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Each shop here was illuminated with the kind of warm lighting from dollhouse advertisements; people walked with their heads held high and their smiles welcoming, smiles that withered like dead flowers the moment they realized a monster walked among them, but only for one brief moment-- they immediately sprouted back with forced kindness, with cloying pity.
Chloe sat down to rest, but the frantic beat of her heart continued like an alarm bell. Alice was not home, it said, over and over, drowning out everything else. Alice’s perfect attendance record had been broken, as if Alice would willingly allow any part of her perfect façade to crumble away of her own will. Even when she’d eavesdropped on a couple of girls from the school's swim team for a while, she’d heard one eventually mention how worried she was from how long Alice had been absent now-- especially since someone named Somari-chan was gone now, too.
Something was wrong. She’d been able to sense it right away, an intuitive feeling different from the constant absence of the one person that gave her life meaning, the sadness of a recent birthday spent alone with people that hid disgust with saccharine smiles and tiered cake-- it was a sudden choking worry that made her wake up in the middle of the night, biting her lip to hold in a scream from phantom pain.
And she'd known she'd been right when Alice hadn’t answered Mother’s phone call. “Onee-san really didn’t answer?”
Her mother gave her that patronizing smile that made her want to claw her remaining eye out. “Don’t worry so much about her, sweetie. She’s far too selfish to be worried about us-- and I really only call out of obligation, you know?” She finished with a grin like they were in on the same joke, like this woman understood anything about Chloe or Alice when she couldn’t see how even now Alice desperately tried to grasp for maternal love and Chloe looked at her with unmasked rage.
So she’d found a way to sneak out on her own, except it had led to nothing-- now, she sat at an empty table by the shopping district and tried to calm down, to let her limbs rest while she came up with some plan to move forward.
She heard quiet footsteps behind her, but didn’t think much of them until a voice said in numbed surprise, “Alice-chan?”
Chloe whipped her head around and there was someone she had never seen before. Chloe could immediately tell everything-- the not-quite-even binding on her chest, but the real bulge in her pants, the way her eyes immediately lowered along with her head as she said, “Sorry. I misspoke.”
Chloe pushed herself up as quick as she could, which wasn’t very quick-- thankfully, the stranger didn’t move, watching Chloe with dead eyes that held a hint of curiosity. “No, you didn’t,” Chloe said. “Where is Alice?”
Her eyes widened. “...Who are you?”
Chloe grit her teeth. “A fellow monster that doesn’t have the patience for this act,” she spat out. “Where is my sister?”
“Sister…?” Her brow creased before she slowly shook her head. “Alice-chan doesn’t have a sister.”
“Of course she wouldn’t tell anyone that. Especially not you. She hates monsters more than anything.” Her voice seethed with disgust.
Now, it was like she’d heard Chloe for the first time-- the distant, completely lifeless look in her eyes for a moment actually made Chloe's stomach churn with fresh dread. “...Don’t talk about her like that. You don’t know her.”
“Yes I do! I know her better than anyone! You’re lying.” Chloe slowly moved closer to her, a smirk lighting up her own face-- regardless of how dangerous she may be, she wouldn’t hurt someone like Chloe in public-- the sheep would flock to Chloe's “protection” immediately, and they both surely knew that. Chloe laughed with a smirk as if to remind her of that before continuing, "I can tell just by looking at you, so don’t play dumb. Monsters can recognize other monsters. And I don’t see a man in front of me regardless of those clothes-- just another monster.”
The stranger opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her shoulders slumped even more somehow-- Chloe might have enjoyed getting to know her, maybe, if she had any interests besides Alice, now or ever. “And you can tell we’re twins-- I look just like her from behind. Don't treat me like I'm stupid." Chloe was right in her face now-- even though the girl kept withering, she never backed away, never looked scared-- it was just the uneasiness that came from not belonging anywhere, not even in your own skin. "So are you going to take me to her now, or should I scream for help?” Her lips quivered, and when she looked at her, it almost seemed like she was the one suffering right now. It made Chloe even more irritated. “I know you aren’t deaf. Answer me now.”
She let out a long sigh. “Alice-chan is resting right now… We’re about to go somewhere… else. I don’t want to do anything that could upset her before we go…And..." Her eyes opened, meeting Chloe's evenly, coldly. "If she hates monsters and you’re a monster, doesn’t that mean she hates you?”
“Yes!” Chloe barked out in a harsh laugh that made her ribs ache. “You and me both! What, are you lying to her? Has she not figured it out just yet? Or did you blind her?” The words left her lips and she suddenly found no mocking humor in them anymore-- Alice was a monster capable of blinding her own sister. How could Chloe know for certain this unfamiliar monster was not capable of the same thing?
“...You want to hurt her,” she said slowly. “I won’t let you or anyone else do that.”
“Hurt her?” Chloe sneered. “Don’t act like you know me that well. I love Onee-san more than anyone else-- why would I hate her just because she hates me?”
She studied her face. “...You’re acting like you know me, too.”
Chloe rolled her eye and stuck out her good hand. “Nanagaki Chloe. Please take care of me!”
