Chapter 8: Cornered

Word Count: 5,064

Ivan blinked open his eyes, looking around. Alfred was missing at the moment, but that wasn't too surprising. He stretched a bit and sat up, rubbing his face. A couple months had gone by and no new murders had come up, Alfred's injures had healed long ago thankfully and he seemed to be doing a lot better. The murderer probably couldn't do anything while the chains were in their possession. All the blood they found matched the victims without any extras left over samples. The chains didn't have anything about were they were from of course, and all that was found on them was dirt local to Las Vegas, and some cuts that would match the chainsaw, that was it.

People were starting to look at other cases, Ivan included for the time being, while continuing to work on it as almost a side case. Kind of sad, but perhaps the murderer had moved off thinking that they were going to get caught, or just stopped killing for a while. And they could take a break for years. So they couldn't very well ignore other cases while waiting around for the next murder.

Standing up, Ivan went out of the bedroom to look around, mostly at the clock. It was noon. Usually Alfred was the one to sleep in, then again he had stayed up late working on some things. Shaking his head, he went back into the bathroom and grabbed his toothbrush, starting to brush his teeth. If it was noon, Alfred was probably downstairs helping make Matthew food.

If Alfred did work it was usually at the bar he co-owed during the evenings and early mornings of course. Which he did more often then Ivan originally thought. Once he didn't feel the grim of sleep in his mouth, he got dressed, though he didn't have to work today unless something urgent came up. Walking outside into the heat, he walked down the stairs and into Matthew's house, which really it was basically one house and the brothers treated it as such with just some basic separation rules.

He opened the sliding glass door and closed it behind him, Alfred looking up from the stove, looking horrified, "Oh my god, it lives!"

"Like you can talk." Ivan sighed, walking over to the now grinning blond.

"Yeah but you like never sleep in! Got to milk that for what it's worth. Then again, you always oversleep when I top."

Ivan hummed, wrapping his arms around the other and kissing him deeply a moment before pulling back, "You're cooking in this heat?" Ivan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Take off the scarf then! I want grilled cheese. Want one?"

"I'll have two seeing as I missed breakfast." Ivan sighed before Alfred kissed him slowly before shooing him off. Ivan smiled, letting go of the other who turned and flipped over the sandwich in the cast-iron skillet. Right, Matthew might be watching, he always forgot the other was there. He looked around for the other. "Where is Matthew?"

"He has work. You're usually gone before he goes though."

"I see." Ivan blinked, that was new, "Matthew works?"

"Um duh, he pays half the rent."

"Where do you get the money to pay half the fund for a bar and a large house like this outside of town?" The plumbing alone would be a fortune out here.

"I steal... which I have remarkably cut down on doing since dating you!" Ivan sighed as the blond gave him an uneasy smile, "But really mostly it's that I had this Grandfather who loved me and when he died, god rest his soul, he gave me most his fortune. I still kind of miss him."

"So you spend it on a bar?"

"He would be so proud."

"...right." Ivan muttered, deciding not to question the personality traits of Alfred's family members. "Alfred, do you have a computer I can borrow? I left my laptop at my house."

"What? But you said we could hang out today without you being a workaholic!" Alfred turned to pout at him before turning back and putting another grilled cheese on the pile on a serving plate.

"It is just one email I need to type up and send real quick. It won't take more then five minutes... ten, ten minutes." Considering Alfred would whine if he was so much as thirty seconds after he promised.

Alfred pouted a while more before sighing, "Matthew has a computer in this like... computer room of his, I don't know, it's kind of cluttered cause I keep shit in it and he does, anyway, first door to the... um... left in the hallway. It should be on, there's no password, don't worry."

"Alright, I'll be right back."

"Okay, but I'm going to come in there and eat food in front of you and not bring you any!"

"What will that accomplish?"

"It'll make you hungry and then you won't spend forever in there!" Ivan smiled, shaking his head before turning and walking out of the kitchen, going down the hall like Alfred said. It fascinated him how differently their 'houses' were set up, Matthew having multiple rooms while Alfred had a studio-like place. Shrugging that off he opened the door that Alfred had said, it really was quite cluttered along the edges, with hockey sticks and some trophies, of course Ivan had learned Matthew was a hockey player in Canada for some time while he was studying abroad. Of course Alfred had said it really wasn't traveling abroad since it was just Canada, but that was beside the point. There were also some baseball bats and balls and camping gear. On the opposite wall of the door was the computer.

