“Please?” Avi said, dragging the word out. “Please. Please. Please. It would be so cool.”
“Yeah, and it's not like it would be the first dead body we’ve ever had in the house.”
“But that body wasn’t missing. That was a body from the morgue used to teach you disarticulation, just like if you were a medical student. This would be a fresh kill.”
Now it’s Asa’s expression that was pleading. “I mean, you say that our kills should suffer. Like…being crushed to death by a python and then eaten seems like a pretty fuc—sick way to die…no?”
It was a bad idea. The worst idea really, but they made valid points. It wasn’t without risk but with Thomas’s connections, it was minimal and keeping it at home kept it contained. But the twins weren’t on the roster to perform their next kill for weeks. It was their reward for acing their finals.
“I’ll tell you what. August is next on the list. If you can convince him to bring his mark to the house, you guys can feed him to Jake.” Their eyes lit up and they high-fived each other as if August had already said yes. “But this is a one time thing. And I don’t want to hear another word about you talking about this sort of thing to your friends or your teachers. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, dad,” they said in unison.
“Good, now let me get back to work.”
“I thought there’d be more screaming,” Adam said, voice dripping with disappointment.
He sat in front of the terrarium, legs criss-crossed next to the twins.
“He was screaming before you got here,” Asa said, distracted, face pressed against the glass like a kid in a pet store. “When Jake first bit him.”
Thomas had felt odd having to strip the victim before throwing him in with the python, but the clothing would have killed Jake before him attempting to swallow the man did. Not that the boys even noticed. More often than not, body disposal required nudity. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before. They were unfazed by most things.
“It was awesome,” Avi said.
All his boys were there. All but Aiden, of course. He never came home anymore. But that was to be expected after their last…conversation. Thomas’s heart twisted.
While this was hardly the best use of family night, it was the first one Thomas hadn’t had to bribe anyone to attend.
“Once he started to wrap around the guy, he started making these sort of pathetic whimpering sounds, then the bone crunching started, and then everything just sounded…wet” Archer said, leaning against the far wall, occasionally glancing up from his phone to watch the process.
Thomas was already regretting getting them phones, but especially Archer. He’d thought it would keep him off the gambling sites that he swore he wasn’t on, but he’d been wrong. He’d just figured out how to use his phone to gamble.
The thing was, the boy won more than he lost. By a large margin. And he didn’t seem addicted, just focused. Archer was, by far, his most trusted, most level-headed child. Even over Atticus. Archer had no real interest in torture or even murder, but did what was asked of him without any fuss or fanfare. And without any guilt or remorse. To him, it was just like any other after school job, but with better hours. So as long as Archer didn’t let it interfere with his other tasks, Thomas was choosing to pick his battles.
“Why are his eyes turning red like that?” Adam asked.
“Petechial hemorrhaging,” Atticus said, taking on that authoritative tone. “As the python tightens its coils around him, it's cutting off the blood supply and crushing his lungs. It won’t be long now before he’s dead.”
“Cool,” Avi said, awed.
Archer rolled his eyes at Atticus’s tone. “We get it, you’re a med student.”
Atticus sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m sorry you don’t have any life’s goals, but don’t shit all over the rest of us for not being slackers.”
“I’m not a slacker,” Archer said, tone still dripping with disinterest. “I have plenty of goals, mine just don’t revolve around being an asshole.”
Adam and the twins snickered at the swearing, something it was near impossible to regulate in his older children.
“What are these goals?” August asked from where he leaned against the same wall as Archer, splitting his time between watching his victim slowly suffocate and covertly watching his younger brother’s phone.
“I’m going to be a pro poker player,” Archer said with all the confidence in the world.
Atticus scoffed. “That’s not a real job.”
Archer flicked his gaze upwards. “You know, you don’t have to come home foreveryholiday break.”
“Boys,” Thomas said through gritted teeth, a throbbing beginning behind his left eye.
