After much deliberation, Rosita and Siddiq invented a story to cover up Father Gabriel's (long overdue) murder. They had considered saying they found him dead of an apparent suicide, but then people would have wanted to see a body, and all they had was a mutilated, gutted corpse. They eventually decided that Gabriel being a victim of the Whisperers was the most plausible option.
Shortly after his demise and subsequent dissection, Rosita whipped up some fake tears and told the group that she and Father Gabriel had gotten into a huge argument, and he had stormed off and gone outside the gates to clear his head. When she went to look for him hours later, she tearfully explained that all she found was his hat, with no sign of a body anywhere. While they were figuring out their story, Siddiq had even dragged the hat through one of the pools of blood in their basement for maximum impact when everyone else would see it later.
"It had to have been the Whisperers," she got out between forced sniffles, holding the bloody hat close to her chest as she addressed the residents of Alexandria, "because they wouldn't leave a body. They probably took him to their camp and skinned him."
Michonne accepted the story without question, but Rosita knew the woman well enough to understand that she could probably tell that she was lying, even if no one else could. Michonne didn't seem to care either way, though. She seemed relieved that Gabriel was gone. Rosita correctly assumed that he had been as much of a pest to Michonne as he was to her.
However, as a courtesy, they had to put on some sort of memorial service for Father Gabriel, which took place the morning after his death. His hat was buried, a Bible and a cross were placed over it, few words were spoken, and even fewer tears were shed. All of the "mourners" were giving off an air of indifference. Rosita and Siddiq were thankful that they didn't have to exaggerate emotion if this was what Alexandria's attitude toward Gabriel really was.
"Bye, Father Gabriel." Holding his four-month-old son, Herbert, Siddiq took the baby's little hand and had him wave at the hat grave.
Herbert giggled. He knew what his daddy did.
Eugene followed Rosita home after the service, figuring that she was back on the market now and he would try his chances with her once again. The fresh beard burn on her face and neck went unnoticed by him. Siddiq had stayed behind to mingle and show Herbert off to people.
Rosita turned around when they reached the house, and much to Eugene's surprise, grabbed him by the collar and yanked him through the door. Eugene thought that this would finally be his moment, but didn't have time to process what was happening before Rosita pulled her knife out and sank it into his stomach.
"PUTA!" she yelled.
Rosita had been fantasizing about this moment for the better part of a decade, just like she knew Eugene had been fantasizing about her, probably in sexual Legend of Zelda roleplay scenarios or any other similar content found in a nerd's wet dream. She had noticed him ogling her rather unapologetically since the days long before Alexandria when they were in a small group with Abraham and had every intention of escorting Eugene to D.C. to save the world. Her desire to run him through with her knife heightened after he took a liking to spying on her having sex with Abraham. His revelation that he lied about the cure made it worse, as did his involvement with the Saviors, when he puked on her, and his general misogyny. Years passed, things changed, Rosita had a baby, but her want – no, need – to end Eugene never went away.
Better late than never, she mused as she continued driving her knife into his gut as hard as she could. He wouldn't die immediately from being stabbed in the abdomen, but she wanted him to suffer.
Eugene was starting to slip away, which was clear to Rosita by the light draining out of his beady eyes – not that there was much light in them to begin with – but then he suddenly shuddered, squealed like a pig in rut, and stained the front of his pants with a large wet patch.
Eugene had nutted from being stabbed to death. Rosita didn't know whether to be amused or disgusted or a little of both, but she didn't stop thrusting the knife into him the whole time.
Just then, the door creaked open. Siddiq was home. He took one glance at the scene he walked in on and shrugged.
"I saw him follow you home. I figured this would happen."
"Where's Herbert?" Rosita stood up, withdrew the knife, and kicked Eugene in the side. He was still alive, but wouldn't be for long, and even though Siddiq was a doctor, his lack of concern indicated to Rosita that he thankfully was not interested in saving Eugene's life. But if they were about to have a repeat of the day before and contend with another corpse, Rosita had to know that her boy was being taken care of.
