(Disclaimer: I don't own the song in the media.
We highly recommend listening to it for dramatic effect
[and to endure Smirky's midway ramble]
As always with music: Don't play it at high volume if you're trying to be quiet!)

A guard post; no guards.

Of course. The assigned minions were at the cafeteria-turned-bingo hall, where else would they be? Actually doing work? A laughable concept indeed.

A heavy ring of keys jangled in his pocket. Almost all bronze, one silver.

The silver key didn't belong there. But he had it anyway.

Lord Zalgo wouldn't be happy if he learned that he'd swiped it during his little agony act, but what the buffoon didn't know wouldn't kill him.

Everyone carried a set of bronze keys, however silver ones would open any and every thing on the dungeon floor. The minions liked eating these keys, for some bizarre reason.

So even if the prince of darkness did notice that his copy was absent from its usual place, it would be of no consequence.

Except for whoever got blamed for it instead.

Without a doubt, someone else was going to be beheaded for his crime. Most likely an innocent minion. Oh well.

What difference would it make? The turnover rate for employment was quite high, although no one ever left.

Humming an inconspicuous tune under his breath, Smirky strolled past the vacant guard post and into the main dungeon corridor.

He slipped the ring of keys out of a pocket with one hand (his other was hidden behind his back) and checked a carved number on this special silver one.

A-6.

A smirk tugged on the corner of his mouth as the illusionist creepypasta approached the door with a matching number.

Unhooked from the ring, the key slotted perfectly into its chunky lock, opening a flimsy mechanism with an audible click and clang.

He pulled it open; light fanned out into the cell and across the face of its inhabitant. Wrists clad in iron chains, Smiley couldn't get up or move from a far wall.

Although, far wall was somewhat an understatement. The space would've given any claustrophobic a heart attack.

No longer of use, the key found itself tossed carelessly back into a different pocket.

It was quiet.

So very cold and quiet.

Creeeeeeeak. The door swung further on its hinges.

Smiley sharply looked up and regretted his movement instantly. His shoulders were aching, begging his arms to drop down and relax.

Not that Smirky seemed to particularly care. Or maybe he did, because the first words out of his mouth were, "Shall I pull those chains higher? You look a little tired."

"How will that help?" The not-so-good doctor croaked, wearily resigned to the fact that he was well and truly captured.

"Well, the extra pain should keep you awake," Smirky said brightly, giving him a cheerful smile. With teeth.

Smiley let his head fall back, frame heaving from a long-drawn sigh. "You're happy about this, aren't you?"

"Yes, very. For once, you can't get away from me. Isn't that fun?"

Silence spoke louder than words.

The illusionist left this question hanging for a little while, then followed it up with something else.

"You know... We've never had a chance to talk alone." He dropped down and sat to be at eye-level with him as he spoke. "-Since we were little."

"That was before you pushed me into a dentist's chair and drilled my gum open," Smiley deadpanned, absentmindedly licking a scar that ran along his mouth's interior.

The faint start of a smirk worked its way onto his twin brother's face. "You remember that?"

"I remember trying to get away." Smiley followed every movement of his eyes with disdain. "But you used an anaesthetic to make me woozy." 

Smirky turned his head away, lightly shrugging like it wasn't a big deal, eyes stuck firmly on Smiley. "Rage makes us do crazy things, doesn't it?"

The not-so-good doctor pulled on his chains with limited movement.

"But why? Because our parents loved me more than you? It was the day after our birthday, for crying out loud, and you were going to- going to- going to kill me!"

While Smiley was getting aggravated, Smirky remained a sitting picture of calm.

He hadn't even moved his hand  – it was still hiding something behind his back.

But he wanted to toy with his brother just a little bit more, mislead him down a wrong direction for fun. Make the truth hit fast, and hit harder.

"Mhmm... How could I forget that? You were always the mama's boy, and I wasn't. You got served first, you got best, and I was second-priority."

His misdirection worked - his brother became defensive.

"They loved you too." A trickle of sweat weaved down Smiley's neck. "They lavished you with presents on our birthday."

"Our parents were symmetry freaks who couldn't stand the thought of their sons having an uneven amount of gifts between them," Smirky stated coldly. It was fun to ruffle his brother's feathers.

Smiley gritted his teeth. "I couldn't help that they gave me more attention, or that you hated me for it." He spat venomously.

