Not your fairy tale ending.

A soft gloomy whistle would gently echo down the empty damp dark alleyway. Opening the back doors of the white van, the man would look around at first, making sure he was clear of any eyes. Not like he ever worried anyway, this place was avoided by most. Leaning into his van, he'd pull out a large heavy black plastic wrapped object, throwing it onto his shoulder. It was heavy, dead weight even. Anyone else would have struggled with it, however, this man was strong enough to lift the object, he made sure of it. Now with the object thrown over his shoulder, he would use his other free arm to shut and lock the van.

As his heavy black boots hit the ground, his deep voice would gently sing to himself. "Amazing grace~ How sweet the sound... That saved a Wretch like me~... I once was lost... but now am found... T'was blind, but now I see~..." Continuing on toward his destination his song turned back into a soft eerie whistle.

Knocking on a metal door in the side of one of the brick buildings, a sliding piece of the door would slide open showing a pair of red eyes. "Open up, chuck. I ain't got all day." The man with the plastic wrapped object would huff, his deep voice growled a warning. Within a few seconds, the door would creak open, allowing him to step inside. "Hey, would you be a dear and have someone ditch that van in the alleyway for me? Thanks, love, smooches." Letting his lips smack together making kissing sounds he would let out a deep laugh, and continue on down the hallway.

"Hmmm... Elevator... Or the stairs? I did eat that cheeseburger for lunch... Stairs it is." As he got closer he would indeed spot the elevator doors and to the side the stairs. Letting out a huff he would take the stairs, just as he had told himself. Each solid metal step would be greeted by the dark thud of his big black boots. His body was covered in white coveralls, an embroidered logo on the right side of his chest read, 'Stevie's pest control.' His usual clean black hair was greasy, slicked back. Behind his left ear was an unlit cigarette. He had quit smoking them a long time ago, but it fit the character he created. One... two... Three levels he was still descending. Finally, he reached the door he was looking for, "Next stop... The morgue. Jane, I'm so jealous of you. You get to meet a fine Prince today. What a fun day for you! Now you'd better treat my baby brother with respect, or I'll have'ta kill ya... well... again." He would carefully shake the object chuckling to himself, knowing damn well the thing inside was nothing more than a dead body.

The man would pull open the door, walking down a hall (or two) to a new metal door, which unlike most, he didn't hesitate to open and walk inside. "Hey boo. Brought you something." His deep voice would call out in a sing-songy way, going straight to the empty metal table in the middle of the room. The man didn't bother being gentle with the black plastic wrapped corpse, without care, he would toss it down with a loud 'wham.' As he waited for his twin brother to wander over the man would start to unbutton his white coveralls. "You're gonna like this one Aeo... Nice body... Pretty face... It's a real shame she had such a problem paying her bills. Ah~ too bad. Pulling the upper half of his coveralls off his arms he let it fall loosely around his hips showing off a clean white tank top underneath. Then he worked on taking off his thick black latex gloves. "Stupid bimbo thought I was actually there to do an inspection of her house... You'd think people would consider a stranger asking to enter your home would be a red flag... Guess the threat of cockroaches the size of business cards was enough."

Such a slow day today… His fingers drummed against the metal table in front of him to match the tune of the jazzy sound of That Old Black Magic by Dave Brubeck echoed off the cold walls and made the room feel homier to him. The smell of cookies baking in the small oven scented the room heavily with cinnamon, chocolate, and cloves. It wasn’t every day he made such confections, but when the mafia wanted cookies, Aeolus almost always obliged. Other ingredients were spread out on the clean table that was often used for more gruesome things, but today as used for innocently baking cookies. Or… Well… Semi-innocently baking cooking…

His victim from yesterday had mostly been disposed of, but there were still a few things to clean up. The meat was being boiled in a pressure cooker to reach optimal temperatures on the small stove to render the fat so that he could make soap for the homeless and the meat that remained was to be used for chumming while the blood was being baked and mixed with the cocoa powder for the cookies. And the bones were baked on broil for hours until they could be turned into bonemeal and given to the plants for fertilizer.

There was a very good reason he was called ‘The Butcher’ among their group. Aeolus knew how to dispose of every piece of a body efficiently so that it didn’t leave any form of evidence. Even something like DNA was no problem if you heated it to the proper temperatures. It helped too that he truly did enjoy his job. He loved finding new and exciting ways of perfecting his craft and that he got to do so while being paid for each body his dismembered and disposed of. This was the perfect life for him.

The sound of the door opening drew his attention as he turned his citrine gaze to his older brother came through the door, his brows raising as he spotted the black sack that he slung down on the table. Such a loud and unnecessary noise, his brother was… Aeolus scowled slightly over to his brother before walking toward the bag. Was it dead? Part of the dark unicorn hoped it wasn’t. It wasn’t often he got to work with living specimens, and it certainly was a treat when he did. There was nothing quite like injecting something like bleach or acid into their veins and watching them suffer to breathe as it made it to their heart and lungs and then to their brain. It was likely one of his favorite ways to watch people die if he was completely honest.

