Alfred fidgeted in a poor attempt to keep his feet warm, hands tucked under his shoulders as he shivered. "Shit, how do you people put up with this? I'm freezing my ass off!"
Natalya glanced back at him sharply, motioning for him to be quiet. "We do not act like complaining little babies just because it is nippy. Grow some balls." Ivan echoed her sentiment with a curt nod, watching from their hidey hole as another car flashed by. Alfred scowled, sticking out his tongue as Natalya turned away from him, then sighed in resignation as the two siblings held perfectly still. Finally, Ivan straightened, nodding across the street before watching Natalya.
"Is this the place?"
"Yes. He finally showed up." She mumbled to herself in Russian, considering the alley. "Ivan, you should go in first. Incapacitate them. Then we can have our fun."
"Finally." Alfred sighed, picking up his new saw from the damp concrete. "Let's get moving."
"Wait your turn." Natalya admonished, placing a hand on his chest to hold him back even as Ivan dashed forward, a strangled scream echoing out from the alley before ending with a dull thud. After a moment, Ivan stepped out to wave to them, watching up the street as the pair made their way across. Finally, ensconced in the alley, Natalya and Alfred looked down at the two bodies, studying them.
"So, um-ladies first, I guess?" Alfred shrugged, silently looking to Ivan for help. "Ivan, did you wanna-"
"You two can go first. I think I will aim for the bones, this time…" He slowly nodded, crouching beside the bodies. "Alfred. You can watch me break them, if you want."
"Whatever. Like I've said, bones are boring. Dry, lifeless-" Grin spreading across his face, Alfred carefully lifted his saw to aim at one man's jugular, cutting through the skin and muscle like cardboard before striking bone. "Now this, the blood, this is the good stuff. Look!" Pointing at the wound, he watched in fascination as steam rose from the liquid, the cold air making the bloodied concrete seem ethereal. Natalya curled her lip, hands already moving across the other corpse, then carefully turned her victim over.
"Ivan!"
"What?"
"You broke their necks!" She complained, prodding the spine before sighing. "That makes this so much harder."
"You never complained before."
"I was able to use morphine before." She glared at him, stripping the man of his clothing. Eventually, she spread out the body on the concrete, pulling a knife from her skirt before plunging it between the bones of the hand. Alfred raised an eyebrow, pausing in his own work, then smiled as she carved with surgical precision from the neck to the center of the chest.
"You know, Ivan always does that too."
"Really. I shouldn't be surprised." She muttered, leaning over the body while she let the blood pool around it. "Has he showed you how tendons work?"
"Practically every time. They're not that exciting."
"Not true. But I digress." She shrugged, cutting at the base of the collarbone to begin exposing the ribs. "Ivan? You wanted the bone?"
"I can take Alfred's." He nodded, watching as she worked down the torso. "Did you want to see the liver?"
"I can take a guess, but it wouldn't hurt." She handed him a knife, moving to tie the man's arms together above his head. Ivan let her work for a moment, using the man's shirt as rope, then began working his way through the wiry layers of abdominal muscle, eventually exposing the abdominal cavity. Natalya, meanwhile, prodded the man's underarm, making a long slit down his side before plunging the knife in and twisting.
"Watch." She pointed to her victim's arms, the one she was closest to suddenly going limp. "See, even without the brain, the body is simply a system of pulleys and levers. Know which button to push, and you have yourself a formerly living automaton." She grinned, ignoring Alfred's stare, then finished the cut, finally abandoning the arm.
Alfred, meanwhile, had tried to focus on his own body, splitting it in half before letting it drain around him. The sickly sweet scent hung heavy around them, but the two Russians seemed to take no notice, concentrated only on the abdomen of their victim. Finally, Ivan glanced to him, nodding in contentment.
"Ah! Alfred. Good. May I?" He stood, moving to stand beside Alfred as he similarly straightened.
"Yeah, sure. I only broke the spine, there, but I didn't think you were too much into that anyway…"
Ivan waved him off, taking the saw from him to cut open the shoulder joint. "Oh. This one was lucky."
"Why?"
Ivan pointed to a large hole in the humerus, touching it gently with his glove. "A cyst. It may have been benign, but he wouldn't have the money to treat it. He wouldn't have been able to use this arm within a year or so. I'm sure he preferred a quick death rather to starving in the cold, in pain, suffering…"
"Yeah, sure, what are you, an animal shelter commercial? Just get it over with, the bodies are cooling." Alfred scowled again, glancing to Natalya's work. "Jesus Christ, you two should have been surgeons. Look at that. Not a drop spilled. Now where is the fun in that?"
Natalya rolled her eyes, pulling a small cloth from her skirt to wipe her knives off, then her hands. "Sometimes we prefer to watch, rather than feel."
"I know what I'd rather watch at the moment." Alfred muttered, staring at the body. She considered him for a moment, thinking, then shook her head.
"How Ivan ever dealt with you, I may never know." Handing Alfred a dark black garbage bag, she slowly pulled the body into a sitting position, letting the bag swallow the body from the head down, then carefully tucked the legs into the bag. "Industrial strength. We can leave them here. No one notices."
"Nice touch." Alfred nodded, moving to help her secure the bag. Finally, he took it to the end of the alley, depositing it beside a number of similar trash bags. Ivan glanced back at them, broken from his attentions to the body, then hurriedly took the bag offered to him by Natalya, stuffing the body inside before copying Alfred.
