Me and The Devil [Dyno/Karl Leisure] Day 6

[Tom]

The mist separates his thoughts from his head. Words hanging in the air, empty and yet filled with all the amusement of a killer. Blood drying along his forehead, now cracking with the same fury as the atmosphere around him. A dancing feeling fluttering against his chest, over and over again. The feeling of killing someone is a rush of adrenaline, the knowledge of holding a life in your own hands fills him with a pride, but also a deep deep wound to the bottom of his gut. Unable to be named. Unable to be felt. Careers are meant to bleed wounds into those below them. Cut away the human and leave only the drive behind. Empty eyes filled with nothing more than the blood of those unworthy of the crown.

There'd been five cannons. Five lives gone in just a day. Bloody and ruined. Six people stand before him and the crown he's desperately wanted all of his childhood. The memories of watching Ridley Le Roux's games over and over. The feeling of wanting to be there. To take the crown for himself. Reruns of Justice Fray's games leaving him wanting to scream at so many others. The crown was meant for his head. No one else's. Dyno Moreno would be better than the rest of them. Careers who've still got an assemblance of a heart. Would he become the same? Another broken victor who's lived through death. Dyno Moreno would never let himself fall so low.

Honor was received for their loyalty.

Their pride.

Dyno Moreno would never stoop so low as to feel for those he killed.

It's either them or him. And he always made the selfish choice.

The mist separates to a sight that's shocking. Blood dripping from wounds so deep. Bodies resting against the peak's rocky ground. Two of them, drenched in blood with lifeless eyes. The first he can see is Pierce, another career dead. His own desire to kill the career having been lost now. Pierce died to someone strong. Someone who had to be no one he knew of. The only person who deserved to kill Pierce was himself. Gritting his teeth down, he stares for a long moment wondering whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. Pierce's death meant there would only be two careers left. The two who deserved to be the last ones left. A silent moment of a smile is all he gives as he speaks calmly to Pierce's body.

"Checkmate, Pierce."

As he looks up, there's a pause as the air seems to tense.

Maverick. His body. There's no possible way... Death wasn't what he wanted for Maverick. The end was supposed to be their final battle. A clash of the best meant to lead to his crown. Anger flares through him, almost as if hellfire's scorched his skin. Anger in just a brief moment as his heart aches with death. Is this what grief feels like? The burning anger of feeling lost. Feeling incapable of doing anything to having stopped this outcome. Dyno looks down, lets himself stay for a second too long and speak out to no one there.

"We were... We were supposed to meet at the end. Not like this..." Tears want to break from his eyes, but Dyno's better than that. Keeping his composure, he sighs heavily, lets his voice stop breaking as he looks back to Pierce and Maverick. "Whoever killed you. I'm going to break them. They're going to die a slow and painful death. We have a career slayer it seems." Looking back up to Maverick, he smiles. "Unfortunately, they'll die like the rest. Weak and miserably." As he gets up, he realizes there's one more body. One more person who's there. Carefully, he narrows his eyes, lets his glaive rest on his shoulder.

Only, it's not a body. Or well, not a dead body. A messy form of what had been a leg is there. Dyno's eyes search Karl's for a second. The boy was nothing to Dyno. Just another piece in his game of death. A person to toy along and play games with. Watch the other react. Yael's glaive still is just as heavy as when he pried it from her dead hands. As he looks to Karl, he smiles darkly. Unknowing of whether the boy heard him or not, Dyno walks closer, drops his body to a crouched position over Karl as he speaks so coldly.

"Look what I found. If it isn't Karl?"

The smile of a devilish feeling comes over him.

"Who did this? C'mon no need to be shy, baby."

Sliding the glaive carefully forward, he lets the metal touch the ground next to Karl. His words continue to flow with that darkened excitement of a true killer. "Did you do it Karl? To think you've become a career slayer. Does it feel good? Do you feel strong?" Raising an eyebrow, he keeps his smile still darkly there. Watching with a careful ease, he leans in closer until his breath is near Karl's ear.

"You've got my attention, Karl. Is that what you wanted? My undivided attention."

A smirk as he gets back up to watch the other boy.

"Want another kiss for this?"

Glancing about the bodies, he lets the cold of his own head filter in. The mist seems to crackle as Dyno stares with a devilish grin and all the fire in his chest.

"You've certainly earned it, Karl."

(Dyno probably collects things)

[tick 12a / calla]

k a r l .

"bury me
as it pleases you,
lover."

Dyno comes through the fog like the prow of a weathered ship.

Karl's halfway to hallucinating now. That's probably why he doesn't feel surprised. This is how it ended for Old Drunk Jack too - the devil came to find him in the mist, led across the water by the little ghost lights. Sometimes when Karl turns too fast, he thinks he can see Aed hovering just of reach, but then when he really looks, the seelie's disappears.

Traitorous little thing.

He runs his nail along the crack in the glass and the heart pumps out a slow easy rhythm again. He watches Dyno stand over the bodies and his hand slowly clenches over the breadth of the scythe. “We have a career slayer it seems.” - And Karl just stares at him from the ground. Sitting duck; rabid, rotting, little thing.

Dyno looks up when Karl is already looking at him, he can see the other boy focus in the same way an old camera does. There’s something so visceral between them that he can taste it.

He does the tally in his head then, Pierce and Maverick and Dyno - he’s the only one left.

He still has Yael’s glaive.

And the thing is -

Karl knows that Dyno knows that Johnny is gone. Dyno knows that Karl is alone. But Karl knows that Dyno's alone now too. Rene's long gone. Maverick's lying ten feet away from them. (He still has Yael’s glaive.)

He steps forward languidly and Karl doesn't move. Can't. All he can do is fester and turn and slowly start to smoulder.

Dyno crouches in front of him and Karl goes statuesque. He can't breath very well anymore, it's like both of his lungs have been replaced with the lavender smog, there's just colour there, no air.

Funny, how oxygen is the one thing a fire really needs.

Funny, how Karl burns anyways.

"C'mon no need to be shy, baby."

His eyes narrow. Dyno gets closer. He speaks without saying anything - he never shuts up, Yael was right, and Yael-

He killed her.

Karl watches Dyno, unseeing, and he knows for an absolute fact that he is about to do something very, very bad.

The commentators will say that he's set a wonderfully laid out trap. Karl the career killer, luring the last one in with his bodies.

There's a drawn out moment between them - you've got my attention - Karl raises his chin slightly - want another kiss for this?

Then he reels back and punches Dyno right in his beautiful face.

"I picked the right threat." He hisses out, the worst kind of call-back, and then they're colliding.

Karl surges up and grabs Dyno from where he's recoiled to, getting a fist in his neckline and dragging him down to smash their mouths together, biting, he can taste the blood from his lips and his nose and for fuck's sake, the jar is in his lap, the bodies are right there, close enough to make his skin crawl, so he fists his hand in Dyno's hair and pretends that he's not unraveling.

He wants to live so badly, ( "I won't back off." / "A kiss won't stop me this time, Karl." ) he does.

When the finally part, violently still because they're like an inescapable storm, Karl's mouth stings and he leans over to spit the mix of their blood out onto the rocks.

Dyno killed Yael three days ago and Karl held her as she bled out.

"You're sick." He says flatly.

Me too.