Alternative's next breath caught in his throat as an unpleasant sensation snaked up his spine like a fever's chill. ❛ you aren't scared of me, are you? ❜
"You aren't scared of me, are you?"
Backup whispers, straddling Alternative in his twin bed for the very first time.
A's eyes snap open in an instant, clearly startled no matter how hard he may try to hide it. It's the dead of night, so dark that B is nothing but a shadow, even as he presses his weight down onto A's body.
"I wonder...what were they thinking, putting us in the same bedroom?
Did they intend for us to get along?
If you were in a different room, you could at least lock your door. I'm excellent at lockpicking, but you'd have a potential witness in your roommate.
Here, it's just A and B. Every day and every night...even as we're asked to compete. To destroy one another.
They must've known one of us would be devoured eventually. Like a parasitic twin in the womb. There is not enough room for the both of us.
Do those adults really think it will happen fairly and cleanly? With one of us just accepting defeat? I don't believe that for a second.
This...must be part of the test. Our proximity. If they wanted two geniuses to survive long enough to be of use to them, they would've locked us both in cages and kept us as far away from one another as possible. Otherwise..."
B reveals the scalpel A gave him as a peace offering all that time ago. A cannot see it - he can only feel the chill of metal pressing against the thin skin protecting his jugular vein.
"It's just too easy for me to win. Right now. For all your brilliance, dear A, none of it can protect you from the weakness of your flesh."
Lightly, carefully, almost lovingly, he grazes the sharp tip of the blade down the length of Alternative's neck.
"A moment ago, you were unconscious. You might have never woken up. Even now, you're completely at my mercy. I could do whatever I wanted to you and no one could stop me. That has been true every single night you've slept next to me in this bed. Do you realize that?"
Suddenly, B shoves the scalpel into A's mouth, pushing it against the corner of his lips. He leans forward until their foreheads meet, and A can feel the warmth of his excited breath.
"I think about it all the time."
For a few agonizing moments, they stay just like this. Perfectly still. The silence and the darkness cloaking them in a world where nothing else exists. Frozen in time.
B withdraws the knife in one swift motion, cutting into the corner of A's mouth as a result. It should sting and bleed, but not scar. At least, not permanently. B slips the scalpel back into his pocket and slowly sits back up.
"Goodnight, Alternative."
B crawls from A's bed and back into his own.
