Ivan looked idly at some of the objects before he headed towards the computer. Which was clearly on screen saver, a personalized one since it was showing pictures. Every five seconds it changed, Ivan sat down, watching it change from Matthew in his hockey uniform and grinning madly, covered in sweat and a bit younger to another. Ivan jiggled the mouse right before his mind caught the picture. He froze, blinking a moment.

Tilting his head he smiled uncertainly, clicking on the computer and looking through the C drive for Pictures. He found several folders there, all labeled by event and year. He went to the search before typing in 'Halloween'. There were several folders there and Ivan scrolled through the first through third without a problem. In the fourth folder he stopped, double clicking the picture he had gotten a flash of. He leaned back, putting a hand to his mouth.

It was a Halloween party, a large one with a lot of things going on in the background, it was at a different house, where Ivan wasn't sure. Who he assumed was Matthew was dressed in a bed sheet, two holes cut out for the violet eyes, a cheap and unoriginal costume, but it seemed to fit him. He moved his eyes to Alfred who had a jack the ripper mask on the top of his head so it didn't obscure his face too much, bright new orange coat that had purposeful cuts near the ends that turned green, white undershirt and large chainsaw over one shoulder, grinning at the camera. Ivan numbly took out the picture that he had gotten from the camera footage that seemed so long ago, putting it down, the grainy blood socked outfit exactly the same.

Just like that his whole world went black.

Alfred frowned, pulling his metal bat back, looking at Ivan's unconscious form slumped over the desk. "Damn it Ivan... " He muttered, looking at the computer screen with that picture, sighing he dropped the bat to the ground, "And I told Matthew to get rid of that picture." He looked back at his lover, well former lover now. "Well... now what?"

Ivan slowly opened his eyes, morning light greeting him. Wait a minute, he had woken up at noon, he felt adrenaline shoot through his system as he found his hands were bound together, his head pounding. "Glad to see you awake." He glared up at the voice, blinking a few times to try and get ride of the slight grogginess of his vision to see Alfred standing there.

"You... " Ivan spat, part of him just not believing this. "You really are the Vegas Sevens. All this time... " Alfred didn't say anything, arms crossed and face completely void of any emotions, something he hadn't ever seen on the enthusiastic youth. He couldn't believe it, "And I stopped suspecting you, well you certainly are a good liar."

"Shut up, you know what?" Alfred snarled, grabbing the front of his jacket and lifting up on it, completely taking Ivan off of what he was laying on and reminding the older of the teen's strength. He grunted, pulling at the restraints that held his arms. "You have really, really managed to piss me off. None of the people I've killed have managed to personally piss me off so you've really entered a new level."

Ivan glared before quickly glancing at the surroundings and looking back at Alfred, smiling a bit. "So you are going to kill me here?" Wherever here was.

"Shut up. As much as I so very, very much want your face pushing daisies right now, killing a federal agent is a bit much for me, I have to admit."

"What is the plan? Lock me up somewhere?"

"You take me for an idiot? I'm not going to do anything to get willingly get caught!"

"Yes I know." Ivan narrowed his eyes, smile fading. "I will see you dead by the end of this Alfred." He felt very betrayed, and angry because of it. He should have expected this. He shouldn't have stopped suspecting the other at any time. Really it was a bit of a shock, that Alfred, had killed seventeen people and had gotten away with it and obviously without any remorse.

"Get in line." Alfred curled his lip, dropping Ivan back onto the bed and walking to the other side of the room, rubbing at the back of his head.

"And what exactly do you plan to do? They will notice my absence at work." Ivan growled, though he probably should have kept quiet so Alfred didn't try killing him, he was a bit too angry to worry about his health.

Alfred sent him a glare before walking up to him. Ivan slowly sat up with some difficulty, at least his legs weren't bound though. Alfred stopped maybe a foot from him before sitting down criss-crossed on the ground in front of him. "So actually, I've been drugging you and keeping you unconscious for the past five days. You might be feeling very hungry, I was only able to keep you hydrated. In the mean time, we're no longer in America. Nobody's going to come after you Ivan."

Five days? Ivan narrowed his eyes. That was a long time to be unconscious. Might be while he felt very groggy. "Just because five days have passed does not mean that nobody is coming."

"Look, the reason I woke you up was mainly to give you food." Alfred sighed, sitting up on his knees and grabbing something out of Ivan's eye sight before sittig back down, half of a sandwich in hand. Ivan instantly felt his mouth water and a hunger pain course through his stomach.

"I will eat nothing you give me." Ivan growled darkly, pushing back against the wall behind him.

