Logan is standing naked in the bath tub. His brother is pouring a bucket of cold water over his back. Blood circles down the drain along with the water.
"This, uh. This looks bad." Ewan peers at the cuts across Logan's back.
Logan nods. It doesn't feel great either.
"I think it might need stitches."
"Got a needle?" Logan asks, sarcasm coming as naturally as bleeding.
"Logie, please. I'm trying to help you."
It's a bit late for that. Out of the corner of his eye, Logan can see a cut across his brother's face, where their uncle's belt had caught him as Ewan tried to stop him hitting his brother. Ewan had still got off lightly.
Logan's shirt lies next to the bath, covered in blood. Their uncle has never gone this far before and Logan can tell that Ewan is panicking.
"I can ask her to take us to the emergency room." It takes Logan a moment to think who the her is that Ewan is referring to.
"She won't." His aunt would never acknowledge what her husband did, could hardly explain the belt marks as an accident, and even if she did try to take them to the hospital, Uncle Noah wouldn't let her. Sometimes Logan despises his aunt more than his uncle.
Noah had drowned a cat in this bath last week, a stray that Ewan had brought home with him. Their uncle had made the boys watch as he held the skinny creature underwater until it went limp. See what happens when you're weak?
Logan isn't weak. He's brave. Braver than Ewan and braver than his aunt, who carries on like nothing is happening whatever her husband does. Logan can take a beating without even shedding a tear. It look him a lot of practice, but he doesn't even make a sound when his uncle strikes him now.
"I'll get you some clean clothes." Ewan finally leaves him alone.
Logan climbs out of the bath, pulls on his underwear. He looks at himself in the cracked mirror above the sink, refusing to let himself cry.
Maybe it's better that Rose died when she was still a baby. She shouldn't have to see this. Maybe Logan did her a favour by giving her polio. He had wanted so badly to come home from boarding school, to be with his family. What a joke that had turned out to be. He could have stayed in school and avoided all of this.
Noah probably wouldn't have hit Rose, with her being a girl. Maybe he wouldn't even have drowned a cat in front of her.
Ewan returns holding Logan's pyjamas, as well as another shirt, which he wraps around Logan as a makeshift bandage.
"It'll be alright," says Ewan, sounding tired and older than nine. He brushes his hand against the cut on his face, which is still bleeding.
Ewan puts a finger to his lips as he leads Logan out of the bathroom. The two adults are still downstairs. Noah is probably in his armchair while his wife makes him tea in the kitchen. The brothers move down the hall together without making a sound. The bedroom door creaks as Ewan holds it to let Logan in, the two boys still speaking with their eyes.