Virgil Chapter 12

Worse Before They Get Insane

Unfortunately, things didn’t start looking up for my brother. They took to physically abusing him for every indiscretion. Every mild failure. My mom ruled him with an iron fist with my father as her faithful accomplice. And most importantly they dared him to tell someone. Challenged him with silent threats to do anything about the situation he was in

One time he said something to a school counsellor that to this day he cannot remember. All he remembers is the sheer state of panic he went into. The counsellor actually had to haul him kicking and screaming into the office. Crying, hyperventilating, just a total mess in comparison to his usual calm cool and collected self. The teacher didn’t know what to do with him. Every time she reach for the phone to call our parents the panic attack would induce again.

Virgil Chapter 11

Worse Before They Get Insane

Unfortunately, things didn’t start looking up for my brother. They took to physically abusing him for every indiscretion. Every mild failure. My mom ruled him with an iron fist with my father as her faithful accomplice. And most importantly they dared him to tell someone. Challenged him with silent threats to do anything about the situation he was in

One time he said something to a school counsellor that to this day he cannot remember. All he remembers is the sheer state of panic he went into. The counsellor actually had to haul him kicking and screaming into the office. Crying, hyperventilating, just a total mess in comparison to his usual calm cool and collected self. The teacher didn’t know what to do with him. Every time she reach for the phone to call our parents the panic attack would induce again.

Virgil Chapter 10

The Beginning Of Trouble

Now, this may not seem like a big thing, but I’m fairly certain that this is the start of the veneer cracking: the evil succubus that sucked the joy out of the faux happiness that surrounded the trio that was my family before me. It was the early signs of the hell that was soon to come. See my brother was tired of the spotlight. Tired of not being allowed to play like the normal kids. Too many things were a sin in the strict Christian household. He just wanted to be a boy. A typical seven-year-old boy. 

The type of boy who wasn’t afraid to skip the prayer after his lunch sandwich for fear that God would send a message to his parents. Afraid to miss prayer in the morning when he woke up. He did once, and he prayed the entire car ride to school. Lucky for him this was the one time his parents did not question him about his morning and took it for granted that he did pray. He liked these days more and more. The drill of absolute perfection was limiting his abilities to even understand the things that normal, not so perfect children dealt with.

Virgil Chapter 9

The Normal Days

Yes, there was a time when my family could be categorised as normal. Unfortunately, I was not here for those times. I’m actually in severe doubt of their existence as it’s more likely my parents were just biding time before revealing their true nature. The set up before the emergence of divine evil. But that doesn’t really matter. What is important is that they did appear normal. These were the showing off the son days. The getting excited about how fast he was growing considering how weak he was at birth. And of course the ‘isn’t God good to give us such a blessing’ days.

These days were full of first-time parent stuff. Trip to the park stuff. The occasional throw-up on the shoulder and pee in the face during a diaper change. It was normal sleepless and hectic, and they loved every single minute of it. Mostly because they were dying to practice all the shit they preached in their books. There’s no doubt in my mind that they saw raising a child as another experiment. Yet they somehow convinced themselves they were madly in love with my brother. And not only themselves, the whole world. No one, not even themselves, was aware of the misguidedness of the situation. How could they be? It looked just the same as any other parents that would be enamoured with their first born.

Virgil Chapter 8

Defiance

Never ones to accept failure easily, my parents went full throttle into their plan. They worked both morning and night for almost a year trying to bring into fruition what they wanted. It was the worst year of their life. They had never failed at anything. And even with all of the brilliance, the genius they had, nothing was working. They prayed to God daily and still nothing. And when the doctors told them that their chances were floating somewhere around twenty percent, they really began to despair. What if they failed?

Virgil Chapter 7

Success

Success came quickly. My parents made records getting their doctorates. Wrote a multitude of books on all sorts of issues. And most of their children’s books, both Christian and academic, were critically acclaimed. They knew their stuff. The only thing they took a back seat in was the church. That was God’s domain and as such the people in charge would give them positions if their help was needed. No shock that it was.