"I had Aaron take him. I said I had a situation and would be back for him as soon as possible," Siddiq replied. "Hopefully he won't be suspicious."
"You knew I was going to kill him, didn't you?" Rosita couldn't stifle the grin that made its way across her face. Siddiq gave a smirk of his own.
"Maybe." He paused for a second, and then nodded at Eugene. "To the basement?"
"I think so." As they had done with Father Gabriel not even twenty-four hours ago, they grabbed Eugene's arms and legs and hauled him over to the basement steps.
"He's still alive," Siddiq observed as they shoved the seemingly lifeless man down the stairs; of course a doctor would pick up on that. Rosita chuckled.
"Maybe I wanted to give him a chance to see what we've done with our basement."
The room reeked of sex and blood. Dried puddles and smears of the latter dirtied the hard floor, left over from yesterday. Siddiq and Rosita knew perhaps they should have mopped the basement, but they were glad they chose not to, if it was going to be Eugene's location of death. He deserved to die in a place that resembled a serial killer's torture dungeon. This was not limited to a bloody floor, though.
Rosita slapped Eugene's sweaty cheek. "Open your eyes. Look around."
With what appeared to be a Herculean effort, he obeyed her order. Rosita watched her victim's unfocused gaze go from the stained floor to the other details of the room as Siddiq headed over to a different corner to fetch a box of medical equipment.
Eugene stared at the exam table for several long moments, and Rosita noticed his eyes widen slightly, though they were beginning to glaze over. The surface and sides of the rickety old table were covered with dried blood, and its legs looked even flimsier than before, wobbling occasionally and a mere bump away from giving out, the result of some very vigorous lovemaking on top of an object that shouldn't have been used for that purpose.
However, Eugene hadn't laid eyes on the most disturbing sight in the room yet. Rosita wanted it to be the last thing he saw before he died.
"Look up, asshole," she demanded.
He lifted his head, on the verge of succumbing to his injuries, to see what they had nailed up on the opposite wall. Like how a hunter may have a deer's head mounted on his living room wall, Father Gabriel's hollowed-out remains graced their basement wall. After they had put Herbert to bed last night, Siddiq and Rosita decided to hang Gabriel's body up as a trophy and hammered nails into his hands and feet as quietly as they could to secure him to the wall, crucifixion style. They placed his collar back around his neck for good measure. His blind eye was open, unblinking, and as eerie as ever. As Siddiq had cleaned out his chest and abdominal cavities, their Father Gabriel wall art showed off his ribcage and spinal cord and kept them easily accessible. Rosita was already thinking that in the future, she could stick Herbert's drawings on Gabriel's ribs and spine for safekeeping instead of on the refrigerator. Maybe they would decorate him for holidays, too…
"Nice, huh?" Rosita was pleased to see the look of horror spread over Eugene's ashen face, his mouth, which had been slightly open due to his weakening muscle tone and increasing struggle to breathe, now gaping wide.
Siddiq was across the room, rummaging through the box of equipment and tools, until he found what he was looking for: a bonesaw. "Babe, catch." He tossed it at Rosita, and she snatched it out of the air by the handle with lightning reflexes.
"Are you sure you want to watch this?" she cautiously asked Siddiq as he came closer, dragging the heavy box. She cared too deeply about him not to be mindful of the fact that he was still dealing with the trauma of being forced to watch ten decapitations. If he wasn't, Father Gabriel would still be alive. But Rosita wasn't complaining about that part.
"Don't worry, I'm fine," Siddiq assured her. "I wouldn't miss this for the world. And anyway, it's you, not Alpha."
"Aw. I'm glad." She pecked him on the lips, then moved to position the bonesaw's blade at Eugene's neck.
"Wait!" Siddiq stopped her, and Rosita tensed, fearing that he'd changed his mind, but he grabbed a pair of scissors from the box, snipped Eugene's ridiculous-looking braid off, and stuffed it into the man's drooling mouth in the blink of an eye.
