The air was still and warm, the sky black as coal. There was the small chatter of people in the houses, the crying of a baby having difficulty sleeping. Two men walked down the road, their footsteps hardly making a sound on the dry pavement.
If there was anyone else out and about, they would have stopped to stare at the two strange men. The taller one had tanned skin and brunette hair. He wore a black jacket and a dirty, white t-shirt underneath. But that wasn't the strange part. As he carried the bat over his shoulder, which had blood-encrusted nails sticking out of it, his red eyes glowed impatiently, despite the wild grin on his lips.
The shorter one was stranger, yet. Unlike the other, who was wearing dull, dark colors, this one wore a pink vest with a baby-blue tie. His skin was deathly pale, and his hair, blond with the tiniest hint of pink. His smile was even wilder and crazier than the other man, and his eyes were unique. His eyes were a burning sapphire with a prominent pink swirl that seemed to move enchantingly within the iris.
The shorter one's blue and pink eyes flickered from house to house as they passed them. "Well, well! Alfred… This isn't a very bad place. There are plenty of people to play with."
Alfred gave out a laugh. "I'll beat the shit out of the first one I see!"
The other one reached up and rested his hand on the other's shoulder and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Language, my little brother. A gentleman doesn't have such a tongue. Do I need to cut it off again?" He added, eyeing the taller one with a widened grin.
Alfred shook his head. "No, Arthur."
"Good." Arthur continued. "And we can't start playing yet. We need a place to live."
A few more feet forward revealed a dead-looking house. None of the lights were on, and the house was quiet. Not even Arthur's acute hearing could detect the breathing of sleeping bodies. A few of the windows were broken in, and the roof had a huge hole in it, as if there was once a fire.
Suddenly Arthur's head threw back and he exploded with laughter, genuine joy of finding a place to live in this new dimension. "This is where we will be staying from now on. Come, Alfred. We must make due." He ran up the doorsteps to open the door. Despite the fact the door was nailed shut to keep people out, Arthur hardly noticed as the door creaked open with little effort.
He began to list things they needed to do to the tune of his favorite song, a song Alfred and him made up during World War I. "We will need to fix the place up~ Paint the walls, replace the windows~ swap the floors, Mess with wires~ For power, and connect the gas~" He stopped his singing to look up at his younger brother. "Could you do that for me, chap?"
Alfred put down his bat. "I ain't gonna do shit until I get a little fucking sleep."
Arthur's wild grin faded for a moment. "Little brother… I don't like it much when you curse. Like I said, a gentleman doesn't have that sort of tongue." His intense blue-and-pink eyes met up with Alfred's ruby ones. "If you don't at least find us a bed to sleep in tonight, I'm sure neither of us will get some sleep. And you know how we get when we're cranky."
Alfred's eyes flickered away from the shorter man's, and he felt pained by bad memories, but all at the same time, his chest buzzed happily with them, and he smiled. "First thing, I'm not a fucking Cockney. And second thing, I think we will be fine on the floor tonight." He pulled off the pack on his back and began to pull out the contents, which was just a blanket and spare clothes.
An evil smile grew on Arthur's face, and when Alfred saw this, he returned the same look. Tomorrow will be hell.