Chapter 7

London 1888

            Yunho sat in the corner of a local tavern, observing their mark and everyone he interacted with. Their target tonight was named Nichkhun and, since he “hadn’t met the right woman yet,” he was single. He was also from the countryside so his family didn’t expect correspondence from him for months at a time, which was perfect for what they had planned for him. Yunho had been camped out in the corner for hours, watching Nichkhun down drink after drink until he was completely hammered. He himself had been nursing one tall glass of ale the entire time. Killing gave him a more exhilarating high than alcohol ever could.

After one of the longest stakeouts Yunho had ever run, Nichkhun finally stood up and staggered towards the door, stupidly attempting to make it home in his inebriated state. Yunho waited until the door had closed behind the man to stand up and down his drink. He then nodded at his older brother Changmin from across the bar and they both turned simultaneously to head out the front and back doors after the young man who had just left.

They met up a block away from the tavern, no words needed to communicate between the two of them. They simply exchanged one look and began trailing Nichkhun like two Siamese cats after one ignorant mouse. For Nichkhun’s part, he was completely oblivious to everything except the need to get home and piss before he out. So when he was hit over the head by a Winchester pistol from the New World, he simply thought that he didn’t quite make it home and idly worried about being robbed while he slept.

“At this rate, he’ll die from alcohol poisoning before we can even use him,” Yunho said, looking down at the disgraced man, no small amount of disgust in his voice.

“If he does die, we’ll just drop him back off here,” Changmin replied, snorting as he kicked their target. “He’s kind of pathetic, isn’t he?”

“Kind of? Maybe we should just leave him here to be mugged and go find a more suitable person,” Yunho suggested, knowing how his brother enjoyed the fight and it didn’t appear that this specimen would pose much of a threat.

“Nah, that would be such a waste of our time. We’ve spent weeks determining if anyone would miss him immediately after he disappeared. I’d hate to put all that hard word to waste.” And Changmin didn’t think he could endure the weeks involved in stalking another victim without killing someone, but that was another matter that Yunho didn’t really need to know.

Yunho was a good kid. He looked up to Changmin like a young brother should but he was really the power behind the throne, the pillar of strength that fuelled Changmin to continue on. He kept Changmin sane most of the time, despite Yunho’s claims that Changmin had the same effect on him. Changmin knew that without Yunho, he would dissipate into a raging mass of murder that would destroy everything in its path until he was captured and put down. Yunho, on the other hand, could live just fine without Changmin. It would hurt, of course, but he would go back to law school and put to rest the darkness inside him. Yunho refused to see it, but Changmin was the less mentally stable of the two and Changmin knew it.

“You sure?” Yunho asked. He was always eager to kill with his brother but if Changmin wouldn’t enjoy it as much as usual, then neither would Yunho.

“Yeah,” Changmin responded, a -eating grin crossing his face. While he may prefer more feisty victims, Nichkhun would do. It was a special occasion since it was his and Yunho’s turn to kill together.

Yunho and Changmin had very different killing styles so they switched whose turn it was on a schedule. Changmin preferred to beat his victims - who he wanted to be strong men for the challenge - to death, feeling their skin break under his knuckles until the life was finally drained from them like the red liquid that streamed from their body. Yunho liked to rip his victims, who were generally scummy men that beat their wives, limb from limb and watch their blood flow. Sometimes, he would dance in the vast amounts of blood that gathered around the dead corpse like they had personally offended him.

Their styles were different but they were both consumed by an anger, a hatred towards humanity, a fiery animosity towards unknown faces, that drove them to kill.  Both were always present for the kill but didn’t always participate. Yunho liked to watch his brother’s ferocity and Changmin enjoyed seeing the childish glee on Yunho’s face as he bathed in blood.

 So when they killed together, it was a beautifully terrible combination of two techniques so separate it shouldn’t meld but somehow did. Their victims always died a more merciful death when the brothers acted together; it was as if the brothers brought each other peace, even in an act as brutal as killing.

“You want to get the buggy or shall I?” Changmin questioned.

“I don’t think I have the key to open the barn,” Yunho answered, a confused frown squishing his eyebrows together in what would normally be a cute expression, as he felt through his pockets for the key ring. This particular bar was barely a five minute walk from their apartment so the brothers had walked over.

Changmin held up the key ring that had been in his pocket. “If I trusted you with the keys, we’d never get anywhere,” he said, shaking his head with fondness for his brother.

“If you trusted me with the keys, the buggy would be at the bottom of the Thames,” Yunho responded, referring to his tendency to push the horses to gallop too fast, as if he were chasing someone that owed him money. Changmin chuckled and tossed the keys to Yunho, who giggled and headed for the barn that held all the apartment’s tenant’s buggies, leaving Changmin alone with the drunk man and his thoughts.

