A cool, quiet night, as mundane as every other. Regardless of however many upgrades you get in life, however many steps up the ladder you manage to grab and pull yourself up to, inevitably, life’s routine will kick in, and one can do little to shift the monotony of its linear passage as responsibilities and duties, among other things, make for little room to breathe. 

The man sighs as he laments this fact in the elevator ride up to his penthouse, impatiently tapping the side of his leg with his fingers. Is this what they mean when they say money can’t buy you happiness? He considers rescheduling for an earlier appointment with his therapist. It had been a long day, and all he could think of was just kicking back and relaxing. As the elevator nears its destination, he loosens his tie and stretches his tired face.

The elevator dings at its stop. As the doors slide open, he catches sight of a hooded figure standing in front of his door, a slight swaying in his stance. Too lazy to take out and put on his glasses, the man draws closer. He smirks to himself and breathes a chuckle through his nostrils as the identity of the figure comes to light through his blurred vision. “Zeel, huh?” Standing there with one arm across his abdomen, his other arm is propped on top of his crossed hand. His index finger lightly taps the tip of his nose as his chin rests equally lightly on his thumb. His all too familiar thinking pose. The man chuckles again and shakes his head.

“What is it this time, Zeel?” he asks upon approaching. Zeel snaps to attention and shifts his focus. “John! Perfect timing!” he squeals with delight, opening his arms wide in a welcoming gesture. “Another one of your wild ideas?” John reaches for his door, but Zeel quickly slides in between. “Now now, just hear me out first. You definitely won't regret it, I assure you.”

John lets out an exhausted sigh. “If I had a penny for every time you said that.” He rubs his eyes, furrowing his brows and squeezing his eyelids. “Your curiosity is boundless, you know. But you really should finish off your research before starting a new one,” he sighs. “You have far too many ongoing studies right now, I don't think I could spare any more funding, to be honest.” Zeel is hardly perturbed by his comments. If anything, his excited demeanour seems to only be climbing.

“But I do deliver, don't I?” he retorts back. “Not quite as quickly as I'd like, though,” answers John wearily. Zeel's eyes begin to sparkle. “Aha! But this time, I can guarantee results almost immediately. In fact, that's why I'm here! To show you those results.” Zeel finally moves out of the way, swaying his arm out to let John in like a waiter welcoming his customers. John rolls his eyes to the side and looks at Zeel sceptically. Gonna be a long night too, huh. Zeel's childlike expression of excitement remains unchanging. John decides to call his therapist first thing the next morning.

Entering the darkened hallway of his penthouse, the automatic lighting kicks in at John's signature clap. Zeel follows along cheerily. Just as John is about to turn and ask him to make it quick, he stops on his tracks and perks his ears. 

Silence. 

An eerie stillness.

Was it his imagination? He shakes his head. No. He listens more carefully. 

There. A voice. A… groan. An all too familiar whine. A very personal moan. Down the hallway. In the living room. 

He quickly turns to question Zeel but notices that the researcher is barely able to contain himself. “What's…” begins a perplexed John, before finding himself suddenly spun back around and pushed along by an overly eager Zeel. “Come on, come on.”

“You know,” begins Zeel, an arm draped around John’s shoulder as they proceed down the hallway. “I study electromagnetism for most of my research. Though, mostly it’s just things surrounding waves.” John knew he couldn’t stop Zeel once he’d started, so he reluctantly trudges along to the scientist’s beat. “But recently,” continues Zeel with a huge smile on his face, more so than usual, noted John. 

“I happened to… how should I put it… come across a tremendous discovery that has piqued my interest to no end. Why, it’s gone so far as to make me question Geminite Disposition and even the Crüiler Faux.” John’s gut begins to churn. He could see Zeel wouldn’t listen to anything he was going to say, and that just made him dislike the situation even more. “And most curious is how it’s also got to do with waves,” leers Zeel. By now, they had arrived at the large double doors leading into the living room.

Zeel flings open one side and gestures after his guest to step in. John takes a deep breath, steps into the dark, and puts his hands together out of habit. As the lights flicker to life, the colour drains from his face once he sees who he had heard. He can barely believe his own eyes. After all, it had been decades since he’d seen him. But then again, it’s almost like looking into a mirror.

“Josh...” murmurs John under his breath. John turns to Zeel, “What’s the meaning of this??” Zeel has gone around to Josh, shaking him awake excitedly. “I must say, it took them quite a while to find him.” “Zeel, stop.” “But I’m so glad they finally did,” continues Zeel eagerly. “Zeel!” “We could be on the verge of a breakthrough right at this moment!” “ZEEL!” John finally snaps. Zeel looks up at John, somewhat taken aback by the sudden outburst, as if perplexed as to why he isn’t as excited. “Explain to me just what the hell is going on here. And get him out of here while you’re at it,” continues John. Zeel slowly walks across the room to John, arms slightly outspread. “John. My dear, dear John,” he begins. “You’re about to witness history in the making.” John instinctively takes a step back, not wanting to be approached by the clearly insane man. Zeel holds John by the shoulders and leans his face close in, lowering his voice, but his zest clearly leaking out through his expression. 

“I’ve discovered,” he breathes in, “that I’m... cured of amperage,” Zeel is barely able to contain himself, his lips curved from ear to ear. John draws his head back, aghast at the notion, “Wha-” Zeel, smiling ear to ear, slowly nods his head. “That’s right. My brother’s dead. Killed in fact,” Zeel has drawn even closer now, and it frightened John. “By. Me.” John pushes Zeel away. That’s it. He isn’t going to have any of this. But being the elderly man that he is, the push causes him to lose his balance and fall to the floor instead as Zeel lets go of him.

