How's Your Heart?
word count 2.5k
.ᐟ✮⋆˙ summary: After the death of Tobey, Pastor calls a meeting for all of the teens in town. Once it ends, Brad and Dawn both hurry out to their house which results in a conversation that brings much to light.
TLDR: brad and dawn angst wow yay. you can also read this on ao3 if that's ur pref link is here YAY.
“Our Tobey Zacharias Akin, a committed man to God and this church’s dedication to righteousness, was found dead in the lake last night with his manhood torn from its rightful place and chucked off to the side!” Pastor stands at the pulpit, beaconing his call out to his captive audience of teens. Brad had been pulled out of school for this, nice he gets to skip class (like he wasn’t going to do that anyway) but church is much worse than school could ever be.
Pastor’s hands grip the edge of white podium, fingers tensing to a crushing degree. “Tobey was an incredible member of this church, pure, kind hearted, and loved thy neighbor the best he could.”
Pure? Tobey was anything but pure, especially considering what Brad saw.
It was dark. The town of Eden was often bright, but deep in the woods, at the lake, darkness crept. Brad was hidden behind a bush, thorns poked him at multiple angles. That slight pain was never at the forefront of his mind. What was there was Tobey and Dawn.
Under instructions from Godfather, he followed them deep into the thick grove of trees and plants with the lake situated right in the middle. He saw them get into the lake, the baptism, the promise of marriage, and that.
Thoughts of helping Dawn had flooded his mind temporarily. A voice deep in his head whispered to not succumb to the feminocracy, to not allow himself to become a cuck. He obeyed. Really, it was out of decision paralysis instead of a devotion to the voice.
Then, he saw it. Tobey stood up in the water, completely naked. Where his manhood would have sat is just a spout of blood, spurting up his chest and down his legs simultaneously. The boy’s body fell back into the lake, the impact causing water to spill over onto the grass.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was when Dawn stood up and pulled the severed member out of her legs. Her “precious gift” fully chomped off Tobey’s main source of power, of life. Neither of that pair will ever be pure again.
“Bradley. Are you paying attention?” Brad’s full body jumps at Pastor’s voice. Guess he had really spaced out thinking of…all that.
“Yes Pastor, I’m sorry Pastor. I was just thinking.” Pastor cocks an eyebrow and moves on to the other pews. Brad’s body relaxes as much as it can with Pastor still in the same room as him.
“Tobey is gone now, but we must not succumb to his fate. We must not succumb to temptation. We must never succumb to the beast inside.” Pastor makes his way back up to the pew, eyes glazing over his congregation. “Stay safe away from sex. The church, along with I and Dawn, will always be here for all of you. If the beast comes we will all lock down here so stay aware. Thank you.”
All of the teens file out of the church and back onto the streets of Eden to go back to their respective houses. Brad is practically running back to his room. This is all a lot. He hasn’t been able to debrief about Dawn to the truthseekers (even if they are a subconscious kinda thing for him now) so that’s his top priority.
His feet kick up dirt as he runs through the grass to the small house behind the church. The entire time Brad can feel a presence. A presence he feels often that makes his finger go numb. Dawn.
He goes faster, dashing into the house then subsequently into his room. Dawn follows him in, putting her hand between the door to stop it before Brad can shut her out. “Why are you following me?” Brad ends up backing up so far he hits his bed. He ignores the slight embarrassment that forms, instead trying to stay as serious as possible. He is talking to a literal murderer right now.
“You looked upset.” Dawn’s body curls inwards, her hands settled in her lap. She looks up at Brad, an intense guilty look plagues her eyes. “I wanted to check on you. You were really spacey when Pastor talked about Tobey.”
Dawn lacks to mention the way she replicated Brad’s feelings almost exactly. She had an inkling that Pastor had called them out of school and to the church to discuss Tobey and his untimely demise. She just hadn’t expected that hearing Pastor talk about it would be so triggering to her. That it would make her heart want to crawl out of her chest and leave her body behind. That it would just increase the shame in her body to the highest degree.
“You didn’t seem to be all there either.” Brad rolls his eyes and sits on his bed. Always a fucking hypocrite. Dawn sits down with him, which causes him to move as far away from her as possible. Dawn did have a tendency to do that. He’s seen it when she was with Tobey, not only at the lake but during church. Really whenever she’s around any man she forces herself to be lower than them. Brad doesn’t like it. Gives him a horrible, ominous feeling.