Changmin knew Yunho would have never killed his first man if it hadn’t been for Changmin. He would have never let that blood-stained, beautiful part of himself out to play if he hadn’t discovered that Changmin was the same way one fateful night many years ago.

~

Changmin had been killing for years, since that time when he was thirteen years old and had accidently beat their neighbor, Heechul, to death. The punk had been bullying Yunho in school and was asking for it. Changmin had only meant to scare him a little, rough him up a bit, but Changmin grew a taste for it. He liked everything about that night; the death had excited him far more than it had horrified him.

As the years went by, Changmin sharpened his talent, learning more about how to stay hidden in plain sight and what made his heart race the fastest during the kill. He was twenty-two when Yunho finally caught him in the act. Changmin should have known that Yunho would find out eventually but he had been terrified that Yunho would be disgusted and leave him. Changmin wouldn’t be able to handle that.

The older brother had cornered a middle aged retired boxer in an empty fishing lodge. The boxer, Gary Kang, had realized Changmin’s intentions almost instantly for he had seen the same look in some of his past opponents. Apparently, some people had found a socially acceptable way to vent their blood lust. Gary tried to tell Changmin this - that he didn’t have to kill. Gary was sure that if it came down to it, he could defeat Changmin but he didn’t want to have to take someone’s life, unless there was no other way out. He had a wife, Jihyo, and five beautiful children he would have to be able to look in the eye afterward. Changmin didn’t listen though; he was too far gone down his path. Besides, Changmin was also confident that he could out-fight Gary, with his natural skill. He had never lost to an opponent before; otherwise he probably still wouldn’t be alive today.

Unfortunately for Changmin, he had under-estimated Gary and soon the man had him bleeding incessantly with blurry vision. He had managed to land a few hits of his own, enough to ensure that Gary felt him a constant threat, but not nearly enough to rival the damage he took. Changmin hit the floor hard after Gary kicked his knee caps out and, never one to back down from a fight, he clawed out at Gary’s legs. The older man back stepped and avoided the blow but the attack only proved to Gary that this man had to be stopped forever. Just as Gary drew back for his final, fatal blow and Changmin was sure it was all over, the boxer was hit over the head with a broken bottle. Gary’s eyes rolled back into his head and his body crumpled down to the dirty floor. Changmin gasped when his guardian angel was revealed, panting and clutching the remaining shards of the bottle like a life raft.

“Yunho! What are you doing here?” Changmin managed to say around the blood flooding his mouth and in-between his harsh panting. It came out more accusatory than Changmin had desired but he had never intended for Yunho to see him this way.

“I, I followed you,” Yunho stuttered out. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the bleeding body beneath him. “You disappear sometimes at night and I wanted to see what you were doing….” Changmin’s heart sank as he realized that Yunho had seen everything, from the way he had lured Gary here to the way he had attacked the boxer first. “Is he?” Yunho gestured at Gary.

Changmin moved to crouch over Gary’s motionless body and felt for a pulse. “Yes,” he replied, upon finding none. He wasn’t sure yet how Yunho would respond. His younger brother just nodded, starting to look less shell-shocked.

“Well what do we do with his body?” Yunho asked. It was one sentence Changmin had never thought he would ever hear, especially from Yunho.

“Throw him in the river, I guess.” Changmin’s method of disposal changed with each victim to avoid the London police making any connection between his victims.

“Won’t he float though? Then he’ll be discovered right away.”

Changmin looked around them and, upon spotting some heavy looking stones, he got an idea. “Not if we make sure he sinks,” he replied, pointing to his find.

Yunho nodded and the brothers set to work stuffing rocks in Gary’s clothes where they could and tying them to his body with rope when they had to. They acted in silence until they had pushed Gary’s corpse into the water and watched it sink beneath the unforgiving surface. Then Changmin turned to Yunho and searched his face for signs of guilt or panic or just something.

“Are you okay?” Changmin asked. His brother was oddly calm for just having killed a man; his first, from Changmin’s knowledge.

“Yeah,” Yunho replied. A few moments passed by before he admitted, “I think I liked it.”

Changmin drew in a shaky breath. He wasn’t sure where to go from here. A silly thought entered his mind but he couldn’t ask that of his brother.

“How long, Changmin?” Yunho asked, staring into the Thames.

“Nine years,” Changmin responded, no doubt in his mind as to what Yunho meant.

“And you never once thought to include me in that?” Yunho inquired, anger sparking in his voice.

“I didn’t want to put you in danger,” Changmin replied.

“Bull.”

“Okay, but I didn’t realize you were the same, Yunho.” Again, this was a conversation Changmin never pictured himself having.

“Whatever. From now on, I’m in,” Yunho said, crossing his arms.

“In?” Changmin asked.

“In. As in, I go with you. Kill with you. Understood?” Yunho appeared rather determined in this matter, not that Changmin was going to argue with him.

