Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“So, are you ready to talk yet? I certainly think you’ve kept this up long enough.” You squat down so you’re at eye level with him.

He doesn’t answer. You know he won’t; he’s been silent every night for... how long has it been now? Two weeks? Three?

He must be starving by now. They usually get hungry after just a couple of days, and after a week it just begins to turn into increasingly unbearable pain. You would know; he’s not the first one of them you’ve kept locked up here. He will, however, be the first one you get to talk. You’ll make sure of that.

“It’s got to hurt pretty bad by now, huh?” He continues to ignore you, glaring at a spot just over your left shoulder. “Don’t pretend you can’t hear me, Dirk.” The sentence is short, a little angrier than you meant to let out. His glowing eyes flick over to you. In them is a glimmer of humor, verified by his miniscule smirk; he can tell how impatient you are. You can’t say that patience is one of your strong points, especially when it comes to this. Impatience is what lost you your second one, after you snapped and stabbed a little too close to the heart with your silver knife.

Ah well, if you can make him snap first then this won’t be a problem, will it?

“I know how bad it must be. I let your sister Roxy--” he tenses, just a little, “--starve in here for almost a month.” You chuckle; he clenches his teeth. You can see his fangs gleam in his grimace and it makes it better, reminds you that he isn’t human.

You had repeated that to yourself over and over the past couple of weeks when you cut him, made him scream as you dug your blade into his skin. He’s tough and you knew that when you captured him, but he and Dave are the only ones left in their nest and he was the first twin you’d found. To be honest, after handling Rose and Roxy, you’re exhausted. You haven’t had a full night’s sleep in you don’t know how long, seeing as you can’t trust one of those creatures by themselves and sleeping in the shed just leads to them keeping you up all night.

You’re getting distracted again, god dammit. Distractions aren’t going to help you find her.

“She was begging for me to kill her at that point, Dirk; it was truly pitiful.” You spit the word and he visibly shakes. He’s getting angry. Good. You knew he won’t be able to break the silver chains, so anger is just what you need right now. Suddenly he stops, slumping, and you feel you’ve won a tally in your favor. “Eventually I couldn’t take her screaming, so I put her down like a dog.” You’re in his face now, as close as you dare to get. You wince internally at the way you’re speaking, but you can’t afford sympathy right now.

He’s trying so hard not to lash out that it’s almost amusing. Maybe that’s just you becoming numb to the reality of what you’re doing.

Reality? Jade is your reality! Jade is who you’re trying to save, you imbecile! So get your head out of your goshdarned ass and keep pushing him!

But no, all you’ve accomplished with your internal monologue is that you’ve given him a chance to speak.

“Do you know what he’ll do to her if you kill me?” So he’s going below the belt already. Your gut twists and you already know you don’t want to hear the rest. “He’ll gut her and leave her body parts on your doorstep. He’ll tear off her arms and make sure you get a video of her screaming. Whatever you do to me, he’ll make you regret later. You’d just better pray to whatever god you believe in that he hasn’t done so already.”

You shove your blade between his parted lips and watch as he tries to move his mouth to avoid touching the blade. The blade catches on his bottom lip and sizzles as a bead of blood moves down his chin. He still tries to grin. He thinks he’s won (He knows he’s won. You both know you can’t kill him, so all he has to do is buy time for his brother to find him. It was a lost cause from the moment it started but it’s the only option you have left).

“I’ve learned from what I did to her, you know. Not Roxy, your other sister. The little girl.” You knew her name was Rose. “I thought she’d be easy but I’ll be damned if she couldn’t spin words like a bloody enchantress. She bested me, I must admit. I got too riled up and stabbed her through the chest.” He was still smiling; why in God’s name was he smiling? Even with the knife still in his mouth. You swear, you’ll never truly understand these beasts. “Whatever you could possibly say couldn’t affect me as much as she did, so I wouldn’t even bother trying. You’ll die when you’ve told me where you’re keeping her, Strider, and not a moment sooner.”

He opens his mouth further, like he wants to speak. You indulge him and remove the knife. He’s nearly laughing now. Maybe he’s delusional from hunger?

“Jake, you oblivious fucking idiot,” he chuckles, his voice gravelly from disuse. “Turn around.”

You do, slowly, but not before placing the knife against his throat. It would be just like him to trick you into doing something stupid so he can--

Red. The first thing your mind processes is red. Red eyes, framed by pale lashes.

Oh god, Dave’s found you.

And he may or may not have heard the majority of your conversation about murdering his sisters. Judging by his expression, which sports a look you can only call murderous, you’re heavily leaning toward the former.

“How... how long have you been there?” you stutter, trying your best not to show your fear and failing miserably.

“I came in when I heard you mention Roxy,” he says, leaning closer. You lean back as far as you can without hitting Dirk behind you.

Dave grabs your frozen arm and pries the knife out of your hand. You must say, the thing is a lot more daunting when it’s being pressed against your throat.

“How about we get my brother out of those chains, hm?” He presses just hard enough that you’re worried about bleeding, which, when you’re this close to Dirk, would be a very, very bad idea.

You grab the key from your pocket and wince as you hear the chains click open. Dave removes the knife and throws it into the wall behind him, where it sinks into the wood. You’re just about to make a run for it when you feel strong arms pulling you backward. You lose your balance and fall into Dirk’s lap. Your heart is racing so loudly that you can hear it and you know he can, too.

God, you’re so stupid. Why did you ever think this was a good idea? You’d better hope your cousins can find Jade on their own--if they’re even still alive--because this is it for you.

You feel Dirk’s tongue on the left side of your neck and your thoughts dissolve into a mindless string of obscenities. You struggle against his hold. It’s pointless and is just serving to wear you out, but you’re past the point of caring.

His teeth pierce your skin and you shut your eyes tightly. You feel Dave’s breath on your face as he laughs quietly.

You feel dizzy and you’re not sure whether it’s from the blood loss or the panic. Probably both, you’d imagine. The floor feels like it’s tilting beneath you and your head falls back against Dirk’s shoulder. He runs his hand through your hair in a mock gesture of affection and you find yourself wishing this would end sooner. But no, soon Dirk breaks off, gasping, and Dave says something about biting off more than he can chew.

You want to punch him. Sadly, however, your arms are being pinned by Dirk’s hold around you.

You hear fabric rustle in front of you and you open your eyes. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to lift your head from Dirk’s shoulder; it feels like lead.

Dave’s face fills most of your vision, his eyes trained at your throat. His white hair brushes your nose as he leans down slightly to your right.

Dirk’s growl vibrates through his chest and you can feel it against your back. Dave snorts and mutters “Relax; I just want a taste.” His fangs slide into your skin much more slowly than Dirk’s had, and he takes his time with licking around the marks he’s made. Dirk grabs your head roughly and clamps down on your neck hard enough for you to cry out with pain. You’re already half-out of it, and with the speed at which he’s drinking your blood it doesn’t take long to bring you to the edge of blacking out.

Dave must realize this because he pulls away, licking after the blood that trails down your neck from the bite.

He gets up and presumably leaves. You say presumably because you’re finding it difficult to see straight. You feel tired beyond belief; more tired than you had when you’d been up for three days straight tracking the Strider brothers.

You’d heard rumors (no one had lived to confirm or deny them) that their bite contained venom that calmed their victims so they wouldn’t get away. Judging by how easily you give up and let the blackness wash over you, you’d probably say that they’re right.

Not that it matters anymore.

Chapter Text

It all happened quickly. You don’t remember much of those times, but you do remember that it took all of about three days for them to send the world to shit. Not just the Striders and Lalondes, of course. You don’t know how many of them sprung up from whatever pit of Hell they’d been in, but you think it numbered in the low thousands.

Everyone had tried to go about their lives normally. For the most part, they could. At least until the sun went down.

Your cousin (really she was like a sister to you) came over about a week after “Day 0.” She was nearly in tears, and John was clutching her hand. He was silent. It’s the first time since he’d learned how to talk that you’d ever seen him silent. He was only nine, the same age as your little sister, Jade.

“My dad--” she croaked out. She burst into tears and you ran forward to hug her. She couldn’t continue, but you’d understood. Her dad was the only parent she’d had. And so many people you knew were dying lately, even you could tell what had happened.

You were only 17, and you had already become a parent to Jade. You weren’t sure if you were ready to have a bigger family. But what were you going to do; turn her away? Surely Jane could help you take care of the kids. You knew for sure that she was a great cook, and Jade deserved more than the microwave meals you’d been making. Okay, you could do this.

