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Even though there was a lot of noise in the filthy hole that one would only call a tavern if a lot of quotation marks were involved – and even if there hadn’t been, the patronage probably wouldn’t have given a second thought to the topic being discussed – the Gnome spoke in a whisper, so Teo had to lean forward to get all the details she was laying down about the prospective target. She only interrupted herself to nervously look around or take small sips from the tankard in front of her, and once she finished, she looked at him expectantly.He nodded, first at her, then towards the greataxe leaning against the table, with his right hand resting on top of it, which was probably another reason his client seemed so nervous. “We’ll do it.” It wasn’t like he had anything better to do.“How much?”“600. 100 up front.”“Oh, that’s – ““Too much?”“No. Sorry, no, I expected it to be much more expensive.”“You can pay more if you want.” Not that he needed the money. These days, it was more of a formality. He wasn’t sending money to Fey anymore, now that he knew what kind of plans that was funding. And it wasn’t like he needed to buy food or hot chocolate for anyone.The Gnome laughed at the joke. He didn’t. The laugh fell silent.“Part of the payment is that you break me out of prison if I get caught,” he explained his terms.She nodded.“If I have to get out myself, you’re my next target.”She nodded harder, eyeing Dex nervously. “Like I said, she lives on the third floor. I thought, if you can get in unnoticed, you could make it look like an accident.”“Sorry, I don’t do subtle,” Teo interjected before she could say more. “This won’t be neat, or inconspicuous or anything. What I do is massacres.”“So I’ve heard...” The Gnome’s eyes now shot at the greataxe every few moments, like any second she expected Teo to do exactly what he was thinking about since he had entered the tavern. “Fine,” she said then.As they were already talking about his terms, he also added: “I don’t care about bystanders. Whoever gets in my way is dead as well.”“That’s fine, I don’t know anyone living in those parts of town anyway,” she said, lowering her voice. “I just want that bitch Tamnaeth dead, I don’t care how. Though to be honest, I wouldn’t mind it being more brutal than necessary.”For the first time in the entire conversation, he smiled. “I can do that.” He brushed his fingers over the steel of Dex’ blade. That’s why his prices were so low. To make sure his customers didn’t expect clean work. They expected a bloodbath. And he was all too happy to deliver.The Gnome shifted around on her seat. “You know, people recommended you when I was asking around. Said your work is good to an affordable price. And you really seem like just the right fit for the job.”“When should I take care of her?”“As soon as possible,” she hissed. “Tomorrow evening at the latest. We don’t have more time. Under no circumstances must she...”She kept talking, but he was only half-listening since everything was taken care of now, instead imagining how easily her bones would break if he got up and threw the table against her, and what it would feel like to slice Dex through her. He nodded along while she recounted all the details again twice and then finally handed him a bag filled with gold coins under the table. He put the money into an inner pocket of his trench coat without counting it. The Gnome stood up from the table without finishing her drink, left the dark corner of the tavern they were sitting in, hurrying towards the door, no doubt to leave this entire part of the town behind her as fast as she could before anyone could find out about what she had done here.Teo leaned back in his chair. Dex’ blade was on eye level with him as he turned him around in his hand, haft planted on the floor.“See, it was a good idea we stayed in this town after all,” Teo said. “Granted, it doesn’t seem like this will be a big challenge. But who knows? Maybe she surprises us.”He was silent for a moment while he listened to Dex.“You worry too much,” he said then. “It’s not like anyone saw us during the last two jobs.” He grinned. “No one alive, that is. And even if, it’s nothing we can’t handle. The town watch consists of maybe 20 people, and I’m sure we could take them on if we had to.”In that moment, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, irritated, and then a wider grin spread on his face.“Didn’t expect to see you here," the Tiefling with the light pink skin and curly white hair said, smirk playing on their lips, a drink in their hand.“Just had a meeting with a client.”“Oh, so do you have to be off soon?” Something changed in their face, but before he could register what it was, it was gone again and they were right back to their smirk.“Nah, I’m free right now,” Teo said. “That’s good to hear because I might have a job for you. You know, I was asking around a bit for a hitman, and people recommended you.” In contrast to the Gnome’s whispered words, the Tiefling didn’t make any attempt to keep their voice down. Quite the opposite, they spoke in a loud and exaggerated voice as they said: “I heard you’re really good at using that axe of yours, that you know exactly how to make your victims scream. So, I thought I’d come over and request your services.”Teo smiled at them. “Well, why don’t you have a seat and we can talk about all that?”“Is that seat taken?” they asked.Teo shook his head, and Qin set down their glass, squeezed between the table and his chair and sat on his lap. They gave him a peck on the cheek, and at the same time made a grab for the tankard in front of him.