Alfred sighed heavily, moving to nearly sit beside him, which made Ivan wish he could go through the wall. "It's not poisoned. Five days is a long time to go without food." The blond held the sandwich close to Ivan's mouth. For a long while Ivan didn't move, forcing himself to ignore it. But despite his will to not eat, his mouth seemed to have a will of it's own as it bit into the offered food. It tasted so good, Ivan didn't think he'd ever had something so delicious, yet he was sure it was just a simple ham and cheese sandwich. But it was just so good. "Don't eat so fast." Alfred said softly, though Ivan knew those were wise words, it didn't register to his body. He ended up biting Alfred's finger when it was gone. "Ow-" Alfred pulled back, glaring. While it wasn't purposful, Ivan felt pleased by that.

Ivan looked away, licking his lips slowly as Alfred knelt up again before sitting back down, holding out the other half of the sandwich. When it came closer, he didn't even hesitate to start eating it. But soon it was gone and Alfred was standing up, whipping his hands on his jeans and walking away. Swallowing thickly, Ivan spoke before he could think. "I want more."

Alfred smiled at him. "Don't underestimate how quickly your stomach can shrink. Maybe in a few hours you can have something else."

"I am still going to see you dead by the end of this."

"I'll talk to you about serious stuff when you're not mad with hunger... you're probably feeling very weak at this point and your thought process is slowed... I'm honestly hoping some of your organs haven't started shutting down at this point."

"I knew that... I-I knew that..." Somewhere, he had. He felt his body almost being ecstatic with new food coming into his system. But he wanted more. His mind really wasn't what he knew it usually was.

"I know you did." Alfred came back over, laying him down. Ivan tried to resist the other pushing him into the bed, but he hardly had the energy to stay sitting up anyway. "Go to sleep. You can have more food when you wake up." Ivan growled. "Go to sleep Ivan. You can think about catching me later... for now, just sleep." Ivan felt a hand running through his hair. As much as he felt anger towards the other, his eyes slowly closed, his body telling him that he had used too much energy.

When he woke up it didn't seem like Alfred hadn't moved at all, but the blond helped his sit up and feed him some soup. Ivan drank all of what Alfred gave him without question. Honestly it tasted so good that Ivan was in tears by the end and shaking with what his body hoped was energy. Of course, he was able to stay awake for an entire hour, though Alfred refused to talk to him, insisting that he was still too weak and brain-dead for a serious discussion. Part of him agreed with the words even though they frustrated them. He fell asleep.

The third time he woke up, it was darker and he realized then that before when he woke up a light had been on. He rolled over, moving his hands against what felt like... like... rope. Thick, from the feel of it, but it would be easier to cut then metal. He stiffened when he felt breath ghost across his face. Becoming more aware of his surroundings, he felt Alfred sleeping almost right next to him. Looking at the blond hair, he saw the other mumble something and move slightly, still asleep.

Ivan thought about trying to escape, but another priority overtook it. Ivan kicked the other. Alfred yelped, rolling off of the bed they were on. He saw the others outline sit up. "Ivan? What the hell?"

Staying silent for a long moment he finally said, "I am hungry."

"Hm..." He saw Alfred stand up and then a moment later the room was bright. Ivan blinked several times, vision adjusting as Alfred put on his glasses, yawning. "Yeah, I guess it is morning." He muttered groggily, hair messy and shirt disheveled. Alfred walked through a door that Ivan had noticed the last time he was there, but he could assume that it led to the rest of the housing seeing as it was the only door. Ivan continued to move his arms around, trying to find out what sort of knot was holding him so he could get to work undoing it.

His arms grew tired before he found out. Ivan would just save that task for another day. He looked towards the door. What was Alfred even up to? Feeding him, the other was suppose to be killing him, he was a murderer. And the other waking up early in the morning just because Ivan said he was hungry? If he had tried that weeks ago he would have been snapped at to get his own or wait until Alfred was completely awake, the blond wasn't always the best to wake up with. Their situation should only increase Alfred's cruelty.

It was a bit awkward to go to the bathroom, since Alfred wouldn't leave him alone in any room that wasn't the bedroom, but he was actually able to shower, and Alfred had somehow gotten a hold of clothes. Ivan suspected almost two weeks had passed from when he had first woken up. And Alfred had untied him, with a threat to his life of course, and he was re-tied every night before Alfred fell asleep against the only door or exit out.

There was nothing in the bedroom except for the bed and two bags full of clothes. And of course, Alfred was the only one with a weapon. Still, today when Alfred came in to give him food, the blond sat across from him, criss crossed on the floor. "I know you still want to kill me. Now that you're probably thinking more clearly I thought we could actually talk."