You offered her and John a bed, and she accepted, but she spent that night crying into your lap on the couch after John and Jade were asleep.

The funeral was the following week. Closed casket. You held Jane once again as they lowered her father’s body into the ground.

It took a while, but she eventually got back the smile that you always swore could melt ice caps. You teased her on occasion about causing global warming or the like, and it would make her laugh.

You celebrated Jane and Jade’s next birthday on the same day. Jane made a cake for Jade, but you insisted that the birthday girl couldn’t make her own cake, so you made one for her.

She said it was the most... “unique” cake she’d ever had. You hid your head in embarrassment.

“No, really, the circle...square-ish shape is really interesting!”

“Uuuugh, this was a horrible idea!”

“Would you shush already and let me eat the thing?”

She swore it wasn’t bad. You didn’t believe her.

A few months later, John woke you up in the middle of the night screaming. You ran in first, since your room was closer to theirs then Jane’s was.

He said that Jade wouldn’t wake up. You ran over to her. Her forehead was burning hot and covered in sweat. By the time Jane came in with ice packs and a thermometer, you’d gotten her to at least mumble a few words half-lucidly. Jane got John to sleep in the living room while you tried unsuccessfully to bring her fever down.

“Her temperature is at 105.2”

“Good grief! We have to get her to a hospital!”

You were both quiet as you realized why that would be a problem. It was dark out, and would stay that way for at least six hours. You weren’t sure if she would be alright for that long.

You had lived in the same apartment for years. It was in a fairly nice part of the city, close to the school and the hospital and the grocery store. Because of this, you never felt the need for a car. Neither did Jane. It was too late for a bus, and taxis didn’t go down this street.

“I’ll walk.”

“Jake, no, you--”

“I’ll be alright; don’t fret about it! It’s too late for that sort of thing. Anyway, I have my trusty pistols!”

She was quiet, but you knew she couldn’t refuse. You carried Jade down the stairs, feeling her shake against you. Your pistols were strapped to your belt, hidden by your jacket. As always, they were filled with silver-tipped bullets.

You didn’t walk the few blocks to the hospital so much as you ran them. The more popular streets, like that surrounding the hospital, were lined with fluorescent lights. However, residential areas like yours didn’t have them; apparently too many people complained about not being able to sleep. You know it was just because they didn’t want to spend the money.

You had three blocks to go before you got to a lit street. You made it a little less than two before you had to stop and take a breath, still walking as fast as you could.

There was someone in front of you; an indistinguishable silhouette about ten feet away from you and getting closer.

The fact that there was anyone on this street was disconcerting enough, but... you swear they weren’t there a second ago.

The figure stopped in front of you. The light above you was dim, just a standard streetlight, so all you could see was the figure’s general clothing outlines and odd, spiked hair.

And their eyes. Dear god, those eyes. They were bright, stark orange and you knew immediately that they couldn’t belong on a human. They emitted a glow of their own, you swear, just enough to discolor his eyelashes and make them visible in the dim light.

“Do you need help?” His teeth glinted and, yep, those were fangs and, yep, you’re so fucked.

“N... no thank you! Kind of you to offer, truly, but we really need to get just right over there...” You tried to push past him, but he stood in your way.

“Really, we insist,” spoke a voice behind you. You jumped and spun around to face a younger man with red eyes just as bright as the ones you knew were behind you.

“I... it’s fine, really, if I could just get going...”They each stepped toward you, and you backed toward the building behind you to try to get a view of both of them at once. Your heart was pounding in your ears and you could feel your legs shaking.

“I think Rose would like a playmate; what about you, Dave?” The orange-eyed demon asked, obviously not directed at you. The police should be making their rounds here; where were they???

“I think that’s a fantastic idea.” You were out of room, back against the wall. Dave, as he was apparently called, grabbed Jade out of your arms.

“Hey, what do you--”

“Relax,” Dave chuckled. “Dirk and I’ll take care of her. We can make her better, too.”

“I really think it would be better if you just gave her ba--mmph!” Orange Eyes’s hand was over your mouth.

“Thank you, Dirk; I was going to break his neck if he kept talking.”

Dirk nodded, eyes fixed on you. You could feel sweat dripping down your back and soaking into your shirt.

Oh god you forgot about your guns you’re so stupid you swear.

You reached for both pistols and fire a shot from each. Dirk screamed as the bullet pierced his stomach. Blood seeped through his white shirt.

In your haste, you’d ended up shooting at Dave with your left hand. So, naturally, you missed.

Dirk slammed you into the wall, hand crushing your throat. He was still hunched over, but the bleeding had already stopped.

You choked and gasped for air as he ripped the pistol out of your right hand, then your left. Just when you thought you were going to pass out, he moved his hand from your throat to your wrist and pinned both of your arms above you. Dave just stood back, watching, as he tried to keep Jade asleep.

“Fucking dick,” he spat. “Do you want the kid to die?”

Your throat hurt too much to talk, so you shook your head as quickly as you could.

“I’d kill you now, but that would ruin the fun, wouldn’t it?” He grinned and you learned just how terrifying a smile could be.

You didn’t see him move, but in an instant his teeth were in your neck and you felt your knees buckle at the sheer shock of it all. He pushed his body into yours to keep you up.

He broke off a minute later, after you were nauseous and dizzy and you weren’t 100% on which way was up. He let you fall to the ground. You heard them walk away, heard Jade mumble something. Your name, you think.

You stumbled back to the apartment, passing out as soon as you stepped through the door.

You woke up in your own bed, bolting up as the word “Jade!” tore from your lips.

It was Jane’s turn to hold you this time.

You jolt awake and fall off of the bed you were on. You don’t know where you are. The room certainly gives off the impression of a basement. The walls are concrete and there are no windows.

You hear tapping. You look up from your sprawled position on the floor, and Dirk is there, sitting on a chair next to you. He has headphones over his ears, but upon meeting your gaze he drops them around his neck.

You can still see faint scars along his arms from his time with you. The one on his face is still a little pink; that one is fairly fresh, only having been put there the day before yesterday (or, what you think is yesterday. You're not sure what time it is, and you're not sure how long you've been out). He must notice you looking at it, because he runs his thumb over the line.

"Don't think I'm going to forget this easily." You sit up on the bed so that you're at least at eye level.

It takes you a moment to respond because you’re trying to be careful what you say. You know he has the upper hand here. “I would expect nothing less from you, Strider.” At least you’re honest.

Then he's on top of you, pinning you into the mattress, and his fist connects hard with your nose. You can tell that there’s blood running over your face and down your throat. You feel some of it trickle down your windpipe, and then you're sputtering and choking and trying to sit up.

"Stay down," he growls, pushing your chest down with his hand. You try your best to keep your head up so you don't continue to choke on your own blood.

He licks at the blood running down your mouth and chin. You wince and try to turn your head away, but his hand grips your hair and holds your head in place.

You shut your eyes. You have a feeling that it will be awhile before he leaves again.

Chapter Text

He's exhausted when you two get back. You don't blame him. That cocky bastard had left him to starve for almost three weeks. You'd jumped and killed few guys on the way back for Dirk to feed off of, but carrying Jake's unconscious body the whole way got tiresome. Eventually, you just decided to head back to what you call home for the moment.

You dump him in the basement of a small house you'd acquired through means that will not be explained here, and Dirk immediately collapses on the couch.

"He's so dead."

"No shit," you scoff. "Is the grass green now, too?"

He flips you off.

"Do you want me to run out again, or do you think you're alright?" You ask, sitting on the couch next to him. You're trying not to seem concerned but you think you're failing miserably. Damn, you're so getting shit for this later.

For now, though, he just sits up. "I'm fine," he responds, rubbing his forehead.

You lean over and kiss him. He jumps a little, surprised, but quickly presses back against your mouth.

“I’m glad you’re back.”

“I can tell.”

Dirk pulls you closer and you climb onto his lap, straddling his waist.

His tongue runs along and between your lips, trying to push your mouth open. You oblige and moan at the feeling of his tongue behind your teeth.

He slips his hands under your pants and grabs your ass, pushing you closer to him as he rolls his hips up into yours. You bite his lip, hard enough that it draws blood. You suck on the small cut until it stops bleeding, mentally cringing at the small whine you let out when it does.

It's not forbidden or dangerous to drink the blood of another of your kind; it doesn't taste particularly good, but the power you can taste in it that's so different from human blood is... sort of heady.

Not that it matters at the moment; you know Dirk is still too weak for you to risk taking a significant amount of his blood.

