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Aventurine. Also known as The Gambler . Someone the media deemed to be a sick, twisted, cruel man. The alias appeared in the news one day, the day his crimes broke international news. People had begun to refer to him as such because of the evidence he left at each crime scene, a calling card. Wherever he went, you could find a red and black poker chip nearby.
During the daytime, you could find him at the casino, making bets he always won, using outrageous amounts of money some people could only dream of having. But when night fell, he turned a different leaf, a serial killer with a lust for blood.
The police had never gotten close to catching him. He supposed he could thank his luck for that, allowing him to escape from the hands of justice and to plunge a knife into the chest of his next victim. There were no patterns to his killings, nothing for the police to go by, just those stupid poker chips. Poker chips that Aventurine never used at the tables so that he wouldn’t give away his identity.
Opposite to him, his victims were the unlucky ones. They were always unsuspecting, and perhaps that made it all the more thrilling when Aventurine finally saw the life drain from their eyes. He made sure that the last thing his victims saw were his eyes, purple and blue, much too friendly to be the eyes of a killer.
He picked them out randomly. Sometimes they were people walking alone at night, a hitchhiker, a couple making out in their car; the options were limitless. But Aventurine was getting tired of this town. He decided that he needed to expand the range of his killings, and that meant moving to a new town.
A town that just so happened to be inhabited by Veritas Ratio, a murderer and cannibal who was not taking lightly to his town being infiltrated by another killer. Unlike Aventurine, he took his time planning his kills, picking out the perfect victim every time. And of course, there was no body left behind. Behind everything that Ratio did, there was a reason.
He had first murdered someone three years ago, a man who had wronged him at his job. Cannibalism was never an idea in his mind until about a year ago. Sure, he had read about it before, but he never got the appeal. That was, until one night when he had taken the life of yet another man. He had brought the body back to his house and planned on disposing of it as he had his past victims, but something inside of him that time urged him to taste him.
Veritas took the body to the kitchen, laid out a tarp on the floor, and dismembered the body. He fileted a piece of the arm, sloppy, but it didn’t need to be pretty. He cooked the flesh in his oven before sitting down at his kitchen table, a napkin tucked into his shirt, and he ate, savored. It wasn’t perfect, but he soon learned the proper butcher cuts, the correct temperature for the oven, which body parts to use in different recipes, how to properly season–it all came to him.
He saw nothing wrong with his ways, after all, it was an animal eating another animal, something that had been done since the beginning of time. So what was wrong with him eating another human?
The first encounter that Veritas had with Aventurine was a chance encounter, and it was brief. Aventurine didn’t even acknowledge the other lurking in the shadows. They were following the same person at the same time. How unlucky.
Veritas wasn’t sure if Aventurine had even seen him at first. But he was sure of one thing; he wasn’t going to let Aventurine take his kill, his food , away from him that easily.
Aventurine watched Veritas kill the man, watched as he threw the man against a wall and wrenched a knife into his gut four times, giving one good upward push into his ribs for good measure. He watched as Veritas moved the body with caution, like it was a precious item to him and Aventurine wasn’t sure why .
It would have been easy. Aventurine saw Veritas’ face and he could have gone to the police to report what he had just witnessed. He wasn’t that stupid however. He wasn’t going to encounter the police when he also intended to kill people in this city. He would just ignore the fact that his luck was down for the day, that he had let his chance of getting another kill go.
But Aventurine wouldn’t forget that that man was undeniably handsome.
–
Veritas was getting sick of Aventurine, and quickly. The police had noticed the amount of missing persons and murders in the city were increasing. Of course they would. Of course the media would start suggesting that there may be two serial killers in the city. Veritas was not going to let Aventurine ruin this for him. He wasn’t going to risk being caught all because some pretty blonde boy with a lust for blood like him moved into his city. He would have to meet with the other face to face.
It wasn’t hard to find Aventurine, he had seen him the one time before and knew what he looked like. He just had to hope to run into him in the shadows again.
That wasn’t what happened. Veritas encountered Aventurine for the second time when he walked into his usual coffee shop on a Saturday morning. There he was, sitting at a high top table, holding a warm mug in his hands. He looked so innocent, so normal.
