Sick Like Me

Cadaver's breath hitched, a sudden cold chill creeping down his spine that had nothing to do with the frosty night air. His body shivered involuntarily, muscles tensing as his heart pounded against his rib cage. The truth of her words struck him like a physical blow. He was broken. They were both broken. No amount of brute strength or cunning manipulation could ever fix what was damaged inside them."Illusion…" He began, his dark voice wavering between anger and regret. He wanted to denounce her words, to refute the implications she was making, but he couldn't. Because he knew, deep down in his twisted soul , that she was absolutely right. Like a gnarled tree, strong on the surface yet rotten to the core, and she—she was a mirror reflecting his deformed self back at him.

A shudder traveled down his spine as he met her eyes again. The blood from her wounds had started to seep into the white fur of his chest, staining it a beautiful red. Beautiful like her. Cadaver looked down at the mark he had left on her, the proof of his brutality. His mind screamed at him to reject it, the sight too grotesque to bear, but he kept staring – a masochistic fascination with the spectacle of violence he had created.

She'd exposed them both for what they were—monsters, broken and twisted in their own ways, reflecting each other's darkness. Cadaver's gaze dropped back to Illusion's face, finding her eyes still locked with his. They were vibrant, even after everything he'd done to her, full of some perverse hope that made something deep in his gut churn. "Is that it then?" He growled out, the words sounding more like a desperate plea than an accusation. His breath was hot and heavy, fogging up the cold air between them. "We're both monsters, so we must belong together? Is that your logic?"

His voice held a disdainful sneer at her audacity, but within it was an undeniable tremor of vulnerability. He recoiled from the looming implications, his breath hitching. Could he truly subdue himself to the idea that he was nothing more than a beast? That his life was forever entwined with that of another monster? Illusion's devilish chuckles echoed hollowly in his ear, a spine-chilling melody that made him grind his teeth together in sheer frustration. Her broken body beneath him stirred, her feeble movements whispering pain, yet there was a defiance in her glisten eyes that could only be admired. He didn’t wait for her answer. The much larger brute, descended upon his sister once again, but this time, it was her closeness that he craved. He pressed his body against her’s, a dichotomy of warmth against it. “Is this love?” His voice, nothing but a whisper as lapped at the wound he had caused with his tongue- grooming away the blood before it had time to clot in her beautiful coat. “The wanting you so badly it gnaws at my insides, yet wanting to break you to possess you- so you’ll be entirely mine?" His breath hitched as he uttered the last words, almost choked on them, a lament coated with bitter resignation. 

"Cadaver Nightwing"