You, on the other hand, are perfectly healthy right now, so Dirk has no qualms about burying his teeth into your neck.

You hiss as your instincts tell you to attack the enemy that is wounding you, so you settle for raking your nails down his chest and tearing his pants open.

You pull his boxers down and grab his erection, stroking it lengthwise.

"Is this my homecoming present?" He murmurs against your neck.

"Maybe I've just been bored without you here," you respond, speeding up your hand. He peels your shirt off, and you’re proud to note that his hands are shaking slightly.

"And by bored, you mean horny?"

You come up with a retort, but he chooses that moment to palm you through your pants so all you can say is "Mmm."

"Do you have lube?" he asks you. You nod and stretch to grab the bottle off of the end table next to you. Dirk takes advantage of the opportunity to shove your pants and underwear down to your knees. You feel your dick throb when the fabric brushes on it.

You hand him the bottle. He takes it out of your hand and spreads some on his fingers.

“Is the kid gonna be out for awhile?” he asks. You sigh. He’s ruining the fucking mood and if he stretches this out any longer you’re just going to hold him down and fuck him.

“Like a light; I drugged his water when he woke up earlier.” Dirk nods in approval and, in what you guess could be seen as your reward, he pushes two fingers against your ass.

You arch into him and push back into his fingers, trying to force him to get them inside of you. He has a habit of being a horrible tease, which means that if left his to his own devices he could torment you for hours with this, and you’re really not in the mood for it today.

Apparently feeling the same way, he lets the tips of his fingers slip inside your entrance. You curse, and it quickly dissolves into a moan as he pushes them in to the first knuckle. It’s been awhile for you, so he slowly stretches you open by gently thrusting his fingers in and out. He slips in a third, and the gentleness fades away until he’s full-on fucking you with his fingers, drawing heavy gasps and desperate moans from you with each movement of his hand. He curls his fingers against your prostate and you have to claw at his shoulders to ground yourself. The feeling is incredible and has heat rushing to your stomach, but you do want to actually get laid today.

“Are you planning on fucking me or are you just going to do this ‘til I cum?” you snap through gritted teeth.

“So impatient,” he sighs. He slicks his cock with lube (slowly, of course, because he knows all you can do is watch him) and nudges you to line up with him. You push yourself against his chest, so close you can feel his breathing and elevated heartbeat. After slipping your tongue into his mouth once more, you grab his dick and adjust yourself so that his tip is pressing against your entrance. Slowly, you lower yourself onto him, trying to hold back any noises that might escape your lips as you feel yourself stretch to take him.

You let out the breath you’d been holding once you feel your ass hit his hips. He moves, just slightly, and you can feel his dick shifting inside of you oh god it’s been way too long since you’ve done this and now you’re acting like a virgin. He can tell; you know he can tell, because there’s this little smirk that doesn’t ever quite leave his face.

With only slightly shaky legs, you raise yourself up until only the head of his dick is still inside of you. You see him open his mouth to say something--probably hurry up--so you slam back down. You both gasp, your nails digging into his chest and his hands clenching your hips.

You repeat the motion, but this time the angle hits right against your prostate and you keen before you can shut your mouth.

It’s all a power play with you two; you know it is. It’s both the nature of your kind and the nature of your relationship to attempt to outdo each other, to prove dominance.

You’ve pretty much lost at this point and you both know it, so Dirk starts thrusting at his own pace. He knows by now what you like, what angles and movements will break you and make you scream and beg for more.

Right now he opts for keeping your hips raised the slightest bit and aiming for your prostate as he fucks you at a bruising speed. His accuracy is impeccable, and soon you’re whimpering moaning into his shoulder.

He takes the opportunity to bite you again, a few inches above his previous one. He moans at the taste of your blood and you feel the vibrations against your neck, sending shivers down your spine.

You’re not sweating (you don’t sweat) but the exertion and intense pleasure that comes from his brutal treatment has you feeling hot and is causing you to pant in his ear. You’re not entirely sure you have complete control over your breathing right now. Or any other part of your body for that matter.

Dirk grabs your cock and starts pumping it in time with his thrusts. Your eyes roll back in your head as you barely choke back a scream.

All you can manage to give him as a warning is some string of unintelligible mumbling and then you’re shooting off on his hand and all over his chest, your vision going white as you nearly collapse from the force of your orgasm. Despite your best efforts to keep his blood in his body, you do end up putting some decent claw marks in his back when you cum.

He finishes a few seconds later, the combination of you tightening around him and being half-drunk off your blood bringing him to the edge quickly.

You stand up slowly and throw him a towel so that he can wipe himself off.

He tells you that you screamed like a whore when you came. You refuse to believe him.

You both hear noises downstairs, which means that Jake is awake, and before Dirk can even tell you to go deal with it, you’re in the bathroom with the door locked and the shower on.

He curses you out from behind the door and you just snicker. As much as you want to rip the human bastard’s still-beating heart from his chest, you’re letting Dirk get first dibs. Really, you’re being considerate here. He can go have a field day with the kid if he wants.

As long as he doesn’t break Jake too badly that you won’t get a chance (or two or three) with him, you don’t really care what he does.

Chapter Text

Break him? Oh, you’re planning on it. He killed your fucking sisters. He fucking bragged about killing your sisters.

The hardest part of this is going to be figuring out how to keep him alive with all of the shit you want to do to him.

And, you’re going to have to do so without the Harley girl knowing what’s going on. She’s small and she trusts you (in what you admit is probably Stockholm Syndrome but as long as she’s compliant you could care less) but if she knows what you’re going to do to English she will wreck your shit.

Okay, you have to keep him alive (for now). Maybe punching him square in the face will help you get a little of your anger out.

Yeah nope you’re still pissed. And hungry. Dave’s blood didn’t do much for you in the way of nourishment and you think your desire to drink his blood might be fueled a little by your desire to tear his throat out as payback.

You never thought one idiotic human would ever cause you this much trouble. You never thought they had the capability.

You were an idiot, and now you have two dead sisters to show for it.

“She was begging for me to kill her at that point, Dirk; it was truly pitiful.” The memory returns as you’re licking the blood off of his face. He was trying to make you angry, trying to get you to lash out. Well guess what, fucker; I’m angry now!

You grab his neck and squeeze, smirking as he gasps for air. His pulse is racing under your fingers. Jake makes a surprised not-quite-a-scream when you throw him across the room. His back slams into the concrete wall and you watch him choke on nothing as the wind is knocked out of him. His face is a deep red by the time his airways finally allow him to breathe again. He sits up to find your face inches from his. You can tell by the strain in your muscles that you’re grinning maliciously, mind racing with all the ways you can shatter him, make him break and bleed and scream underneath your hands...

You’re getting away from yourself. Bad habit. At least the drawn-out silence has served to make him more on edge.

“You didn’t mean to kill Rose right away, did you?” you ask. He shakes his head slowly, afraid of giving a wrong answer. Too bad in your game, there are no right answers. “She just got you too... ‘riled up?’ Pissed you off a little too much? I can see why, after what we did to your sister. I mean, man, losing a sibling is enough to make anyone a little... unstable.”

He grimaces. Thank god he isn’t too dense that he didn’t understand the double meaning.

“I’ll give you a hint as to how pissed I am, Jake. Just a little hint.” You grab his arm and hold it above his head, bending it back below the wrist until you hear the bones snap.

He screams and it’s like music. Fuck him. Fuck him for everything that he’s done to you. You personally, and to the rest of your now-broken family.

“Don’t bother telling me that you’re sorry,” you say, standing up. “You disgusting pigs will say anything to save your own life.” You land in a kick to his stomach, which has him sobbing and retching as he bends over. He’s pale and shaking, probably going into shock from the pain.

 “I just wanted to get her back,” he gasps. His voice is shaking, and he sounds very young. You remember that he’s barely in his twenties. Eh, you’ve killed younger for less.

You kick him again, in the back this time. “See, I don’t actually care what you want. I’m going to spare you the whole speech, but it boils down to you not understanding how infantile and downright stupid your entire species is.” A blow to his head has him sprawled out on his stomach. “Maybe I would feel bad about relocating your sister if any of you gave me a reason that we should allow your species to live as you are. Why should we give you more of a chance than the cattle and pigs whose existence you tolerate only as a source of food? What makes you so special, hm?”

He either isn’t answering, or is no longer able to. He’s shaking pretty badly, and you’re not even sure if he’d heard you. You were sort of proud of that little speech, too.

