The Brother Who Was Never Dead

I received a massive down payment. My client wanted me to investigate his biological mother. “My mom’s gone crazy. She wants to turn me into someone else!” “She controls me, monitors me, and forces me to take medication. I keep remembering things that don’t belong to me. I feel like I’m not even myself anymore!” My client was worked up. His desperate eyes were filled with overwhelming fear. He said his biological mother watched him constantly. He couldn’t call the police or seek help through any normal channels, so he’d found me online and treated me, a private investigator, as his last lifeline. I almost laughed. How could anyone be turned into another person? He was probably mentally ill. But he was rich, and the final payment was generous, so I accepted the case. But as my investigation unfolded, I discovered that things weren’t nearly as simple as I’d imagined. My client’s name was Ethan, twenty-four years old, and single. He wore a neat suit and dress shirt. Everything about him was immaculate, but his pale complexion gave him a sickly appearance. He looked as if he were constantly surrounded by fear. Every time he spoke to me, he swallowed hard. “I studied history in college. I love it. And I absolutely hate winter melon!” “But my mom destroyed all my books. She forced me to study business and retake the entrance exam for business school. Every meal she makes has winter melon in it. She even keeps calling me by the wrong name. She… she’s treating me like I’m someone else.” “No!” “She wants to turn me into another person!” Ethan nervously glanced behind him, then grabbed my hand. His voice trembled with desperation. “You have to find out what she’s planning. You have to save me!” Then he hurried away. He’d gone grocery shopping with his mother, Evelyn, and only managed to meet me by using the bathroom as an excuse. Through the café’s glass wall, I soon saw Evelyn. She wore a fitted brown coat. Tall and slender, she looked like an elegant female scholar. She carried groceries in one hand and held Ethan’s arm with the other. A few dead leaves landed on his shoulder. Smiling, she gently brushed them away. She looked exactly like a loving mother. I shook my head with a faint smile. “Ethan really is mentally ill.” Still, he’d come to me with money. There was no reason to turn it down. To give Ethan an answer—and secure the rest of my payment—I called in a favor and had my friend Daniel conduct a detailed investigation into Evelyn. At the same time, I contacted Evelyn as a therapist and visited her home in person. Evelyn had been taking Ethan to doctors for a long time. It seemed everyone knew there was something wrong with him except Ethan himself. I’d studied psychology before and even earned a certification. I was only an amateur, but I wasn’t going there to treat him. I was putting on a show for Ethan, so he’d trust my abilities more. “Hello, Dr. Carter.” “My son developed severe persecutory delusions about a year ago. He acts obedient around me, but I know he’s afraid of me. He keeps asking other people for help.” “But he’s my son. I love him so much. Why would I ever hurt him?” Evelyn took off her glasses and wiped away her tears. She looked exactly like a heartbroken mother. I’d once helped parents whose child had gone missing. When people were pushed to the brink, they all carried the same kind of despair. My sensitivity to emotions was one of the main reasons I could make a living in this line of work. I felt even more confident that Ethan was simply a sick, profitable client. I smiled and nodded at Evelyn. “Please don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can.” “I’ve already gained a general understanding of Ethan’s condition. From here, I’ll need to spend some time alone with him. Which room would be best?” As I spoke, I looked around the nearly two-thousand-square-foot apartment. The living room was bright and clean, with potted plants soaking in the sunlight. Bookshelves filled the space with an air of quiet sophistication. But the door to the south bedroom was tightly shut. A thin haze drifted out from beneath it, carrying a faint, strange scent. Evelyn immediately shifted to block my view. “The study would be better.” “Dr. Carter, please do everything you can. I have to step out for a while.” The front door soon closed behind her. Evelyn was gone. I dropped the act, sat across from Ethan, and tapped the table. “It’s just the two of us now. Is there anything else you want to tell me? You can speak freely.” But the fear in Ethan’s voice didn’t lessen in the slightest. “No. There’s a third person!”A third person? “Who?” Ethan frantically searched the room with his eyes, as if something terrifying were hiding inside. He dragged his chair across the floor with a sharp screech. Only after moving close to me did he speak in a hoarse whisper. “That person… no. That thing is hidden in the south bedroom by my mother!” The south bedroom? I immediately thought of the haze and strange scent drifting from beneath the door. “My mom keeps taking weird dolls, sachets, and all kinds of strange objects into