Big Book Of Ridgephos One Shots

Meaner Than my Demons (S)

TW: Gore, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Vivisection, MCD, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

When Xephos arrived back home, the very first thing he saw – or at least the first thing noteworthy – was something that looked suspiciously like a collection of sausages without their filling, a tangle of pale, uneven worm-like things.

In their bathroom sink.

Now, he wasn't about to claim that it was the strangest thing he'd ever come home to, but it was definitely somewhere in the top twenty. Probably just after the craters in their back yard that one day, like gaping maws tearing the scenery to bits; as if the earth was still screaming silently about the explosion that had obviously taken place there. That had been irritatingly tedious to fix.

So really, all things considered, this wasn't too bad.

Xephos still spent a few moments poking at the shapeless things, fishing them out of the cold water and holding one end between his thumb and his index finger to inspect it a little closer-

Yup. Definitely someone's guts.

Or something's guts, potentially; it was kind of hard to determine at just a glance, without a body to function as a frame of reference, but it would probably be safe to say that they were human. They were long enough to be, for one thing, and Xephos smirked when he dropped the amorphous, slightly soggy heap of organs back into the icy water and decided that his evening was a little more interesting than he'd first anticipated.

He found Ridge in the living room, cross-legged in mid-air like the show-off that he was as he studied the decidedly empty body cavity of a blonde man. Apparently, their dining room table functioned just as well as an improvised operating table as it did to actually use for dinner, and Xephos shook his head in mild amusement.

Speaking of getting rid of bodies.

"Hello, love," Xephos said as he wrapped his arms around the other man, pressing a kiss to the back of his head before he glanced over his shoulder at the rather interesting display. "Having fun?"

Ridge chewed and swallowed and Xephos had just enough time to wonder what thehell he was eating before Ridge kissed him, feet touching the ground as he turned around and allowed Xephos a taste of something he couldn't quite place.

"I missed you, bright eyes," Ridge said when they finally broke apart, eyes glowing faintly in endless humour as he gestured at the spectacle that adorned their table. "As for your question: I'm most definitely having fun. Care to join me?"

The body on the table turned out to be not quite as lifeless as Xephos had deemed it at first sight when a low moan sounded, laced with pain and with the faintness that Xephos recognized as someone being barely awake enough to vocalize his complaints about his current situation but most definitely trying his best. He had to admit it made quite a sight, though; the Y-shaped incision from collar bones all the way down the blonde's chest was a little sloppily done but functional enough enough. The skin folded open to the sides like pages of a book, exposing the way the man's lungs expanded and deflated in an erratic rhythm, bits of ribs and other organs on display – and the hollow cavity where Xephos was fairly sure there had been intestines not too long ago.

Usually, when people looked like this, they were decidedly dead. But Xephos glanced at the man's face and couldn't hold back a chuckle when his gaze was met with hazy, half-arsed anger, red eyes struggling to focus – but very much awake.

"Lalnable? Really?" Xephos shook his head as he prodded at the cannibal's insides, inspecting Ridge's crude handiwork. "Was he having a go at you again? You'd think he would have learned by now."