tw: gore, murder, mentions of cannibalism

Jude Caterham, 18

District Six Male

Jude awoke to the faint sound of static filling the room, groaning a bit as he became more aware of what was going on around him. Specifically, the fact that his head was fucking killing him.

Everything was fuzzy as he sat up, the edges of his vision fading to black as he tried to remember what had happened. It was like a puzzle, trying to fit together all of the pieces correctly as he retraced his steps to figure out what had gone down last night. All the pieces were there, somewhere, and if he really tried he could usually figure it out. He was a fucking genius, after all.

The source of the static was the old television set, having long finished playing one of his old movies. Jude fumbled to take out the disc and put it back in its case, squinting at the box to figure out which movie he'd watched for the thousandth time before realizing his head wasn't clearing fast enough and giving up. It didn't really matter in the end, anyway. It's not like he actually remembered anything from last night, and he probably never fully would.

Clues always surrounded him after mornings like these, though. He usually woke up on the floor, a mess of blankets and pillows around him like he was a child who had majorly fucked up their pillow fort. If he looked hard enough, he could probably find the remains of whatever drugs he'd gotten high on last night. There was also a bottle of… something he couldn't read the label on, so he didn't bother trying, choosing instead to swallow the meager mouthful that was left, their acrid taste causing him to shudder.

The next thing he noticed was that the blankets were bunched up beside him, like someone had been there but wasn't anymore. It wouldn't take any guessing to figure out who that was. There was only one person it could be, only one person that was allowed to be close to him. Because she understood in a way that no one else ever would.

They were both monsters, unable to be loved or understood by anyone else. Monsters could only seek refuge with other monsters, where they wouldn't be persecuted for the sole crime of living.

Well, maybe Jude had fucked up in a few places, so that too.

Imperia was already awake, only a shame because that meant he couldn't marvel in the simple beauty of her peaceful state. She was up and moving around, looking entirely unaffected by the messy contents of the room they'd both woken up in. Jude couldn't blame her. It was his room, after all. And Imperia was above dealing with such a mess.

Besides, when she was asleep Jude could forget that he hated her as much as he loved her. That all she did was amplify the worst parts of himself and he did the same for her. That if he was a monster, she was Satan himself, her beautiful facade only allowing others to grow complacent without realizing she was already destroying them. Some days, Jude wondered if he was exempt from that treatment, or if she was simply doing the same to him. But he figured he was better off not knowing.

Everything about her was intimately familiar to him, from her deceptively tiny form to her long jet-black hair to the dangerous glint in her dark eyes that only he seemed to be perceptive enough to pick up on. Not that it saved him from her allure. She was the kind of girl that deserved poems to have written about her, though all Jude could muster was shitty poetry while under the influence of something. Maybe if he was really out of it, it would be a little less shitty.

"It's rude to stare," came the sickeningly sweet voice from above him. "Better watch it, otherwise I'll think you're into me. Either that or you're just a creep."

Her words were laced with something that Jude couldn't untangle, a memory of last night surfacing, of her mouth on his. Poison always coated her lips, ready to dispose of anyone that opposed her, but only Jude knew that she tasted sweeter than anyone would think.

"As if I'd ever look at your face so early in the morning," Jude shot back, slowly getting to his feet and beginning to move around. "I don't want to be scarred for life."

Imperia didn't bother to take his bait, as she was already far above whatever petty jabs he could throw at her. "You must not be able to recognize true beauty then," she said, before pausing as she regarded him. "But it's not like that's unexpected coming from you. Who knows what you've got going on in that brain of yours."

The slight emphasis on the word brain was enough to make Jude flinch, just as he always did when she brought it up. "You're going to visit Diana today, aren't you?" he shot back, using the only ammunition he knew could hope to hold up against hers.

Imperia just grinned and headed over to his bed, where she'd placed her worn leather jacket. It was clearly well-loved, and while Imperia could easily buy more if she wanted to- the Bachmanns were just as loaded as the Caterhams - this was a piece of Imperia's wardrobe that was more than it seemed. She kept it because she liked it that way, or so Jude assumed.

Not that he noticed. Or cared.

It was so damn frustrating of Imperia to crawl her way into his head like that. She was on his mind more often than not, but at least he was special, different from everyone else around Imperia. At the very least, he wasn't Diana. But he also wasn't a fucking dumbass, so he never would be a Diana.

