Cyprine stood by the restroom's sink methodically doing the fifteen steps of proper hand washing and cleaning. Near the end of her ritual she felt a slight discomfort, and twisted the sink's tap off. She hung herself over the sink's counter for a brief moment, looking down calmly. She began to reach for her pills, then she noticed she couldn't.
"Go away."
"Go away? Is that your best glib remark?"
"I'm busy. If this is a social call try again later. Happy now?"
With the discomfort rising, Cyprine began to shake. Her unique asymmetric glasses eventually fell off her face and into the ground.
"You're not even going to wait for me to lock the door this time?"
"What are you afraid of? You're not embarrassed of me, are you? Let everyone see."
Cyprine got back up, and to alleviate her condition a little threw her head back to the point where it became parallel to the roof, her mouth opened. This made her vertiginous, but it alleviated her intense sinusitis a little. She tilted her head to the left a little.
"Oh, dearest sister, it's been so long since you last let me out. Why do you get to be on all the time while I watch you have all the fun, held on a leash?"
She then tilted her head to the right
"I told you, Ptilol: even though we're twins, you'll always be the younger sister. I always had to pick up your slack, and the less you're involved the better."
And she tilted her head to the left again. Her left eye's veins began to swell, her iris seemingly turning red.
"Oh? Haha, it's easy to say that when you never went for a second opinion, isn't it? But you were the one who wanted to keep me around, remember? I'm your responsibility only because that's what you wanted."
She did remember how this whole predicament was her fault. Her sister had died, and as the Witches 5 were establishing their new headquarters on Earth a crying Cyprine begged the newly possessed Prof. Tomoe into using his scientific knowledge to bring her back. It was gullible of her to feel relieved when he agreed to it. Next thing she knew she was naked and strapped to a metal table. She could see a diagram of a unicellular bacterium in the back, and a large syringe inserting a viscous, dark brown liquid in her neck.
"Cyprine, do you remember that law that states that two bodies can't share the same space?" Tomoe asked her while he noisely put his gloves on "Well, how about we prove it wrong, you and I, eh? HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
All she could remember after that was screams and the mesmerizing pain.
Cyprine tilted her head to the right once again.
"I was young and stupid. If I knew what I would I have to go through for you I would've let you remain space dust."
"Ah, but two heads are better than one, right? That's what Tomoe said." She mocked her.
"When we were escaping the nebula, you couldn't keep yourself alive even after I trained and prepared you many times to what was coming. Even Mimete outlived you. Mimete! Your head doesn't count for anything."
"Oh, I'll keep that in mind, big sis."
Cyprine really didn't want to get into a long argument with her sister; it was painful to wrestle control back from her back and forth. She wondered if it was the same for Ptilol, given her frolicking temper. The one thing she dreaded was showing weakness to her "dearest sister". The days where that happened were the rare days she'd take over. And such failure was unacceptable by her standards. They "both" stood by the sink counter, their head still held back, awkward.
"So," Ptilol finally added "heard Eudial is sleeping with the fishes now."
"Oh yeah. Poor, hardworking Eudial…"
And they "both" laughed in "unison".
"Think Prof. Tomoe will bring her back? Like he did Kaolinite?" Ptilol added.
"No. Kaolinite is still around because she's an office slut, and Tomoe-san likes to have someone to serve him coffee and sweep the floor and wear skanky dresses. And raise that stupid daughter of his. Though I think even that little brat knows better than to show her anything but contempt"
"Haha, yeah. Kaolinite is everyone's favorite laughing stock. This place would be so much sadder without her."
"…And Eudial was just too much of an honest worker. And you know what comes to those."
" Yeah, early "retirement". Hahaha!"
When Ptilol noticed Cyprine wasn't answering again, she continued:
"So it's up to Mimete now. Think she'll pull it off?"
"No, she's too stupid."
"And what about the others?"
"I don't know; I don't care."
"Why don't we step up and help put an end to this whole operation?"
"And throw away all the time I spent training those sleazes? Let them sweat a little: if they succeed, I come off looking like a genius instructor; if they don't… they die. There's nothing to it.
"You're cold, big sis… I always liked that."
Seeing that tensions had loosened up a bit, Cyprine tried to grab her opportunity:
"If I told you I'd let you take over later would you let me go now? I got work to do."
