Author's Note: Three one-shots. Crappy crack. Disjointed writing, purposeful punctuation and grammar flaws in places. Double entendre title is because...Well, KoЯn lyrics oDo
Rated for violence/my morbid sense of humor. For once these one-shots take place in the same continuity, although they're backwards. As in the third chapter happened first and the first chapter happened last.
(hey you hey you devil's little sister)
He waited until his parents were out.
Amber was asleep and it was well over the time where the metaphorical boundary between late night and early morning blurred, when his parents would be asleep as well anyway, were they not out for the weekend (it was their 20th anniversary how sentimental). Given that fact, perhaps Nathaniel shouldn't have waited.
Crimes committed during such overtly convenient timing were the most suspicious, the most obvious. The ever avid reader of police novel after police novel, Nathaniel knew that well. But that knowledge still didn't stop him.
He closed the book he'd been blindly staring at in the dark and set it gently on the nightstand.
(Perhaps on some level he was aiming to get caught.)
He got out of bed and curled his toes into the shaggy carpet, taking one downy pillow and tucking it under his arm.
(Most, if not all, murderers do, really. They want the recognition.)
He padded down the hallway as silent and determined as a feline in a hunter's crouch, slitted eyes locked on the prey.
(There are few exceptions.)
Amber never slept with the door closed all the way. No, she always kept it open just a little. A crack as slim as a pencil. Nathaniel pushed it open with ease and crept into her room, fingers flexing and readjusting their grip on the pillowcase. He'd been planning this for awhile, probably. Possibly not, possibly he was just fantasizing about it. But when you look at it in perspective, isn't fantasizing the first step in planning anyway?
He lowered his weight onto the edge of her bed, torso turned and eyes following her serene features, only just illuminated by the pale glow of moonlight that leaked in from under the shades. The satin covers rose and fell with each tranquil breath that passed her slightly parted lips. A small trickle of drool dribbled out from the corner of her mouth and left a minute, appleseed sized stain on her pillowcase.
She was sleeping very soundly, blissfully lost in the peaceful depths of slumber. Nathaniel wondered if she was dreaming. What about? Pretty things? Sunny beaches and sparkly jewels?
Too bad he'd have to cut them short.
He smashed the pillow over her face and pressed down with every sinew of wretched vigor.
"Mmph!" Amber awoke instantly, muffled cries of confusion and fright fracturing the still of the atmosphere. Instinctively, she began to struggle. Upper-body trying and failing to thrust up, her hands flailing to strike her attacker (brother). Nathaniel ground his teeth and pressed down harder. He relished in the way she fought so ardently for a life she was doomed to lose. It was already leaving her, which each deprived breath of the oxygen she needed to survive, he was snatching away the future she might've had.
(In the dusty corners of his mind, he briefly wondered if he would've had any nieces or nephews.)
Her fingers found his arms and coiled around them in a vise, her nails nearly breaking his skin as she pushed up against him, pushed futilely to break his grip with everything she had in her. She was genuinely stronger than Nathaniel had expected her to be, and it took a real effort on his part to keep the pillow stuffed into her airways. But the harder you work at something, the more satisfying it is when you attain your objective, right?
When her struggles began to weaken, he shifted the pillow just enough, just so.
Just so he could see her eyes. Wild, utterly terrified aquamarine depths that glistened with moisture and abruptly snapped up to him. She screeched his name into the polyester that shaved away the rest of her years with hushed volumes. Jolting accusation merged with the horror in her eyes. Raw betrayal crowned over every other fleeting emotion. Why, Nathaniel, why!? How could you!?
His lips spread in the gentlest of brotherly smiles. Heart fluttering with sweet victory, he smiled wider and leaned over to make sure she got a real good look at it. He made sure that his benevolent beaming was the last thing she would ever see as her resistance was exhausted and her fingers fell slack from his arms.
(Oh look, there's blood under her perfectly manicured fingernails. She actually did break the skin.)
Her accusatory eyes clouded over with lifelessness. Still fixed on him but so, so empty. And just a moment ago, they'd been so, so full.
Nathaniel pulled the pillow back and peered at them. Perhaps he should've closed her lids. But he didn't. He stared into the twin blank pupils and dim irises. He reasserted there was nothing left to find in them.
Null, nada, void.
(Double check, always double check. One can never be too certain.)
Little bubbles of laughter rolled form his tongue as he patted her bloated cheek. He then stood up and tucked his pillow back under his arm. He left the room with delicate footfalls and soundlessly closed the door behind him.
But he didn't close it all the way. He left it open just a crack. A crack as slim as a pencil.
After all, Amber would've wanted it that way.