Ivan sent a scowl towards the other. Though eating the food Alfred made was almost natural now, talking to the other wasn't. He almost wanted to go on in silent hatred. Almost. "Why did you help me? Why not let me starve to death?"

"I'm not that cruel... food's important. Besides, I make no plans on killing you."

"But you killed the others? The seventeen others?"

"Eighteen... well to be technical... twenty-one in all." Alfred said, watching Ivan. Ivan put the food down, perhaps for the first time with Alfred not caring for food at the moment.

"How has the FBI not caught up to you? With both our disappearances."

"I actually love that I'm breaking this to you, I won't lie... everybody's pretty excited because the case is closed. The FBI and media is all over the fact the Vegas Sevens' is no more."

"What do you mean?" Ivan asked suspiciously.

"Well, you remember that guy you rescued that I was going to kill right? Well, he was found dead. Killed by a federal agent, who was unable to give an account to what happened, though the media isn't saying why. But they found all of the equipment and was able to tie him to all the seventeen crimes."

"Wait.. your equipment?"

"Yeah. I cleaned it all up once you guys got the chains. Did a good job with it too. Them finding it in his house was enough, they didn't need any DNA proof on it to tie it to him. That was my favorate costume and chainsaw though. You made me lose all of that. Thanks."

Ivan growled. "You deserve much worse! Who could have killed that man though? All FBI agents knew he was a victim."

"Well, you know some serial killers get so cocky that they portray themselves as the victims or 'find' the body. So that's not too far out. As for who... well... let's just say I was able to use one of the guns from a certain higher up FBI agent." Alfred smiled, "Nice thing about that is that they can tell who's gun it came from."

"You..." Ivan snarled.

"Sorry, didn't think you'd mind me taking the gun. Nobody suspects you of being the killer of course, seeing as you have a lot of alibis the nights people were killed. Good thing you were such an workaholic. And they're not going to be looking for an FBI agent who's sent in an email giving a full report and ah... resigning." Alfred smiled. "You should be happy to know that they approved it. Probably mostly because they found out you were sleeping with me, and I was a suspect and everything. But in reward to solving the case, they didn't fire you. So you have plenty of retirement funds, though honestly you probably won't see a penny of that."

"I hate you. I hate you so much."

"Oh come on, you can't really hate me."

"I do!" Ivan snapped, "I would rather you killed me then keeping me alive and telling me things you've done- knowing what you have done! I-" He had started to actually trust Alfred, something rare. He had started to lov- no, don't. It hurt to think that. To think that Alfred had hurt- worst, had killed people, ripped them right out of the world. He looked down. "You should have let me die instead. I guess you are truly cruel." He would have rather died thinking Alfred was innocent.

"Well sorry, but I'm not going to kill you. So you're just going to have to live with it." Alfred growled, standing up. "I don't see why you're so upset about it anyway, sure yeah, I killed people, but that doesn't mean it had anything to do with you, so stop making it sound so personal!"

"It did though! I was trying to catch whatever monster could go out and kill fellow human beings in such a grotesque manner. And all this time... you were who I was looking to catch."

"Yeah, it's me. And you know what? I didn't regret it, I actually enjoyed it quiet a bit."

"Of course you did." Ivan growled.

"Look, you don't have to talk at me or even look at me if you don't want to. But you're stuck with me for the rest of either my life or yours ends, whichever comes first. And I wouldn't bet mine. I'm also going to be the only person you'll be seeing until you die. Don't worry though, I'll make sure you get some food."

Ivan had to find a way out. Getting out of the room would be easy, Alfred never seemed to lock the door and he already knew the layout of the apartment thanks to trips to the bathroom. After that he would be away from Alfred and be able to find a phone to use.

The best time would to be a night to escape since Alfred was asleep and he never left the house it seemed. But daytime would be a good time too because there would be more people out as witnesses but he didn't know how well Alfred fought and he still wanted the blond caught. It was hard to, he was going mad with lack of social contact.

When Alfred brought him food, he seemed about to leave as he had been doing for the last week since their discussion where Ivan learned that Alfred had killed and framed an innocent man with his gun. Ivan watched the blond grab the door handle to leave. Though he knew he didn't want to be around the blond a deep longing was in him.

While Ivan himself wasn't the most social person, a human needed some form of contact. "Wait." Alfred paused, looking at him. "... you are a cruel vicious monster and I want nothing to do with you." Alfred's face turned to a scowl and he seemed about to make his leave again, "But-" Ivan added hastily, "I would like to make some form of conversation."

