret." My eyes focus on the screen and his eyes watch intently almost showing hints of excitement in them for once. Then not seconds after he hit the play button it shows a man with a bag over his head is shown and someone places down a camera. The video jostling only for a split second. I can hear the man crying but its muffled from the bag on his head.

"I don't like this..." I mutter out hearing the mans cries in the headphones, it felt real and was definitely not some movie. My nails dig into my thigh and Feitan gets a grin on his face before placing a finger to his lips "Shh. It's not even the good part yet." I glance at him seeing he was signaling for me to be quiet and my eyes return to the screen. The man then picks up a pair of pliers and walks to the man with the bag over his head. Shortly after he starts pulling each one of his fingernails out. Slowly and painfully. I can hear the ripping sound with each fingernail he pulled out.

I hear the man cry and plead for his life not knowing what was happening to himself and I stared horrified. I turn my head away from the screen and look to see Feitan reaction to the video. Those horrible noises still played in my ears and it made my head hurt. Then I notice Feitan's reaction and I stare confused.

Feitan eyes get bigger from looking on the screen and I see a crazed smile appear the more the torture becomes unbearable for the man on the screen. He wasn't aware that I was staring at him. He gets a blush to his cheeks and he bites his fingernails "Charlotte isn't it good? Doesn't it excite you?" To lost in his own pleasure he drowned me out from his view and continued to bite his fingernails. I was left with the noises and fear pumping through my veins. That's when I realized he was no normal child like myself.

After that, I should have stayed far away from him and told my parents but instead, I kept quiet about his weird likes. Now that I think back on it he made me watch more and more of those videos on the internet and I watched them to make him happy...That and other things such as graphic horror movies or once in awhile we did normal things like play video games but those were the days that he was in a rare good mood. It was never ever a normal one either. It had to be horror.

My parents assumed he had finally warmed up to me but really he had become obsessed with me during my childhood. I remember even as children he lye down next to me when I was unaware and stare at my face for hours. He'd even sometimes caress my hair while I slept. My mother thought it was cute when she caught him and told me those things but really I found them more creepy than anything.

Now that we're teenagers we barely spoke to one another. He was far too busy with teenager things while I was too but not in the same way he was. It was my studies for school that kept me busy while he sought the alternative route.

By alternative route I mean one day when I came home early from school I caught him with two women in his bedroom doing the deed. That felt awkward as all ghetto when I heard every little creak and moan from those loud women directly across from my room. That's when our relationship started teetering and when he found out I was home he was awkward about it. He wouldn't look me in the eye for weeks.

Before that, I even caught him smoking cigarettes or drinking more than once when my parents were at work but that was nothing to bringing whores home. The bottles of vodka and whiskey were always hidden underneath his bed under a floorboard that was always slightly lifted up. That's also where he kept his cigarettes. I believe I also saw a bag of weed and a bong before. I didn't take him as a person to do drugs but what did I expect. He was a teenage boy.

I couldn't believe him but as my high school life progressed the unexpected happened...Feitan, of course, was the one to deliver me the bad news. I should have known all along but when tragedy strikes it seemed I have forgotten what he really was like. He was not what he pretended to be, he was a devil amongst sheep sporting a warm and fake smile. In the time I needed him most and yearned to rest my head against someone's shoulder it seemed like he was the only one there but that was just me being deceived, wasn't it?