“Okay,” Changmin replied dumbly. His mind was still trying to wrap itself around the concept while also thanking the fates for bringing him his brother.

“Except next time we should be more prepared,” Yunho said, adding oxygen to the spark of hope in Changmin’s soul. Yunho finally turned away from the Thames and Changmin followed him back up toward civilization.

“With something better than rope, like chains, and we should pick a killing place too,” Changmin replied. Ever the planner, he was already thinking of the necessities for their operation to be successful.

“Let’s get you back home and bandage you up first,” Yunho said, chuckling at his brother’s concentrated expression. Changmin scowled but the effect was ruined by the fact that his vision was being invaded by fluffy bunnies and he could barely feel his hands anymore. Yunho just raised his eyebrows at Changmin and the older brother was forced to let Yunho help him home before he collapsed. They slowly retreated to their apartment, with Changmin limping and putting most of his weight on Yunho’s shoulders, the promise of “next time” lightening their steps.

And so their legacy was born and they had been killing flawlessly together ever since.

~

Changmin was now thirty four years old and every once in a while, Changmin wondered what would have happened if he had continued to live his life as he had. He had no one that truly understood him. Those times reminded Changmin how lucky he was to have Yunho.

As Changmin was reminiscing, a young couple wandered past the pair and the woman immediately expressed concern for Nichkhun. “Oh my, is he okay?” She peeked closer to the unconscious man, never releasing her husband’s arm.

“Oh, he simply had too much to drink tonight. My companion is just grabbing the buggy so we can haul him home,” Changmin replied, letting his natural charm flood his smile and his tone. A falsely friendly smile slipped unto his face and the woman was helpless to resist his charisma.

“Oh, well, do you need any help?” She offered, as her husband looked at her like she had lost her mind. “He looks rather heavy.”

“No, no, that will not be necessary. He has a history of this sort of thing, so my companion and I are used to it,” Changmin assured, hoping the couple would get the hint and leave. Yunho and he couldn’t really afford much trouble and that was all the couple promised if they pressed the matter. If left with no other choice, Changmin knew they could handle them but with a spontaneous killing, there was no way to tell how soon they would be missed, and that could be problem.

Fortunately, for both the couple and the brothers, the woman backed away from Nichkhun, trusting Changmin’s outward appearance over her instinct telling her that the man was in danger. “Are you sure?” She asked again, just to hear more of Changmin’s deep bass.

“I’m certain. You lovebirds have a nice night, now,” he replied, waving them off. When they were out of his sight, Changmin breathed a deep sigh of relief. He didn’t really like talking to anyone without Yunho by his side because, even though it was fake, he had to pretend to be nice and Changmin didn’t like being nice to anyone but Yunho.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. “I’m back,” Yunho said a little too cheerfully for someone about to commit murder, hopping down from the buggy.

“I see that,” Changmin replied, raising his eyebrows at his brother, who was appraising Nichkhun’s position on the ground. 

“Well, are you going to grab his feet or shall I lift him all by myself?” Yunho asked, ever the sassy one.

“That would be a sight to see with your scrawny arms,” Changmin retorted, walking over to Nichkhun’s legs as he spoke. 

“Lithe!” Yunho replied, with the ring of a familiar conversation. “And just because they aren’t bulky, doesn’t mean they aren’t defined,” Yunho defended, rather protective of his thinner, leaner physique compared to Changmin’s bulkier, more muscular build.

“Sure they’re defined. Defined as scrawny,” Changmin countered, heaving Nichkhun’s body over to the buggy with Yunho supporting his shoulders.

“You need to know how to read in order to read a dictionary, brother.” Nichkhun’s limp body made a dull, flat sound as it landed on the floor of the buggy.

“I can read better than you at the very least,” Changmin protested.

“Well I can only be as good as my teacher. Now who was that again?” Not many people can bicker over ordinary things with an unconscious man in the back about to be killed, but then Yunho and Changmin never were normal. They climbed into the buggy and made for their usual warehouse on the shore of the Thames that witnessed most of their extracurricular activities. Their warehouse wasn’t far from their first shared killing.

“A teacher can only do so much; it’s the student that decides whether or not to pay attention,” Changmin taunted, well aware that his brother did indeed read quite often. He liked to keep an eye on the politics of London and the daily events – it was a habit Yunho had picked up in law school. Changmin, on the other hand, wanted to make sure no one had found any trace of their actions plus a little part of him just enjoyed being informed. Changmin simply enjoyed getting a rise out of his younger brother, though, as most siblings do.

“I was six! Do you really think I wanted to be getting lessons from you instead of playing marbles with the neighborhood boys?” Yunho countered.

“Maybe I’ll have to teach you another lesson,” Changmin threatened, growling lowly at Yunho, but with no real heat behind it.

“With your fists?” Yunho laughed, even though the innuendo made his stomach churn for some unknown reason. His brother had never hit him, taking out all of his anger on their victims. “Cliché, Changmin. I would have hoped that you could have been more original than that.”