“You were really upset though. Is it about your heart, your virginity? Because virginity is not only powerful for girls, it is so powerful for boys!” Brad flinches at the word. He’s not embarrassed about that! No woman is ever allowed to sleep with him, he’s actually proud of his virginity. Being a virgin means the feminocracy hasn’t gotten to him and what could be better than that?
“No! It’s not about my virginity Dawn, why would you even want to know that?”
“I don’t know!” Her posture changes from curling inwards to jumping out in fear. She didn’t even want to think about what that could mean. “You just looked uncomfortable when he said the word virgin and purity and stuff and you’ve always been kinda off about that so I thought that was what makes you upset all the time. Then I figured I could fix it if I talked to you!”
Brad gives Dawn the biggest stink eye he can manage. “I don’t care about that, Dawn. Not at all. You’re being weird. I’m fine, we don’t need to talk about this. Just…get out.” He moves further into his bed, getting comfortable. Brad props his head up with his pillow as he waits for the sounds of Dawn leaving the room.
He shoots up from where he was laying to look at Dawn. What the hell is going on? Dawn has never said no to anyone in her life. She’s sitting there, gripping his comforter, as she looks down straight toward the ground. “No. I’m not leaving.”
“What the fuck do you mean no? You can’t just say that, this is my room!” Brad starts to get in Dawn’s face. Normally that scares her off, but this time she seems to be holding strong.
“Bradley, I’m worried about you.” Her voice shakes slightly like it often does when she’s talking to her step-brother. “I’m really worried about you. You’ve been acting really differently lately. I hear you mumbling to yourself and your eyes get all wide. I just—I don’t want you to fall down a slippery slope of drugs and alcohol and…”
She pauses, hesitating for a moment, “sex.”
“Dawn. You can not be serious.” Brad sighs and takes a deep breath in. “You have to see how big of a hypocrite you are!”
“Hypocrite? I-I’m not a hypocrite! I’ve never touched drugs and alcohol.” Dawn lets go of the comforter and tries to get back in Brad’s face.
“OH MY GOD DAWN! I know, okay? I know what you did at the lake, I know what you did to Tobey. I know about it all, especially about the fucking monster that’s in your precious gift.”
“You…” Her eyes get blown wide as she stumbles away slightly from Brad. “You saw and you didn’t—You didn’t help?”
“What did you want me to do?” The air stills, Brad’s entire body stiffens. His mind, body, everything are paralyzed.
If it wasn’t obvious, Bradley O’Keefe is not the greatest at confrontation. He couldn’t exactly jump out of the bush, saying “stop doing that to my step-sister!” and Tobey would just obey. Brad doesn’t have that kind of power. If Brad asked Tobey to do anything, even something as simple as walk one step, Brad truly doubts he’d ever do it. “I-I couldn’t do anything!”
“Yes you could! You could have done something! Now Tobey’s dead, I didn’t even want that to happen let alone, um, it down there killing him, okay?” Dawn begins to move again, her voice trembling. Brad wants to move, wants to fight back, wants to do SOMETHING. His feet stay planted right on the floor though and his finger starts to sting.
“I don’t…” The words catch in his throat, all that comes out is a string of unintelligible mumbling. God, he’s so ashamed. He should have done something but he still doesn’t know what he could have done to stop it. “I can’t do this. You KILLED someone and you’re placing the blame on me.”
“You’re pitiful.” Dawn turns away, shaking her head. “You are so pitiful! I was…I was violated and all you’re doing is whining! How could you possibly be the victim in all this?”
“I never said I was the victim! S-Stop — Stop putting words in my mouth!” Brad fumbles through the sentence. He really wants to stop talking, to run away escape confrontation, but his mouth just won’t fucking close.
“You are always twisting shit around like this. I don’t do anything to you and you place the blame on me. You know what happens after you place the blame on me? Beatings. That’s what fucking happens Dawn. Pastor comes in, saves your sorry ass, and beats me until I can barely walk. You don’t know what that’s like, you don’t have any fucking CLUE what that’s like!” As he speaks he closes in on Dawn, trying to reestablish any sort of power and authority he had in the conversation. Dawn holds strong, hatred beginning to fester in her eyes.