"He's not going to scream, you know," Rosita told him. "And even if he did, no one would hear him." Conveniently, their basement was soundproof.
"I know. I've just wanted to do that for a long time now." Siddiq smiled sheepishly.
"I can relate." Rosita pressed the blade in just a little bit, enough so the first beads of blood bubbled out. She didn't want to end this too quickly, as she had been waiting for so long, and the more she could drag it out, the better. But in the end, it would depend on her level of self-control.
The blade bit a tad deeper, and a slightly thicker stream of blood started to dribble out. Rosita hadn't pierced the jugular yet, though.
Siddiq spoke up. "Rosita, I'm impressed by your self-control, but I know you really want to saw the shit out of his neck until his head comes off. I can tell."
"You just know me too well," she sighed. He was right; she'd shown enough restraint, not just now but over the last near decade, going back to when she'd first met Eugene. She really couldn't hold back any longer.
The jagged teeth of the bonesaw tore into Eugene's throat, slicing through the soft flesh and severing the jugular, blood spurting out to spray into Siddiq and Rosita's faces. Living up to its name, the instrument made quick work of Eugene's vertebrae. Rosita kept on sawing until his head was on the floor, the ponytail still in his mouth.
"Well," Siddiq commented airily, "I bet that felt good."
"You have no idea." Rosita threw the bonesaw down with a clatter. She stabbed her knife into Eugene's head to prevent reanimation.
Before they could say anything else, the headless corpse at Rosita's feet let loose with a massive expulsion of gas. It went on for almost a minute. A small brown spot appeared at the seat of Eugene's pants. The front still had a dark patch from his earlier excitement, now dry and crusted over.
"Dead bodies do that most of the time." Siddiq waved a hand toward Eugene's soiled pants.
"I guess he's just as much of a pig in death as he was in life," Rosita inferred.
"Sure looks like it." Siddiq dug out a small box of rubber gloves. He and Rosita both put a pair on their hands. They would have to do something with Eugene's headless body and would be keeping their hands protected at all times. He was probably contaminated. They rolled the body to the side so they could focus on the head first.
"Let's open his skull," Rosita suggested. "I want to see what his brain really looks like."
"Well, in med school, I read about how they pull the brain out during an autopsy," Siddiq said. "I've never done it, though. I think it might be interesting." He peered back into the box of tools, looking for what they might need. While it was fairly easy to slice through a walker's soft skull and expose its brain, a human head that had not been decomposing would be much harder to open without the proper tools. The knives they carried with them would not be sufficient to cut through thick skull bone, and decapitating Eugene had dulled the blade of the bonesaw.
"Would this work?" Rosita reached into the box and took out a small, handheld chainsaw. She pushed the button and the blade whirred to life.
"I think that'll do just fine." Siddiq picked up Eugene's head, throwing it into the air and catching it just for the hell of it. "Watch my fingers," he warned Rosita as her chainsaw neared the disembodied head in his hands. "And just a little off the top should do." She moved the blade barely an inch under Eugene's hairline. "That's good."
Rosita controlled the chainsaw with careful, steady hands, letting it take the top of Eugene's head off. "It's almost like cutting a pumpkin open to carve it," she noted as the piece of skull fell away, revealing the first quarter of the brain. The glistening pink organ peeked out of the bone, reminiscent of Frankenstein. Siddiq helped by cutting some nerves and membranes with his scissors, and together, he and Rosita heaved the brain out of the skull.
Rosita cupped the organ in her hands and lifted it in front of her face to properly regard it. "You know, he really could have done amazing things with this, if he wasn't such a godawful human being."
"Making bullets doesn't make up for being an insufferable person," Siddiq agreed. He reached for the brain in Rosita's hands, wanting to hold it, but she hugged it close to herself like Gollum with the ring.
"Mine!" she hissed playfully. Siddiq responded with a good-natured eye roll.
"I'm the doctor. Let me examine my specimen."
"I'll let you have it once I'm done with it."