You sigh and sit on the bed (it’s really more of a cot) you’d put him on when you brought him here. You figure you might as well wait and make sure he doesn’t go into a coma or something. You’re not done with him yet.

He starts sobbing when he thinks you’ve left, and that lasts for at least an hour, and frankly you think that’s too soon. But the exhaustion must have superseded whatever he’s feeling, because he passes out on the floor in a small puddle of tears and blood.

He’s breathing normally, which for you is a good enough sign he won’t slip into a vegetative state in the very near future. You head upstairs, remembering to slide the lock behind you.

You turn the corner and Dave is lounging on the couch, doing something of no doubt little importance. Technology is the one thing you might applaud humans on figuring out, had they not managed to use it in a way that could potentially obliterate most biotic factors on the planet. Which you would say you’d be fine with if that didn’t include you as well. Not that you couldn’t survive nuclear fallout, but you’d be left with no food source.

The irony of constantly wishing death upon the species you rely on to survive is not lost on you. You just choose to ignore it.

Dave looks up at you. “You said you’d keep it quiet. I had to take Jade out so she wouldn’t hear and freak out.”

“Sorry, man. Don’t tell me you’re not going to the same thing.”

“... Touché.”

You walk out of the room, think better of it, and walk back.

“I get to fuck him first.”

“What? No way.”

“When he locks you in a barn for three weeks, then you get to fuck him first. K?”

He grumbles as you walk off again. You turn into the room you share with Dave, which is one of two in the house. The other is Jade’s. It used to be Rose’s. You’d had this house set aside for awhile, and you’d stayed here briefly when you bumped around the west coast. It used to be nice, but now the dust and general misery that comes with age had settled over anything, it looked almost haunted. Jade didn’t complain about it, though. She knew better than that by now.

You refuse to let him see her, but you wonder how he would react if you told him why she wears scarves all the time. If you told him that you and Dave use her to feed if you’re hiding out/too busy/too lazy to grab someone else.

He’d probably have a heart attack. You make a mental note to do this in the future.

That note is promptly forgotten as you pass out on your bed.

Chapter Text

Well, that’s pretty much all you have the energy to do right now. You could probably stand up if you tried, or maybe crawl up to your bed and get off of the blood-stained floor, but you don’t really see the point in spending the effort.

Antagonizing Dirk seemed like a very good idea at the time-- make him mad, and you’d be able to get him to tell you where Jade was. Easy, done.

But that was when you were on the other side of the trigger, so to speak. Now the tables have turned, just like they did those years ago the first time you’d encountered the brothers. You’d been lucky Dirk had let you live after you shot him. But after kidnapping, starving, and torturing him, not to mention killing his sisters?

You’re so stupid. You were blinded by the loss of your sister and by your anger at the demons who took her. You went into the whole thing half-cocked and way too overconfident for your own good.

Maybe they’ll at least let you see Jade one time before they kill you? At least then you can die with the knowledge that you died for something worthwhile.

You think the worst part is that you can hear her. Sometimes when she’s walking by the door to the basement, you can hear her ask one of them something. It’s usually Dave; he seems to be around her more often than Dirk.

At least you know she’s alive, but not being able to see her after all this time is killing you.

From the small bits of what you can hear, you don’t think she knows that it’s you down here. She knows that someone is, but it doesn’t seem to bother her.

It’s probably not the first time someone’s been kept prisoner down here.

“... be up in a minute. Stay here.” That was Dave.

The doorknob turns. Great, so now it’s his turn, you guess.

He stops in front of you and sets something on the ground a couple feet away. A glass of water. How considerate of him.

“You look like shit,” he observes, kneeling down in front of you.

You say nothing. Let him do whatever he wants to you.

The punch to your face is barely even a surprise. You feel your lip split and your tooth break off in your mouth. You spit blood and the tooth fragment onto the floor.

“Probably ‘cause you are. Do you think that just because we’re not human that we can’t feel? That we can’t love?” Dave punches you in the face again, this time near your eye. One of the lenses on your glasses cracks, but they stay relatively intact. At least you’ll be able to see.

“You did all of this for your sister, so do you fucking understand how much it hurt to lose mine? I was never that close to Roxy, but Rose was a little kid. She was young, even to one of us.”

The excuse you’ve been using to justify everything you’ve done-- the “they aren’t human, they aren’t human” you’d been repeating-- no longer seems as valid as it did a few days ago.

You reach to wipe your face with your bad arm, which Dave catches in his hand. He grips it so hard that you think he might fracture it again, but he loosens his hold slightly.

“When my brother went missing, I thought that I was going to die. He’d been the one keeping me out of trouble, helping me escape the massive amount of hunters that I swear grows every day. It doesn’t help that we’ve kind of made a name for ourselves; it’s like we have a huge fan club, except that everyone in it wants to kill us...” He laughs.

“Anyway, point is, we actually give a shit about each other. Probably more of a shit than you all do, since we have centuries-- hell, millennia-- to establish relationships. So we don’t take people fucking with those relationships lightly.”

He stands up. “Just letting you know why we’re going to be beating the shit out of you. Well, why I am, at least. Can’t speak for Dirk. Between you and me, I think he just likes it.”

His foot connects with your chest, and it leaves you gasping for breath. You don’t think you broke any ribs, but they’re going to be bruised as hell.

Dave readies himself to strike again, but a shout of “Dave?” from behind the door stops him. That’s Jade! You doubt you can get through to Dirk, but maybe Dave would let you see her.

He rolls his eyes. “Can it wait?” he shouts to her.

“... Not really!”

He sighs and turns around, muttering “I’ll be back later” as he turns to leave.

“Wait!” you shout. Your voice is scratchy and half-slurred from your swollen mouth, but it’s there.

He stops. “Yes?”

“Could... I see Jade? Not necessarily right now, but just... at some point, before...” You swallow. You can’t finish that sentence. “Just... please?”

He pauses, thinking. Your stomach is turning and you’re praying he just doesn’t say no.

“... We’ll see.”

He leaves, slamming the door behind him.

It wasn’t a no.

Chapter Text

Finally! People have been talking about you long enough...

You’re not sure who they have in the basement now, but the knowledge that someone is down there is enough to make you feel sick.

You do know that whoever it is killed Roxy and Rose, though. That kind of makes you upset. Roxy was funny, and she liked to tell you stories about her past. None of the others really talked to you like that. Really, you think she was just chatty because she was usually drunk, but you didn’t mind.

Rose... you don’t know. She was nice to you, probably nicest out of all of them, but she treated you like a pet. You guess (you know) that that’s really all you are to them, but Rose made no point in hiding it. She’d brush your hair for you and dress you and talk to you like you were a small child. You weren’t that old, only fourteen, but she treated you like you were five. Whenever you complained or yelled at her, she always lectured you about how her brothers saved your life, so now you owed her.

Once, you told her about how much you missed Jake and Jane and John, and asked why you couldn’t see them. She told you that when you were sick, Jake gave you up to them because he didn’t know how to make you better. Now they didn’t know where he was, but they were all probably dead.

“It’s very dangerous out there, and that’s why you’re lucky I’m here to protect you.”

You stopped complaining, and started appreciating everything she did for you. And really, it was a lot. You never went to bed hungry, and sometimes Rose would get you presents! She got you flowers to take care of that you set by the window, and they’re still alive today. Once she even got you a bass guitar, and she said you could play it whenever you wanted as long as it wasn’t too loud and you didn’t play it while her or her siblings were sleeping.

Then Roxy was killed, by whom you didn’t know, and you learned an important lesson. That lesson was to avoid the brothers at all costs when they were angry.

Rose tried to protect you from them by making sure you stayed in your room, but you snuck out once when she was asleep because you hadn’t eaten in over a day and you were starving. You ran into Dave in the kitchen.

She was down to help you as soon as you screamed loud enough to wake her up.

She patched the cuts on your face and held you as you cried. That was the only time she let you sleep in her bed instead of on a sleeping bag on the floor.

When you went outside with her, you weren’t allowed to talk to anyone that you might see. You never left the property, and you never went out during the day, but you still got to look at the stars from the small backyard.

When Rose was killed, you were devastated. You thought things would be relatively the same, but as the days passed you realized that she was pretty much the only reason you’d been getting off with things as easily as you did.

Dirk and Dave didn’t let you speak unless they asked you a question. You had to keep the house clean, and you weren’t allowed outside. You had to give them anything they wanted, and that included your blood. If you did anything wrong, they’d hit you, or send you up to your room without food.

