“What the…?”  William burst in through the bedroom door after what seemed an eternity.  He had been downstairs trying to grab a quick nap and he had just dozed off when he heard Frank yelling.   

But he didn’t need to wait for Frank’s answer to hear what was wrong and he immediately opened the closet door prepared to rip a strip off Joe for making noise but instead he jumped back in shock as Joe, stiff as a board fell onto the floor at his feet convulsing.  

Joe was having a seizure!

* * *

Joe let out a haunting, involuntary moan from the force of the muscle contraction. His body spasmed and jerked rhythmically as William stared down at him in horror…and then the younger boy’s eyes rolled back in his head and he started to vomit.  

“GET HIM OFF HIS BACK!” Frank was yelling as he struggled, futility, against his bonds.  Joe needed him… “WILLIAM… NOW!  ON HIS SIDE…PUT…HIM…ON… HIS… SIDE!!!”  

William didn’t move for a second.  He was in total shock over this and then Frank’s words reached him and he knew that Frank was right.  Joe was gagging and vomiting and if he was left on his back he would choke or asphyxiate!  

“Shut up!”  William hollered at Frank as he leaned over to roughly move Joe onto his side, “I can’t think with you yelling!”  

And then as William fought against the contractions in Joe’s body to move him, the convulsions just stopped and he went completely limp.  

“JOE!”  Frank’s voice was hoarse as he continued yelling, “IS HE BREATHING… WILLIAM IS HE BREATHING?”  He couldn’t understand the other boy’s hesitancy. 

How would someone as cruel as he was become paralyzed watching Joe have a seizure? And then it dawned on him.  

This was something William couldn’t control.

* * *

Frank’s heart threatened to pound out of chest.  If Joe wasn’t breathing he’d need CPR and he couldn’t do that for him handcuffed to a chair!  

Ignoring William’s warning, the older boy frantically threw himself hard against his restraints and knocked the chair over again.   

“WILLIAM UNTIE ME…I CAN HELP HIM!”  Struggling frantically Frank couldn’t even bare to think of the alternative.  

It would kill him if Joe died and he could have saved him…if Will had just freed him.

William ignored Frank as he quickly searched for a pulse.  

You’re not getting off this easy, he vowed angrily as if it were Joe’s choice and then finding one, he hauled Joe up and towards the bathroom.  

Joe was burning up and William knew enough to know if he didn’t get his temperature down, his brother would seize again and probably stroke out this time.  And he was not ready for that to happen yet.   

When Joe was finally finished it would be because William had made that decision… William and William alone.  

“What are you doing?”  Frank demanded hoarsely.  He tried bucking his way out of the chair and was surprised at how strong it was.  Oh no… William couldn’t have bound him to a weaker chair…no…not at all.  

William stopped in the bathroom doorway and turned back to Frank, “Stop it.  Don’t make me have to punish him when he’s still half dead.”  

Frank froze.  William had at least given him one comforting piece of news… Joe was alive.  

“Good”, William said and then he disappeared into the bathroom with Joe.

Laying Joe on the floor, the boy reached over and turned on the shower.  Fixing the taps on ‘COLD’ he looked down at his brother and said in a detached voice, “You’re a bit warm sweetie…can’t have you seizing again…” 

Reaching down he hauled his brother up and dumped him into the tub letting the cold water from the shower rain down on him.  Joe moaned in shock as his fevered body suddenly became too cold and William left him there for a few moments.

* * *

Frank heard the moan and then saw the dark twin coming out of the bathroom.  He could hear the shower running and his worry increased when he didn’t see Joe with William.

“Where’s Joe?”  he demanded as William once again put the chair and its hostage right side up.

“Cooling off”, Will said bluntly as he checked Frank’s restraints to make sure they were still secured.  He whistled when he saw how raw and jagged the older boy’s wrists were, “Hmmm hold on a second.”

Warily Frank watched him wondering what Will was up to now and wishing desperately that he could see Joe.  He shuddered, thinking of what might be happening to him.

William picked up the tube of antibiotic ointment that Frank had used on Joe’s back only a few hours earlier.  He also grabbed a couple pieces of the pantyhose he had used on Joe and then came back to Frank.

“What are you doing?”  Frank demanded as William knelt down behind him.

“Taking care of you Frankie…you’ve really done a job on yourself”, Frank jumped when he felt the coolness of the ointment being rubbed on his wrists around the handcuffs, “Can’t have you getting them infected now can we?”

With that he released one of the handcuffs and then grabbed Frank roughly by the wrist when the older tried to grab him.  The pain was exquisite and Frank hissed in pain before he felt the pantyhose wrapped around the wrist and then it was cuffed again and Will did the same to the other.

The level of his depravity sickened Frank. 

How Will could be ‘worried’ about him after what Frank had seen what he was capable of, was truly terrifying.  And for the first time, the older boy did actually fear William…

* * *

Satisfied with his nursemaid attempts, William stood up and headed back towards the bathroom, “time to check the roast”, he kidded heartlessly and then seconds later Frank heard the sound of the water being shut off.