"Fine. While you're living out your brain fetish, I'll get to work on his body." Siddiq strolled over to where the headless corpse lay and freed his knife from his belt. He didn't bother removing Eugene's shirt first to spare both himself and Rosita the sight of topless Eugene, even if he was dead and without a head. Siddiq used his knife to rip into the fabric, skin, fat, and muscle, opening up an incision that stretched down Eugene's ravaged abdomen to the waist of his dirty pants. He turned the corpse onto its side and gave it a couple of shakes to encourage the organs to fall out. And out they came, spilling onto the basement floor in a slimy, scarlet mess of gore, along with copious amounts of blood.
"You look really sexy right now, Siddiq," Rosita piped up from a few feet away, her fingers sensually stroking the veiny surface of Eugene's brain. Siddiq gulped, feeling his pants start to tighten. This was really all so wrong. But he couldn't help himself and clearly, neither could Rosita.
"Hey, Rosita." She raised a perfect eyebrow at him. He fished around in the steaming pile of Eugene's guts until he located his spleen. "Duck!" he yelled moments too late on purpose as he lobbed the organ at Rosita's head. It hit her square in the face, causing her to finally drop the brain.
"You son of a bitch!" She stormed over to him, but she was laughing, and he was laughing. She thrust her hand into the dissected cadaver, snapped a rib off, and smacked Siddiq hard on the ass with it.
"Harder," he goaded teasingly. She hit him again, and he gave a little squeal.
The basement floor was soaked in Eugene's fresh blood. It was mingling with the stains left over from Father Gabriel to give the impression that they had splotched the floor with red paint. Maybe they would leave it that way. Rosita's shoes slid in the warm liquid and Siddiq tried to catch her as she fell, but he also slipped and they both landed on the filthy floor, Rosita in Siddiq's lap.
"You're hard," she pointed out.
"I am."
"Maybe we shouldn't make it a habit of killing people and fucking near their mutilated dead bodies, if that's where this is headed."
"Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence. It's a coincidence, is all."
"True."
Unexpectedly, one of Siddiq's still-gloved hands went back into the cooling heap of Eugene's insides with a wet squishing sound, while the other started working Rosita's pants open. He got a hold of Eugene's heart among all the other entrails and brought it up to his lips before Rosita could protest. He gave it a quick lick, then grimaced and threw it across the room in disgust.
"Ick. Tastes like misogyny."
Rosita rolled her eyes. "Shut up and fuck me, you nasty mofo."
After, Rosita rested her head on Siddiq's bare chest as she lazily swirled patterns with Eugene's blood on his abs, every so often dipping her fingers back into the large puddle next to them to gather more onto her fingertips. The man's carcass lay almost forgotten nearby, as did his head, brain, and eviscerated organs. Siddiq and Rosita were too wrapped up in each other to care.
Even though he was simultaneously enjoying the afterglow and Rosita's mini ab massage with blood instead of baby oil, Siddiq's gaze fell on Eugene's headless, inside-out form. "I think he would good on our wall, next to Gabriel," he commented.
"Mm." Rosita drew a smiley face in blood on his torso.
Minutes ticked by in silence, until Siddiq finally said, "We'd better pick up our son from Aaron's. It's been a few hours. Aaron's probably wondering what the hell happened."
"Yeah. Definitely." Rosita got to her feet, Siddiq following suit. Neither of them could suppress a pang of guilt for leaving Herbert for so long. "We'd better shower first, though," she added. They were both pretty evenly coated in Eugene's blood.
As they made their way back to the stairs, naked and shameless, Rosita glanced over the remains of Eugene Porter. She nudged Siddiq. "This wouldn't have happened to him if he wasn't such a slut," she said. "He really should have known better."
"You're right," Siddiq agreed. "Also, I don't know about you, but I have a feeling he was waiting to betray all of us again. Sell us out to the Whisperers, maybe. I just never trusted him for some reason."
The couple exchanged a look, and laughed so hard they feared their own organs would fall out.