"Of course I am," Imperia said all too casually. "I have to go check on her. It's what a friend would do, remember?"

After a beat of silence from Jude, Imperia turned to look at him, her leather jacket wrapped snugly around her frame now. "Don't worry," she said with a smile that didn't serve to reassure him. "I'd do the same for you."

Jude just rolled his eyes and moved closer to her. "At least you'll get out of my hair for the day."

She sidled up close to him, a hand barely grazing along his side. Jude couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath at the contact, no matter how minimal it was. His entire body tensed out of revulsion, but he fought to keep it from showing on his face.

Judging by Imperia's innocent smile, she had him all figured out. Of course she did. She always said she was an observer, floating through life, so she was probably pretty good at her role by now.

"You didn't seem to mind me last night," Imperia said, seeming to enjoy holding their relationship - whatever it was - over his head.

It was almost like she forgot that this went both ways, and Imperia Bachmann (who prided herself on not getting invested) felt the same way about him.

"That's funny, because I'm pretty sure this is a two way street." Jude raised an eyebrow at her daringly. "Just admit you're in love with me already."

"Don't be ridiculous," Imperia chided him, "if there's anyone that needs to admit something, it's you. You're the one that needs to admit you love me, that you always have, ever since we were children."

Actually, Jude had thought of Imperia as the biggest pain in his ass when they were children, but she would just deny it if he ever tried to tell her the truth. He didn't know why she was so determined to get him to admit he was in love with her (he wasn't), but it only made him want her to admit the same. It was a dangerous game that they played, dancing around each other like that. Maybe one day someone would get hurt, but they were too determined (and maybe selfish) to let it be either of them.

"Maybe you're the one that's always had the hots for me," he shot back, folding his arms across his chest. "If you're so curious, maybe you-"

A sharp laugh cut him off, Imperia's sharp eyes glinting. "As if I'd ever 'have the hots for' a neanderthal like you." She covered her mouth with a hand to hide a snicker. "That has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

"Almost as ridiculous as me loving you, then."

Imperia started heading towards the door, but not without one last jab at him - she always got the last word in. "You and I both know that I'm right, asshole. Don't dream about me when you nod off tonight."

And like that she was gone, the bright flame that Jude was, against his better judgement, constantly drawn to. He was a moth, and if he wasn't careful, his wings would burn.

Sighing, Jude started cleaning up his room. Cleaning wasn't exactly the right word for it, since he was really just moving shit around and off the floor, but he at least wanted to figure out what the hell he'd gotten up to last night. He bundled up the blankets and threw on the bed haphazardly; that was an issue he could deal with later. Everything else could either be thrown away or tossed somewhere else as he cleaned up, uncovering everything until the only thing left was…

An old surgery textbook of his dads', one that Jude knew well. He was extremely familiar with it in fact, and the very sight of it made his pulse quicken, his heart nearly pouding out of his chest.

It was open to a chapter he knew like the back of his hand, the chapter on surgery. On instinct, his hand flipped through the pages as if he was caught up in a dream, landing on the section about lobotomies. He stared down at the diagram and all over again he could feel the ice pick in his hands, the way he could slide it up through the orbital socket, carefully avoiding all of the nerves until the ice pick went straight up into the brain, moving it back and forth until-

Shuddering, Jude dropped the textbook and kicked it under his bed, hoping he'd forget about it for a while. He couldn't be reminded of the sins of his past, even if all he was doing was helping them. Was it really wrong if they were better afterwards?

That whole group of middle school boys had idolized him, even if he didn't deserve it. And he just wanted them to go down the right path, so he fixed them. They'd all wanted it, all wanted to go under his blade (well, ice pick) and get the lobotomy done so they could be just as good as him.

He was just saving them from what would have been their inevitable downfall, saving them from turning into the monster Jude himself feared he was becoming

Jude felt himself tremble as he stood above his bed, even though the textbook was out of sight. It couldn't hurt him anymore, but everything he'd done was his fault anyway. He was tired of lobotomies and tired of being like this, all fucked up with absolutely nothing he could do about it.

For as much as Imperia Bachmann was like him, there was nothing she could do to save him.

No, Jude had saved (and lost) others and yet he couldn't save himself. Maybe he'd never be able to, and he'd just have to deal with it. His only consolation was that no one could possibly hate him as much as he hated himself, no one would find out about everything he'd done. Only Imperia would ever know, because she was the only one that understood.