“Is that your drink?” they asked right before they took a sip.“The barkeeper wouldn’t let me do business here if I didn’t order something and give a massive tip," Teo explained, glancing over at the bar, where the woman was still casting him dark looks every now and then. He had wanted to murder her the moment he had entered the tavern, which was a bit below the average time he took before imagining someone’s death. But now he immediately looked away from her and back to Qin. The way they were sitting, he had a direct view of the big scar spanning their neck, only half hidden by the high collar of their shirt.“Wow, this tastes disgusting,” Qin announced with a big grin and set down the mug. “Really fits the whole atmosphere of this place.”“Where did you get that anyway?” Teo asked as Qin picked up their own drink again, a colorful concoction in a clean glass that didn’t seem like it would be served at this place. Hell, it even had a slice of lime at the rim.“Oh, I brought that from another tavern,” Qin said. “You want a sip?”Teo shook his head. Qin shrugged their shoulders, emptied the glass and then slammed it on the table, then swung their legs around his in one quick motion so they were facing him now, their back leaning against the edge of the table. Their tail casually brushed his legs.“Back to business,” they said. “How much?”Now that they weren’t sitting mere inches in front of him anymore, Teo could look them once over, his eyes wandering over their skin covered in black tattoos like crawling veins. He knew that the scar on their neck wasn’t the only one they bore, knew how many of them were scattered – and some seemingly carefully placed – all over their body, beneath their dark clothes. None of them came from him. Yet. It wasn’t for a lack of trying.Looking at them brought back wonderful memories of all the times he’d cut them open. Dragging Dex’ cold steel through their flesh. How beautifully their screams still rang in his ears. He remembered the darker than usual color of their blood, drying on his skin. He looked at their curling horns that just a few weeks ago he had grabbed to slam their head against a rock. “For you,” Teo said, running his fingers over the axe head, “that’s on the house.”“Again?” Qin asked in mock surprise. “Damn, sweetheart, you really need to think over your business strategy.”“I’m fine, I already got an advance payment today,” Teo said. “So, if there’s anything else you want to do, I have the money for it.”He almost expected them to make a joke about how they were getting spoiled or that they wanted him to take them out (pun fully intended) on an expensive date, but instead they said: “Well, since I’ve already paid fully, I’d much rather we get to the good stuff immediately.”“Right now?” Teo asked, pulling Dex closer, so the blade grazed their cheek.Qin put one hand against the cold metal, casually trailing a finger over the blunt side, while their tail wrapped a bit tighter around his leg. Their white irises gleamed mischievously in their dark eyes. They knew he was only half-joking, and that they only had to say the word for him to tear them apart right then and there in front of everyone in the tavern.“I’d rather have some privacy,” they said. “I found a place just a couple minutes of walk from here, where we’ll have all the space we need, and where nobody will interrupt us.”“Lead the way.”Qin let go of him and got up. They squeezed between the tables and walked out the door. He expected them to be gone by the time he had shouldered Dex and followed them outside, or have at him with a knife or their rapier, leaving him with a minor injury before they ran off, an invitation of catch me if you can. But instead they were waiting for him, and then led him down the narrow streets of the shadiest district of an already pretty shady town. It was getting dark.“We should get there before midnight,” Qin explained. “Unless we want some more company. Which could be fun, but right now I’d really much rather have you all for myself.” They turned around, smirking at him. That smirk never left them. Even while he was killing them, they always showed a bloody grin, and when they lay dead, their corpse was smiling as well, like they were teasing him, spurring him on to make it more painful next time. He had only seen them without it once, and he hadn’t really been paying that much attention then, too focused on his own circumstances.They arrived at a cul-de-sac, where Qin waved him over to one of the corners, where two houses didn’t quite connect, leaving a small gap that in the shadows and the murky colors of the bricks was hard to see, and which Teo wouldn’t have noticed at all. Qin quickly dashed between the walls, and Teo followed, much slower as he was broader built and had to make sure that Dex didn’t scratch along the bricks. The crevice led into a square space between high house walls, almost like a courtyard, but with no doors or windows looking onto it.“The acoustics here are pretty neat,” Qin explained, looking around. “Almost no sound is carried outside the walls. In other words, you can make me scream as much as you like, and nobody will be able to hear.”They had hardly finished their sentence, before Teo came charging at them, Dex raised high. They dodged, just barely. “You really don’t waste any time, huh, sweetheart?”“Draw your weapon.” His voice was a growl, but he was grinning as well. He had been waiting for this for weeks.“Doesn’t seem necessary,” Qin quipped. “You haven’t even landed a hit yet.”He made another strike with Dex. Their evasion was slow, clumsy, leaving a long gash on their arm, their shirt ripped. He swung Dex around in the air and attacked with the other blade. Another cut on their side, deeper this time, tearing through their leather armor.