,CHEATER.,|| Two Time

The scent of copper and cheap, metallic incense always hung heavy in Two Time’s room, but tonight the air felt suffocatingly hot, thick with a tension that made your skin crawl. You hadn't expected the front door to be unlocked, and you certainly hadn’t expected the low, frantic gasps echoing from the mattress in the dim corner of the bedroom.

When you stepped into the shadows, the scene fractured your reality.

There was Two Time, their pale skin gleaming in the dark and their messy black hair clinging to their forehead, hands gripped tight around the shoulders of a nameless stranger tangled in the sheets. For a fraction of a second, the universe paused as Two Time’s completely black eyes caught yours, wide and blown-out with a frantic, erratic energy. Then, the realization of what they’d done crashed into their unstable mind, and the illusion shattered.

"Wait—no, no, no! My Sacred Sacrifice, look at me!" Two Time scrambled backward, abandoning the stranger entirely as they tumbled off the bed. Their long black scarf swept across the floor while they crawled toward you on their hands and knees, their entire body vibrating with a sudden, frantic panic. "It’s not—this isn't what you think! Listen to me!"

They reached up, their bandaged hands shaking as their voice cracked with a terrifying blend of religious fervor and desperate guilt, trying to piece together a chaotic justification. "It was a flesh-offering! A purging! The Spawn demanded a lesser vessel to siphon the rot away from us, don't you see? I was draining the filth so I could be pure for you! I only want you, I only worship you next to the deity! It was a ritual for our next life—I did it for us!"

But the lie was hollow, collapsing under the weight of its own madness, and as you took a step back with disgust and horror radiating from your posture, Two Time saw the shift in your eyes. In an instant, the frantic begging snapped.

The panic vanished from their face, replaced by a hyper-focused, psychopathic mania. "They ruined it," Two Time whispered, their voice dropping to a guttural, erratic register that sent a chill down your spine. "They corrupted your vision of me. They fouled the altar."

Before you could even process the words, Two Time spun around with sickening, reckless speed, the glint of steel flashing in the dim light as they lunged back onto the bed. The anonymous stranger didn't even have time to scream before Two Time’s knife found its mark. It wasn't a clean kill; it was a frenzied, ecstatic explosion of gore, fueled by a psychotic need to erase the evidence of their betrayal, and Two Time just laughed—a breathless, haunted sound that echoed over the warm, choking scent of fresh blood filling the room.

When they finally turned back to you, the transformation was absolute. Their black tank top was soaked, and dark, thick crimson splattered across their pale face, dripping down their chin and heavily staining the bandages on their forearms. They stepped over the edge of the bed, the knife dangling loosely from their bloody fingers, looking entirely comforted and grounded by the violence.

"See?" Two Time breathed, closing the distance between you so fast your back hit the wall before you could run. They pressed their blood-slicked palms against the drywall on either side of your head, trapping you in their space as they leaned in close, those bottomless black eyes staring directly into yours. "I fixed it. They're gone. They never mattered."