Jude Caterham was a monster, and in the end he was utterly damned.

Imperia Bachmann, 18

District Six Female

Imperia Bachmann was merely an observer, making her way through life by hovering on the outside.

Being an observer meant many things, but most importantly it meant that Imperia could pick up on anything before anyone else could. She was perceptive like no one else, able to pick up on flaws and insecurities and weakness. Everyone had something for Imperia to exploit.

After all, they were merely pawns, and Imperia was the master of the game.

Every experiment came with a name, from Aubrey to Jess to Beckett. All of them had been easily swayed by Imperia into doing something "out of the ordinary." The out of the ordinary part always perplexed Imperia, but she soon realized that it wasn't anything particularly shocking at all. All humans, especially in District Six, were intrinsically inclined to depravity. That was their true natural state, and all they needed from Imperia was a push to send them over the edge.

There was one experiment that still kept Imperia up at night, the one experiment she hadn't quite finished up yet. It had been a few weeks since everything had been discovered (everything except the truth, that is) and Imperia knew she was close to the end. All she had to do was make one more visit.

Imperia was a Bachmann, and so her spine was perfectly straight as she strolled into the Peacekeepers Station. She immediately went up to the counter, holding her hand out for a uniformed Peacekeeper to check her identity.

"Imperia Bachmann," she declared, feeling a slight sting on her finger as her blood was taken. She showed no sign of feeling it, though. As her mother always said, a Bachmann never showed weakness. And Imperia was reminded of that every day, her old habits burned into her mind like the way she could sometimes still feel her old back brace forcing her spine into its proper shape.

The Peacekeeper's badge read 'Kieran Lito,' and Imperia pursed her lips to think. She'd heard his name thrown around school, heard the way some girls giggled at any mention of him. Imperia certainly didn't think too highly of him, always writing him off as some kind of predator, someone who took advantage of those young girls. Money, food, shelter… they were necessities, ones that Kieran was more than happy to give out, but only for a price.

Now that she thought about it, maybe Imperia did remember him. Just as she remembered sending a girl right into his clutches to see how great her influence was. The girl was in desperate need of food for her family, and Imperia could see after that they'd both gotten exactly what they wanted. Nothing wrong with that.

If she remembered correctly, the girl's name was Marissa. Marissa was one of her more recent experiments, a simple test to see if Imperia could get the rather modest and soft-spoken girl to take rather desperate measures to take care of herself and her family. Needless to say, it worked. But then again, Imperia's experiments almost always worked. She was something of a genius, after all.

But her experiments were set up to test different hypotheses, and Imperia never stooped so low as to do the same experiment twice.

"Here to visit Diana Jordan," Imperia said, her voice perfectly even as she watched the peacekeeper, who seemed to be eyeing her up as if she was one of the girls that actively tried to catch his attention. She had to suppress an eyeroll at that. Imperia didn't seek out attention, especially not from a neanderthal like him.

"Right this way," came another peacekeeper's voice, giving Imperia a way to leave the front desk area without giving Kieran Lito another look.

This guard's name was Carnegie Deviller, a fact Imperia could recall without even looking at his little name badge. Imperia had visited this place on several occasions to catch up with her old friend Diana, and Carnegie Deviller would almost always be the one to lead her back to Diana's cell.

Through the bars, Imperia could tell that Diana looked even worse than when she'd last visited. Diana's dark hair hung in limp strands around her face, and it seemed thinner than last time as well, making Imperia wonder if Diana had resigned herself to pulling out her own hair. As she looked up, Imperia also noticed the dark circles under the girl's eyes, though she could have spotted them from miles away.

"Hey there, Diana," Imperia said, making sure to soften her voice to that of a concerned friend. "Sorry I couldn't come for a few days, I had other obligations to attend to."

Without discussing said "obligations," Imperia hoped that Diana would begin to spiral as she wondered what could possibly have prevented Imperia from visiting her. What was more important than a beloved friend, after all?

Well, the truth was, Imperia had been doing nothing at all. Nothing of importance, anyway. If it had fit into Imperia's plan, she could have visited Diana any day. But Imperia knew that with all the rumors flying around and the truth that lay beneath them all, no one else would be bothered to visit Diana. None of those friends that Diana had clung to so desperately, the friends that she'd shoved Imperia aside for… none of them had visited Diana.

After all, Imperia had made sure of it.