They loosened up on the rules as they calmed down about Rose’s death. You’re allowed to talk, and now that you know what you are and aren’t allowed to do, they don’t hit you.

You still have to clean the house, but it’s really a small price for giving you a bed and food to eat.

When Dirk goes missing, you expect Dave to be angry. Instead, he’s just sad. He tells you he would be able to tell if he dies because they have some kind of bond from drinking each other’s blood (you know what they do together and you like to pretend you don’t), but that doesn’t mean he was okay.

He leaves to look for him, and doesn’t come back for almost two weeks. By that point you’ve started to run out of food, and you’re scared that he won’t come back.

When you finally hear the door open, you sneak downstairs. If Dave comes back alone, you would be wise to avoid him.

But no, Dirk is there, and he looks like total shit. Like, wow.

You’re going to ask if he needs anything, but then you notice the legs dangling over Dave’s shoulder and yeah you aren’t going to get involved in that.

One thing you’re never really okay with is when they bring people home. Usually they’re gone by the morning and you don’t even have to acknowledge that they were ever here. Well, you usually have to clean up the blood. But that’s long since stopped bothering you.

That doesn’t mean you want to find out what exactly happens to them.

You wait about an hour, hoping they’ve dealt with whoever that was by now. You walk downstairs again and...

Ew that’s even worse; for fuck’s sake can’t they do that in their own goddamn room?!

Okay fuck it; you’re just going to bed.

You learn the next day that the person they’d brought back was being held in the basement and you were under no circumstances allowed to go down there. Not like you would, anyway. You’ve made that mistake before.

They’ve only brought people to the basement three times. The first was before even Roxy died, and Rose made sure you never heard anything. The second was during the space between Rose’s death and Dirk’s disappearance, and you’d accidentally walked downstairs while you were looking for Dave.

It ended with you screaming and refusing to come out of your room for almost two days because you were afraid to see either of them.

You’d tripped over an arm. An arm that was not attached to the rest of a person.

This time, you avoid the basement like the plague. If this person killed Roxy and Rose, you don’t want to know what’s happening down there.

The sun is starting to come up, which means it’s about the time you eat dinner. You usually go to bed about 9 in the morning, since you pretty much have to follow Dave and Dirk’s nocturnal schedule.

You have to pass the door to the basement in order to get to the kitchen, and when you do you hear Dave. You know someone else is down there and God knows what they’re going through. You’re no longer hungry, but now you feel like you have to do something.

“Dave?” you shout. You’re going to regret this so much.

At least Dirk is asleep.

“Can it wait?”

Shit shit shit. “Not really!” Why didn’t you think of an excuse before you opened your mouth?

You hear more quiet chatter.

Okay, you just got an idea. This might work.

You run to the kitchen and grab a knife from the block. Your hands are shaking as you press it to your hand. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. Pretend you’re cutting a steak or something. Wait that doesn’t help. Fuck, okay, just do it.

You manage to get the blade in fairly deep, and blood starts running down your raised arm. You set the knife down on the counter and walk back to the basement door.

Dave slams the door shut. “What do you want?” He’s mad, and his knuckles are covered in blood.

You try not to grimace, instead showing him your hand. It’s bleeding pretty heavily, certainly enough that you have a right to be worried.

He rolls his eyes and grabs your wrist. He drags you along to the main floor bathroom where you know there’s a first aid kit.

“I’m sorry!” Better to start apologizing early. “I know I shouldn’t have bothered you, I just... there was a lot of blood and I don’t know how deep it is and--”

“It’s fine,” he sighs, cutting you off. He pushes the bathroom door open. “Just try not to do it again.”

You nod and sit on the toilet as he grabs the first aid kit from the mirror. He washes his hands of the existing blood and takes out a few things from the box.

As he starts washing off the blood around the cut, you decide to be nosy.

“Who’s down there?”

He pauses momentarily, and then restarts a little more harshly. “He’s... no one. Don’t worry about it.”

“He killed Rose and Roxy, right? And tried to kill Dirk?” You’re towing a very thin line and you know it.

He grabs an antiseptic and rubs it into the cut. You bite your lip against the sting. The cut looks deep; you wonder if it’s going to need stitches.

“... Yeah. He did.” Dave’s tone is flat, and you know you’ve worsened an already horrible mood. You need to make it up to him somehow if you don’t want hell for it later.

“Then... he deserves it, right?”

He puts the antiseptic away and grabs a bandage. No stitches, then.

“Yeah, he does.”

You nod and stay quiet until he finishes wrapping your cut. Once he has everything put away and you stand up to leave, you thank him. He nods dismissively and you walk out the door into the living room.

“Wait, uh...” You stop walking and turn around.

“Um, I haven’t eaten in awhile, and, the sun is up now, so...”

He doesn’t have to finish. You sit down on the couch and undo your scarf from around your neck. He sits down next to you and you notice a bloodstain on his shirt that’s definitely too old to be from him wrapping your cut.

You quickly look away, and so you jump a little when you feel his hair brush your jaw.

He starts to pulls back.

“No, I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“Sure?”

You nod. “Yeah.”

The feeling of his teeth in your neck isn’t an unfamiliar one, but the initial burning feeling never quite goes away. While he drinks, you try to think about things. Anything, really, except for the man in the basement. You might learn a new song on your bass when you wake up. Maybe you’ll watch the sun rise up over the trees before you go to bed. You really should eat something before you go to sleep, but you’re so tired...

Dave pulls off of your neck, and you pitch forward into his chest before you realize how off balance you are. He grabs your shoulders in an attempt to steady you a little.

“Oh, shit, sorry.”

You mutter something that might be an apology; you aren’t sure. All you know is that Dave’s shoulder makes a really nice pillow; maybe you should just go to sleep now.

So you do.

Chapter Text

When you force yourself to open your eyes, the clock reads 10:43. So you’ve slept through the entire day, then. Fantastic. And you have a boner. Even better.

You get up and debate showering and/or changing your clothes.

Nah, you’re planning on ruining your clothes in a few minutes. Just as soon as you find Dave.

You shut your door and walk to the main floor of the house. As you pass by Jade’s room, you listen for breathing. It’s there, but it’s not even-sounding enough for her to be asleep.

You note that Dave seems to be absent. It’s not like him to go out this early in the night--you generally make it a point to wait until after midnight, when most of the police and troops of hunters have since called it quits.

God dammit, you’re really horny. You don’t even have hormones; why is this happening. You walk into the kitchen and down a glass of whiskey to get your mind off of it. And by “a glass,” you mean straight from the bottle in what you approximate to be about a glass’s worth. Maybe two.

After another swig from the bottle, you walk aimlessly around the house searching for Dave. The living room, dining room, and porch are all a bust.

“Where are you??” you text him. You flop onto the couch and try to adjust your pants so they aren’t so fucking tight.

“some bar idk”

“Will you be back anytime soon?”

“hahaha nope sorry youll have to find somebody else to fuck”

“... Am I really that obvious?”

“yes you really are now excuse me i have to go”

Shit.

The whiskey did nothing to quell your boner, and you’re even considering getting Jade down here to just suck your dick jesus christ why did he have to go out tonight of all nights. You’ve been back all of a day and he’s already trying to ditch you.

He’s probably making up for his blatant display of sincere emotion when you got home yesterday. You know this, but your brain rejects it in favor of sulking.

You’re seriously considering getting Jade down here to suck your dick (if you close your eyes you can probably pretend she’s a guy, but you also don’t exactly trust her to not “accidentally” bite your dick) when you remember about Jake.

Yes, that’ll do.

You swing by the kitchen before you go down to the basement. There’s a roll of duct tape and lube in one of the drawers (why they’re in the same drawer is a question you’d prefer not to answer), which you grab before unlocking the basement door.

As you walk down the steps you can’t hear any movement from Jake, which means he’s probably asleep. After you turn the corner and confirm your theory, you take a look at his face. You can tell that some of the bruises definitely aren’t from you, but you’re honestly surprised at how easy it seems Dave went on him. You’ll have to bother him about it later.

He’s sleeping in a way that keeps his broken arm cradled to his chest. The bone is a little askew, looking like it hadn’t been set properly. Maybe you’ll fix it for him later, if for nothing more than the satisfaction of getting to hear his bones break again.

You tear a piece of tape off and slap it over his mouth before he even stirs. You’d rather Jade not hear you, since you just recently got to the point with her where she’ll willingly give you her blood, which is very convenient, and scaring her now would just set you back too many steps.

He jumps awake when he feels your hand, scrambling to sit up. You jump on him, pinning his body with your own.