“Feeling better are we?”  The older boy heard William taunt from the bathroom and then seconds later a shivering, soaking wet Joe was dragged out.

Frank’s heart lurched.  His brother looked wretched.

Soaked from head to toe, Joe shivered violently and Frank could hear his teeth chattering as William tossed him towards the bed. 

The cut on Joe’s chest which had finally stopped bleeding in the shower was reopened when he landed face down on the mattress.  Frank was only thankful that although it was shocking to see, the actual injury was fairly superficial and if…no when Joe got to the hospital, it probably wouldn’t even need stitches…he hoped not anyway.

“Joe”, Frank whispered at the miserable figure only a few feet away. 

Once again he struggled but still couldn’t do anything.  Joe was so pale that the damage that Will had done to him stood out in stark contrast to his pallor and Frank did not like how much more gray Joe seemed to be growing right in front of his very eyes.

“Hmmm”, William mused as he stood over the wet figure and then looked across at Frank, “he doesn’t look very comfortable now does he?”

Frank didn’t say anything and William couldn’t help but smirk, “Oh the silent treatment again…okay as you wish.”

And then to Frank’s horror, William started to tug off Joe’s wet jeans.

“What are you doing?” he couldn’t keep his mouth shut as he was flooded again with the images and memories that had driven the wedge between him and Joe.

“What does it look like”, Will said sarcastically as he then unceremoniously dumped the wet jeans on the floor, “he’ll catch pneumonia in those!”

Frank closed his eyes as he clinched his jaw so tightly he actually saw stars.  

“As if you are worried about pneumonia”, he finally said thickly.

This made the other boy actually scoff, “You really have no idea what I am or am not worried about Frankie…did you even bother to try and get to know me?  The real me?”

“You mean this William?  This you?”  Frank shot back relieved to see that the other boy seemed to lose interest in Joe as he walked towards Frank coming to stop just a little in front of him, “I can honestly say I really have no desire to get to know this you…”

William glowered at him before he said coldly, “Why not Frankie?  I’m just misunderstood… don’t you know that?  I’m the one who got left behind…left in the care of a state that doesn’t care beyond putting you on a ward with a group of other boys, turning out the lights at night and then telling you to play nice…”

Frank paled as William continued working himself up, “play nice Frankie…that’s me.  And what about Joey?  My dear brother…?  Where is he?  Snuggled warm and safe in the bosom of your family…did you know that he was my mother’s favorite too?  I bet you didn’t know that.”

The dark haired boy sucked in a breath at the growing venom in William’s voice, “Oh she never admitted it…but I knew.  I could tell.  Why do you think I had to take her from him??  She was my mom first!  And he made me do it… that’s why he has to be punished…its all Joe’s fault!”

Frank froze as William continued savagely, “It’s his fault for being born!”

“William,” Frank tried to reason with the agitated teen, “it’s not Joe’s fault… and it’s not fair for you to blame him or do this to him.” He gazed over at his brother’s unconscious shivering form unable to keep the concern from his face.

“Oh but it is Frankie”, William insisted stalking back towards Joe, “he made me kill her…did you know that?” He turned back to Frank and raised an eyebrow, “or did my darling brother never tell you that?”

Frank had no idea what William was talking about but he felt a different kind of terror as the boy continued, “See here’s the kicker, Frank I killed my own mother when I was 4 years old…and it was no accident. I got her gun…” he pulled out Fenton’s gun from his waistband, “pointed it at her, “he aimed it at Joe, “and pulled the trigger…”

“NOOOO!”  Screamed Frank expecting the sound of the gunshot but nothing came.

Instead William lowered the gun and said coldly, “I can’t shoot my own brother Frankie…that would be too easy for him…however…”

Standing beside Joe’s prone figure, William gazed down at him and then gently began to run his fingers down the tormented flesh of his lower back and towards his waist, “there are many other things I can do…”

Slipping his fingers under the waist band of Joe’s damp boxers, William began to tug at them.

“N-no”, whispered an anguished Frank, “please no…”

And then to his increasing horror, Joe began to rouse beneath William ministrations and he heard a small gasp that drove a white hot blade of pain through his chest.

“Fr-Fra..nk…”

* * *

Joe’s world was reserved for pain.

It seemed to him that the pain was in varying shades of colors that hurt his eyes too much to look at.  So he kept them closed. 

But he could feel someone touching him…

William?

No, William hurt…this wasn’t hurt…it was something else.

His body felt strange…so cold…he was sure he must be shivering but he couldn’t tell. 

He was just too disoriented.

And then he felt like someone was trying to take away his clothes…no not his clothes…his underclothes.

William?  No please god…no..!

Please…let it be Frank…

Forcing enough air from his lungs, Joe managed to get one word out…he needed confirmation…

Confirmation that his worst fears were not about to come true….

And he gasped….

“Fr-Fra..nk…”

And then he relaxed as he heard Frank’s voice in his ear…

“…its okay baby brother, Frank's here now...Frank loves you and in a few moments you’ll know just how much…"

Joe felt his body being moved on the bed and he allowed himself to follow the call back to darkness. 

Frank was here and he’d take care of him…

 

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.