It wasn't hard, given what Diana was accused of. They all had turned their noses up at the opportunity, but Imperia was playing the Good Samaritan as she told them, Come on, she can't be responsible for that, can she? I mean, murder and cannibalism? We know Diana, she'd never do something like that!

Diana's eyes widened as she looked at Imperia, softening with the implicit trust between two friends. They'd had their fair share of ups and downs, but nothing could shake the fact that in Diana's eyes, Imperia had been by her side since that night.

"No, no… I understand," Diana said with all the meekness of someone that had spent the last three days completely and utterly alone, with only her thoughts and the rhythmic tapping of peacekeeper's boots to keep her company. "I'm just… I'm just glad that you came back."

Imperia let a slow smile stretch across her face, seemingly open and receptive to Diana's plight. "Of course I did," she whispered. "I was the one there with you that night, after all. I can't just abandon you."

No, she couldn't abandon Diana, her most ambitious experiment yet. Not after everything she'd worked for, after everything she'd done. Imperia had a strict policy against getting her hands dirty for these experiments, but on occasion she made exceptions.

"You've always been so good to me." Diana's voice was hoarse like she was trying to choke back sobs, her hand slowly wrapping around one of the bars of her cell. "I don't understand, how could you believe me after all of this? You were with me that night… so you know what happened?"

Oh, Imperia knew exactly what had happened. She'd crafted the situation herself, from the brownies she'd laced with edibles to the very meal Diana had eaten to get her into this situation. But all Diana knew was that Imperia had left after some time, not that she was coherent enough to keep track of what had happened.

"I don't know for sure," Imperia admitted slowly, like it was hard for her to accept that she didn't know the full truth. "But above all, I believe in you."

Diana visibly teared up at that, her deep brown eyes exposing such vulnerability that Imperia knew her hunch was right: she was close.

"Why do you still believe in me?" Diana mumbled, ripping her eyes away from Imperia to stare down at her hands. "Everyone else says I'm a monster, that I killed and ate my own butler. You were there with me, they say I was so incoherent that I can't possibly confirm that I'm innocent. You saw me, and… you still believe I'm not a monster?"

"Diana, that's ridiculous," Imperia whispered, letting herself get close enough to touch the bars. She figured if she seemed willing to get close to Diana, that would make it seem like Imperia trusted Diana, trusted that Diana wouldn't lash out or try to hurt her.

And of course, Imperia knew she never would. After all, it wasn't Diana Jordan that had killed her own butler. It was Imperia.

Murder was something all too common in District Six, and therefore it was imperative that it be added to Imperia's bucket list. It was only a matter of time before the proper situation came up, and after the snake Diana had nearly cut Imperia off from their group of friends out of pure jealousy, Imperia knew it was time to perform her most ambitious experiment yet. After everything Diana had done in an attempt to discredit her, Imperia knew she had to go above and beyond to get everyone else to write Diana off entirely.

"I know you'd never do this of your own volition," Imperia insisted, playing the role of the steadfast friend until the end. "I know that's no choice you'd ever make on your own."

The drugs Imperia had laced those brownies with had done their job, leaving Diana's memory with gaping holes that would never come back. Besides that, it had helped Diana become more susceptible to Imperia's suggestions, like what had happened when Imperia finished killing the butler. Imperia had planted enough evidence to suggest to the peacekeepers that it was Diana, like Diana's shoes, a couple strands of hair… even the knife Imperia had used carried Diana's fingerprints.

Every piece of evidence pointed to Diana, but murder wasn't enough for Imperia. She needed this experiment to reach new heights, and so she had Diana commit one of the most heinous acts she could think of.

"But… you think the drugs could have influenced me?" Of course Diana picked up on the unspoken but, just as Imperia intended. This close to the end, she knew Diana was nearly at her breaking point. "That they might have influenced me and... I not only killed my butler, I ate him too?"

Diana was so fucked up and out of her mind that she thought she was eating chicken, and Imperia wasn't going to tell her otherwise. No, she wouldn't dare tell Diana that she was eating her own butler.

"Drugs like that lower your inhibitions," Imperia insisted, leaning close to the cell. "I certainly don't think you'd do it in any normal circumstance, but there's the chance that you harbored those kinds of urges and this was just how they ended up showing themselves."