Oh? This was something new - did he really kid himself into believing blind hate was the reason? That he didn't remember the rest? A liar lying to himself - how ironic.

He'd fix that - refresh a few memories along the way.

Smirky shook his head. "You forgot?"

All the anger drained out of Smiley's face, leaving confusion in its place.

"Forgot what?"

Foolish creature.

"Our parents didn't just have a favourite; they picked you because I wasn't perfect. Not like you were. You seem to have no recollection of how much they wanted twins."

"I-I... know. Only identical ones –  they messed around with some questionable medical treatments to make sure of it. What's your point?"

Smirky tapped the side of his face.

"Then you also know how strange red eyes are, don't you? It opens a whole new spectrum of colour, unknown genetics... Flaws."

"But wha-"

Let. Me. Finish. He narrowed his glare.

"One of my eyes were deformed at birth, didn't have a functioning ocular nerve. And along with that, a discoloured iris. In short, I was born half blind, you bluffing idiot."

Countless hours of taking medical courses (and having to examine BEN's weird little face), had taught Smiley plenty about such matters. He knew what the 'ocular nerve' was.

Smirky sucked a sharp breath and continued, voice sped up. He was rattling off into a ramble again, words blurring together.

"So pray tell me, dear brother; how do you think a couple with a shared obsession with symmetry and order that surpasses insanity would handle a child who drives their neurotic impulses wild? By ignoring him! Never look at his face! Devote all their time to the other one instead!"

Smiley could do nothing but let him go off on this little rant.

He could still kid himself into believing that he forgot Smirky's eyes being mismatched – that his younger self had carelessly dismissed it from memory, the moment it became unimportant.

Smirky stopped when his throat ran dry.

If he'd said anything important, Smiley hadn't heard it.

Nobody could quite understand him when he rambled.

Smiley cut a dishonest word in during the pause. "... I didn't know. Honest."

"I'm sure you did." Smirky drawled, voice dropping back to true calmness. In truth, even the rising anger in his voice had been faked.

Smiley searched his twin's eyes with kindled interest.

They didn't look mismatched. It was quite the opposite; they were flawless and perfectly mirrored each other. Zalgo's doing?

"Is that why you're determined to kill me?" The not-so-good doctor began, with a hint of relief on his face. "-Because you're jealous and want to be one of a kind, instead of a defective version of someone else?"

At last, a final conclusion; far cry from reality. He could hear the hope, the hope in his brother's voice that he wasn't in the wrong, that the truth was long-buried.

Time to burn it all down.

All of a sudden, Smirky cocked his head to one side with a close-eyed smile. "No."

The look of bemusement on Smiley's face made it all worth it.
His stage was set.

Smiley concealed his startled look. Dread was knocking at the back of his skull. "Then what-"

The illusionist creepypasta drew his hand forward, revealing what he'd been hiding all this time.

"All of that? It's is nothing more than words on pages of this chapter now."

It was a small, simple box. Brown cardboard, neat lid, and a big poofy red bow.

"In fact, I brought a present for you. I've been waiting such a long time to give this to you." He opened his eyes – they were deviously going glitter glitter.

Smiley wondered if the box contained a bomb, but that was just idle thought.

First would come the curiosity - and then the horror.

He looked at his gift with mild interest, noticing that one of the bow's loops was swaying.

A brown spider suddenly popped out from this swaying loop, freeing itself leg by leg from the fanciful ribbon. It was medium sized, just big enough to fit on your palm.

"Oh, Houdini! How did you get in there?~" Smirky laughed, offering a hand to the arachnid creature. It climbed up his sleeve like a lightning bolt.

Smiley had gone rigid when he saw the spider, back pressing on the wall, staring at it with wide fearful eyes. His shoulders had gone numb by now.

"T-That thing is H-Houdini?"

"Don't mind him; he gets attracted to sweet things." His twin's words sounded reassuring, but the not-so-good doctor could only think about Houdini's prominent fangs.

Now that he noticed, he saw that the creepy little thing hanging around the illusionist's tucked-in collar. Gulp.

Smiley's attention was drawn back to the present (pun intended) when Smirky delicately unraveled the bow with a tug. "Sorry – I forgot your hands were tied."

As if.

The box's lid dropped with its ribbon, sort of got knocked askew and fell off.

