Primo groaned as he came to awareness, his neck aching and his mind slow and clouded. The last thing he remembered was playing Uno with his brothers (it had been a fierce game, as it always was when it came to the three Emeritus brothers) when Sister and Nihil had burst in to tell them that they were being reinstated and going back on the road - in full regalia no less. They had just sat back down to discuss the good - but unexpected - news when...

When...

Primo couldn't remember what had happened next before he had woken up wherever he was. Which, speaking of, Primo blinked his weary eyes open and dragged them (he felt sluggish, his body taking a few moments to react to his brain telling it to move) up to see where exact he was, perhaps to get some context on what exactly happened. Perhaps they had partied too hard after learning the good news, Primo wasn't one to go too hard but Secundo and Terzo certainly were.

"Terzo?" Primo murmured as he saw his brother sitting across from him, sat in a rough wooden chair with his limbs tied tightly with rough rope to the arms and legs of the piece of furniture. Looking down, Primo realized he was similarly tied as well, trying to yank his arms and kick his legs did nothing against his bindings. Looking to his left, Primo saw Secundo, the middle brother of the three tied the same as Primo and Terzo, his head hanging down against his chest but beginning to move and rise as Secundo appeared to awake. "Secundo? Can you hear me?"

"Primo?" Secundo's voice was rough, obviously still experiencing the effects of whatever had been done to them, of whatever situation has ended with them tied in chairs and feeling sluggish, "What... what happened?"

"Ugh, I feel like shit," Terzo was awake as well now, and as blunt and crass as ever, "Why are we tied up?"

"I don't-" Primo started, only to be cut off by a voice coming from in front of him, from the shadows behind Terzo.

"You were drugged."

Secundo turned, Terzo craned his neck to peer behind him, to see Sister Imperator step from the shadows, a grim expression on her face.

"It was necessary. I'm afraid the way you're going back on the road is going to be as more of a... display, one of veneration and memoriam of relics that are past their time."

"You're going to be back in the spotlight, forever!"

"Sister... what do you mean?" Primo's mind was racing, everything that was happening (Sister's cryptic words, the drugging, the restraints) all combining and making a pit of anxiety and dread begin to pool in his stomach.

"Primo and Secundo, before it's your turn... I want you to watch." Sister ignored Primo's question and straightened her back, moving forward to stand to the right of where Terzo was tied, a hand landing on his shoulder with a grip that was visibly tight and uncomfortable.

Our turn? Our turn for what?

"As the older brothers, you've always been more protective over Terzo. You all share brotherly love for each other, love which has no place in this clergy, love which only provides obstruction to our goals."

Secundo and Primo remained silent as Sister continued but meeting eyes with Terzo's wide and panicked ones almost broke Primo.

"Despite your care and support for each other, you all still failed. Three Papa's, so many years wasted, almost a decade wasted with you as the frontman of the band, and none of you could manage the task of bringing the band to the level of success which we need. The level of success which you promised to do when you were chosen as frontman." Sister sneered, "Terzo, I did have high hopes for you, as the fans seemed to be more enamored by your stage presence, but you lost focus, and your father having to resort to you being dragged off the stage... It was a bad look. We simply can't afford the cost of having you three around, you are hindering our success, and you offer nothing anymore."

Primo felt a chill run down his spine. By not having them around, did she...

What did she want them to watch?

"Sister, surely-"

"Silence!" Sister shouted, "You will accept this fate, as you have all earned it."

"Sister... what is our fate?" Secundo spoke up, braver than Primo and Terzo to be able to ask the terrifying question. "What have we earned?"

"To die." Sister spoke flatly.

No...

"Terzo, you will be first. Secundo and Primo have earned themselves a painless death, but you..." Sister gripped Terzo's shoulder tightly, her sharp nails tearing into the black fabric of his dress shirt, "you have not."

"Sister, you can't-" Secundo pulled against his restraints, but they held fast, "You can't do this!"

"Primo," Terzo's voice trembled as he stared into Primo's eyes, Terzo's voice

cracked, "Primo, I'm scared."

Terzo was undoubtedly the most confident of the three brothers, even more than Secundo. He was confident and flamboyant and everything that made him a perfect frontman to bring the band to fame.