“Don’t you think it’s ridiculous?” Zeel begins again. “That we live tied down by one another? That our lives can be forfeit if ever anything were to happen to our sibling? Living in this constant dread at the back of our minds, the fact that we essentially have a kill switch somewhere out there. But this,” he gestures to Josh, who is looking around bewildered, eyes wide and bloodshot, trying to make sense of the place he’s been put in, “This could be a step to finding a cure. To severing that bond. I just need your help to carry it out.” 

John is shaking his head. “No. No no no.” He pulls himself back up. “You’ve gone mad. I knew you were a bit odd in the head. But this. This is too much.” He turns to leave, but Zeel has already beat him to the door, and locks it shut. In his hands, he menacingly swings a weapon he had taken out of his backpack. Is that… a gun? How did he get his hands on that??

“Now, I’m not one to force my hand, but even you have to admit this would be groundbreaking news, wouldn’t it?” Zeel questions rhetorically. Before John can reply, he turns to Josh, “Josh, I’m sure you were told about what needs to be done? Take out John, and you can assume his identity. I can guarantee that. I’ll help with whatever it is you need.” John stares at Zeel in disbelief, his mouth ajar. This couldn’t be happening. He spins back around to face Josh. 

“Josh, listen.” John catches his breath. “You don’t have to do this. I can give you as much money as you need. I’ve been doing it all this while, why change things?” But he could see that his pleas of desperation fell on deaf ears. Josh didn’t seem right in the head. Was it those drugs he’d been on all this while? Or was it something else? Regardless, he has to get away, seeing the gears in Josh’s head clicking as the man comes to a decision in his head. 

Josh stands up and menacingly approaches his brother, who begins to panic and look for an escape, clutching his wrist as he runs off. Zeel, giddy from the prospect of his months of work finally reaching a breaking point, quickly reaches into his bag and pulls out his notepad. He wouldn’t dare miss a detail on this occasion, following after the duo.

The lights in each room automatically flicker on as John passes through them, desperate to look for a way out. Through each room, he reaches his arms out, grabs anything within reach, and mindlessly flings it behind him. Pots and pans. Photo frames. Lamps. He topples some chairs. Circles around a table. Eventually, he finds himself in his bedroom. And Josh, standing by the door.

He can hear Zeel chirping away from behind, “You need to bash his head! His head!” His brother is creeping ever closer. In his hands is a long, standing lamp. He must have gotten it from the living room earlier. John just keeps shaking his head, “No no. No no no no no. No Josh, please. I’ve been kind to you.” Josh’s raspy voice crackles through his deep breaths. “Yeah. But I don’t wanna die either,” retorts Josh, pupils dilating. “You will if you kill me!” Josh pauses for just a moment, then shakes his head. “That’s not what I was told.”

Zeel appears from behind. He pipes in, “Well, yes, but like I said, you need to aim for his head for it to work. Just swing hard for the top there.” He darts his attention again, like a child on a sugar rush. “You too, John. You’ve got a fighting chance unless you’re planning to just stand there and take it.” John just can’t bear what he is hearing anymore. He grabs a pillow and runs straight at his brother blocking the doorway, hoping to break through. Zeel maintains his distance, but keeps his eyes fixed on the two, all the while egging on the drug-induced sibling.

The brothers clash, and the momentum from John’s charge causes Josh to tumble to the ground, his cranium bouncing off of the marble floor, much to Zeel’s delight. Gasping, he pushes the pillow aside, but his brother had already trudged off, still clutching frantically at his wrist. Josh swings the lamp pole with all his might, and the tip just barely hooks on to his brother’s ankle, bringing him down face-first into the floor, breaking his nose. Impatient and high, he crawls towards his brother and mounts him. John’s wails and screams for help are simply drowned out by years of rage and resentment finally gushing forth as Josh brings his fists down upon his brother.

Disoriented, all John can see through his clouded vision is the blurred image of what he had once lovingly called a family member, pummeling him. He could feel his mouth open, his lungs exhaling, his vocal cords pleading for some form of rescue. And yet, all he could hear are the ramblings of the lunatic who had started all of this, “Curious, most curious,” echoing through his ears. “No, no. You have to do it like this,” the voice was saying.

John suddenly finds himself being pulled up, only to be abruptly thrust back on the floor, smashing the back of his skull onto the hard floor beneath. “You too, John. You’ve still got a chance. Fight back now. You have to. Come on now,” the voice continued. But what was an elderly man like himself to do in the face of such a helpless situation. Pulled up, and shoved down again. Up and down. Up and down.

“No, John. No no no. No! Come on! This isn’t how it’s supposed to work!” Choking on his own blood, his head won’t stop spinning. Up once more, and into the floor once again. He couldn’t even hear what was going on anymore. ‘Curious’ was all that rang in his mind. Curious indeed. Perhaps it’s time he took a rest. He doesn’t even notice his brother suddenly being lifted off of him. 

Zeel stands over the twins’ dead bodies. He had gotten too excited, and lost sight of the initial experiment. But by the time he came to his senses, the subject was on the verge of death. Fearful of the failure of the experiment, he had pulled Josh back. But the raging addict would not be restrained, however, and in the scuffle, Zeel lost his grip. Josh had pulled forward hard, and the lightweight Zeel came toppling over. The sudden weight on his back had caused Josh to tip over and crack his skull on the edge of the table next to them. It had all gone terribly wrong. 

Frustrated at his own shortcomings, all Zeel can do is pack up, and try once more. And again. And again. As many times as it would take. But with the dust settling, he finally realises the beeping that had been drowned out by the chaos earlier. There. Coming from John’s wristwatch. And in the distance, the telltale blaring of sirens creeps into earshot.