He’s trying to shout something, probably “What are you doing?!” You ignore him; you could care less.

You get up and flip him over on his stomach, quickly tying his hands together with duct tape. His fighting is weak, most likely because he hasn’t eaten in well over a day.

Just makes it easier for you, then. Not like it would be difficult to begin with.

In a jab of mock consideration, you remove his glasses and set them on the ground beside the bed and then kiss his cheek.

Damn, he’s actually screaming pretty loudly, even with the gag. You haven’t even done anything yet, ha.

You pinch his nose so he can’t breathe, then lean down and whisper “You’re going to shut up, or I’m going to break your nose again and watch you suffocate on your own blood. Okay?”

He stops screaming and thrashing, resigning himself to a kind of terrified shaking. You let go of his nose.

When you reach under him to unzip his pants, you use your free hand to shove his face into the mattress because this is usually when they start screaming again.

He tenses, most likely realizing what you’re going to do, but stays mostly quiet. You think you hear a whimper escape him.

When his pants are around his knees, you work to undo yours. You let go of his head, and he moves it just enough so that he can breathe. As you search around for the lube (there are only so many places it could be), you stroke yourself back to hardness.

The bottle has apparently gotten under the mattress somehow, so you lean down to grab it. As you do, Jake turns to meet your eyes. His green eyes are pleading, trying to convey the message he can’t say around the tape.

Does he really expect you to stop now? Is he naïve enough to think that a puppy-dog stare will be enough to warm your battered heart?

You laugh at him, because his childish optimism amuses you.

You sit back up and spread lube on your fingers. He’s lucky you’re wasting this on him, damn. You’d use spit but that would just be painful for you.

After a moment of consideration, you push his knees forward to keep his ass in the air. The position looks horribly uncomfortable, since his head is now taking most of his upper weight. Too bad for him.

He shouts in pain when you stick two fingers in his ass and start to move them quickly. Too bad sweetheart, you don’t feel like being patient right now.

He keeps clenching around you, making getting the third finger in that much harder. He’s still shaking and it only gets worse when you line your lubed dick up against the fingers still inside of him.

You rapidly replace them, feeling his clenching muscles around your dick. You hiss at the pleasurable feeling and push inside of him until your hips meet skin.

He jerks away from you when you run your hand down his spine. In response, you smack his ass harshly.

He’s sobbing by the time you start moving, face buried in the mattress of his own volition to try and be as quiet as possible. You’d say you wish it didn’t turn you on, but you’d be lying.

You push his shirt up and grab his hips to make it easier for you to pound into him as hard as you can. He’s so tight around you, enough that you think he’s never taken it in the ass before. It’s almost painful, especially with the way he keeps tightening his muscles around you.

He stops resisting after a little, letting himself be shoved forward by your thrusts. His crying has diminished into hoarse whimpers and single broken sobs.

When you feel your orgasm approaching, you speed up your movements and rake your nails down his back from under his shirt.

He arches away from you, and when you pull back you can see lines of blood pooling along his back. You lean forward to drag your tongue up one of the marks, and the intoxicatingly sweet taste of his blood is enough to push your over the edge.

You bury yourself deep inside of him when you cum, proud of yourself when you let nothing escape your lips besides a choked gasp.

When you pull out of him and stop supporting his weight, he collapses into the mattress. You rip the tape off of his hands, but he doesn’t move. He’s still definitely conscious, but he doesn’t seem to be able to process anything right now.

You zip your pants back up, grab the tape roll and bottle of lube, and head back upstairs. When you close the door to your room, you peel off your bloodstained shirt and head into the bathroom to take a shower. It’s almost midnight now, and you probably still have hours before Dave gets home.

Wait until he sees all the fun he missed while he was out.

Chapter Text

You like to say you tried. You like to say that as soon as the question left his lips, the answer hadn’t already been decided in your mind by the time you responded. You like to say Jade had to beg you to see the man downstairs, instead of the other way around.

You like to say these things, at least in the comfort of your own mind, but they are not true.

So you find yourself, about three weeks after you’d first dragged Jake in here, practically carrying Jade past the basement door as she kicks and begs you not to.

He hasn’t asked you to see her again-- he hasn’t asked much of anything. You’d just been having an internal struggle the past couple of weeks about whether it would be worth it for you.

Maybe you finally feel a little bad for taking Jade away from her family. Maybe the dead, broken look Jake gave you after you had your way with him is still burned in the back of your brain a little.

Whatever the reason, you’re still dragging Jade to go see him. They’ll thank you for it in a minute.

About an hour ago, you brought a bucket and a rag and tried to clean Jake off the best you could, because if Jade saw him how he was she would have either a) not recognized him, or b) recognized him, and hated you forever. You know she’s heard you, though; she will probably still hate you forever. And the amount of bruises and cuts and scratches all over his body can hardly be wiped away with a rag. It’s not like she won’t know.

At least he still has all of his body parts relatively intact.

She’s crying by the time you get down the staircase, and you yell at her to just hold on one fucking second jesus christ.

You practically dump her in front of Jake, and she almost starts to run away before she actually realizes who she’s seeing.

Jake is looking in some other direction, either not noticing or not caring about the person beside him. You’d bet the latter. He hasn’t spoken to you or Dirk in over a week, hasn’t even acknowledged your presence or answered your questions.

Dirk has started to get bored with him; that much you can tell. That’s why you’d decided to do this now-- you doubt he has much time left.

Jade screams (a happy scream, at least partially) and throws her arms around Jake, starting to bawl into his shoulder. She’s mumbling things to him that you could decipher if you tried, but have no desire to.

He still hasn’t moved. She’s started to get concerned, pulling back and looking at him.

When she starts shaking him and yelling, you decide to make your leave. Let Dirk deal with the fallout instead.

Speaking of Dirk...

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he shouts. Well, Dirk doesn’t really shout. He just gets very... intense when he’s angry.

Usually you think it’s hot. Not so much when it’s directed at you.

“Had to give the guy his last wishes, man. Not cool to just ignore that.”

“Why the fuck do you care?!”

You pause. You... really don’t. It’s not like you’ve forgiven him for torturing Dirk, not even mentioning the murders of your sisters. You haven’t--at least in your opinion-- been as brutal as Dirk has with him, but that doesn’t mean you don’t hate him. Sadism just isn’t really your thing; it’s Dirk, so it naturally became something you did by extension. Even demons look up to their older siblings when they’re young.

You realize you still haven’t responded, but Dirk raises his eyebrows and says something else.

“It’s for her, isn’t it?”

You open your mouth to speak but can’t find the words. It seems your brain is offline, rebooting and will be ready for commands again shortly, just be patient with us sir--

Your mouth is gaping, and you still can’t come up with what to say when Dirk’s frown turns into a scowl.

“Don’t get too attached to your pet, Dave; they have a nasty habit of dying before their owners.” The threat is not lost on you, and you nod.

“I suppose you want me to deal with this incident,” he sighs, nodding at the door. “I will, but know that you owe me for it.”

You nod again, swallowing a lump in your throat as he descends the stairs. Your debts to him usually followed in the form of sexual favors, wherein Dirk was allowed to do whatever he wanted to you for an unspecified amount of time with no safeword. This wouldn’t be an issue if Dirk wasn’t such a sadist and had a habit of taking advantage of the fact that you heal much more easily than any human.

You try to push away memories of the last time this happened. You don’t like remembering feeling owned and being ordered around. You also don’t like memories of pain.

You hear some sort of commotion, and then Dirk is slamming the door open with a visibly upset Jade thrown over his shoulder. She’s crying and screaming something incomprehensible and clawing at his back hard enough to bleed.

“Come. I’m not dealing with her.” You can barely hear him over her shouting. You follow him as he ascends the stairs and quite literally throws her into her room.

“I’m taking a shower. Be in the room when I get out.” That means you have the better part of the hour to calm her down.

You slip into her room and shut the door. Tentatively, you reach out a hand to her. She tenses when it touches her shoulder, but she doesn’t pull away. Eventually you have her in a full hug, and you’re able to calm her down enough that she’s just silently crying into your shoulder.

“Why did you make me see him?” she asks, voice hoarse from screaming.

You decide to be honest. “He wanted to see you,” you respond.

“But... I thought that he didn’t want me anymore.”

Well, honesty was nice while it lasted. “I know. But, you’re still his sister, even after everything. He still might care, or think he does.”

You don’t want to make Jake the bad guy here. He’s stupid beyond anything and possibly more arrogant than even Dirk, but from what you can tell he took good care of Jade after their parents died.

