𝐖𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐃 ★ VELVET & VENEER

chapter twenty-one

chapter twenty-one

posting this at gunpoint

!

     "He's still alive. You know, it's impressive at this point, really." Roy snickers, adjusting a black headband to help slick back his disheveled hair.

"You seem oddly experienced." Velvet scans the scene that's straggled before the three superstars.

Roy's basement was a place of many wonders, it appears. Even the twins weren't sure how far stretched the basement was beneath his obnoxiously large home— and considering the countless doors they'd seen on the way to his 'surgical room', they're not sure they want to know. If Velvet and Veneer are maniacs, what would one call Roy? The gates of hell and everything after that, maybe. God forbid you cross paths with this man. It's a dimly lit room that they stand in, identical to an operating theatre within a hospital. There's this faint beeping of an irregular heart monitor that's driving the twins nuts; and the pungent smell of death lingers in the air. It's something straight from a horror movie. Jaye, unconscious upon a medical stretcher, adorns poorly stitched incisions across his body that are scarily similar to the sewing pattern of a teddy bear.

Roy smiles, "Dissecting? Nothing I haven't done before. Though, a goldfish differs from a human body, I guess. Sweets gave me the idea, isn't it neat?"

At this, Veneer's brow raises, "A goldfish?"

"When we were kids. Sparkles? That fish I gifted you both? Got bored. Don't think you noticed when I replaced it." Roy laughs quietly to himself, slipping on a pair of latex gloves.

"What?!"

Velvet clicks her tongue, arms crossed, "We've got to be back at the penthouse soon, dolly said they'd be home before three. Masquerade tonight, as well. Shouldn't you be out preparing things like a good host?"

"I should be. But my parcel arrived." Roy bends down, pulling a large, taped cardboard-box from beneath Jaye's stretcher. With a bloodied scalpel, he cuts along the binding.

"I can't believe you dissected and murdered my goldfish..." Veneer utters, appalled, "So— the one I flushed down the toilet wasn't even him!"

Velvet, ignoring her brother's whining, mentions, "That girl was found dead in a faulty elevator. Anaphylactic shock."

"I know." Roy smiles, "Didn't I tell you she wasn't making it to anybody?"

Opening the parcel, Roy pulls out the silhouette of a life-size teddy— unstuffed. It was almost identical to the one Velvet and Veneer remembered you'd first received from him. Roy's intentions were clear as day. Jaye gets thrown inside; the back of the bear is sewn up, effectively confining the body inside. How or why he enjoys such sickly ways of murder is beyond the twins. But maybe, just maybe, the twins are equally as sick. Neither of them are appalled or unsettled by their childhood friend's actions. Rather, they almost encourage his behaviour. They feel a sense of fulfilment. If they didn't care for getting their hands dirty behind closed doors, they'd likely be acting the same way.

Veneer, already having concluded the mourning of his fish, laughs in amusement, "If you weren't already aware, toots won't take another bear from you. And definitely not when the thing smells like a rotting corpse."