Her voice dripped sarcasm. The girl eyed her for several more long moments before slowly offering her own hand-- her handshake was so limp and pathetic, Chloe thought her flesh-and-bone hand would pop off like a prosthetic. “...Haiki Yuki.” Her hands simultaneously had callouses that made Chloe think of men that used tools way too often and the slender softness that Alice's hands had.
“Okay then, do we know each other now? Can I see my sister?” Her frustration grew more intense by the moment. “Or should I contact the police instead?” It was a bluff-- Chloe was terrified of the police, those officers who had not listened to her even when she screamed and cried that Alice wasn’t actually trying to hurt her that bad, that it was an accident, just normal sibling arguing that Alice hadn't intended to go that far, that Alice wasn’t someone evil that should be taken away, that no Alice had not bullied her into saying any of this, that it was all what she sincerely thought, please god don’t take her away-- they had looked at her with the pity and disgust everyone else did and believed their parents over either of them, and Alice went to a group home while Chloe learned how it was to be an actual island with no genuine meaningful contact from anyone.
But hopefully, Yuki wouldn’t realize that. Something about the way her lips thinned made her think maybe having bad experiences with the institutions designed to protect normal humans was a universal monster experience. “...You swear not to do anything to upset or hurt her?”
For the first time, she felt a spark of hope-- maybe, somehow, Alice and Yuki were actually about to elope, that Alice had found love intense enough to abandon everything else instead of being chained up inside a basement. “I promise! And if she’s about to leave, don’t you think I should get to say goodbye?”
“...I guess that makes sense,” Yuki said in a tone that conveyed she had no siblings.
“Let’s go then!” Chloe didn’t care about how Yuki would surely make her walk-- it’d be nice to not have a patronizing offer to call a cab for her, and she didn’t care about the pain, if it meant she would get to see Alice. And admittedly, if Alice was in a bad place, it was probably going to be basically impossible for Chloe to save her, anyway-- she truly could not imagine having anyone associated with authority doing something helpful in a situation involving three monsters, and her parents didn’t even know she was here to begin with-- even if Chloe somehow got them here in time, their reaction to finding Alice bound and pained would probably be to thank Yuki for her good deed and take Chloe home.
...The walk wasn’t all that long yet, but Chloe was already feeling the burn. Even though she didn’t want to waste her breath, she decided talking to Yuki would be strategic-- there was nothing a monster wanted more than to be treated like a human, to be understood, and Chloe considered herself far more capable of this task than Alice ever would be. She asked if Yuki wanted to hear more about her and Alice’s background, and Yuki definitely seemed a bit dubious about how Alice had been torn away from her, and yet, not quite as dubious as someone completely fooled by Alice should be-- another sign Chloe was finally on the right track.
When she tried to ask Yuki more about herself, she was far less forthcoming with her information than Chloe was, but Chloe made up for that with talking a bit more about herself and Alice, anything to build a bit of rapport.
Finally, Yuki stopped them at the right place. She unlocked the door slowly, her gaze distant. “Please keep your voice down… Alice-chan hasn’t been feeling too great lately,” she said, and Chloe felt more dread spike in her blood but nodded in agreement and stepped inside. Immediately she was hit with the scent of fucking rot-- it was all she could do to keep a straight face, when inside she knew things were not fucking okay right now.
Yet again she ran through the options-- if she called the police and Alice was dead, it didn’t matter because Alice was dead and Chloe may as well die too. But if Alice was alive, maybe they would be too rough. If Alice was in a bad enough state, they wouldn’t think to be careful with her, thinking she’d be better off dead, but it wasn’t true-- Alice would love to lie in bed and be cared for, and Chloe would drown her in love even if all she could do in return was shoot her the occasional hateful glare. There was also a chance if that was the case Chloe could negotiate with Yuki on her own, maybe miraculously de-escalate in a way only someone who understood could, but it would have to be fast-- this kind of reek was borne from rot that made her think if it wasn’t death, it had to be a wound so infected it needed immediate medical care to not kill whoever had it.
“It’s that room,” Yuki said and nodded towards it. Her face was devoid of emotion, like she already knew what was coming. With each step, Chloe felt more certain of it herself-- Alice was dead, and Chloe would die too. She could flee, maybe, might have some slim chance in hell at escape, but Chloe did not want to live knowing she would never see Alice again.
She couldn’t help but gag as she neared the door-- it was so putrid, any normal person would vomit right here and now. Instead, Chloe grabbed the door with her good hand and tossed it open.
Even with an eye that had seen so much, it took her a few moments to decipher what the thing in the bed was-- Alice, dead, long-dead, with parts of her body cut off and-- and other peoples’ body parts sewn into place. If Chloe did hate her, she’d laugh at the perfect irony of it.
But Chloe did not hate her. Her legs hurt too much to hold her up anymore, now that the only thing grounding her to begin with was gone forever-- she fell, and the pain hurt like hell, but her shoulders shook from something far worse than anything her body had ever felt as her heart shattered into pieces that cut her soul to shreds. “Onee-san…” She heard Yuki’s footsteps. Instead of fear, she felt rage the likes of which she’d never felt before. “How could you?! How could you?!”