But then, you can’t make yourself the bad guy either. If it has to be one of you, you guess it has to be him. Just the way it goes.

 “Rose was my sister, too. Not really, but she felt like one. I remember her more than Jake. She was my sister more than he ever was.”

 “She did love you a lot,” you agree. You can feel yourself unwind from your stress. As long as you can keep her from blaming you, you’re in the clear. She won’t do anything rash, and you can get back to relative peace without having to get rid of her.

She nods and sniffles a little. “I’ll never forgive him for killing them.”

Jackpot. You’re in the clear.

“No one says you have to. No one says he deserves your forgiveness.”

You hold her for a few more minutes until she falls asleep, and then place her in her bed and walk out of her room.

After you slide the door shut, you lean against the frame and sigh. You can’t hear the shower water running, which means that Dirk is either finished or almost so.

Time to face the music. You just wish you knew what song you’re going to have to play.

Chapter Text

Um... Are you really sure you want to be Jake right now?

==> Yes, just fucking do it!

Alright, jeez...

You’re sitting on your bed, cot, whatever you want to call it. It’s where you usually are during the day, though you prefer sleeping on the ground. It certainly isn’t comfortable, but the bed is so saturated with bloodstains that the thought of sleeping on it makes you shudder. And lying down it reminds you of... well...

You thought they might stop if you gave up. Not that you’d think they’d let you go, but maybe they’d finally get tired of you and just kill you already. It worked to some extent with Dave, but you’ll be damned if it didn’t just make Dirk try harder to get you to scream.

You think you can see him getting bored with you, though. After you’d pushed yourself away from reality enough that there wasn’t much he couldn’t do to you, he’d started leaving after shorter and shorter periods of time.

So, it is working. Just not as quickly as you’d like.

You’ve memorized pretty much every inch of this room and you’ve really just stopped caring about the possibility of escape, of seeing Jade... everything, really.

You suppose they’ve won whatever game they were playing with you. Sadly, you don’t think you’ll be receiving your prize any time soon.

You attempted, in the beginning, to keep track of time. Rough estimates of days and hours just to keep a footing on how long you’ve been here.

At this point, it’s somewhere between two and six weeks. You think. You’ve stopped counting.

Something very far back in your mind registers a sound, the sound of a door. But you don’t want to think about what’s happening right now. So instead you dream up a story. It’s something to keep you distracted as well as being a good way to pass the time. It’s safe in your mind, and as long as you’re burrowed in there you don’t have to know what is happening to your body.

So you imagine, and you create.

And then you’re no longer in a basement that reeks of death and blood. You’re in a forest, something wet and dense and filled with exotic animals like from the movies...

No, actually, you think you’d rather be home right now.

You’re sitting on the couch in your living room. The television is turned on to some program you could really care less about. It’s raining badly outside, which means that you have to stay in. Can’t let the demons get to you, can you?

No matter how much you try, you can never really visualize a time before them. Not that you remember such a time clearly. You guess that way of life, existing in constant fear of the night, became so ingrained into you that you just can’t quite pull away from it.

Ah, well. At least in your fantasy Jade doesn’t have to get sick.

Speaking of Jade, she’s running past the living room, John only a few steps behind her. Chunks of icing cling to his hair and smear his glasses. You think he’s supposed to be angry at her, but the large grin spread across his face when he screams “Get back here, Harley!” is a rather large giveaway that he’s not.

He pounces on her right before she turns the corner to leave the room. She absolutely squeals in surprise when he knocks her to the floor, and you have to cover your mouth with your hand to stifle your laughter.

He ends up straddling her, giving him perfect access to her ticklish sides. She flails and curses him out between fits of laughter, trying desperately to pry him off.

“Jake!” she shouts. “Help me out here!”

“I’m not really sure if I should get in the way of this!” You turn to look at her and, wait, has she always looked that old? She seems nothing like the fourteen year old you last saw.

“Jake, please!” She’s practically screaming now and, okay, you start to feel bad.

With the next “Jake!” you suddenly feel dizzy, as if everything is blurring and twisting around the edges.

What...

“Jake, god, please say something!”

You’re pulled out of your fantasy quickly. You don’t jolt--that would require too much energy that you really don’t have nor feel like exerting at this point--but you do blink because you still have to be in a dream.

Jade is crouched in front of you, and from the amount of wetness on her face and hoarseness in her voice she’s been trying to get your attention for quite some time.

You move your arms slowly, afraid that she’ll disappear if you move the wrong way. You pull your arms tight into a hug and your hand brushes her hair and she’s alive. She’s alive and she’s healthy and you don’t see a scratch on her.

She jumps up and latches onto you, and you fail to bite back the choked scream that comes from someone strong crushing bruised and broken ribs. You don’t know if she’s really that strong or if you’re just that weak.

She pulls back, hurt in her eyes, and opts for looping her arms gently around your neck.

“I can’t believe you’re alright,” you whisper. Your voice can’t do much else at this point.

“I can’t believe you’re... here.” She sounds almost... bitter. You’re confused, unless you’re misunderstanding the direction of her bitterness.

Then again, you can only imagine what the past couple of years have been like for her; the things they’ve put in her head.

“God, I’ve missed you so much.” You think you might be crying. No, you’re definitely crying.

She pulls away from you, a confused look on her face. “Then why did you give me away?”

Wait what? Is that what they’ve been telling her?

Bastards.

“I di--”

The door to the basement slams open, and Dirk is behind Jade a half second later. He’s pissed, really pissed.

You scramble backwards because you refuse to be on the receiving side of that again, no way, your heart is already beating out your chest just from the memories of the things he’s done with that look on his face oh god you can’t breathe.

But you refuse to let Jade be on the receiving end of that either. So when you see him grab for her, you reach to grab for her as well.

He glares at you and smacks you away, hard enough that you land behind the cot. By the time you scramble up, he’s already dragging her away. You follow after them as fast as you can, which isn’t very fast seeing as your legs can barely support your weight. He needs two hands to hold her just so she doesn’t claw his face off, so when he gets to the door he kicks it shut.

You wait for the sound of the lock clicking back into place.

It never comes.

Chapter Text

Dirk loves doing this to you. You know this, and he doesn’t bother hiding it. He knows you hate not having control, being forced to do whatever he tells you. He likes pushing you, watching you grow more agitated at each meaningless and complicated demand. He likes the power, likes being the one to pull your strings and make you dance.

All you can hope for is that he takes pity on you fairly quickly. After all, he does have Jake to play with, and he doesn’t need to worry about breaking him.

You keep this in mind as you walk into your shared room and drop to your knees beside the bed in the position you assume he wants you in.

You look up, sees that he’s been standing by the bathroom door since you came in, and flinch. Shit.

He raises an eyebrow at you.

“Not the best first impression, Dave.”

You lower you head. “I--”

“Don’t. Talk.”

Your hands clench, but you stay quiet.

You tense as he walks over to you. His gaze burns the top of your head as you look at the floor, and you don’t even need to look at him to know that it’s filled with nothing but contempt and sadistic amusement.

You want him to be proud of you, but you want it to be as his equal. Not as some kind of pet.

When he squats down to your level, you don’t react. But when he grabs a fistful of your hair and yanks it back, forcing you to look up at him, you can’t help but hiss in pain.

He kisses you forcefully, hard enough that his teeth dig into your lip and draw blood. He licks at it as he moves his mouth with yours. You kiss him back, knowing that refusing to do so would just add to whatever punishment you’re going to get for not being here on time.

When he moves down to your neck, he makes sure to let his teeth graze your skin the whole way down. He’s just teasing you, trying to make you on edge because you know that when he does bite that he’s not going to be gentle about it.

Unfortunately, you’re soon proven correct. After he buries his teeth in your neck, he ever-so-slowly moves his head down and opens deep gashes as the skin and flesh split. Were you human, this would be fatal, and you would be unconscious in a matter of seconds. As it stands, since you can’t actually die of blood loss or oxygen deprivation, you’re wide awake to feel the blinding pain.

He only moves about an inch, but it’s enough that you’re writhing to get away from him and you lose balance on your knees in your struggle.

He pushes you backward hard, more or less tackling you to the ground. He pulls away from your neck long enough to murmur “If you scream, I will do it again,” then shoves his tongue into one of the gashes.