Aventurine looked up at Veritas, and from the way he stared, Veritas knew that Aventurine remembered exactly who he was. Veritas turned his attention away from the other and ordered his coffee to go. While he waited, he scribbled down a note on the back of his receipt. Once he was handed his cup, he thanked the barista and walked past Aventurine’s table, slipping the receipt in front of him before he left, the bell of the door chiming.
He had given Aventurine his address and a time to meet him there. Veritas had briefly considered killing Aventurine, but he thought Aventurine might have the same idea. He had to think of a solution that would solve the issues that their increased number of murders would stir up. They would have to work together.
Perhaps there was a way to collaborate, a way to calm the suspicions in the town. If Aventurine committed the murders for Veritas and then he prepared the body to be consumed... Yes, this could work, he thought.
Veritas began his walk back home, smiling at strangers on the street as they passed while on the inside, for the first time in a long time, he felt a sense of panic.
Aventurine didn’t even need to look at what was written on the receipt to know that Veritas was requesting a meeting with him. He smirked as he lifted his cup to his lips, sipping on his latte. This was all working in his favor. Of course it was.
Because that was his luck.
–
Aventurine went to Veritas’ house at the specified time, knocking on the door and waiting for an answer. He looked up at the house. It was big, it was nice . He wondered what Veritas did for a job during the daytime. His thoughts were stopped when the door in front of him opened.
“Ah, good, you’re on time.” Veritas stepped out of the doorway, “Come in, please.”
Aventurine stepped inside, looking around the foyer which was equally as impressive. The door was shut beside him and Veritas stepped in front of Aventurine. Aventurine looked up at him, “Hello.”
Veritas chuckled, “All you have to say? Well,” he cleared his throat, “I am Dr. Veritas Ratio.”
Doctor…
“A doctor of what, exactly?” Aventurine asked.
“I have a degree in philosophy.” Veritas turned on his heels and began to walk to the kitchen, Aventurine’s cue to follow him.
Aventurine trailed after him. “Philosophy? They shouldn’t you know that murder is immoral?”
“Are you going to tell me your name?”
Ignoring his question. “Aventurine, a gambler.”
“Ah,” Veritas looked over his shoulder, “so you’re The Gambler they all talk about.”
Aventurine’s face was like stone, unmoving, unexpressive, just like a gambler’s should be. “Yes, that’s me.”
Veritas went to his basement, flicking the light for the stairs on. “After you.” He motioned.
“What, are you going to kill me?” Aventurine raised an eyebrow.
Veritas chuckled, “Not quite.”
Aventurine sighed, taking a step and walking down the stairs to what looked like a basement you would see in a horror movie. “Such a nice house and such a dreary basement.” He said bluntly.
Veritas followed behind the other man and walked around him when he stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He walked over to a chest freezer.
Aventurine’s heart rate quickened. He glanced at the tools hanging above a clean metal table, just like what you would see in a hospital or a lab. When he saw the freezer, he knew where this was going.
“I am not just a murderer, Aventurine.” Veritas unlocked the freezer and lifted the lid.
Aventurine took a cautious step forward, but he already knew what would be inside. He leaned over the freezer, staring down at a freezer full of body parts, each carefully bagged individually. His stomach turned. He had of course seen dead bodies, he knew how to get rid of them, but he had never
kept
them. And God, he didn’t…
Veritas leaned over Aventurine’s shoulder. “I’m also a cannibal.”
–
Aventurine huffed as he dragged the body up Veritas’ back steps. He watched as the light flicked on and heard the glass door slide open. Veritas’ footsteps quickly followed, he got on the other end of the body and lifted, helping Aventurine bring it inside.
The body dropped to the floor as both men let go. The cold, dead, scared eyes of a stranger looked up at them.
Veritas shut and locked the door as Aventurine sat down at the kitchen table. Veritas walked over to the stove and turned off the heat. “Dinner is ready.” He hummed. “Your catch from last night.”
Aventurine leaned back and smiled as he looked at the other man. “Oh, you’re too good to me.”