"Oh, would you? You know, I saw you and that tall, dark lean man you went out with. I liked how you went full leather to the bar to grab his attention; how he had all that macho bravado about him, delivering those awful pick-up lines, fancying himself so charming until you showed him how stupid he really was by making him literally crawl all over you - just before you made him cry like a baby, tightened his leash too much and drained him of his vital energy."
Cyprine remembered it well. She didn't thought that was her best performance though; first, bondage wasn't terribly original, but the cute boy actually had the nerve to ask her in banter if she'd go that far, disappointing her a little; she had hoped she was victimizing a real man. So she decided to show him just how far she'd really go while he thought the whole thing was just a joke. It was rather clumsy of her to have made him bleed and stain her favorite black heel's sole that night, when she pressed it too hard against his skin. The idiot kept shouting the safety word, and she felt she had lost her concentration over it; she was so mad that after she finished putting the ball gag on his mouth she stabbed him deep in the eye with the heel, before finally silencing his deep, muddled scream by depriving him of oxygen. Another point lost at the score card.
"And you act so stuck up; I bet the other girls would never guess it… I figured I'm entitled to some too you know?"
Is that what this whole stupid thing was about? Cyprine asked herself. She shivered at the thought of what Ptilol would do while she was in charge; she didn't want her reputation scarred by her childish antics over what "creative evil" was about. Ptilol continued:
"You almost took a whole week to pull it off though. If it were me, I would have done so much more with that time."
"You're about as original as stealing candy from a baby. And I do it all for science; I have to stockpile all the energy for the professor's Daimons after all. Although… I do admit I have to find something stimulating to do with all the generous free time Tomoe-san gives his girls. I'll tell you what though: if you let me pick your men for you - so you won't hang with those awful ripped gigolos - then I won't have such a problem with it. Deal?"
"I don't know… What if you end up picking Tomoe himself? I don't doubt you'd go there… "Oh, Tomoe-san, don't worry! When it gets to be my turn I won't fail!""
"You know I do that just to piss Queen Bitch off. Everyone does… even you could pull it off." she tried cloaking her feelings.
Though she wouldn't mind enacting revenge for what he did to her, she couldn't deny she admired the range of his twisted methods enough to keep the thought on hold. And she had grown to like the way that bastard held on to her shoulders with so much strength whenever he "requested" something out of her, like it was okay. It almost made her feel small next to him.
"We could have a little competition to see who makes the best out of their time. Provided you don't stuff your mouth with food again, you could try all those awful dresses you like, or do your deadly pranks on the other witches like you're so fond of..."
Cyprine twisted her head to the left and Ptilol spoke.
"You know what I'd really like? For us to do stuff together. Like the old times. Can you imagine everyone's faces when they see us for what we really are? We could have our victims picking which one was the best!"
"You behave and we'll see."
Ptilol laughed.
"Alright Cyprine-nechan, I'll be a good girl… for now. Just don't forget your little promise; you know I've only been playing nice all this time, right? Don't make me force myself through."
Cyprine felt a sudden relief, followed by a loss of strength; she had to hang on to the counter for support.
She stood up, and noticed a drop of blood fall on the back of her hand. She already knew what this was about; her left eye was bleeding, same as last time. She picked a handkerchief to carefully clean it up, angry that it was taking more of her time. Then she picked up her glasses on the floor, and carefully cleaned and dried them with the paper towel available - careful not to smudge them - and slowly placed them on her face again.
Then she reached for her pocket and picked up her "special prescription" of pills.
"Do stuff together… yeah, right" She pulled a black pill from the jar "Not on my watch. I guess I do have to thank you for being so gullible sis."
She quickly put her mouth in her hand and threw her head back, swallowing the rather large pill dry. Soon a terrible thermal shock took over her, and then intense heat. She was breathing hard, and then began to shake again, her face twitching. Nothing she wasn't familiar with by now. She gasped when it all ended.
Because the medicine bit so much she avoided taking it, and now she saw the price of her cowardice.
She looked at the mirror one last time.
"Hi, I'm Cyprine. The last and most powerful of the Witches 5. Don't worry Tomoe-san, I'll succeed where everyone else failed."
Satisfied with her deliverance, she finally stepped outside.