Kane came to in the apartment with his head in his hands and his throat hurting. Vera was squeezing his shoulders and shakily repeating, "It's okay, you'll be okay. I called for help."
"Help for what?" he asked as he sat up. His voice was hoarse too, like he had been yelling.
This wasn't good. She was clearly freaked out. What happened? What was she even doing here? To his knowledge, she had never come here before.
She blinked at him in bafflement. "You don't remember?"
Kane cursed. Whatever it was must be bad. How was he supposed to get his idiot out of this one?!
"Nope," he said as lightly as he could. "Could you fill me in?"
"Casey…you just had a psychotic episode. You were screaming at things only you could see. Do you remember Kane?"
Wait, WHAT?! Vera shouldn't know his name. Casey shouldn't either.
Like an idiot, Kane couldn't stop himself from blurting, "He knows about me?!"
"You're Kane?" she asked in disbelief before all the blood drained out of her face. "Oh. Oh no. He's not just schizophrenic, is he? You're an alternate personality!"
He cursed several more times. So she figured it out. It wouldn't have been hard with his slip just now after what she saw Casey do. That moron! He just ruined the best thing they ever had by being weak!
Kane was trying to figure out how to salvage this when Vera threw her arms around him. What in the world was she doing?!
"You were the one who was actually looking out for him, weren't you? Not the hallucination of you. He said…he said Kane took care of him. You're the part of him who wanted to protect himself."
That…was not the reaction he was expecting. He thought she would be horrified. Angry, even. But grateful? Not a chance!
"Yeah. But why are you so calm about this?"
Kane probably shouldn't rock the boat but he really didn't get it. Vera was truly something else.
She sniffled as she tightened the hug. "I'm not calm at all. I feel sick to my stomach about what you both went through to even get to this point. I'm not going anywhere though, if that's what you're asking. I love Casey and he loves me. I'm his and he's mine, no matter what happens. He just…he just needs help."
He was rendered completely speechless. He already knew she wasn't anything like Candy but how could anyone disregard so many problems in the name of love?
Vera said Casey loved her too with such confidence. What had he said? Kane hadn't thought Casey would be able to say anything like that at all. He was so confused. She must have some idea of what happened though to allude to what they had been through.
He had never truly believed what Candy did was bad until he liked what Vera did better. Then he had to wonder. Now that she was genuinely upset about what Candy did…was it bad after all?
After over a minute, Kane found his voice. "What did he say? He shouldn't be capable of telling anyone he loves them after what happened with Candy."
"Your sister?"
"Yeah."
Vera let out a truly heartbroken sigh, still not letting go of Kane. "He showed me your back and said he knows blood isn't love. He said love is me."
Wow. That was a HUGE concession, coming from Casey. The fact that he even showed her at all…he really trusted her. The crazier part was that his trust didn't seem to be misplaced.
She didn't think they were freaks. She still loved him. Even after seeing everything he had ever tried to hide.
"Love is you," Kane mused. "Well, seeing how you haven't tried to lock us up, he might be right."
Vera finally pulled away, her expression guilty. "Actually…I called 911 because I didn't know what to do. They're on their way. Just cooperate with them so he can get schizophrenia meds and get out as soon as possible, okay?"
Kane cursed again, running a hand through the stupid bangs he hated. There was no point in keeping them now that Casey seemed to have remembered things enough to crack.
Right. She said she called for help. Someone who didn't have any experience with this sort of thing would naturally think 911 was the right call. She didn't know about Casey killing Candy or Kane covering it up.
Vera wasn't out to get them. As insane as that was. For now, she was on their side. Kane had to make sure it stayed that way.
"Fine."
That was the most reluctant 'fine' of his existence. But not cooperating would just keep them locked up longer. They had to get in, get out, and not say anything about Candy. Kane was good at playing Casey. If he didn't want to come out because he was too upset, Kane would play both personalities the whole time they were locked up.
He really wasn't looking forward to this. He heard the sirens approaching and sighed. "That's my ride. Can you at least give me a kiss goodbye?"
"I'm going with you in the ambulance," Vera pointed out.
Oh. Kane hadn't realized. "Just give it to me later then."
He wasn't happy about this. The least she could do was give him a little affection before he got locked up.
When the paramedics saw how calm he was, they were clearly confused. "…what seems to be the problem here?"
Vera sighed wearily. "My boyfriend was having some sort of hallucination of who is actually his alternate personality. This is him, which is why he's so calm. Please just make sure they get the right medicine."
They exchanged a glance, not knowing what to do. They probably hadn't met an alternate personality before.
"If you have to strap me down, just get it over with," Kane said grouchily.
They did as he said and began asking him questions. He had to give them Casey's information, though he did mention his name in the process.
Vera was riding in the back of the ambulance and made a valiant yet pitiful effort to crush his hand by holding it so tightly as he talked. This would be a lot for her to take in but she was holding up alarmingly well. Kane could respect that. She was tougher than she looked.
When they arrived and he got checked in, she had to leave. She seemed very tired as she hugged him goodbye. "I'll come see you tomorrow, Kane. Do you want me to bring anything?"
"Snacks would be good. But you're forgetting something."
"I didn't forget."
Vera got on tiptoe to kiss Kane's cheek. That wasn't exactly what he was hoping for but he would take it. She had a long day.
She gave him a genuinely heartbroken wave goodbye before walking off with her arms around her waist like she was trying to hug herself. Maybe she wasn't as okay as she had been portraying.
That didn't sit well with him. He didn't want her to be upset because Casey finally cracked.