"I don't know why I would ever do something like that," Diana insisted, growing increasingly more agitated. "He was a kind butler, and I'd never…"

Imperia wondered if Diana was thinking of the same person she was in that moment. Old Claudy, an old homeless man that had been relentlessly pelted by snowballs by Diana's group of friends in the middle of winter until he fell over and never got back up. Kids were tiny gremlins, but this was the worst case Imperia had ever seen. At only eight years old, Imperia had witnessed a murder, and the kids had gotten away with it. Diana had even stolen the poor man's hat and only sense of warmth, flaunting it without a care in the world.

"Your subconscious could have yearned for power over him, and the drugs may have been the gateway to that," Imperia said slowly, as if she was thinking it over. "I don't think you would ever do something like that of your own accord, but…"

Diana's hands began shaking, and she seemed at a loss for words. Imperia could see the wheels turning inside her head, wondering if she was really so desperate for control that she'd killed and eaten her own butler to do it.

"I believe in you, Diana," Imperia insisted once again. "I know it's nothing you meant to do, but the truth will be found out eventually."

Imperia was nearly stunned as Diana Jordan promptly burst into tears, her sobs louder than the guilt that began to pound in Imperia's ears. She pushed it aside, tried to ignore it, but she knew that it would never go away. At least, it wouldn't anytime soon.

"Oh my god!" Diana shrieked, one of her hands flailing to smack the table. "I can't believe it… I can't believe it!"

She kept muttering the phrase over and over again, her voice rising in volume and her words becoming more garbled as her distress took over. Two peacekeepers picked up on the noise, rushing into the room and staring open-mouthed at the girl openly weeping, her head in her hands as her entire body shook from the force of her sobs.

The head peacekeeper didn't take long to appear, the noise enough to attract what was beginning to become a crowd. His gaze danced between Diana and Imperia before he stalked towards Imperia, hovering over her like some sort of giant.

"What did you do?" he asked, his low voice nearly growling at Imperia.

Imperia raised her eyebrows, her mouth open to paint the perfect picture of surprise. She just shook her head wordlessly, playing it off as if she had no idea either. It wasn't terribly hard to do that though, as she happened to be a bit surprised.

After all, how could she have known that this would work so well?

"I can't believe it!" Diana wailed again, her words becoming clearer as she looked up at the head peacekeeper with wide eyes. "I can't believe I had it in me! I killed and ate my own butler!"

Imperia was soon ushered from the site, told to go home and to not spread around what had happened, not until the papers were ready for it. Imperia was more than happy to agree - after all, this was one experiment that had somehow shaken her. She couldn't describe the way she felt, couldn't figure out how she, who was merely an observer, was all torn up over the case of Diana Jordan.

As for Diana Jordan, well… she was never seen again. That wasn't a surprise, of course. After all, what parents would want their cannibalistic, murdering daughter around to taint their family name even further? All Imperia knew was that they'd used their connections to keep the girl from being executed, but as for where exactly Diana had been committed… she had no clue.

Not that it stopped Diana from haunting Imperia's dreams. Shrieks of monster, monster! played in Imperia's head all night until she was startled awake, never able to figure out if Diana was talking about herself or Imperia. But Imperia didn't want to know, didn't ever want to find out the answer to that. She wasn't as glaringly human as the rest, so there was no way she could become the same monster that all of humanity was destined to become.

Yes, Imperia Bachmann was merely an observer to what the rest of the world was so terribly invested in. This life that they lived, it couldn't touch Imperia the way that it pierced their very souls, baring their secrets to Imperia's eyes only.

An observer couldn't be harmed by this life, an observer couldn't feel any emotional trauma. Imperia Bachmann could never get attached, she could never get hurt. She could never let herself get hurt.

She was always in control, and she'd be damned before she ever relinquished that control.

... so heyyy, this has been jude and imperia, children of ladyqueerfoot and Mags2000 respectively. i uh. have no clue what to say here if i'm gonna be honest. sorry that it's been a minute? i hope you liked them? uhh... yeah! so here they are linds and maggie can now scream as much as their hearts desire, for their children have been born.

fuck filler lives so we're skipping d7 and going right to d8, where i shall introduce y'all to jack and also visit a subplot character because i do what i want (also he's important). who knows when that will be though ahaha school am i right. see y'all whenever but i'm not going to jail so it'll be within the month!

(oh also a note: i know i had a tw for gore and murder and this is a hg fic and all but uhh this is also intros so it's not exactly the norm from what i've seen. never fear, we will see worse than this :D thanks for reading!)

~de laney is out