that room when I’m not looking. Then she says all kinds of weird things and keeps repeating that thing’s name.” “Sometimes she even mistakes me for it and calls me by the wrong name!” The more Ethan spoke, the more agitated he became. His body began to spasm as if he’d lost control. His hoarse voice rose into a shriek. “She must be using some sinister method to turn me into someone else! She’s almost succeeded. Strange memories have already started appearing in my mind. Sometimes I can’t stop myself from believing they’re really mine!” “Do you understand? I’m being replaced!” I didn’t believe his bizarre, absurd story, but his intense reaction still sent a chill through me. The mentally ill really were impossible to understand. To make sure I received the rest of my payment, I played along. “Calm down. I’ll help you.” “Do you have a key to the south bedroom? Can you take me inside?” I needed to do something to earn his trust. Ethan shook his head violently. “No. No key. I don’t have any keys to the apartment. My mother is imprisoning me and monitoring me. I have no freedom at all!” I suggested, “If you’re willing, I can take you in myself.” I’d already examined the lock. It wasn’t complicated. In my line of work, there was no such thing as knowing too many skills. With the right tools, I could open it easily. Ethan seemed to struggle to control his panic. He nodded firmly. “Okay. Let’s take a look. If you can, you have to help me destroy that thing!” I led Ethan out of the study and toward the south bedroom. The haze was still slowly seeping through the crack beneath the door. The smell vaguely resembled incense burning at a shrine. I couldn’t stop myself from frowning. Could there really be something inside? As I worked on the lock, Ethan grew even more terrified. His fear affected me, and I failed several times. Sweat gradually beaded on my forehead. Just as I finally located the lock cylinder, the apartment door suddenly opened. I stiffened and quickly hid my tools. Ethan spun around as well, his eyes filled with panic so intense it was almost tangible. “What are you doing?” Evelyn dropped the groceries in her hands and rushed toward us. She blocked the south bedroom door and stared at me warily. “Dr. Carter, weren’t you supposed to be treating Ethan in the study? Why are you wandering around?” Feeling guilty, I said I was simply trying to understand Ethan better and had been looking around the apartment. She accepted the excuse. But I couldn’t help wondering whether Evelyn’s reaction had been a little too extreme. Afterward, she went to cook. I was planning to leave, but she insisted that I stay for dinner. She seemed desperate to cure Ethan. At the table, Ethan—who had told me he hated winter melon more than anything—dug into a bowl of winter melon braised with ribs. When Evelyn quizzed him on business-related subjects, he answered every question smoothly. The anxious, terrified Ethan seemed to have become a completely different person. He was confident and unusually close to Evelyn. All of Evelyn’s earlier worry had vanished as well. It was as if Ethan had suddenly recovered. Her eyes were overflowing with affection. I was the one who began to feel paranoid and cold all over. There was something wrong with both of them. I was especially sensitive to emotions, and I could tell that neither of them had been faking the emotions they’d shown in my presence. But why had they changed so drastically? After dinner, Ethan returned to the study. I went to see him alone. “Ethan—” The moment I said his name, he looked up in confusion. “Ethan?” “Dr. Carter, I’m not Ethan. You’ve mistaken me for someone else.”As soon as I returned home, I contacted Daniel and asked whether he’d found anything about Evelyn. He told me to wait a little longer, so I smoked restlessly. This situation wasn’t as simple as I’d imagined. The Ethan I’d seen at dinner really seemed to have become someone else. I could tell he wasn’t pretending. But was it because of his mental illness, or had Evelyn truly influenced him? The next day, Ethan called again. “Mr. Carter, save me!” “There’s something wrong with what my mom’s been feeding me. After I confronted her, she stopped pretending and forced me to take it!” “I’m losing my memory more and more often. There are more and more strange memories in my head. I can’t hold on much longer!” Before I could reply, Ethan hurriedly hung up, as if his mother had discovered him. I clenched my teeth, my heart heavy. Ethan really did seem to have developed another independent personality—the “someone else” he claimed he was becoming. After struggling with the decision, I decided to visit the apartment again. I’d already taken Ethan’s down payment. I couldn’t simply sit back and do nothing. If everything was caused by Ethan’s persecutory delusions, I’d confront Evelyn and recommend a more qualified psychiatrist. If Evelyn was hiding something, I’d find evidence and call the police. If I saved Ethan, perhaps I could still collect the rest of my fee. “Bang, bang, bang…” After I knocked for a long time, Evelyn finally opened the door. An unnatural