Help his sister, no matter what

I helped Cassidy upstairs then got clean clothes from her room to wear. I put her in the passenger seat of the truck since she could walk around and was just very groggy, but didn't seem to need an ambulance. There's a major hospital about five minutes from our house so I drove here there. I thought about going somewhere else, outside of the city, but for all I knew Cassie needed immediate attention. And sometimes the cover-up is worse than the crime, you know? I just figured we'd address this directly.

Cassidy was a real trooper and said she'd choked herself. I suppose it's not unheard of, some celebrity seems to die of auto-erotic asphyxia every few years, but it's always a dude as far as I know. I hated that she had to lie but clearly saying "my brother and I were having bondage sex" wasn't an option.

The doctors did all the scans and had many questions for us. For the life of me I didn't know how long she'd been out, it was such a high-stress situation that my mind was a mess, but I thought it was just a minute or two at most. Still, I wasn't even supposed to have been there, so they had no real way of knowing, and being out for four or five minutes can be very dangerous.

Sure enough a detective came in eventually to talk to us. Choking is one of the most serious events in domestic violence - if a guy will do that, he's pretty much willing to kill a woman. I actually knew that before any of this happened, and accepted that it made sense on a logical level. And yet I hadn't seen choking Cassidy as anything evil, she had even asked for it. But I understood and respected why the detective would be concerned. I actually wanted the police to investigate domestic violence like this - to see a clear warning sign and act.

We said we were just brother and sister and Cassidy reaffirmed that she'd choked herself as a kink thing, without me there. We blushed badly and probably seemed sufficiently embarrassed to sell the story. I don't think the detective 100% believed it, but then again she wasn't thinking that a brother had choked his sister as a kinky sexy game either, that's pretty far-fetched too. In the end she warned us to be safe and had me leave so she could talk to Cassidy alone, but my sister didn't change her story.

There was nothing wrong with Cassidy physically, but the ER doctor told us there very easily could have been. They discharged Cassidy and we went home. She slept in my bed and thanked me for what I'd done. I felt like a heel since I'd been the one who choked her, but at least I'd manned up and gotten her the care she needed.

A few days later I got an e-mail saying the police department had decided to go in a different direction and wouldn't be inviting me to their police academy. I had suspected as much. Cassidy and I were in the kitchen after dinner, sitting at the table aimlessly, when I'd heard the notification for the e-mail. I let her read it right after I did.

"Sorry, Mike," she said.

"It's not your fault," I said. "I was an idiot, taking so many chances just because it was kinky. I thought all of that stuff about safe words and all the other rules was nerdy bullshit. I was the idiot."

She shrugged. "I didn't stop you," she said.

We sat their in silence for a while.

"Well, what now?" she asked.

"I guess I move out," I said awkwardly, "I almost killed you, Cassidy."

She frowned. "No!" she said.

"Cass, I'm 22, unemployed, have no career prospects, I get off on hurting women..." I said, "Believe me you'll be better off without me."

"No I won't be!" she said passionately, "Mike, I love you! And... you're my dominant. You can't just leave me like that, I'd be lost without my owner."

I shrugged. She was smart and capable, I knew she'd be fine.

"Look, yeah, we took the sex too far," she said, "But I'm an adult too. I should have insisted we learn to do it safely. I never even said a damn thing about safety. And I encouraged you to do the most extreme stuff. When you did take it too far, you did the right thing and took me to the hospital, even though it cost you your dream job."

I looked down. What she said was logical, but I still felt like a scumbag abuser. I couldn't stop thinking about how I'd choked her out, and how that put me in the company of the worst kind of men on the planet.

She got up and was rubbing my shoulders. "You did the right thing when it mattered, Mike. You gave up your dreams to make sure I was safe. I should be the one apologizing to you. But there will be other jobs. Heck, I'm making good money. Managing my stream is a full-time job. No one but you can do it right."

It's quite the drop from police officer to managing the stream of a gamer girl. But she did need someone to do it, and it was good money.

"Damnit Mike, you're my dominant. My owner. I'm your responsibility now. We'll learn to be safe, we'll grow together."

I stood up and took her hand. She was right. This wasn't the future I'd envisioned, but it was the future that was right for us.

We walked slowly out of the kitchen to the stairs up to our childhood bedrooms. Then, without even discussing it, we didn't go up the stairs and kept walking. Mom and Dad's bedroom was at the end of the hallway.

We went inside our parents bedroom. We were the adults of this house now. It was time for us to take our place.