“Violence is an art in and of itself,” Changmin replied. “My fists speak eloquently enough for themselves.” He winked at Yunho.

“Oh dear, now your fists are talking to you? We might have to take you to the mental asylum sooner than I thought.” A falsely worried expression took over Yunho’s face.

“Well, if I’m going to an asylum then you are most definitely coming with me.”

 “True. You’d probably accidently burn the place down, too, if I wasn’t there to tell you not to leave your cigars smoking.”

“With everything else I have to worry about, my cigars are the last damn thing on my list, Yunho.”

Yunho laughed then. “That’s true, you do worry too much, Changmin.”

“No, I worry just the right amount,” Changmin countered and Yunho had no witty retort for that because it was Changmin’s carefulness that kept them out of trouble sometimes. And by trouble, Yunho meant prison and possible execution.

Their buggy fell into a comfortable silence and then the brothers were there. At their warehouse. Changmin carried Nichkhun inside piggy-back style as Yunho tied the horses up, treating them with carrots for their hard work. Once the horses were un-hooked from the buggy and thoroughly stuffed with carrots, Yunho returned to his brother. They had a long time to wait for Nichkhun to wake up anyway.

“You spoil those horses, Yunho,” Changmin said as his brother entered their killing space. It was on the second floor so if some poor soul happened to enter their warehouse, they would have some semblance of warning. No one was around to hear the body splash into the Thames anyway, and even if they did, they would pay it no mind.

“They deserve to be spoiled,” Yunho replied. Changmin just grunted and retrieved their chess board from their cubby. Although they went to great lengths to leave no trace elsewhere, here, their warehouse was almost like a second home. It was stuffed to the brim with hidden treasures that weren’t visible to the un-trained eye but could be found if you just knew where to look.

“Another game?” Yunho asked, not particularly fond of chess. He went through his phases; poker, dice, darts, and then chess to pass the time. Changmin, however, had quickly discovered an affinity for the game. The older brother was much better at planning strategy and such whereas Yunho just followed his gut feelings. Yunho always lost to Changmin in the first few days after they discovered chess, so when he suddenly started winning, Yunho knew it was only because Changmin let him.

They only ever played a certain game until they could figure out which one of them was better so Yunho didn’t understand why they didn’t move on. Yunho was dying to try out a Chinese game that was being called “Go.” He heard it was called “wéiqí” but whenever he said it with a completely native pronunciation, people gave him funny looks, so Yunho referred to it as “Go” out loud. As soon as Changmin got over this silly obsession with chess, Yunho planned to sweep the floor with him in wéiqí.

“Why, afraid to lose?” Changmin asked, pulling Yunho out of his plans to secure a wéiqí set.

“More like afraid to win,” Yunho muttered as he sat down across Changmin.

“What was that?” Changmin asked.

“Nothing,” Yunho grumbled and resigned himself to just one more game.

As Yunho predicted, he “won,” and not long afterwards, Nichkhun finally regained consciousness. The man jerked awake and looked around himself in rising panic when he realized that he was definitely not home, or even in an alley somewhere.

“Took you long enough,” Yunho said impatiently as he walked over. The younger brother had been hoping Nichkhun would wake up and save him from the chess game but he had let Yunho down.

“Well he drank enough to kill a lesser man,” Changmin replied, chuckling.

Nichkhun looked frantically from one strange man to the other, wondering if he should know these people. But from the way they were standing over him in this dank building, Nichkhun figured he probably shouldn’t. “Who are you?” he demanded.

The two brothers glanced at each other before Yunho crouched down to Nichkhun’s eye level and replied, “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“What does matter is that you have to fight us if you want to live,” Changmin continued. He fully enjoyed the realization and intelligence that seeped into Nichkhun’s eyes; this was why they had chosen him.

“Two against one? That hardly seems fair,” Nichkhun countered. His life may not be perfect lately, hence the drinking, but it was damn worth fighting for.

“It isn’t,” Changmin conceded, “So you’ll fight me first. If you win, you fight him.” He jerked a thumb in Yunho’s direction. Changmin may fight with rage but Yunho fought with a grace that surpassed Changmin’s skill.

Nichkhun didn’t understand why the bulkier man would be first, but he was in no position to argue. “And if I beat you both, I can go free?”

“Yes,” Yunho said. In rare occasions - it had only happened twice - both brothers had fallen and they had kept their word. After they cut their opponents tongue out, they let them go with a stern warning about what should happen if they write the events of that night down. Changmin thought it was risky but Yunho insisted upon it. Yunho and Changmin always chose their toughest opponents for when they killed together and Yunho refused to cheat that tradition by going back on their promises.

Nichkhun appraised the brothers, looking for a sign of a lie. He found none and then he nodded slightly. Yunho offered Nichkhun a hand and helped the man up.