Alfred's glare relaxed into something almost calm. But he didn't smile and a moment later he opened the door, closing it behind him as he left. Ivan flinched as if he had been physically stung. He didn't want anything to do with Alfred anymore, but he still craved something, anything. As long as it wasn't being ignored and only given food.

Looking down quietly at his food - mashed potatoes with gravy, broccoli with cheese, and pre-cut meat - he tried to prevent the stabbing loneliness and despair rising in him. He hadn't felt so lonely since he was a small child. He'd never wanted to feel like this ever, but some things were out of his control. He hardly even had the heart to pick at his food with his fork let alone actually eat it.

He heard the door open and his head snapped up. Alfred closed the door behind him, looking Ivan up and down a moment, own plate in his hand. A long stretch of silence passed over them before Alfred moved across the room, heavy footfall echoing across the emptiness before he came to sit beside Ivan and started eating his food.

Ivan blinked the blurriness of his eyes as he looked down at his own food, picking up his own fork and picking at the mashed potatoes. "Nice weather we're having." Alfred muttered, sounding less than sure of himself.

"I wouldn't know." Ivan growled.

"Well it's actually raining... so I guess it depends on what you think nice weather is. But yesterday it looked nice, and it's a couple days until July so it's probably pretty warm outside." Ivan took a bit of his food, thinking about that. It sounded like Alfred, while he was watching Ivan had trapped himself inside during the process. He was probably just as desperate for human contact as Ivan was, which was why he continued on a ramble. "It's still summer, but fall will be coming soon. I don't really know when it starts to get cold because it'll just seem to randomly become cold when it wants regardless of time or where the sun is. A lot of times it'll be a clear blue sky with the sun shining and looking so warm but as soon as you step outside it's freezing cold and-"

"The weather being nice is only suppose to be a conversational started, not an actual conversation." Ivan commented.

Alfred fell silent almost instantly before muttering a quiet, "Sorry."

"Strange thing to be sorry about. Considering there are much worst things you have done."

Sighing heavily, Alfred put down his fork on his plate looking at Ivan. "I know I've killed people and I get it's wrong. You don't have to constantly remind me."

"Apparently I do if you are not guilty enough to stop." Alfred resumed eating, but Ivan noticed the abnormal silence and turned his head to narrow his eyes at Alfred. "You are not thinking of stopping." Alfred just glanced at him before looking across the room at the wall opposite them, continuing to eat his food. "I cannot let you kill anymore people."

"And I can't just stop! We're at an impasse here Ivan. Something's gotta give I know, but it's not going to happen willingly. In the meantime let's talk about something that isn't going to make us want to kill each other."

Ivan looked back at his food, supposing that Alfred had a point that talking about it clearly wasn't going to solve anything. "You said it was July?"

"In a couple days, yeah."

"Your birthday is then."

There was a long pause. "Yeah, so?"

"I am just making conversation." Ivan said, he really didn't know what to talk about, if he could he wouldn't be talking to Alfred at all. But as illogical as talking to him was he was soothed by hearing another being talk to him.

"Yeah it is. Guessing you remember from my record?" Ivan nodded, not caring if Alfred actually saw it. "Mattie's also in July... the first. This is going to be the first year I've ever missed his birthday..." Alfred actually sounded very sad and remorseful. "I hope he's doing okay."

"... did he ever know?"

"Know what? Oh, right. No, of course not! I wasn't gonna tell him either. Mattie's an awesome guy, hell he'd probably want to get me help." Alfred kicked at the ground, "Probably would have been able to stop me if he'd known..." A small smile came to Alfred's face at the comment. "That's just how Matthew is."

"You love him?"

Alfred looked at Ivan, giving him a weird look. "Of course I do, he's my brother! I mean we couldn't be closer if we were twins, which we do look enough alike to be twins. But man, Mattie may be quiet but he can be a snarky son of a bitch when he feels like it. But he's also great at helping people feel better, it's like a talent of his, to help people. He's just great like that." Alfred grinned before it died and he looked at Ivan again. "Why? Was it brought into question?"

"You are a serial killer. I doubt you actually feel things other than the sick pleasure of killing." Ivan muttered, not sparing Alfred much of a glance.

"Sometimes I just want to stab you."

"Like that."

Alfred let out a sound of frustration, standing up. "Forget it." He growled, storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him. Ivan looked at the door where Alfred had disappeared through. Even after all that had happened the blond still acted much too childish for his own good sometimes.