[ WP ] In a world where people are paired to their genetic `` soulmate '' , you 're matched with two people . A set of Twins .

`` It's late, I know, but I had to call.'' 
 
 `` Hey babe, what's up?'' 
 
 `` Izi, I'm sorry to ask but could you come over, and -- and do n't tell Deze?'' 
 
 `` What? What's wrong?'' 
 
 `` Oh, noth -- I-I just want to talk to you is all.'' 
 
 `` Lycks, you know we do n't keep secrets. She loves you --'' 
 
 `` -- and that's fine. But right now I just want you. Just you and me, okay? I've got to tell you in person. I'm-I'm scared, Izi. I've made a mess and -- let her sleep, okay?'' 
 
 `` Alright. I'll be there in ten. Sit tight, love.'' 
 
 Lycks tapped his phone off and tossed the earpiece on his bed. Oh, delicious. Sweet, sweet meat. He rubbed the grease from his fingers on a napkin, swallowing the last of the sausage. Slurp. Time to grind, grinding time. He threw open the basement door and sniffed at the shiny steel equipment he kept underground. Too clean, need to make a mess. Tinder days were gone, unfortunate, but surprise! Surprise, have twinsies for life -- why, thank you man in the White Dome Capital. Here's to you -- he smiled at his reflection, fogged and leering in a warped way off the grinder. Newly-legal-weds still waiting for the big move-in and whole ceremony proper - ah well, what can you do if one goes missing? Still two to tango. 
 
 Lycks did look disheveled when he opened the door for Izi. She took a big wide-eyed look into his face and put her arms around him. `` Hey, you.'' He let out slight sob, shook himself for effect. Quality. `` What happened?'' she asked gently. 
 He pointed, weak in the wrist, back into the house. `` Rufus. He was helping me, you know, make my last batch, and-and --'' he broke off, sobbing pathetically. She gasped. `` Oh, sweetie, say it's not true.'' 
 
 Puppy sausage: she laughed inside. How could anyone be so careless? Poor Lycks, she'd almost thought him a man at first. He was a loser though; no spine, no ambition beyond a quiet garden and a rattling sausage machine. Silly child -- pathetic and sniveling boy undeserving of her and especially of Deze. Pitiable Lycks, alone for so long, how could anyone share life with him now? Broken boy, a discarded toy. No way to live -- not for her, not for Deze. She'll never know what a favor Izi did her after tonight. 
 
 `` Come on, let's get you some hot choco. Wo n't that be nice?'' 
 She unslung her purse and busied herself making two hot cups of the stuff. After they'd both sat at the kitchen table, him sobbing and her holding his hand, she shushed him softly and asked what he wanted to do about Rufus. `` I can't-I ca n't look at him.'' He swallowed. `` Could you - I have a box, but I ca n't.'' 
 Izi nodded, gave him the sympathy he was fishing for. `` Sure babe. Just give me the box and I'll take care of the rest.'' 
 
 He let her get all the way down the stairs before he stood up and grabbed the old wood ax from the sliver of space between the fridge and the wall. It was good to keep spares, even if they were rough and worn, rusted and cumbersome. The old ax had a familiar heft to it that he savored on his way down the steps. He'd not felt this way in a long time. He'd make it last. Take her a limb at a time. He paused. She had n't said a word. What was she doing? 
 
 The bastard was getting straight to business. She had n't expected this from the weakling. Well, she had to give Lycks credit for one thing: He had a much more streamlined process than she did. She'd dumped a dozen bodies over the years while keeping Deze in the dark, but now she was rooted to the floor in shock that she should have been fooled by a sissy like Lycks. Too late, then, to take him by surprise. Revolver in her purse on the kitchen table. She needed a minute to think, to collect herself. Quick, she pulled herself into the freezer. It clicked shut behind her and she was alone with a red bulb, searching the frosted shelves by fingertip for something, anything. 
 
 Lycks frowned at the empty basement. The bitch was crafty. He suspected Deze was much dumber. Certainly prettier. He'd have a ball with her once this was over. One more spat, a quick chop! Then eats for a week, steaming plates every meal. Ha. She'd eat her own liver. He stalked around the grinder, checked the pantry, tried the triple locks on the door to the outside -- nothing. Ah, the freezer. Clever. He giggled, an obscene noise but it suited him. `` Come out, Izi. I've to ask you a question!'' 
 
 Izi found a forgotten leg shank but it was too clumped with meat at its edge to stab with the splintered bone. She gnawed at it but only chipped a tooth. Too tough, then. She heard Lycks shout something. Bone in hand, she gave it a whirl like a small bat. It'd have to do. `` Come on, motherfucker,'' she whispered. 
 
 He put his hand on the latch and pulled. 
 When she heard him touch the door she kicked out to knock him flat with it, but he yanked it open so quick she kicked his jaw clean off his face. 
 
 The immediate scream was more surprising to her than the pain of his split face was to Lycks. He swung the old ax with full-bodied force and buried the wedge in the wall where her head had been, then he howled again when she belted him square in the hole where his jaw used to be. The meaty bone in her hand was splashed with dripping red, but she kept swinging, coloring it brighter and slicker, til the cold cut of lamb in her hand looked fresh as the day Lycks ripped it off the animal. He lost hold of the ax and put his hands up to cover his face, yelling unintelligibly while Izi knocked him back, knocked him down. 
 
 Then he was rolling on the floor and hit something sharp with his hand. He did n't look but he slashed with whatever it was and opened her guts up to the pale underground light. He stabbed with the thing and buried it, twisting away while she bludgeoned his head with her club, wet heavy smacks to his ear. Then one hit so hard he heard his own neck go and was looking up from across the room -- a very dead body collapsed holding its own jaw bone in the woman's sternum. How ridiculous -- who would do such a -- 
 
 Izi held her intestines in -- mostly, but some hung loose -- with one hand and with the other pulled herself up the stair railing. She reached the kitchen and collapsed in a chair, fished her phone from her purse and dialed. She caught look at herself in the window and smiled. Her face was entirely covered in blood. Her body gave a weak groan and she shushed it. `` Hello, yes. I've had an emergency. I need an ambulance.'' 
 
 