“Come on, is that all you got?” they sneered.Something was weird. A lot of things were, but Teo only noticed now that they were fighting. Usually, by now they’d have attacked him just as viciously as he did them. The wounds they inflicted were never lethal. As they put it, he was simply too much fun. But they did make him bleed. And even if they had let him win sometimes, it had never been this obvious. Maybe that should have made him hesitate. But he couldn’t stop, not after their fight had begun. Their blood was on Dex’ blade and he could not stop until they lay dead in front of him.Finally, they reached for their rapier, attacking him with full force but no focus behind it. He easily blocked the swipe with Dex’ haft, and their own force threw the weapon out of their hand. Qin watched it fly in a high arc and then land on the ground several feet away. They didn’t lunge for it, nor did they go for their knives. Instead, they just stared at him, arms extended on their sides, like they were waiting for the next hit.“Come on, just fucking kill me!”Teo stepped forward, hooking Dex around their neck to make them look at him. Qin shot him a grin filled with sharp teeth.“Are you really just going to let me win like that?” he grinned back at them, pressing the steel into their skin. Blood started trickling down their neck.His question had been more of a tease than a demand, but they still answered: “I know I owe you a fight, babe.” Leaning back into the blade, they looked at him through half-lidded eyes. He could feel their weight pulling on Dex as the steel bit into them. “And I promise you’ll get one as soon as I wake up again. I’ll fucking stab you until you scream just as loud as you made me scream. But right now, I need this.”The blood soaking their clothes didn’t help his ability to parse the situation, neither did the wounds revealed beneath their ripped shirt, deep and bloody and beautiful.When Teo didn’t continue hurting them, Qin said: “I’m sorry, I should have been honest with you from the start, Teo. It wasn’t a fight or a game I was looking for today. It was just death. Just...” They hesitated “...a break. There’s too many thoughts in my head right now, too many feelings and I just want all of them to stop, just for a moment. Dying helps. So does pain. So please. Just kill me and fuck me, in any order you want.” Their smirk had become nothing but bared teeth. There was something off about it, about their entire self, something tense and desperate, but if he noticed any of that, then only in retrospect.They made a sound of frustration as he pulled Dex away from them. He took a step back, perplexed.“What?” he said. All the joy their blood and pain had brought him was gone all of a sudden.“How much clearer do I have to make it?” Qin wiped a bloody hand over their face. “Kill me, hurt me, stab me, tear me apart. You’re so good at that, sweetheart.” Something around their features went softer, more genuine, yet again going unnoticed, as they said: “I’m just tired of all these feelings.”Letting out a dry laugh, Teo lowered Dex. “I can’t relate to that.” His grip tightened. Qin chuckled, just as dryly (just as oblivious), until Teo started turning away, gaze directed at Dex now.They stepped closer. “You’re not leaving already, are you? We haven’t even gotten to the good part.”Teo stared at them. He wanted to kill them. That’s what he was here for, after all. But something had shifted in his intentions.Their smile trembled. “Come on, don’t make me beg for it.”Suddenly, the axe was at their throat again. The corner of their mouth twitched upward.“Trust me, you don’t want to be rid of those feelings,” he said, and then, before they could say or do anything else, he swung Dex around. Their scream was more surprise than pain. They fell to the ground, blood streaming from the stump where their leg was only barely attached. He put one foot on their chest to keep them down.“I didn’t mean it like that,” Qin said.Without answering, he brought Dex down on them again. Flesh ripped, bone crushed, blood spilled and then their arm was off. There was nothing beautiful about it.“Is this what you wanted?” he asked without looking at them, raising Dex once again.“I didn’t mean to hurt your – “ Their words, poorly chosen as they were, got swallowed up in another scream.“Nothing to hurt there,” Teo muttered. Nothing to break. "You know what I would give to feel what you feel? To be alive enough to want to die? What I would do to have that?” He brought Dex down again, hacking through their other leg. “Well, I'm actually doing that right now. So is that really what you want? Because I’d swap places anytime."They were quiet now, just staring up at him. For once, the smirk was gone from their face, replaced by surprise, and in turn Teo was surprised at how satisfied he was with that, even though it wasn’t the pain that had robbed Qin of their smile. And then there was something else in their eyes. Fear? He had forgotten how much he loved it when his victims feared him.He swung Dex down again. He knew if he kept going like this, they’d be dead soon, but he wasn’t in the mood for shallow cuts right now. What really vexed him was that he knew for a fact that pain didn’t bother them. And he wanted them to hurt.Teo reached down, grabbed one of their horns and yanked them up into a kneeling position. Their tail whipped around as they tried to regain their balance. He stomped down on it, another crack. Then another swing with Dex and it lay separated and bloody on the ground. Qin flinched.