"So. There we are?"
"There we are." Alfred nodded, taking his saw back from Ivan to conceal it beneath his jacket. "I finally got to see the great Natalya Braginsky in action. Less…erotic than I pictured."
"Shush." Ivan quieted him, striding back to the entrance to the alley. He studied the lights for a moment, thinking, then nodded to them, leading the other two into the shadows.
"No, but seriously…" Alfred hung back, whispering to Natalya. "I thought you were going to…I don't know, do something really cool with those knives of yours. What gives?"
"I had nothing to tie him up with." She shrugged, concentrating on her steps. "When I go to the bridge, I can string them up. Toy with them a bit more. Watch them eat their own dick." A sudden grin flashed across her expression, making her eyes light up. "Maybe I can take you two outside the city. Have you ever burned bodies?"
Alfred shrugged. "We considered it once….acid, too, but Ivan never got around to it."
"Ah. We talked about acid too, together. Tonight was not so good, but maybe…" She trailed off.
"So, um-are we on for…you know?" Alfred watched her, perking up slightly. Natalya rolled her eyes, but nodded with a sigh, glancing to Ivan.
"If you insist. I cannot guarantee it will be good."
"Oh, trust me, you'll be fine." Alfred smiled slowly, straightening again.
"What are you two whispering about back there?" Ivan called back to them, waiting as they caught up.
"Us? Oh, nothing, nothing." Alfred shook his head, watching the taller man. Ivan studied him for a moment, thinking, then led them across the street to find Natalya's apartment again. All three ducked inside, relaxing slightly now that they had escaped the streetlights and noise, and Natalya moved to take their instruments before depositing them in her closet.
Ivan nodded to both of them, sighing before pulling off his gloves. "I, ah…there are some things I should take care of. Also, I need a drink."
Natalya nodded, waving him off. "Around the corner. Open all night. They usually have good stuff." Ivan nodded in thanks, arranging his coat and finding his wallet, then ducked back outside, letting the door fall closed behind him. Alfred watched him go, perplexed, then moved to reach around Natalya's waist, smiling down at her.
"So?"
"So what?" She challenged, unresponsive.
"Do we want to do it here or in your room?"
"If you are certain. You seem reluctant to let Ivan know."
"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right? He won't care. Trust me."
She sighed, leaning back. "You are hardly attractive."
"I love you too, sweet cheeks." Alfred shook his head, pulling her closer. "So what? It's not like we're the only ones keeping secrets around here."
"So you think Ivan is up to something as well?"
He shrugged, moving to lead her back into the apartment. "Who knows? I can never read him. He pulls off 'mysterious' surprisingly well."
"I am his sister. It is not so hard."
"Well, then-" Alfred leaned closer to her, finding the door to her room before opening it. "Why don't you tell me?"
"His deepest secrets?" Pushing him before her into the room, she roughly kissed him, slamming the door closed. "Never."
"And yours?"
"Not in a million years."
O
Fishing out his key again, Ivan stepped into the apartment, setting the bag in his hands aside in order to remove his boots. A muffled noise from deeper inside the apartment made him pause, listening for a long moment to determine the source, then glanced around the main room to find no one present. He shrugged, taking the bag into the kitchen, then slowly sat as he heard a dull thudding. Moving slowly, quietly, he took a bottle from the bag, opening it, and listened as the thuds grew more rhythmic, low moans soon accompanying the thuds. Eventually, muffled Russian curses streamed through the walls, drowning out the gasps of the accompanist. Ivan sighed faintly, taking a long draught of the 70% proof in his hands, then leaned back in his chair as a loud cry echoed through the apartment, followed by a sudden lack of noise.
Smiling faintly, he listened to the faint scuffling in the other room, the low speech, and finally the slamming of a door, panting soon audible from the hallway. To no one's great surprise, Alfred soon appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, staring at Ivan as he tried to fix his rumpled shirt.
"I-Ivan! Hey!"
"Alfred." He nodded, holding up the bottle.
"I was just-just give me a sec, I'll-"
"No need to run." Ivan shrugged, glancing at him. "The walls are thin. It was obvious."
"Right, that, um-" Alfred shrugged, grinning in desperation. "It was just a-"
"She is my sister, Alfred, and as much as that may annoy me, she is still an adult. You are still an adult. I have no control over what you two do together."
"Yeah, but…you're not annoyed?"
He shrugged. "Why should I be? We were never in anything formal. Besides, I know how you are. Natalya is more to your tastes anyway."
"Sure, yeah…" Alfred moved to face him, glancing at the bottles. "Is that stuff any good?"
"It suffices." Ivan shrugged again. "So, in conclusion, I don't really care what you do. Just try not to keep me up, yes? And don't be surprised if she hits."
"Um…right." Alfred slowly nodded, sighing. "I'm…I'm gonna go take a shower…"
"Go ahead." Ivan waved him off.
"Okay, then, um-see ya." Alfred shrugged, watching Ivan cautiously as he exited the kitchen. Ivan chuckled to himself, shaking his head, then set to work on the rest of the bottle, letting the single light of the kitchen blur into the darkness.
Ring in the new year with an attempt at gore. Sounds about right.