Base. Instinct. verseXVelvetKitty

[Verse]

Rowan had always taken care of Joseph.

They were like the good parts of brothers. Rowan had badness in him and he always meant to spread it around. The other children he palled around with were rotten, and bound to be worse. He liked it in the midst of them. It was all he ever cared to know. But when they circled the bird-boned Joseph, something tasted wrong in Rowan's mouth. He had stopped them that day, and he and Joe had been attached ever since. Maybe Rowan liked the good that followed Joseph. He did a lot of bad things so Joe could stay good. Rowan had found that he liked protecting something. Something that was his. He even followed Joe to a short stint at college before they got jobs at the same company.

The new work pulled them apart. It was good pay and it turned out to be a pretty good life. Every time he saw Joe, Joe seemed happy enough. Bright smiles in a blue suit. And the bosses liked the darker streak in Rowan. Had him do things that made it hard to explain to other people. But at least he got good compensation so his lower booksmarts still put him at the same salary bracket as Joe. Over all, Rowan was grateful.

Until there was a woman.

She was like Joe, with he bright smiles. Rowan thought she was beautiful too, the first time he saw her. But when she put her arm around Joe's, Rowan thought of the already bloodied shovel in the back of his new, black car, given to him by the bosses of this multifaceted company. The teeth in her smiles looked sharp to the would-be older brother then. Because she was a predator with a pretty face and decent tits. She mesmerized Joe.

At first it wasn't much. Rowan had scared away tougher girls before. There was a reason Joe never had long relationships. But when Joe confided in him that the girl was pregnant, and that they were ecstatic to keep it, Rowan knew he'd made a mistake to let her be around for so long. What a monster.

So now the tall figure that had always loomed about Joseph Marner like a thick shadow, protecting and isolating him, had a dilemma. He smoked about it, a bad habit that had kept his face almost gaunt in its youth even when his shoulders grew. He liked the tar tendrils on his tongue, it helped him to think and it reminded him of the person he would have been without his beloved, weak friend. He needed to show Joseph just the kind of menace she was. He smiled into the filter when he realized how you convince someone their significant other is rotten. Because she was. She had to be. Nothing good would come between Rowan and his Joseph.

Rowan tied his black hair back and swallowed the next mouth of smoke. He killed the cigarette with his thumb and buried it in his chest pocket.

He just had to show his friend the kind of unmitigated whore he'd impregnated.

 

[Velvet Kitty]

Jessica​ Jessica had met the love of her life. Tall, loving, and kind, Joseph was the perfect gentleman in every way. She was an administrative assistant at his office. Despite her college degree, it was a position with even less prestige than the receptionist and none of the job security of the janitor. But, good jobs were few and bills had to be paid. Her life was defined by a mix of stress and ennui. It had gotten to a state where she had briefly considered becoming a stripper, at least then someone would appreciate her contribution. She certainly would have made more than her current job. She was a brunette with her long wavy hair, worn in a ponytail during work hours. But, it could be let down into a luxurious mane. Combined with her perfect hourglass figure, she would have made any Victorian man salivate. Standing at 5'4" with coffee coloured eyes that twinkled when she spoke and a ready smile hiding her inner apathy, she could pass under most people's radar during a regular workday, but could also effortlessly command attention when she put her mind to it. Meeting Joseph was a scene straight out of a cliched romance. She had dropped some files and he had stopped to help pick them up. An invitation to dinner was followed by regular dates and weekend trips. It seemed they really only had each other with the amount of time they spent together. It was not far from the truth. Jessica had drifted away from her friends when she moved to the city, and Joseph seemed to only have that one weird friend. Rowan, who worked some blue collar role at the company. Joseph listened. He was considerate. A simple turn of phrase or gift at exactly the right time would send shivers down Jessica's spine. Her kisses were given freely and were reciprocated with burning passion. Jessica did not know how he did it, but Joseph smelled like fresh laundry even after a long day at work, with only the slightest hint of musk. She liked placing her cheek against his chest, listening to the slow steady beat of his heart. His arms around her made her feel like the world was a safe place and nothing could threaten her. Sex with him was magical. They did it frequently and vigorously in his apartment, hers being too small to accomodate them both. Soon, there wasn't a single piece of furniture in the place where he had not taken her. Jessica loved clinging onto him as he carried her around the place. Propping her up against the walls. Splaying her on the dining table. Taking her from behind on his bed. She had helped clean up afterwards of course, but if anyone was ever murdered in the apartment, the forensics blacklight would be quite useless in determining the position of any washed stains. Joseph was generous to a fault. She soon moved into his apartment, bidding good riddance to the rent that was eating up most of her paycheck. With their combined incomes, they figured they could afford the downpayment for a house if they saved and scraped for a few months. Their timing was impeccable. It had been six months since Jessica was pregnant with their child and the Obstetrician had told them it was a girl. They were estatic. At long last, it seemed life was finally going her way. ​

