Handsome and Haunting

First Chapter

 Nine Months Later. Cuphead POV.

 I trudged through the halls, head hung. The same thing, over and over. Not a day goes by where my chest clenches as if I'm about to vomit. A pain that clenches around my heart and lungs and ribcage, and holds me hostage in its suffocating grasp. A pain that makes my heart hammer, my breath come in fast and heavy, and my head pound with blood.

 Not a day goes by where I don't think of my brother. My twin brother. Mugman. I miss him so much. Voices of doctors past remind me I have separation anxiety from being away from him. We've been together since day one. Now we aren't.

 And that Dice. Uh. I hate him. He treats me like I'm not even worth the dirt on his shoe. I hate him. But he hangs around me as if I'm something special. Probably to raise my hackles. "Hey," a voice said, snapping me out of my daze. And who should I see but King Dice. "You look awful."

 "Cheers," I retorted, going back to cleaning the glasses I was polishing for customers.

 I didn't work in the main casino. I worked in the back of it, where shadier deals were made, and rooms were for one-night stands. It was hard getting to sleep sometimes when all I could hear were moans from the room next to mine, on the left. The one on the right belonged to Dice. Just my luck.

 Dice raised an eyebrow. "I mean it," he said. "You look fatigued." I made it clear I was ennui. He didn't take a hint. "Take a break, Cuphead."

 I gripped the glass tight in my hand. "I don't need one," I lashed out. "What you're seeing is the antithesis of what I'm saying!"

 "Are you using big words to try and baffle me?" Dice asked. "Because you don't have the elocution for it."

 I just barely stopped myself from throwing the glass at him. "Go away, Diceface!" I barked.

 "That's a little uncalled for, don't you think?" he said patiently. "Seriously, take a break."

 "I don't need one!" I growled.

 "Yes, you do," Dice said, grasping my wrist. "Go take a break!"

 "No!" Cuphead cried.

 "Quit being difficult!" Dice barked.

 "Let go of me!" I yanked my wrist away. "Leave me alone."

 I could tell he was hesitating, but he got up and left. He wasn't wrong. I was exhausted. Last night was probably the worst of my life. Moans from both sides. Obviously Dice had picked someone up for the night. Or two people. It sounded like there had been three in there. Only one sounded feminine.

 So I had barely any sleep, and work in the morning. I was not in a good mood. Not to mention this shadier part of the casino was full of horny men and women. Several times already I had to fight off attackers trying to hit on me forcefully. 

 Mugman...I miss you.

 I felt light-headed all of a sudden. A little dizzy. What the hells wrong with me? I don't know, but in one swift motion, I began falling, blacking out before I hit the ground.