Then again, neither did the fact that Kane had to be here. Vera did the only thing she could think of in a ridiculous situation but it still sucked. It wasn't malicious. He knew that much. She loved Casey and wanted to help him, even if her methods were different from Kane's.
Candy really was off her rocker, wasn't she? Though Vera was too in her own way. No one else would have accepted all this the way she did.
Ugh. He just wanted to get out of here. He was already sure he would be either bored out of his mind, annoyed, or both the whole time and he barely arrived.
He had to meet with the intake doctor to discuss why he was here. Dr. Barry had a lot of questions.
Kane did his best to explain things quickly, already tired. "My name is Kane Parker. I'm Casey Parker's alternate personality. I split from him when we were five because our sister was cutting us to make us bleed. She's obsessed with blood. I've been taking care of him ever since when he can't handle things.
"He doesn't know about me…or didn't. Our girlfriend is the one who called 911 because she realized he was hallucinating some fake version of me who was supposedly his identical twin. She found out about me while waiting for the ambulance because I came out and had no idea what was going on. We're just here for meds to stop the hallucinations."
"I'll need to speak to Casey as well. Hopefully, he'll come out once the medicine takes effect. That being said, that alone won't fix this. You'll both need extensive therapy after that degree of abuse. But that can be done in an outpatient clinic once we deem neither of you a danger to yourself or others," Dr. Barry said seriously.
Kane cursed. Of course. This wasn't just some one-time deal. How annoying!
He had to cooperate though. Whatever would get them out of here faster. He could already tell he was going to hate it here.
He was right. His roommate screamed on and off all night, the food at breakfast was terrible, and group therapy was worse. It was a relief when Vera showed up after dinner with a package of Oreos.
"This is the only decent thing I've eaten all day," Kane said with his mouth full.
She let out a small laugh before smiling sadly. "You're Kane, aren't you?"
"Yeah. How'd you tell?"
"Your bangs are off your forehead. Casey never does that."
Ah. They had been bugging him all day. "Well, he doesn't like remembering things. Forgetting is sort of his whole shtick. Dumb baby."
Vera crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Be nice to him! He's been through something horrific."
"So?"
"So try to show a little grace, will you?"
"It wasn't that bad. He's just weak," Kane said dismissively.
Vera sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Kane, you have more scar tissue than normal skin. That's unspeakably awful. You're being way too blasé about this. It makes a lot more sense to be freaked out than not."
Hmm. He supposed she had a point. About having more scar tissue than normal skin at least. That was all he ever knew though. Why would he be upset by his normal?
"You think what Candy did was bad?"
"Are you kidding?! She's completely evil! How could anyone do that to a child?"
"I suppose so, going by the common definition. It's all we knew though. I was used to it. Casey…never quite managed to do that."
"He shouldn't have. You shouldn't have either," Vera said firmly. "You don't believe all that 'blood is love' crap, do you?"
Kane wasn't insulted. He would have been before seeing her version of love. The better version.
"Not anymore. I like your way better," he replied with a shrug.
"My way? Hang on, how many times have we even interacted?!"
"A fair number. I'm crisis management. I only come out when Casey is stressed or in danger. It happened a lot in college but since then has mostly been related to blood, the farmhouse, or other things that set him off."
Vera deflated, sitting on the edge of Kane's bed with her head in her hands. "Kane, level with me. Have we kissed for real? You did ask for that yesterday."
"We've done more than that. I do whatever Casey would do since no one is supposed to know I exist," he explained.
"When?"
"Two days ago."
"So that was why he seemed so confused when he woke up. He didn't remember staying over," she sighed. "That's really messed up, you know. He's my boyfriend, not you."
Kane frowned. That was so unfair! "Excuse me? I am too! For all intents and purposes, I AM Casey Parker."
"You're not my Casey though. You don't love me."
"No, but he's the sentimental one. If I'm going to clean up all his messes, don't I deserve some of the good parts of being him too?"
"You're terrible," Vera said in exasperation.
"I never denied that. Still. It's totally unfair. You're my only option since we're a package deal. All I ever wanted was to find someone else who could take care of him and disappear but shouldn't I be able to enjoy some of the benefits while I can?"
"You want to disappear?"
Kane scowled, not sure why he was feeling so defensive. "Duh. Taking care of him all the time is annoying. You do a great job of it so I'll gladly hand that off to you once I figure out how. Unfortunately, I don't think he'll be coming out for a while so you're stuck with me."
Vera pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them, seeming upset. "You don't know how to get him to come out?"
"Nope. It comes and goes at random. Sometimes I'm only out for a few minutes, sometimes it's for several hours."
"You don't have any ideas at all?"
"I have one but you won't like it."
"…what is it?" Vera asked, eyeing him warily.
Kane shrugged. "You could kiss me and try to make him jealous. Sometimes I can tell when he's about to take over because the spot where he is in my head is more active, for lack of a better word."
"Once again, you're terrible."
"You aren't willing to try then?"
"I'll do it but I really doubt it will work," Vera said before kissing Kane reluctantly.
He wasn't reluctant though. He had to take this when he could get it. He got more into it and she murmured Casey's name against his lips.
There! Casey was almost active for a second. "I think it's working, keep going!"
Vera kissed Kane harder, sliding her hand up the back of his shirt to caress his scars. There it was. He felt the pull. Casey WAS jealous, wasn't he? Or at least could feel his girlfriend calling to him.
Kane's last thought before going back under was that the only way he would get more of this from her willingly would be reassimilating. Unfortunately, that was largely on Casey. Kane could only hope that idiot was up to the task.