Chloe watched as Yuki’s expression went even deader, as if she’d expected this-- as if she’d experienced it before, as if she had shown this same thing to the others’ bodies on her sister’s as if anyone would react in a different way. She picked up a dirty oversized meat cleaver that had been propped against the wall the entire time, something Chloe hadn’t even noticed before now-- how could she, when Alice mattered more than anything else?
Instead of screaming, Chloe laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed as Yuki stood there like she didn’t understand what was happening, didn’t understand anything. “I get it!” Chloe cackled, spiteful, dripping with hatred for everything and everyone in this world that didn’t allow her a shred of happiness. “You must have been sooo disgusted to see someone loved like Onee-san was, weren’t you?! You couldn’t take it! You looked at her and it reminded you of how no one could ever love you, so you tried to make her just as ugly as yourself! How pathetic! Pitiful-- basic!”
The last syllable barely left her lips before Yuki slammed the bluntest part of the cleaver into her head. It was only this moment, this movement that looked natural for Yuki, like all the conversation before had been her speaking a language of humans she wasn't part of-- as if violence were the one form of communication that felt real to her now.
Chloe hit the ground completely with a thud both inside and outside her skull, felt her brain reverberate against bone and nerves-- and then shrieked laughter, even as Yuki pinned her down, straddled her, started hitting her with her fists, even as Yuki sliced off her clothes without care for the blade grazing both her skin and prosthetics. “Torture me, rape me, I don’t care! How could I possibly care?! This is the most overused monster trope in the books! You’re a joke! A joke--!”
The word barely came out as Yuki's hands closed around her neck, as her cock shoved inside her pussy, painfully dry and big-- Chloe laughed, pained, short gasps of laughter that didn’t properly come out of her convulsing throat. Yuki’s eyes were simultaneously dead and utterly enamored as she squeezed down harder, harder, harder, leaning in with stray locks of hair coming out of the tie to cover her face more, and Chloe felt something pop-- she wheezed and laughed even as her lungs pounded and convulsed like spastic hearts, as her stomach turned and her head went fuzzy and her vision flickered in and out and her cervix felt like it was being punched over and over while boiling water seeped through her face to burn her chest-- Yuki suddenly released one of her hands’ grip, moving it out of Chloe’s barely-remaining vision's line of sight, picking something up and suddenly cleaving it into her good leg--
It got jammed, didn’t go through all the way. On some instinctive impulse, she clamped down on her tongue with all the strength her jaw could muster-- blood filled her mouth so fast her choked scream didn’t come out right. Yuki immediately lifted it to bring it down again and again, rapid-fire, the pain consuming Chloe entirely, but she kept her smirk the best she could through agony intense enough to overwrite her entire existence-- because Yuki wouldn’t get to hear her death throes as clearly as she obviously wanted, and that was the closest a monster like Chloe could ever get to getting back at her for taking Alice somewhere Chloe could never follow.
“I don’t know why I did that,” Yuki said. To an outside observer, it was hard to know what that was-- butchering Chloe, or her friends, or her girlfriend, or stalking said girlfriend, or any of the other countless little things that had led to this moment.
But Alice understood. “Because she would have ended up reporting you if you didn’t let her see. Because it would ruin everything if anyone else got involved.”
“I see…” She sighed, shoulders slumping. “I didn’t even buy the things I needed while I was out…”
“One more day won’t hurt.”
“That’s true… Thank you, Alice-chan!” Yuki smiled, pure and loving and innocent. “I’m not sure what to do with her, though… I don’t see how any improvements could be made from using any of these parts on you.”
“Don’t you dare!” Alice suddenly said in a venomous hiss, completely unlike the sugary sweet voice she’d been using until now. “That disgusting little monster--! I don’t want anything to do with her as part of my birthday gift!”
Yuki laughed, endeared, charmed. “If Alice-chan says so, then I won’t do anything like that.” She looked down at the pretty bloody body parts around her, like doll parts but far more perfect because of their imperfections, the little uneven cuts of separation, scars and bruises like blue-green-purple flowers and veins emptying of deep red blood, a colorful love confession note but prettier and undeniably real. “Still… It seems sad to just leave her behind. She was like us, even if I didn’t know her… I think she’d like the white world too.”
.
.
.
“Alice-chan?”
.
.
.
Yuki smiled again, the dark circles under her eyes crinkling up but she didn’t feel tired at all, not of anything but this world. “You’re not giving me the silent treatment over that, are you? I'm sorry if I offended you.”
Alice’s lips quivered. Suddenly a fly zipped out, resting on top of the stitches Yuki had had to put in after she’d accidentally gotten a bit too excited over Alice’s loving blowjob the other day and rubbing its tiny arms together as Yuki let out another soft sigh. “That’s okay. Once we get there, we should all be able to get along. Even the two of you… We’ll be okay, Alice. We’ll be happy and loved and safe forever.”
There was no response, of course. They knew each other beyond words at this point.