smile tugged at her lips. “Dr. Carter, what brings you here?” “Ethan and I agreed that I’d come by today. Didn’t he tell you?” I peered through the gap in the door. “May I come in?” Evelyn hesitated, then stepped aside. She followed me inside and locked the door behind us. A flash of tension rose in my chest. Then Ethan burst out of the study. “Save me! Mr. Carter, save me!” “Look at what she gave me! It’s medication—psychiatric medication!” “This isn’t the first time she’s fed it to me. There’s something strange in the water I drink every day. The taste was too strong this time, so I noticed. She pulled out the pills and forced them down my throat. She isn’t even pretending anymore!” Ethan had completely broken down. I instinctively looked at Evelyn. She was clutching her head and sobbing. “My son, I’m your mother. How could I hurt you?” “You’re sick, but you refuse to believe it. I didn’t dare force you to take your medication, so I had to use this method—” Ethan screamed over her, his eyes bloodshot. “That’s bullshit! If I’m sick, you’re the one who made me this way! You imprison me, monitor me, and control my freedom! You’re using sinister methods to turn me into someone else!” “I know everything! I know it all! I studied history, but you forced me to study business. I got sick of winter melon when I was little because they served it to us every day at preschool. I hate it more than anything, but you make me eat it at every meal!” “What are you trying to do?” After shouting himself hoarse, Ethan collapsed onto the floor. He clutched his chest and struggled to breathe. I hurried over to help him. The pill he’d been holding fell from his hand. I recognized it. It was a psychiatric medication with sedative and sleep-inducing effects. Perhaps the medicine was taking effect. Ethan gradually calmed down, but the panic and terror in his eyes remained intense. Evelyn’s eyes were now red from crying. She wiped away her tears and slowly approached him. “My son, you say you studied history? Fine. I’ll ask you a few questions.” Twenty minutes later, Ethan had fallen asleep under the effects of the medication. I had calmed down as well. I could basically confirm that Evelyn was simply a desperate mother. Ethan, meanwhile, had been destroyed by severe mental illness. The history questions Evelyn asked were simple enough that even I could answer them. Ethan, however, couldn’t answer a single one. He claimed to hate winter melon so much that one bite would make him vomit. Yet when Evelyn forced a bowl on him, he swallowed every last bite. In the living room, Evelyn and I sat across from each other. The tears on her face hadn’t dried. Her eyes were vacant. “How am I imprisoning him? I’m protecting him.” “And he’s a grown man. How could I control him? He has persecutory delusions, so of course he’s afraid of me.” “You saw it yourself. His perception is completely confused.” “Mr. Carter, if you can’t treat him, then please stop hurting him and upsetting him, all right?” As she spoke, Evelyn pulled up security footage on her phone. “I have cameras installed throughout the apartment. I know he hired you to go after me behind my back.”I’d almost believed Evelyn. But when she showed me the security footage, a chill ran down my back. I instinctively glanced toward the south bedroom. Haze was still drifting out from beneath the door. Evelyn’s need to control Ethan was terrifying. The camera in the study had captured every detail of Ethan and me—even the pores on our faces. Even if Ethan really was mentally ill, he was only twenty-four years old. What had caused his illness? Why was the target of his persecutory delusions the mother who supposedly loved him most? I pushed down my doubts and forced a smile. “All right, Ms. Evelyn. I admit Ethan contacted me privately. But I’ve also studied psychology, and I can recommend a more qualified doctor for him.” “Either way, I’ve already accepted his down payment. Please understand that I still need to be involved in Ethan’s treatment—” The instant I finished speaking, Evelyn seemed to become a different person. She gritted her teeth and smashed the glass on the coffee table. Her eyes reddened as she glared at me. “Get out!” “I thought you were a psychologist, so I let you get close to my son! How dare you lie to me? You and Ethan are working together against me. You’re hurting him!” “I’m his mother! Why would I hurt my own son?” “I’m warning you—stay away from him! I’ll do anything for my son!” She seemed to lose control. She stood and slowly advanced toward me. Her thin body suddenly radiated such force that even I began to panic. I swallowed hard. I was about to apologize and get out of there when a noise suddenly came from Ethan’s room. In an instant, Evelyn snapped out of her rage. Her face transformed. The fury vanished, replaced by a mother’s concern and affection. She rushed past me and into Ethan’s room. My tense body relaxed. I took several deep breaths and began thinking quickly. Evelyn had been polite when she thought I was a psychologist. But after she discovered through the security footage that Ethan and I had