He told me to stretch my hand out to take it instead. I hesitated, but as I reached out, I saw something in the camera’s reflection when he leaned closer.
*********

He wasn’t showing in the camera at all. His hands— they didn’t look like flesh. I could only see bones, like how an X-ray machine would show them.

I blinked hard and rubbed my eyes, thinking maybe I was seeing things. But by the time I looked again, he had already moved away from where the camera could capture him.

I asked him to come join me in the video, but he looked scared and refused. It was as if he was afraid of the camera itself.

A few minutes after he left, my husband walked in and grabbed my phone off the tripod.

“From today, you’re not allowed to record any videos,” he said coldly, and then handed me a small button phone in exchange for my iPhone.

I stood there in shock, wondering why my husband would do that and what exactly I did wrong. Could it be that his brother complained about me?

I chose not to confront him, because ever since his younger brother came around, my husband had been acting strange—angry, distant, and unpredictable.

Later that evening, as I was about to take a shower, my husband stopped me and said something that froze me on the spot.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To bathe in our bathroom, of course,” I replied, pointing towards it.

“Well, you’ll no longer be bathing in my bathroom. Go to Junior’s room and bathe there.”

I just stood there, confused. Why would my husband ask me to bathe in his younger brother’s bathroom? His brother was a grown man!

We argued for a while, but it was clear he had made up his mind. He wanted me and his brother to share a bathroom.

When I got to the younger brother’s room, he was standing still, facing that same small door my husband had warned me not to open the other day.

He didn’t turn to look at me or say anything. He just stood there, mumbling words that sounded like a prayer, though I couldn’t hear them clearly.

I decided to ignore him, but just as I reached for the bathroom door, he turned suddenly and said,

“You’re not going in there without me.”

“Eh? What did you just say?” I asked, not sure I heard him right.

“You’re not going in without me,” he repeated. “My room, my rules.” Then he turned back again, facing the door.

I didn’t want to argue, so I went straight back to my husband to report what had happened.

When I told him everything, his reply shocked me even more.

“I have nothing to say,” he said calmly. “His room, his rules.”

I couldn’t believe it. My own husband was telling me to bathe while his brother watched me.