The Lunacy of Tyler Lockhart ✔️

Chapter Thirty Five - Past

Victoria

I woke up the next morning with the sounds of some shuffling going on downstairs. It was a Sunday, and Sundays usually meant peace and calm in the house.

Dad already left us for good. He'd told us he was going for a business trip but Archer and I weren't dumb, it was the "other woman" he was spending time with and that was a lot for Mom to take and she'd left to stay a few weeks at grandpa's house so I didn't really understand why anyone was making loud noises at nine-freaking-thirty in the morning.

I brushed my teeth and hurried downstairs to find Archer packing stuff into a box. He picked up a new edition PlayStation and packed it inside, including some comic books, board games, a skateboard, Blu-Rays and Marvel and G.I Joe figures. He even put the limited edition ones, so I knew how bad the situation was.

These were all gifts from Tyler over the years. Some had not even been gifts; they were stuff that Ty forgot to take it home with him and never bothered to pick up because he hung out in this house so often.

Archer barely acknowledged me standing by the staircase as he proceeded to dump stuff inside. "I'm returning the things that Tyler gave me." He explained, without looking at me, "Don't think I would need it here anymore. If you got stuff that you need to return too, you can put it in here."

"I'm not returning anything." I clarified. "Whatever happened it's between you and Tyler. It has nothing to do with me."

He passed me an incredulous look as if I'd just confessed to being a murder. "He called your brother a child molester. A fucking child molester and you're still going to support him?"

I glared back at him. "He caught Maya sitting in your lap in your car. She's only thirteen, Archer! What did you expect?"

"She was upset about something, okay? And she asked me if she could hold me, and when I said yes, she climbed into my lap without asking for permission. She was sobbing so much, I just let her sit there. That's all. Look, I'm not a monster. Maya is still a kid and I know it. She and I are just friends, but Ty blew this way out of proportion."

"And you called him a psychopath."

"Because that's exactly what he is. Thought you should know. He's diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder. It runs in their family, mostly among the men. The only reason Ty isn't a serial killer is because his mother hired some of the best therapists in the world and he'd been coached secretly from a very young age, but if you noticed, he slips into the role of a manipulative asshole every now and then, like yesterday. He got an Anaconda and a King Cobra recently that's been added to his pet collection. If that's not madness, I don't know what is. You have to be very careful too because he gets fixated over things he likes."

"The way I see it. You two called each other names, so you're even."

Archer's hands were balled into fists; the vein in his forehead was twitching. "It's not the same thing! You're not getting the point. I'm not sexually attracted to a thirteen-year-old kid. What he said is not true, but Tyler is a psychopath and that's God's truth."

"Look at me, Archer and tell me that what Tyler saw was actually nothing."

Archer was my brother; he was also sweet, kind and collected. He was someone you could trust with your dog and a sack of gold. But, he wasn't a saint when it came to Maya and neither was he perfect.

He stared at me dead-on, his silver eyes so much like mine, cutting through me like a sharp razor. I stared back in defiance, and finally, his gaze faltered and I knew he was hiding some guilt.