“So, how do we do this?” Nichkhun asked.

“You just fight,” Yunho replied, shrugging. He backed off about twenty feet, giving the other men their room.

Nichkhun and Changmin started circling each other, looking for weaknesses. Changmin, of course, already knew all of Nichkhun’s but the man deserved that right for a fair fight. Nichkhun noticed the slight limp in Changmin’s gait, a leftover injury from Gary, determined to leave his mark. The man knew karate from his merchant travels to Japan so Nichkhun decided to rush Changmin first. Might as well get it over with as soon as possible, he thought. Changmin had plenty of experience fighting against karate moves, from his practice with Yunho, so he found it easy to dodge all of Nichkhun’s attacks. Nichkhun was fighting for his life so he kept on the offense as much as he could.

Nichkhun’s knowledge of karate was failing him in his panic so he quickly reverted to a mixture of fist fighting and a few random karate moves his muscles could recall.  For minutes, Nichkhun advanced on Changmin, punching, kicking, and chopping rapidly without landing a single hit on Changmin’s body. The crazy man didn’t attack Nichkhun, either, he just blocked. This infuriated Nichkhun and his mind worked furiously to come up with some way to snag Changmin.

While Changmin was distracted blocking a kick, Nichkhun launched a right handed uppercut to Changmin’s stomach, robbing Changmin of his breath. Before Changmin could regain his senses, Nichkhun punched his ribs again with the left hand. He finished off with a right hook to Changmin’s face before switching tactics.

Nichkhun dropped to a crouch, swinging a leg around to catch Changmin’s feet. Changmin fell to the ground and Nichkhun wasted no time in pouncing on him. Changmin saw the move coming and tossed the man off him with his feet before Nichkhun could do any damage. Nichkhun rolled to his feet quickly as Changmin stood up. Nichkhun had worn himself out from his flurry of rapid attacks. Coupled with his aching head from the alcohol and the earlier blow, Nichkhun’s next punch lacked its usual intensity. Changmin ducked away from the left jab but caught the right fist as it swung toward his face. Nichkhun tried to twist away and out of Changmin’s grasp, which only resulted in him being caught around the neck. He struggled as much as he could but had no more tricks to escape the situation. Nichkhun knew he had made a fatal mistake.

Changmin nodded at Yunho as he held Nichkhun in a choke hold. The younger brother approached the pair with a dagger he had been tossing around earlier. Nichkhun looked into Yunho’s eyes with fear but was glad that he wouldn’t be tortured. Yunho glanced at Changmin and the brothers simultaneously snapped Nichkhun’s neck and stabbed him in the stomach. Nichkhun’s body hung between the brothers for moments as they savored the sensation of his life fading. Yunho withdrew the dagger when Nichkhun’s muscles all relaxed and Changmin released him as well. Nichkhun’s body crumpled to the ground and the brothers shared a look of pure joy.

“He wasn’t as much of a challenge as I thought,” Changmin admitted, although he was still riding out his killing high. 

“I think the alcohol was dulling his senses,” Yunho added. He breathed deeply, taking in one last moment of pure exhilaration. “We should get to work.”

“The sun’s almost up,” Changmin agreed and the brothers began to move again. Yunho prepared the body for its new home at the bottom of the Thames while Changmin cleaned the blood off the floor and set the warehouse back to looking suitably filthy.

Yunho thought he heard a noise like a stair creaking but he brushed it off. Seconds later, he once again heard the squeaking noise and twice was too many to be a coincidence.

“What was that?” Yunho asked, alert. He searched the room for signs of an intruder but could find none. All the shadows were empty and nothing looked disturbed, beyond what the brothers had done.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Changmin replied, continuing to clean. “It was probably just the wind.” Yunho shook his head and returned to his work, trying to forget the uneasy sensation.

But even as they sunk Nichkhun’s body into the Thames, making sure their crimes would never come to the public’s attention, Yunho couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching them.

For days Yunho felt that way. At first, he had convinced himself that it was his conscious making him guilty for his crimes but then he remembered that he didn’t feel guilty, not one bit, just paranoid, so he ruled out that possibility. As the weeks went by, Yunho grew more and more certain that he and his brother were being tracked.  

One afternoon, when Yunho was sure he had seen a person behind him all day, he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He came back from his job at the armory – their money had to come from somewhere- to find Changmin chopping up vegetables for a stew. Changmin always did the cooking; Yunho had a tendency to destroy everything he touched when he was in the kitchen.

“How was work?” Changmin asked, barely looking up from his knife.

“Same as always,” Yunho replied. “Watching over toys that I can’t play with.” Yunho had an affinity for fighting, just as Changmin did, but in a different way. Changmin was all harsh words and blunt fists whereas Yunho killed with a grace that had long been lost to soldiers. Changmin had decided to buy Yunho a nice sword for next Christmas since the man despised guns and preferred knives. The elegant rapier was tucked underneath Changmin’s bed, waiting for its owner to brandish it for the first time.