Terzo was never scared, even when Nihil had him violently dragged off stage and demoted from front man without any ceremony or warning as Primo and Secundo had been granted, Terzo hadn't been scared.

Terzo wasn't supposed to be scared.

"Terzo, it'll be..." Primo trailed off, his eyes glistening as he stared at his terrified younger half-brother, Terzo's eyes blown wide in fear and glistening with tears. As the older brother, he had found himself as the one who Secundo and Terzo turned to when they needed advice or comfort as they grew up in the Clergy. He had never been unable to tell them what they needed to hear... Until today.

It'll be okay.

He couldn't bring himself to say it, to say that everything would be alright, that they could go back to playing Uno, back to the quiet life that came with retirement from being the frontman.

But they couldn't.

"Bring them to the morgue when it's done." Sister turned to leave, her nails leaving small tears in Terzo's shirt, "And clean up the mess."

Three ghouls emerged from the shadows as Sister melted back into them, two moving to stand beside Terzo's shoulders, reaching out to grip his shoulders - his shoulders were violently shaking in fear - with clawed hands, forcing him to be still.

The third ghoul stepped up directly behind Terzo, its silver mask unmoving and unemotional.

The ghoul slowly rose its hands from where they had been hidden behind Terzo's trembling form, revealing the horrific sight of an axe, its sharp blade glinting as it was raised above Terzo's unaware head.

"Terzo," Primo gasped out, "Terzo, I..." Terzo was staring back in fear, not knowing of the impending doom that loomed over his head, "I love you. You're my little brother, and I'm sorry..."

They weren't ones for affection, even when they were little. Sister told them that affection wasn't something fit for the leader of a satanic church.

Primo could probably count on the fingers of one hand how many times he had told his brothers 'I love you'.

"Terzo, you know I love you," Secundo was crying as he spoke, tears streaming down his face, his eye makeup smearing, "I didn't say it enough, and we had our differences, but I-"

The ghoul didn't wait for Secundo to say his goodbyes, raising the axe to the highest it could, pulling back its arms, and bringing the deadly weapon down in a whistling arc-

"No!"

Thump.

Primo watched, unable to look away, as Terzo's head fell to the ground, bouncing slightly and then rolling to a stop against a black leather shoe.

Terzo's body did not follow, remaining restrained and upright in the chair.

Secundo leaned over and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground, wretching and incoherently yelling out words as tears fell from his eyes.

Primo stared silently in horror and heartbreak, his mouth moving without speaking words and his wide eyes focused on the steadily growing pool of blood that came from his little brother's decapitated head, the head that lay beside his little brother's shoes. Terzo's face was facing Primo, his eyes still open and his mouth slack and gaping. His white eye was the only one visible to Primo, the other hidden in shadow, staring up blankly at Primo as a reminder of the very thing that had doomed them to this fate.

They had been the Emeritus brothers, raised to lead the devil-worshipping ministry they called home to greatness through the publicity of the rituals they conducted around the world with their music.

They had been meant to have it all, to be Papa and lead the band to spread the unholy message of the ministry to every corner of the world.

Instead, they were to die in this dingy room, the three Emeritus brothers quickly and efficiently executed and forgotten about as the world moved on.

The blood of his little brother, dark and red, was a lake now, lapping against Primo and Secundo's shoes, the strong scent of iron and death filling their noses and tempting Primo's stomach to rebel and church.

He was sitting in his little brothers blood, the scent of his little brother's death surrounding him. Secundo was covered in the evidence of Terzo's death, a spray of dots of bright red blood spattered across his skin and clothing, it was in his hair, his eyelids, his lips, his teeth.

"Finish it," Sister spoke from the shadows, and Secundo heard shuffling behind him, a clawed hand settling on his shoulders before he could move away.

With the prick of a needle in his neck, a pain that didn't compare to what his heart was currently feeling, the world faded to black, the last thing he saw being the rapidly paling features of his little brother's head.

Primo knew he wasn't going to wake up this time, that soon he and Secundo would be joining their little brother in whatever came after their cruel deaths.

Their songs were over, cut short too soon.