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[abrightboy]

 This is Bright. Leave a message.

Comments

[ukan]

Worse how? I doubt you're worse than I am. Or some of our inmates

[abrightboy]

Well. Not 'worse' as in 'more evil' so much as 'worse' as in 'more annoying to live with'.

[ukan]

[He grins] I ate my husband's favorite pair of boots when he wouldn't weed the garden. You can't be worse than that.

Maybe the problem was her.

[abrightboy]

I have to sleep in restraints and I wake up screaming almost every night. One time, I fell asleep without restraints and almost stabbed her. She stopped taking my calls for, like, three months.

[ukan]

Maybe you are worse than me. [He's teasing.

The smile drops away though.]

What causes you to stab people?

[abrightboy]

Night terrors. I didn’t know it was her; I thought I was fighting for my life. But I know better than to fall asleep unrestrained. I shouldn’t have been able to reach a knife to start with; I should have been strapped to my bed.

[ukan]

How long have you had these night terrors this bad?

[abrightboy]

Twenty years.

[ukan]

That's a long time to suffer.

What happened?

[abrightboy]

My father killed people. A lot of people. When I was ten years old, I found a woman in a travel trunk in our basement. He started drugging me with chloroform so I'd forget. I still only have fragments of memories from that time, but that's when the night terrors started.

[ukan]

I'm sorry.

When was he caught? Or was he?

[abrightboy]

Around then. I called the police as soon as I... came out of the stupor.

[ukan]

I don't know if I would have. Obviously my father never killed anyone, but I think I would have been too afraid to turn him in if he had.

[abrightboy]

I thought I was saving her. I thought it was the same day, but it was… at least a week later. Maybe more. She was gone. But I thought I was saving her.

[ukan]

By turning him in, you saved other women. I know that's not the same--but it brought closure to the families, too.

[abrightboy]

That’s what the policeman said. The one that came.

[ukan]

Is that why you decided to make a career out of working with criminals?

[abrightboy]

Yeah! Part of the reason, anyway. That policeman is the head of Major Crimes now. I was working for him as a special consultant before I came here. He’s the most upstanding man I’ve ever met.

[ukan]

The lawyer in me has never trusted upstanding people.

[abrightboy]

The child who was chloroformed by his father in me barely trusts anyone, but I trust Gil.

[ukan]

What makes you so sure of him?

[abrightboy]

He's the most honourable and fundamentally good person I've ever known.