“I don’t know what that is, but it smells delicious,” Yunho said, walking over to his brother, mouth watering.

“I’m trying something new,” Changmin replied.

“And I’m your guinea pig?” Yunho asked, fake horror staining his face.

“Pretty much,” Changmin deadpanned.

“Can I help?” Yunho inquired, just to make the gesture. 

“You know, I don’t really feel like burning the kitchen down today, so that’s going to be a no. You just go relax and don’t even think about looking this way.”

“Your recipe is a secret?” Yunho asked, melding his aching body with the couch.

“No,” Changmin answered, “But you could ruin it just by looking at it.”

Yunho stuck his tongue out at his brother, which Changmin quickly returned. “Whatever, if you want to cook all day, I’m not going to argue with you.” Changmin just snorted in response and there was a silence in their apartment for about thirty seconds before Yunho brought up what had been bugging him for days.

“Someone’s been following us, Changmin.” The chopping stopped for a second before Changmin resumed his systematic disfiguring of the carrots.

“Nonsense, why would anyone be following us?” At Yunho’s incredulous look over the top of the couch, Changmin laughed a little. Really, his brother was just too adorable sometimes. “We’ve been absolutely meticulous. There’s no way anyone would know and if they did, it would be all over The Times, don’t you think? And even if they were, they would probably think we were Jack the Ripper; that guy’s all over the newspapers. And you and I have alibis for all his killings.”

“I guess so,” Yunho conceded, still unable to get rid of the goading feeling. But he left it for another day and sunk further into the couch, content to wait for his stew.

Slowly, the paranoia burrowed itself into Yunho’s brain despite Changmin’s assurances that everything was fine and no one would find out about their secret. It frightened Changmin to see his brother so distraught and he was worried about the mysterious presence as well. Despite that, he couldn’t refrain from killing just because of a creepy feeling. He was addicted to it although he told himself that he could stop if it became necessary. Changmin convinced his mind that Yunho was just being overcautious so he didn’t have to deal with the way Yunho flinched at every noise and searched every shadow for demons. He should have known. He should have known that Yunho’s hunches were always right but in this game, he bet with their lives, and Changmin bluffed against the wrong opponent.

They were hunting their next victim when it happened.

Yunho was sipping on his usual ale and Changmin was downing a whiskey, holed up in another shady bar in the bowels of London. Their next target liked to use his two sons and his wife as punching bags so it was Yunho’s turn to let his monster out to play. They had followed the man out to a dark alley, about to knock him out with the Winchester, when their vision began to get fuzzy around the edges. The last thing Changmin heard before he collapsed to the filthy London street was his brother calling out his name.

When Changmin woke up to find himself tied up with a strange taste in his mouth, he knew that he never should have trusted the whiskey.

Looking around him, Changmin recognized their warehouse. He was in a cruel irony of the normal situation where their victims were sometimes tied to this very pole until they woke up. Panic flowed through Changmin like the wind through the reeds. This was what Yunho had been trying to warn him about. Because whoever it was that had done this, they had been stalking the brothers for weeks, months even. Changmin had been sure no one had ever seen them kill but here he was, in the exact same position as all of their victims.

Yunho was across from him, tied to a different post in the warehouse but unlike him, his younger brother showed no signs of regaining consciousness. Changmin searched Yunho’s body for signs of injury but he could find none, and while he breathed a sigh of relief, he also wondered why Yunho wouldn’t rouse. 

“Yunho! Yunho!” Changmin tried whispering to him but his voice slowly got louder when Yunho didn’t respond. “Yunho! Wake up already, god damn it!”

 “Can you please keep it down? You’re giving me a headache.” A man appeared from the shadows. He was the most nondescript man Changmin had ever seen. He wasn’t too tall or too short and while his face couldn’t be considered handsome, Changmin could find nothing wrong with it. Add to that the brown hair, brown eyes, and London accent and Changmin would bet this man could disappear into a crowd flawlessly. Well, except for the huge butcher knife he was carrying, that would probably catch people’s eye.

“Why isn’t my brother waking? What did you do to him?” Changmin asked, although he already had a pretty good idea.

“Chloral Hydrate. I gave him the same dose as you; he’s just so tiny, you see. He should stir soon and then the fun can really start.” The childish glee that covered the unnamed man’s face rivaled that of Yunho’s when he killed. And that scared Changmin.

Damn the whiskey. Changmin knew it had smelled sweeter than it should. The prohibitionists said that whiskey could kill you but Changmin didn’t think that they meant in it in quite that way.  

“Who are you?” he demanded. Changmin may not be the more up-to-date of the two brothers but he was no idiot either and he wanted to hear this man say it out loud.