You have to slap your hand over your mouth to stay quiet, nails digging into your face hard enough to bleed but you don’t even notice it next to the horrible burning in your neck. The weight of his body on top of you is the only thing keeping your back from arching in the air and you know you can’t break this soon you never have before but you can’t take it anymore you can’t--

He pulls off. You’re shaking now, from both the pain and from holding back your screams. He laughs at you.

God, you hate him when he’s like this.

==> Be Dirk

God, you love him when he’s like this. Knowing you have power over him, knowing he’ll do whatever you say without question, is the one reason you can never really be angry at him for long when he fucks up.

After all, how could you be angry at a given opportunity to have him completely at your mercy?

This agreement, the one you reached about the consequences resulting from disobeying one another, was one that you arrived at with Dave quite a long time ago. It was a pact signed in blood, which meant that as a matter of honor it was virtually unbreakable.

It does, technically, apply to both of you. However, you tend to be much more cautious than him, so this has never actually been used against you.

For him, it’s another story. You’re not sure how many times you’ve done this to him, but you don’t think you could count it on one hand.

You pinch the wounds on his neck shut so that they can start to heal. He almost shouts from the pain, but you clam your hand down over his mouth.

“You don’t want Jade to hear you, do you?” you whisper in his ear. “She might redirect her affection toward someone else if she knows how easy it is to get her brave knight to scream like a bitch.”

He shoots you an equally angry and confused look. Oh god; he doesn’t know, does he? How obvious did the girl have to be for him to realize she was in love with him? You open your mouth to tell him, but end up saying “How about getting me some scotch, kid?” Now isn’t the time.

He openly glares at you for that, a small growl bubbling in his throat. He absolutely detests being called a kid and you know it.

You let go of his neck and push off of him. He shakily gets to his feet and walks out of the room. You can practically hear the string of curses in his head.

After several minutes, you start getting impatient. What the hell is taking him so long?

Not that you really need the scotch, but he should be back by--

You hear something shatter, followed by the sound of Jade screaming.

You’re in the kitchen in about two seconds, having jumped over the second-story balcony. You freeze at the sight in front of you.

Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Chapter Text

You don’t know what you were expecting, but Jake holding Dave at gunpoint while Jade, having apparently just walked in from the dining room off to the side, stands frozen next to Dave with a broken plate at her feet.

So he found his gun. You’re slightly impressed, but mostly pissed because you’d listened to Dave when he insisted you keep at least one, “just in case you were stormed in the middle of the night” or something. You’d agreed because you wanted it as a trophy.

Dave has his back to you, so you slowly walk around him so that you have a better view of (and a better aim to grab at) Jake.

“Don’t move,” he barks at you. His back is facing the back door, and he’s only about ten feet away from Dave.

It’s about the same distance he was he missed his shot at him those years ago. But it was dark, and he was afraid. He doesn’t look so afraid now.

He does, however, look very weak. He’s not quite steady on his feet and the line of sweat on his forehead is probably from equal parts exertion and pain. If you wait him out long enough, he might just collapse, or at the very least lose his grip on the gun, and you can snap his fucking neck like you should have done when you first met him.

You calculate the probability of him shooting Dave even if you comply with him. The number is higher than you’d like, but still low enough that you decide it would be safer to just appease him for now.

 “I’m taking Jade, and we’re going to go. And maybe, if I’m feeling generous, I won’t shoot him.”

You don’t want to let him live. Not after all this. But you won’t risk Dave getting killed, and Jake knows that as well. You’re not losing the only sibling you have left. He won’t listen to you or Dave, so your only hope now is--

“Jake, please don’t hurt him!” Thank god.

Jake turns to her, confused. “Don’t hurt him? Jade, he’s done nothing but lie to you since you’ve been here!”

Dave turns to her, his face so deceivingly calm that he almost has you fooled. You’re so proud. “I wouldn’t lie to you. Don’t listen to him, he’s scared and confused,” he murmurs. You can’t tell if he’s just trying to make her believe what you both need her to believe to get out of this alive, or if he’s honestly trying to maintain her opinion of him because he cares. You really hope it’s the former.

“Shut up!” Jake screams at Dave. The arm holding the gun is starting to shake. If you can keep this up for a couple more minutes, you’ll have an opportunity to go for the gun.

“No, you shut up!” Jade shouts back. “I don’t care what you say, or what they’ve said, because it doesn’t change the fact that this family is the only one I’ve known for the past two years and I actually care about them! I know this might be a bit of a shock since you haven’t been around, but I really cared about the four people that lived here, and it’s your fault that half of them are dead! Do you expect me to just forget that?”

Jake’s face goes from surprised to furious in less than a second. “That’s because everything they’ve told you is a lie! I never gave you up; they took you from me! I’ve spent the past two years just trying to figure out where the hell you were.”

You can tell by her focused expression that she’s trying to work through her conflicting feelings. You can also tell by the way she relaxes into Dave’s touch that she’s going to choose you.

“... I don’t care. They’re my family now.”

You allow yourself a small sigh of relief, and you see Dave’s shoulders relax a little as well. He squeezes her shoulder and whispers “thank you,” and it’s so fucking sincere that it makes you want to vomit.

“Get away from her!” you hear Jake scream.

Bang!

 Your eyes close reflexively, and you open them slowly upon hearing the sound of someone falling to the ground. You look toward the floor for the still body and blood-soaked white hair you’re sure to find.

But the body at the center of a steadily-growing pool of blood doesn’t have white hair. Instead of red, Jade’s bright green eyes stare openly at the ceiling. The bullet hit her chest almost dead center.

You’re... really, really surprised that Jake missed. Not only that, but he missed this accurately.

Dave is looking down at the dying figure in front of him, his mouth open. He knows there’s no point in trying to save her; she’s already lost too much blood. He won’t even be able to turn her at that point.

He bends down and brushes a piece of hair from Jade’s face. His hand is shaking.

This is why you don’t get involved with humans, sweetheart. They’re too damn fragile.

You look over at Jake, who is standing with his arms by his sides in the most textbook definition of “shock” you’ve ever seen. He goes down on his knees, hitting the hard floor with a harsh sound. You don’t think he even notices the pain he must have received from the impact.

You don’t want to be the one to break the silence, but you can’t help it.

You laugh.

You laugh, and you can feel two sets of eyes on you as you do so.

“You... absolute fucking idiot! You were so fucking close!” You’re doubled over, and you really shouldn’t laugh because you can tell how upset Dave is by this but you just can’t stop.

Until you hear the click of the pistol’s hammer and any noise in your throat dies.

You look up, and see the barrel of the gun pointed directly at you. He has nothing to lose now, and he’s not going down without a fight.

You don’t give him the chance.

When you tackle him to the ground, the gun goes off in the air. You tear it out of his hand and throw it behind you.

Dave comes up beside you, kneeling in front of Jake with a silence and calmness you’d deign to call chilling. His stare is emotionless, and when he puts his hands on either side of Jake’s face and pauses, you know he’s asking for permission.

“Go ahead,” you murmur to him. This is his prize now, as much as you desperately want it to be yours.

He wrenches Jake’s head to the side until you both hear the unmistakable snap of his neck breaking. With a shaky sigh, he lets his head fall to the ground.

You feel like you should apologize, though it’s so far from your nature that the thought is rather revolting to you. You’re not even sure what for. Isn’t that what humans say when they lose someone they care about? You’ll just stay quiet for now.

He stands, arms crossed tightly like he’s not sure what he should do. Or, like he’s not sure what he wants to do with you right there.

“I’m going to go get a shovel and shit,” you say like he doesn’t know exactly why you’re leaving.

He nods, understanding.

You wonder if you should point out the spatter of blood on his face.

You walk out the back door, into the porch that Jade had turned into somewhat of a greenhouse. As you exit the porch and head outside, you debate whether to get rid of the plants or just let them die.

You know where you keep a shovel; it’s in the back shed with most of the lawn supplies you’ve never used. But after you take it out, you sit down against the side of the shed and just breathe.

Unfortunately, it’s somewhere around 4 am, so you won’t have enough time to bury the bodies tonight. Not that it really matters if anyone sees; you’ll need to be moving on to a different house soon, anyway. But you can’t exactly go outside during the day.

When you dare to enter the house again, after at least an hour has passed, there’s no sign of Dave on the first floor. Besides a few things out of place or broken, the only thing you can see that’s changed is the placement of a bright red flower in Jade’s hair that you assume came from the porch. You can’t help but notice how well it matches the blood on her chest.

When you get upstairs, you’re only half-surprised to notice that the door to Jade’s room is locked. You sigh and head into your own room.

You have a feeling you’ll be sleeping alone tonight.

==> End.