“You wanted this, or not?” he spit into their face. “You said if I ever wanted to actually hurt you, I could do it. Well turns out I really do like that. I love seeing you all bloody and scared beneath me. I thought what we had was enough, but I guess that was just another delusion.” He glanced at Dex’ steel glinting red with blood. “I’m good at that.”He was glad now that he’d never told them. He would just have been lying to them, like he’d been lying to himself. Like he’d been lying to Marlowe. Though he would have loved to see their face now when he told them ‘I don’t love you. I never have.’ But they wouldn’t have cared, would they? That was never what they had wanted from him to begin with.His hand moved from their horn to their hair, yanking their head up at first, but then the grip turned softer. Teo ran his bloody fingers through the white curls, the only tender thing about this whole act, and the cruellest part of it. Qin gasped, but they didn’t tear their head away. Maybe they didn’t have any strength left for it. They stared up at him from glistening eyes, and then silent tears started running down their face, washing away some of the blood. Teo had never seen Qin cry before. He grinned, taking this trophy, this proof that he had broken something inside them that he hadn’t been able to before – hadn’t wanted to before.There was something else in Qin’s eyes, though. There was the fear, of course, overwhelming, but not strong enough to drive them away, to make them fight back. He turned their head up towards him, gently, much too gently, so he could get a better look at their face. His fingers kept carding through their hair. Something flickered in their eyes, and for just a moment, they seemed to lean into his touch despite themself. Despite everything.And then he realized what it was. Where he had seen it on them before, though he had barely paid attention back then, only when he had raised Dex and they had stood before him, in his way, shielding the man behind them. Beneath the fear and the shame, there was a desperation, a longing.Teo might have been stupid, but even he could put two and two together. Their discomfort at getting their hair touched. The illusion that had waited for them in the Place Between. The way they always closed their eyes when they kissed him (just like he did, thinking of Marlowe).“Do I remind you of him?”They didn’t answer. They didn’t have to. What surprised him was that it hurt.He let go of their hair, put both hands to Dex’ grip again. They could barely keep themself upright. Their eyes were begging him to end this, and he did, just another swift movement of the blade before their weakened body could hit the ground. Not a full decapitation, but enough to make their head fall over their shoulder to the side.For a moment, he stood there, looking down at the bloody mangled corpse at his feet.Then he turned his attention to Dex: “Don’t give me that. They knew what they were getting into. They asked for this. Should have seen it coming.”For some time, he listened. Then: “They didn’t even know what they were talking about. It bothered me, you know why it did. Maybe I was wrong. No, of course I was.” He chuckled. Walked away. Looked down at Dex. “It’s just like me, doing something like this.”Teo winced. “That... that was – shut up. I just wanted them to hurt.” There was a tuft of white hair, now dyed dark red, sticking to his hand as well as the leather of the axe handle. He brushed it off.“That’s not it. Just what they said didn’t sit right with me. And it’s not like I need a reason to kill anyone, to hurt them.” He started walking up and down while impatiently listening to Dex.He shrugged. “Just wanted to make sure they got the point.”“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”“Don’t bring him into this!”, he interrupted Dex. His bloody hands cramped on the axe handle. “Don’t pretend like this could have gone any other way. Not like this whole thing could last.”Silence.“I wish – ““Teo?”He spun around. Qin sat awake. All their wounds were healed and their limbs reattached. They heaved their body upwards on arms and legs. Whatever Teo had wanted to tell Dex went lost, just like any other words he had. Qin stepped closer, not caring that the weapon covered in their blood was still in Teo’s hands. Standing in front of him, they lifted a hand to his cheek without touching him. They got on the tip of their toes and leaned forward. Their lips just barely touched his forehead.“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to play with your feelings.” This time their words seemed carefully picked, not an accident. They stepped away. “Don’t worry. I won’t bother you anymore.” They shot him a smirk, but there was a deep sadness around their eyes, and it was only then that he realized he had learnt to read their face.They picked up the rapier and then ran off. For a moment, he considered going after them. Then he sat down, took out a piece of cloth and started wiping the blood from Dex' blades. Beneath the dark red, the flowers and trees reappeared.“No, you’re right,” he said. “They’re much better off without me. They were bound to have enough of me. At least I got some good kills out of them.”He knew that the pain in his chest would go away eventually and give way to the emptiness. He wished it wouldn’t. He clung to it, to their smile, their tears, their words, and noticed for the first time how dear he had held them. Stroking his fingers over the blade, he thought of soft curls running between them, but there were just red lines trailing down his skin.