“I’m sure you’ve heard my name before, boy. Everyone knows me now. I’m Jack the Ripper.”

Changmin didn’t gasp or even look surprised, he just wanted a confirmation of knowledge he already suspected. The Ripper however looked unsatisfied with Changmin’s non-response.

“Don’t you get it, boy? I’m the Ripper, the most feared man in London. But you can call me Kyuhyun since you’ll both be dead very soon.”

“Feared by whom? es? Last I checked, my brother and I were no es.” Oh, that’s good, Changmin, antagonize the man with the big knife, that’s sure to keep you and Yunho safe.

“Perhaps the es are the only ones that were ever found,” the Ripper replied mysteriously. Changmin rolled his eyes. This man was a coward. He kept him and Yunho tied up; at least the brothers gave their victims a fair fight, it’s just that the men rarely ever won against their sneaky and trained fighting skills. Changmin had no doubt that the Ripper had only ever killed the es before. Leaving the mangled bodies out in the open was a part of his Anger; without it, there would be no satisfaction.

Silence lapsed between the two. Changmin didn’t really want to talk to The Ripper –he refused to give the man a name like a normal human being. He felt like he had been beat at his own game and that made Changmin petulant. He always thought better in silence anyway. He and Yunho were going to need some awesome escape plan when he woke up. 

 “You want to know how I figured it out?” Apparently the Ripper didn’t care for Changmin’s planning needs. Changmin refused to answer; who cared how he figured it out?

“The cigars.” Now that got Changmin’s attention.

“I had thought there was another killer out there for months now but I never had any evidence. I kept my eyes and my ears open but you two were nearly invisible. But then I saw a man walk out of a bar for a piss one time and he never came back. When I went out to look for him and couldn’t find him, I knew you had gotten him. Did you know that you always leave a cigar behind in the pub?” The Ripper had wandered over to Changmin during his monologue and he patted the pocket of Changmin’s coat with his last sentence, a cigar stashed there even now.

Changmin felt like he was going to hyperventilate. This was all his fault, the whole goddamn thing. Yunho was always telling him to quit smoking.

“And after that, it was only one small conversation with the bartender before I knew who my fellow monster was. But just imagine my surprise when I follow you to a kill for the first time and your brother follows along! Yunho’s a good kid, Changmin. You really should try to keep him away from such dark things.” The Ripper’s condescending tone was making Changmin want to bend his ribs in half one by one.

“Don’t talk like you know him,” Changmin managed to bite out around his fury.

“Oh, but I do know him, and you. I know that he speaks French just in case you two need to flee the country quickly. I know that you keep that stupid Winchester because you want to run away to the New World and fight the Injuns in a place where killing is common. I know that he’s the only one you ever talk to willingly and I know that you would be nothing without him. And I plan on using that to my advantage. I want you to watch as I destroy everything you care about so you understand why I have to kill you two.”

“At least I’m not alone,” Changmin shot back. The Ripper didn’t appear to have an answer for that; he looked unaffected but the corner of his mouth had twitched a little at Changmin’s statement.

Silence threatened once more but Changmin jumped in. His brain couldn’t think of any other plan than to keep the Ripper interested and talking. Maybe he would slip up and make a mistake.

“What are you going to do with us? Leave us out in the open like all your special lady companions?” He didn’t really want to know the answer but he had to stall for time. If Changmin had more time then he could just think of a plan to get them out of here and he and Yunho could move to the country and they would never meet such psychos again. Yes, Changmin thought, just keep the crazy man talking and everything would be alright.

 “No, I’m going to toss you two into the river. That is how you do it right? Weighing the corpses down with rocks so no one will ever find the bodies?” At Changmin’s astonished look, the Ripper scoffed. “What? I already told you I followed you. I needed to do my research on the two little amateurs that could have potentially blown my entire operation. See, if you and your little brother here ever slipped up, it would be my name that took the fall. The people of London are under the false impression that there is only one serial killer in their midst, you see.” The Ripper looked into the distance at the city as a whole, his lip curling with extreme distaste for humanity. Changmin almost pitied him in that moment. Sure, he hated the world too but at least he had Yunho, as he had already pointed out to the Ripper. The Ripper had no one to share the Anger with; no one to kill with or play with or eat with. Changmin knew if he had to choose between giving up killing or Yunho, he would choose killing without a moment’s notice. Of course it would be difficult and stressful, but Changmin would have his little brother to help him get through it. The Ripper had no one. If the Ripper didn’t have him and his brother tied up, Changmin might really feel for the older man.

Given the current situation however, Changmin couldn’t help but curse his nature. It was what had gotten them into this in the first place. Yunho had a dark side too, a part of him that enjoyed the thrill of the kill, but he would have never started at all if Changmin hadn’t brought it up first. This Changmin knew for certain. If it hadn’t have been for him, Yunho wouldn’t be just minutes away from dying.