As a couple and separately, they were on all radio and TV promoting their books. With the combination of their expertise, in both Christian and phycology fields, they found themselves swimming in more money than they could ever spend. Being the cool, hip, and up to the times people they were, they built youth centres. Donated computers to schools. Fixed up parks in impoverished areas. The extent to which their arms reached even graced the president’s doorstep a few times.

Virgil Chapter 6

Consummation

Their honeymoon was a tricky affair. They couldn’t decide on a conference for child psychology or a Christian conference. Ultimately, they took a month out of their lives to go to both. Sex, well they did that religiously every day. With nothing to go on, they assumed it was meant to feel the way that it felt. I’m assuming it was really bad sex, but being the psych experts that they are, they had no problems fixing that shit. Oh and of course praying for guidance.

Virgil Chapter 5

The Meeting

Though they had crossed paths on numerous occasions, nothing that would usually transpire between two adults in this game of attraction happened. It was mostly mutual respect. Besides even if they were the type to be weak enough to fall for such carnal animalistic instincts, they were way too busy saving the world. Combine that with their vow to make it to marriage without losing their purity. It would take an act of well, God to bring them together.

As luck would have it, apparently, he did want them to be together. Well, if you believe their version of things. As such, it is the only version I have so I’m forced to relay it to you. At one of my mother’s many prayer sit-ins, my dad just happened to not be doing something. Being so devoted to his cause in life, naturally, where else would he be spending a weekend if not studying and then having an all night prayer pow-wow with fellow believers. So to the hall my mom had secured for the sit-in he went.

Virgil Chapter 4

Father

My father. I’m a bit tempted to just take what I just typed and replace mom with father. But that would be a bit disingenuous—even if rather accurate. Let's just zoom through this. Straight A student. Model child. Sunday worshiper. Also fascinated with the human brain and all things human in general. And ultimately came to the same success. Not as aggressive as my mom, but you couldn’t tell that when they were apart. And since their ideas matched so well, it never really mattered who was wearing the pants at home.

He suffered from the same curse of beauty that she did. Skin the shade of the most deliciously sinful chocolate cake. Brown eyes that had a splash of hazel. A voice so deep and smooth it could make ice cream melt while simultaneously making evil quake by its power. And tall. Very tall. He had to be to create that perfect balance they always strived for. It would explain why my mother fell for him. He came in at about six foot five. Exactly seven inches taller than her and the number seven is one of God’s numbers. And so on and so forth. Basically, they were a match made in heaven, and their ridiculous passion for all things Christian made them believe that even more.

Virgil Chapter 3

Mother

My mother, as a girl, was your typical overachiever. Straight A student. Never got into any trouble. Went to church every Sunday and was on every church board. Basically, any parents dream child. She always did what she was told, what was expected of her, and this travelled all the way through into her adulthood.

Also, she was very beautiful: having long dark brown hair and eyes as blue and clear as ice crystals. Taller than the average female, about five foot nine, and had a voice that could charm anyone to her will while also being intensely venomous when needed. There isn’t much about her before-college years that would make her stand out amongst the rest other than her brilliance. In all things human. No shock that she went on to be one of the most successful psychological, therapists of her age.

Virgil chapter 2

The Beginning

All things must start somewhere. Do I start when I was born? When I was created? Do I start when I began to realise my life was not the norm? My story doesn’t quite have an end yet, so getting to the point I am at now makes the beginning rather tricky. How do I start telling the events that led me to this space of perpetually functional disturbia? There are so many ways this could go wrong, so I figured I’d start with the obvious.

Virgil: Chapter 1

Virgil

Hello. 

My name is Virgil. 

This, as you are no doubt very well aware, is my story. It’s not a tale for the faint of heart or the weak. It might shatter some of your preconceived notions of certain things—masculinity, love, trust and family. It won’t be pretty, and if you’re looking for a tale of romance, mystery, adventure, and other such typical escapes from the world in which you reside, then you should leave now. Don’t let another one of these words grace the eyes that you use to find those tales. My story is not one of them.