both died mysteriously in their sleep a few weeks earlier and Curtis’ parents had both died years before.
Curtis and Ruth took over her grandparents’ property and set about converting it from a commercial crop growing operation to a self sufficiency farm to minimize their interaction with the outside world. They lived their harsh lifestyle far from the prying eyes of neighbors or townsfolk and about five years into their union, Ruth became pregnant with Bryan, which filled them both with dread at how God may judge them.
After Bryan was born, Curtis decided that Bryan must have been sent to them as a test by God so he quickly won Ruth over to his way of thinking and they raised him according to the strictest interpretation of biblical stories and proverbs. The overriding rule was: ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’ and they enforced this rule and others with a sadistic savagery unimaginable to Helen Benson.
Of course there were no witnesses to Bryan’s claims about these times, other than the hundreds of scars, which had been dated by medical experts as having been inflicted all throughout his childhood from a very early age. The knowledge that his parents had been so physically and mentally cruel to their son had filled Helen with anger toward Curtis and Ruth, and pity toward her patient. But as she progressed through his file to Bryan’s psychotic deeds and the coldness with which he had recounted them to prosecutors when he was finally arrested; her ability to think rationally and clinically about her patient was challenged. Her clinical training and experience demanded that she act as a professional physician and treat him as psychiatric patient that needed her help but his lucidity, clarity of thought, and utter remorselessness toward his victims triggered her instincts and basic nature as a human being, causing her constant internal conflict when dealing with him. As a true professional and one of the leaders in her field, she kept her emotions fully in check during their sessions but she had an ominous feeling that he always knew her inner thoughts.
Bryan was a highly intelligent subject who, despite his complete lack of education until he was about fourteen years of age, was extremely devious, calculating, and meticulous in his every action. It was as though he could transcend normal thought and his pain threshold as well as his physical strength and capabilities far exceeded that of a normal man of his size and weight. His eyes were almost imperceptibly exotropic, which meant that they pointed slightly outward from each other so one could never be certain which eye to focus on when making eye contact or during a conversation. This was not only disconcerting but rather intimidating in his particular case. He had the condition from birth as far as anyone could tell and told of a designated weekly beating his father would give him on Saturdays because he saw the defect as a sign of the devil and another part of God’s test.
When Bryan neared the fourteenth anniversary of his birth, he finally snapped during one particular unearned beating from Curtis. Bent over the workbench in the shed just off the house, the searing pain of his father’s belt buckle burning into his back, he saw an old fencing hammer in front of his hand and instinct took over. He grabbed the hammer, turned violently and with strength born from years of built up anger and hatred, he struck out and landed a powerful blow to his father’s head. Curtis reeled back severely dazed, lost his footing and fell to his knees while Bryan, his wiry frame strengthened from years of hard physical labor, his mind steeled by years of abuse, dropped the hammer to unleash an indescribable fury of violent, powerful punches on his father. He kept beating Curtis’ unconscious head until his energy began to wane then he kneeled up and watched the foamy red blood gurgling from his father’s mouth and nose. He stood, grabbed a rusty, old cut-throat razor from
Curtis and Ruth took over her grandparents’ property and set about converting it from a commercial crop growing operation to a self sufficiency farm to minimize their interaction with the outside world. They lived their harsh lifestyle far from the prying eyes of neighbors or townsfolk and about five years into their union, Ruth became pregnant with Bryan, which filled them both with dread at how God may judge them.
After Bryan was born, Curtis decided that Bryan must have been sent to them as a test by God so he quickly won Ruth over to his way of thinking and they raised him according to the strictest interpretation of biblical stories and proverbs. The overriding rule was: ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’ and they enforced this rule and others with a sadistic savagery unimaginable to Helen Benson.
Of course there were no witnesses to Bryan’s claims about these times, other than the hundreds of scars, which had been dated by medical experts as having been inflicted all throughout his childhood from a very early age. The knowledge that his parents had been so physically and mentally cruel to their son had filled Helen with anger toward Curtis and Ruth, and pity toward her patient. But as she progressed through his file to Bryan’s psychotic deeds and the coldness with which he had recounted them to prosecutors when he was finally arrested; her ability to think rationally and clinically about her patient was challenged. Her clinical training and experience demanded that she act as a professional physician and treat him as psychiatric patient that needed her help but his lucidity, clarity of thought, and utter remorselessness toward his victims triggered her instincts and basic nature as a human being, causing her constant internal conflict when dealing with him. As a true professional and one of the leaders in her field, she kept her emotions fully in check during their sessions but she had an ominous feeling that he always knew her inner thoughts.
Bryan was a highly intelligent subject who, despite his complete lack of education until he was about fourteen years of age, was extremely devious, calculating, and meticulous in his every action. It was as though he could transcend normal thought and his pain threshold as well as his physical strength and capabilities far exceeded that of a normal man of his size and weight. His eyes were almost imperceptibly exotropic, which meant that they pointed slightly outward from each other so one could never be certain which eye to focus on when making eye contact or during a conversation. This was not only disconcerting but rather intimidating in his particular case. He had the condition from birth as far as anyone could tell and told of a designated weekly beating his father would give him on Saturdays because he saw the defect as a sign of the devil and another part of God’s test.
When Bryan neared the fourteenth anniversary of his birth, he finally snapped during one particular unearned beating from Curtis. Bent over the workbench in the shed just off the house, the searing pain of his father’s belt buckle burning into his back, he saw an old fencing hammer in front of his hand and instinct took over. He grabbed the hammer, turned violently and with strength born from years of built up anger and hatred, he struck out and landed a powerful blow to his father’s head. Curtis reeled back severely dazed, lost his footing and fell to his knees while Bryan, his wiry frame strengthened from years of hard physical labor, his mind steeled by years of abuse, dropped the hammer to unleash an indescribable fury of violent, powerful punches on his father. He kept beating Curtis’ unconscious head until his energy began to wane then he kneeled up and watched the foamy red blood gurgling from his father’s mouth and nose. He stood, grabbed a rusty, old cut-throat razor from
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