“But soon there will only be one killer and you boys won’t be a liability anymore,” the Ripper finally continued, breaking himself out of his fog of thought. “I’m tired of waiting for your damn brother to wake up. Now you’re going to watch and learn why people call me The Ripper,” he smirked down at Changmin and advanced to Yunho’s still unconscious body. The older brother struggled violently against his bonds and screamed out as loud as he could. He no longer cared about their secret or about how if anyone were to come and save them, they would question the Ripper’s sudden change in victimology. That was something that he and Yunho could figure out together, most likely switching cities, but there was no conflict to solve if there wasn’t a Yunho. Changmin screamed and screamed but no one was coming to help them. And he prayed to a God that he had abandoned many years before, begging for him to save Yunho’s life. Changmin would give up everything, his anger, his killings, even his life, so long as Yunho got to live. Nothing mattered as much as Yunho did.

A small part of Changmin’s mind knew that no one was going to save them; that no miraculous act of fate would strike the Ripper with lightening, and that small section just hoped that Yunho didn’t wake up. It hoped that the Ripper would have some mercy on the more innocent of the two and slit his throat first. Changmin was let down again as the Ripper took a rusty surgical knife to Yunho’s lower stomach. Yunho was yanked into consciousness, howling with pain, as the knife carved into his skin and the Ripper removed an entire sheet of skin from Yunho’s body.

It wasn’t easy, like separating piles of clothing or taking a piece of lettuce off a sandwich. Removing skin was a messy process and the Ripper had to keep slicing the layers of skin and muscle tissue sporadically until he could tear it from Yunho’s body. From the articles Changmin read in the paper, the Ripper usually removed his e’s uterus with a medical incision but it appeared that the Ripper was feeling a little extra cruel today.

Tears rolled down Yunho’s face while he screamed and when the Ripper finally stopped tearing at his skin, he seemed to be relieved. Yunho believed that he would be killed now and the pain would stop. There was just so much pain. Unfortunately for Yunho, the Ripper couldn’t remove a uterus from a man but there was another gland around the same area that the Ripper had decided was a suitable substitute. The Ripper threw the layers of Yunho’s skin at Changmin’s feet, nauseating the older brother, and then switched his surgical knife for a smaller, more precise looking instrument. He grinned at Changmin’s horrified face at asked him, “Ever wondered where your prostate was?” He then turned back to Yunho who had begun to realize that his torture had yet to end. As the Ripper descended on Yunho’s internal organs, Yunho couldn’t control his words.

“No, no, no, please God don’t! I swear we’ll stop, we won’t kill anyone anymore! Just stop, please, please, please, please stop. No! Don’t! No!” Yunho begged, breaking Changmin’s heart. The Ripper showed no signs of slowing down as he dug around in Yunho’s organs, moving things around that were never meant to see the light of day. After some needless meandering to see how much Yunho could take before he passed out, the Ripper finally found the gland he was looking for and began to slice around the edges. The prostate was a small thing, only about the size of a thumb and the Ripper had it removed and stabbed through with a probe in no time. The Ripper looked down at Yunho, still sobbing and screaming incoherent words about “so much blood” and “not again” and “please leave Changmin out of this, just leave my brother alone.”

“What was that?” The Ripper asked. “Don’t kill Changmin? Really is that what you’re going to think about in a situation like this?” He gave Yunho a disapproving look such that a father would give his son who hasn’t cleaned his room. The Ripper then sighed, rapidly annoyed with Yunho’s incessant noise, and ripped open Yunho’s carotid artery with the larger knife he had discarded earlier. There was a sickening gargling noise as Yunho’s blood bubbled from his throat and then all was silent and Changmin was left without his reason for living.

“Well at least he stopped that bloody screaming, right?” The Ripper smirked at Changmin, as he stood over Yunho’s dead body with a blood-coated knife in his right hand and Yunho’s prostate punctured on the probe in his left. The Ripper giggled to himself at his little pun and smiled really brightly at Changmin. It was time to finish the job. And boy did the Ripper love his job.

Yunho’s dead body. So much blood. The screaming. Yunho’s screaming. Yunho’s dead. Changmin’s brain stopped functioning as he tried to process what had just happened to them.

Something in Changmin broke in that moment. He had caused this and his brain couldn’t handle that responsibility so something just snapped. Kyuhyun was confused, and rather disappointed, at the utter lack of reaction he received from the older brother as he slashed his throat and carved into his stomach. It was just that Changmin had retreated so far back into his mind as he self-destructed that he could no longer feel his physical body. Changmin’s soul started to unravel from the ends as the full consequences of his actions were revealed to him. Changmin was just broken, pure and simple and true. 

Authors Note

Yes, their ages are switched, yes, their physiques are different. No, they would not look the same in different lives and times. 

For historical accuracy, Yunho's name would be Adam, Changmin's Eric, and Nichkhun's Liam. 

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