As he opened the bag, he was… Slightly disappointed to find the creature inside the bag already dead. Arden spoke in that smooth voice of his, going over the body inside of the bag. She did indeed have a nice body and a pretty face, but he didn’t really find it to be a shame. He looked over at his brother as he half stripped off the coveralls he was wearing. Aeolus shrugged his shoulders apathetically and looked down at the woman on his table. “You forget, Arden. I’m more of a ‘beauty is on the inside’ kind of a guy.” He half-joked affectionately, casting a grin toward his brother. “A pretty face leaves nothing but a pretty corpse, and I’m not quite that twisted as to take out such needs on the deceased.”

Ah, but that reminded him… They’d need to find a new game soon… Maybe people who worked with alarm systems next time. Or the cable company. Either way, he shook his head. “Desperate times, my brother.” He laughed softly as the sound of a loud timer began to ring. “Ah, the cookies are done~” He said brightly before he turned and grabbed his oven mitt that had a little unicorn jumping over a rainbow on it and read ‘Unicorns are real’. The things some creatures could smuggle from the human world… It truly was fascinating to him, though such objects were rather rare unless you knew the right connections. Demons and imps were especially good for going over to the human realm and stealing things from unsuspecting homes.

Pulling the cookies from the oven, he set the onto the metal table that was clear of the filth that his brother had dragged in. He waited a moment, fanning over them to help them cool faster. “Would you like to try one before I had them out to the rest of the group? I think I finally perfected the recipe. Honest opinions only.” He laughed softly before taking a spatula and pulling one of the confections from the tray and handing it to the only family he had left. "And on the topic of opinions, what scent do you think I should use on the soap for the homeless this time around?"

Arden's expression turned a little stern, looking down at the cookie. "What's the chance these cookies have been made out of people, Aeolus?" He knew very well that his brother was obviously baking people into cookies, how however was a different question. This being said, Aeo would immediately know his brother was messing with him. Arden acted like an idiot, but he was just as sharp as his brother. Of course these cookies had remained in them from other creatures, and of course, he would be down to try them.

Arden scooted the hot cookie into his hand, giving it a little 'hot potato' switching it between hands. "Wow~ That's still pretty fuckin' hot." Or was he? Deciding the cookie was far too hot to eat he would set it down on top of the chest of his newest victim, near her right collarbone. It only took a few seconds to realize the corpse he brought in, was not 100% dead as he thought.

Opening her eyes, a sharp scream would escape her, and immediately she started trying to struggle free from her black garbage bags without any luck. She would continue to scream for help flailing about, Arden would save his cookie from the woman before it hit the floor. Holding it in his fingers he would bite into it, his canine fangs digging in. "Mmm... This is really good... And it doesn't taste like anything but a chocolate cinnamon cookie... Good job little brother. It is a bit dry though... Did you maybe cook them for too long?" Arden would continue to try and casually talk to his 'little' brother, ignoring the screaming woman below him.

Aeolus didn’t answer his dear ‘older’ brother, at least, not in words. Instead, he gave Arden an innocent smile as if he had no idea what he was talking about. He went back to pulling the other off the pan and putting them on a cooling rack as his brother played hot potato with it before finally setting it down on the likely unclean corpse on the table. Aeo looked at it, wrinkling his nose slightly at the thought of just how many germs likely crawled all over her skin and what other substances might be there.

After a few seconds, the ‘body’s’ eyes shot open and a sharp scream filled the small room, echoing off the metal walls, but Aeolus ignored her as his brother swooped the cookie from the body and took a bite as the body tried to flail and scream for help that wouldn’t come. His gaze turned to his brother as he watched him bite into the chocolate cookie, waiting to hear his answer.

The answer made him give a true smile for once, pleased with his work, even with the screaming in the background. “Thank you. I think the dryness is just from the blood, to be honest. I dried it out and mixed it with flour, but I guess I need to add another egg. I’ll try tha---” he was cut off by another ear-piercing wail, his gaze flicking down to woman before he flipped the metal spatula in his hand around and slammed the flat end into her throat. The sound of the crunching of her windpipe echoed through the room, silencing those troublesome screams. Honestly, Aeolus was never really one for outright violence, but maybe it was because she was being extremely annoying? Screaming had always bothered him greatly and it was just all around unnecessary.

“Maybe in the next life, you’ll know not to cut people off when they’re trying to have an adult conversation.” He tsked at her quietly before turning his attention back to his brother. “Now, as I was saying, I think I’ll try adding another egg in the next batch. Or at least the white. It might help make it a little bit moister.” He shrugged his shoulders slightly as he looked over at the woman who was choking on her own blood, a guttural gurgling sound replaced the screaming and accented the jazz that played in the background quite nicely.

Turning his citrine gaze back to his brother, he smiled up at him curiously. “So, what were we doing with her? Since you obviously didn’t finish the job like you should have, ‘big’ brother.”