Pastor slams the door wide open, making Brad jump from the sudden noise. The two’s focus turns towards their father as he yells. “What is going on here? Bradley, are you doing something to her?”
“What? I–No! I-I’m not doing anything!” He shifts far away from Dawn as Pastor asserts himself between them. Brad knows how bad this looks, interactions between him and Dawn never look good, but this is particularly awful. He was all in Dawn’s face and he almost grabbed her. The beatings are going to be harsh tonight.
“Pastor, he hasn’t done anything! We were…we were just talking, okay? We were talking and it got a little intense. That’s it.” Pastor cocks an eyebrow looking at Brad and then focuses his attention back to Dawn, cupping her cheeks in a way that makes a girl display slight discomfort.
“Are you sure? He’s hurt you before, I don’t want him to be violent. If he is hurting you, I could always get him to stop.” ‘Getting him to stop’ of course means getting whipped. That’s all it seems Pastor does. Whenever Brad sees him, he anticipates the whip of his belt. Even if it doesn’t come in that instance, he knows it will eventually.
“Yes, I’m sure. I don’t need you to beat him every day. I’d prefer if,” She pauses for a moment to think, “if you didn’t beat him at all!” Dawn seemed proud of herself, adorning a little smirk. She thinks she’s won. She hasn’t seen the horrible depths of Pastor’s mind, not like Brad has.
Pastor falls back, hesitance coloring his eyes. He nods and grants the teens a moment of respite. His gaze moves from Dawn to Brad. The cool blue hardens as he gets closer and closer to his son. Brad’s pupils shrink and he moves backwards to avoid the impending pain.
He whimpers as Pastor’s fist collides with his stomach, the impact and suddenness sending him onto the floor. His arms clutch around where the pain stings deepest. “Dawn, baby, sometimes men need to experience pain to learn.” Brad has little time to prepare before he feels a kick against his back, right near fresh wounds from a recent whipping, causing him to curl into himself more. “And you know how much Brad has to learn.”
Brad shudders and tenses slightly in case Pastor decides to hurt him again. He stares at the floor, not wanting to see the faces of either of his tormentors. He hears footsteps that slowly distance themselves and then the clear shutting of a door. One of his problems is gone for the time being.
“Why didn’t you…” Brad rises up from the floor with a grimace, a hand still clutched to his stomach, “Why didn’t you help?” He’s greeted by Dawn's blue eyes, exactly like Pastor’s despite the lack of biological connection. The cold, the anger, it’s all the same. The only difference with Dawn is the added fear, the quick darting of the pupil around the room before pursuing the prey.
“Why — I didn’t think he’d do that!” Her hands move frantically as she bites her lip. Her feet move on their own as they pace back and forth.
“Why wouldn’t he? I told you what he’s like! You know what he’s like! You can’t always be fucking covering for him, he is horrible and you turn a blind eye.” The hands clutched around his middle move away (he ignores the slight sting that courses through his nerves and finger) to motion towards Dawn. Brad’s voice turns into a mocking tone, “No! Not Pastor! Oh, I’m Pastor’s little angel and Brad is the worst hellbound sinner I’ve ever seen! He’s past help, all that we can do now is beat the sin out of him!”
The high pitched squeaking stops, getting replaced by seriousness once more. “That’s you Dawn. Don’t pretend it’s not because you know as well as I do that it is.”
The rapid pacing of Dawn’s feet stops, bringing her to a sudden halt. A conflicted look appears on her face as she stares at Brad. Brad stares back to see an array of emotions none of which he can truly pick out from the other.
Dawn smiles and what sounds to be a slight chuckle escapes her throat.
“You’re right.” A small sliver of hope flashes across Brad’s face.
Dawn huffs as she turns away from her step-brother towards the exit. She swiftly moves towards the door, hesitating as her hand touches the doorknob. “I really wanted to help you. I-I did. Your heart just wasn’t open enough. I hope you can get better Brad.” With that final message Dawn leaves Brad to wallow alone in his pain.
Brad’s heart doesn’t feel good. In fact, his heart feels pretty shitty.
YAY I love teeth. Anyway. Pls comment I'd like that a lot. There's no offical taglist for my teeth fics yet so please comment if you'd like to be added. Requests are also open! I doubt I'd be getting many, but I'm here to serve and create whatever for the fanbase. YAY
@teethpilled and @hourly-brad i think you'd like this okay anyway bye
