Next In Line

Chapter 2: Second Guesses and Second Thoughts

Soon after leaving the manor and their authoritarian mother, the twins immediately made an on-foot beeline for their hometown of Hitsville, traveling down the arched driveway and through the gates, and crossing over a moat filled with oceanic white-tip sharks. The weather outside was admittedly pretty nice, warm and sunny but surprisingly cool for a summer day, but it would take a lot more than that to uplift Josephine's mood. Smiling was something she rarely did throughout her life (unless one counted the occasional evil smirk), and it didn't help that not only was her mother becoming more obnoxious each day, but everyone was also staring coldly at the twins as they walked by... for rather obvious reasons.

"Get lost, scumbags!" one guy shouted.

"Yeah, no one likes you!" a woman added, accompanied by two small children.

"Haven't you two tormented us enough?!" a much older woman sobbed. "What do you want from us now?!"

"You wanna split up, so we can be less conspicuous?" Josephine muttered to her brother.

"Dunno what that means, but sure," Mike Jr. nodded.

From there, the two went their separate ways for the day, and much like Josephine predicted, the amount of vitriol they received was notably reduced. Some people are just hard to recognize when they're not with the iconic groups they're a part of, and both twins were more than thankful that they were among that category. Getting a chilly reception from the townsfolk was nothing new to them, and was something they'd come to expect from their dastardly ways, but given the recent decline in their interest in villainy, it did start to hurt a bit. Although neither twin would ever be upfront in admitting that.

Over on Mike Jr.'s end, he decided to hit the local gym; seemed reasonable to guess someone as fit as him would frequent a place like that. But upon entering the establishment and shoving his way past the line of members, he ran into a problem at the front desk.

"Do you have your membership card, sir?" the worker asked, seeming rather bored with her afterlife.

"Bitch please, you know me well enough to where I shouldn't need one," Mike Jr. rested an elbow on the counter and bobbed his eyebrows, oblivious to the scoffs he received from some female members before him.

"Yeah, well rules are rules. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, particularly anyone who acts up, isn't dressed to work out, and doesn't have their membership card."

"Yeesh, your sports bra must be too high-impact for ya'. Here, lemme help you with it, so you can stop being a bitch?"

"Can you please stop saying that word?"

"Nah, not happenin'. Now let me work my manly charms," Mike Jr. leapt onto the counter, immediately met with a pepper-spritz to the face. "Heh, nice try hag, but dead people can't feel pain!"

"S-Securit- aagghh!" the woman was cut off as he slammed her against the wall, one hand holding her hands above her head while the other was pressed over her mouth.

"Now you listen here, wench! I'm not planning to go another week without leg day, so you can either let me in without any trouble, or I can make some trouble... and my dick's telling me to do the latter."

"Okay, okay, you can head in! Just don't break anything!"

"Great! Nice birthing hips by the way..."

Everyone in the lobby let loose a sigh of relief as Mike Jr. let go of her hands and waist and finally backed off, strutting coolly into the gym and looking as smug as ever.

Over in another part of town, Josephine wasn't drumming up as much chaos, managing to slip inside a local boutique without any trouble. Being a bad guy, the likely motive would be to loot the place, but first she had to see if the merchandise was up to snuff. Though judging by the perpetual scowl on her face, it was impossible to tell what thoughts she was having on the matter.