made other arrangements, her attitude had completely changed. I had hidden things from her, but I was still a psychologist. I had no intention of hurting Ethan. What was she afraid of? Was she afraid I’d discover something? And besides… I’d heard her clearly. She had just called Ethan “Mikey.” Could there really be another person? My eyes drifted toward the south bedroom. The haze seemed to be spreading across the floor. Its faint, strange fragrance made it difficult to breathe. Evelyn was in Ethan’s room. I was alone in the living room. Maybe one look inside the south bedroom would give me all the answers. The moment the thought appeared, I couldn’t suppress it. I walked over and took out my lock-picking tools. This time, the lock opened easily. Within a few breaths, I had disengaged the cylinder. I gripped the doorknob and was about to open the door when my phone suddenly chimed. That was the special notification sound I’d assigned to Daniel. He must have found something about Evelyn. I hurriedly checked the message. As I read, a bone-deep chill spread through my body. Evelyn had been purchasing psychiatric medication for a year. She’d used every method available to cut Ethan off from all his friends and acquaintances. She frequently visited religious temples and spiritual shrines. She was even connected to a death. What was she trying to do? My breathing grew rapid. I couldn’t wait any longer. I opened the door. The horrifying sight before me made every hair on my body stand on end. Behind me, Evelyn gave a cold, quiet laugh. “I told you to leave. Why did you insist on staying?”I spun around and grabbed the wall, barely keeping myself from falling. Ethan hadn’t lied to me. The south bedroom had been turned into a memorial shrine. Along with candles, incense, and dolls, there was a black-and-white photograph of Ethan. But the name on the memorial tablet was Mikey. Who was Mikey? Was he the person Evelyn wanted Ethan to become? I didn’t have time to think about it. Evelyn stood before me, smiling quietly. But beneath her vacant expression, I could clearly sense a deep, twisted sickness. “Evelyn, this is a civilized society governed by law. I don’t care what you’re doing—stop now. Don’t hurt Ethan anymore!” I pulled out my phone and dialed the police right in front of her. Evelyn showed no panic or fear. She remained strangely vacant. “Listen to yourself. How could I hurt my own son?” The bizarre scene in the south bedroom had frightened me, but I was still a man. Facing a thin woman like Evelyn, I quickly regained my composure. “I’ve found out everything!” “Evelyn, you started buying psychiatric medication a year ago and secretly feeding it to Ethan. That’s what caused his mental illness, isn’t it?” “To control him, you cut him off from the outside world. Everything you did was meant to turn him into Mikey, wasn’t it?” Ethan… Mikey… I repeated the two names silently. Suddenly, everything clicked. “They’re brothers, aren’t they? You… You’re using superstition to make Mikey’s soul take over Ethan’s body?” According to Daniel’s messages, Evelyn had begun visiting religious temples and hiring spiritual con artists a year ago. As for the death she was connected to, Daniel hadn’t sent me the full details yet. But I was almost certain it involved Mikey. As expected, Evelyn soon admitted it. “Yes. My Mikey was such a wonderful boy. I just want my Mikey back!” “Waaah…” “It’s all Ethan’s fault! Mikey was his twin brother. One kidney donation could have saved Mikey’s life. How could Ethan refuse to help him?” “He deserved to die! He doesn’t deserve to be alive! I’m going to turn him into my Mikey. No one can stop me!” Evelyn lunged at me like a madwoman. I dodged to the side and completed the call to the police. The truth was finally out. The rest could be left to them. What Evelyn had done in the south bedroom wasn’t illegal by itself. But drugging Ethan over and over until he developed a mental illness was severe bodily harm. By the time the police arrived, Evelyn had completely broken down. Through her sobs, she confessed everything. “My Mikey always listened to me. I told him what to study, and he did it. He was going to have such a bright future. Unlike that useless Ethan. He studied history. What kind of future could he possibly have?” “But my good boy Mikey was the one who got sick. Ethan refused to save him and let him die.” “How could I accept that?” “Hehehe… I gave Ethan medication to make him crazy, to make him stupid. That was the only way Mikey’s soul could come back and stay with me…” Daniel’s information, combined with Evelyn’s confession, was enough to convict her. The police took my statement, and after that, the case no longer had anything to do with me. I let out a long breath and went to see Ethan. After all, I’d exposed Evelyn’s scheme. If possible, I still wanted to collect the rest of my payment. To my surprise, Ethan paid me without hesitation. I actually felt embarrassed. I promised to visit him every day and keep checking on him until his condition stabilized. But I soon discovered something. Ethan… didn’t seem to be Ethan anymore.