Smiley leaned forward, causing his shoulder joints to make a worrisome popping sound.

His twin tilted the box so he could have a look without hurting himself... Too much. He rattled it too, just to make the contents more readily visible.

The not-so-good doctor's eyes widened again, but this time his pupils shrank too.

"C-Chocolate?"

The illusionist nodded, gently taking one between two fingers. You do remember.

But he wouldn't let the curtain fall, not yet. Every second was golden 'till the last drop. He slowly unwrapped the brilliant foil. "Won't you have some?"

Smiley recoiled like he'd touched a flame.

His eyes darted left and right, taking quicker breaths.

"No!"

Tut. Tut. Panic of a guilty conscience. "Don't you know it's rude to refuse a gift?"

Smirky set the box down (Houdini jumped off after it) and leaned in closer, offering the piece to him.

Smiley rapidly shook his head.

Smirky dropped it and grabbed his chin, forcing him to give eye-contact.

"-But why not? These should bring back some nostalgia to you; they were the best thing we had when we were children."

Smiley's mouth was slightly open, but no words were coming out.

"In fact, we fought over this chocolate all the time. Especially on our birthday. Remember the last one we shared? I do. In fact, I can never forget. What about you?"

It made no sense that what he said drove Smiley into a frenzy, but it did.

He broke into uncontrolled tremors, shivering so violently that his teeth chattered.

Terror found his voice.

"I- I- I... Please..."

The illusion dropped; his twin's real motives shone through.

The hidden message he conveyed? A secret between them and them alone. For now.

"You know what I'm talking about. There's nowhere for you to hide this time...." His nails dug into his face, drawing blood. "-So look me in the eye and admit what you did!"

Smiley squeezed his eyes shut, unintentionally letting a tear spill down his cheek.

"I- I didn't... I- I wasn't..."

Big. Mistake.

In a flash, Smirky's irises became ringed with black.

He bared a row of sharp teeth and roared, flecks of blood flying off his tounge.

"LIAR!"

-And slammed his brother's head into the wall with an iron grip.

Smiley's vision blurred, then was brought back into focus as their eyes locked once more.

He saw hurt. The familiar, raw and angry hurt behind those ringed eyes. It was all crystal clear now; he knew why Smirky had hunted him down.

But saying anything about the reason? That would implicate guilt. Admit guilt.

He couldn't.

He just couldn't.

An invisible chain had simply pulled taut around his throat, silencing him from speaking the truth. His darkest secret, he'd refused to allow it to haunt him for so long...

Now Smirky had undone the knot, opened the bottle and let its contents flow. And all he could do was deny, deny, deny.

"Y-Y-You're crazy!"

Just another little white lie.

"Crazy, am I?" His tone dropped, dropped alarmingly low and dark. "I'll show you crazy – WHEN BLOOD SPILLS OVER YOU!"

Smiley ducked his head, steeling himself for a world of pain.

But none came.

Blood rushed back into his face as he looked up in alarm.

Smirky was leaving.

Just like that. As suddenly as he arrived, he was already out of sight, closing the door from behind.

And a fraction of a second before it shut and plunged his cell into pitch-blackness once more, Smiley glanced down.

Houdini was gone.

The chocolate was gone

Positively glowing in a narrowing light, a silver key twinkled by his foot.

SLAM!

Darkness.

_______________
A/N: Yikes. What are your thoughts on Smirky now? What secret is Smiley trying to hide? Who knows? Oh hell, you know me. I can't resist adding a bit of mystery.

I'd love to know what you think of this little storyline between the two, and especially what you thought of this chapter. I'll clear up any confusion if something didn't make sense here! :)

On a completely unrelated note... It was a bloody S-rank mission, finding the media's music! All the best songs have got something to do with romance - not exactly appropriate for this chapter...
(Nightcore - The Darkest Part, for the curious ones.)

By the way, did you notice? New cover! But there's something odd - the bloodstains are purple on my device (as they were intended to be), but look blueish on my mother's. Which color is it to you?

Yes, I did cut and add things within this chapter a little. Last-minute plot changes and all that. No hard feelings, right? Still readable? :3

Question Of The Day:
Are you going to keep reading?
(Sucky one, I know. I'm tired! The next will be better! XD)

Toodles~
Final Word Count: 2463.