 

[Verse]

Joe liked talking about Jessica. That was the problem with Joe. He should be the smart one, but he only reiterated what he'd learned, he didn't do anything to effectively combine the information he had. Rowan had seen the same misuse of thoughtless moral and ethical mantras. How many times had Joe left him with frustration in his body, about to pummel the last waking moments out of a bully who'd gone too far because he didn't know Joe was under Rowan's protection? Like violence was some kind of bad thing in itself. Their fucking company was violent, even when they went by the books. Joe was part of it, however distant.

And now, going on about Jessica and thinking he was being coy with his hints. Rowan had no trouble seeing her as a whore. The women he kept himself were plenty proof of that. The brunette assistant only wanted to advance herself. It was in her nature. And then Joe dropped the bomb about the kid. All of this like it wouldn't break Rowan's heart. That time, he just hugged Joe and left, and even the dullard in a suit seemed privy to his darker friend's mood then. But it didn't matter anymore. This had gone too far, long ago. Things had to happen. Rowan would not be as idle as his friend, because he had no one but himself to deal with it. He had one advantage, and that was that Joe told him everything he didn't tell Jessica.

Like what house he'd picked out, which was still being built.

Rowan had every intention of showing her that, before Joe. It was a simple matter of knowing her next appointment with the doctor. It was hard not to know with Joe's blabbering. A girl. A princess. All the things that made Rowan throw up in his own mouth.

His more subtle work for the company had given him tools and routines for this. He made sure to use a sedative that wouldn't be too friendly on the fetus, and an extra thick needle to inject it, when he came out of the backseat of her car. He held her hair, not her mouth, to let her scream all she wanted in the desolate corner of the company parking garage, where she'd had to park when he usual spot, now beside Joeseph's, had traffic cones on it, courtesy of Rowan. He looked into her eyes in the rearview as she went out.

.

The house was one of many being built in what would be the new side of suburbia for their city. It had been easy to suggest to Joseph, since their company had a few major investments in the firm. With the employee discount and the ambitious plans, it would be cheating yourself and your future family not to jump at the opportunity.

Since most of Rowan's cover was that he did handiwork, he already had all the access he needed. Cement blocks make perfect hiding places for biological waste, and discretion was one of his main salary bumpers. To Jessica that meant she'd be waking up in a metal chair in the middle of a room with the cinder foundation still for floor. The floodlights were as cozy as staring into the sun on either side, but the rope that secured her to the chair made sure she and her round belly wouldn't have much choice other than to cook under the bright onslaught.

With a technical, close fitting black t-shirt, compressing his already vast shoulders into even better performance, and nitrile black gloves on, Joseph's weird friend looked much more to the point - if the point was merrily maiming - than last time they'd seen each other at Joseph's apartment for the official gender reveal. His sharp facial bones were obvious in the taut skin of the face of someone who liked to hone his fitness into a weapon. The dark hair that was almost too short to be tied back had gotten lose from the tie in front, leaving black blades at the corners of his abyssal eyes.

Maybe most eye-catching, though, was the knife held to his chest toward one shoulder by a brown leather harness. He leaned forward to hold on to her spread knees for support. She would notice he was much larger up close, despite the small waist. Far reach but not heavy. If she struggled, the knot that kept her wrists crossed behind her back would make itself known. At least her mouth was free.

"We never got along, did we, Jessie?" It was Joe's nickname for her. There was a hollow in the place where her baby daddy's affection would be, though. Rowan favored one knee so his other hand could cup her belly from below, and massage it up the side. What clothing would the black glove catch on? "But that's only because you're a RANCID WHORE" the sudden bark sprayed her face with saliva, his head shooting forward so fast to deliver it, his incisors scraped her cheekbone. "trying to fuck up my friend's life with her ITCHING PUSSY and the oldest act in the book." He squeezes the side of her stomach, fingers like closing jaws of life. "But I think he'll see the truth about you once I show him you're just an animal beholden to her slut impulses like the rest of them. AREN'T you, Jessie?"

He tapped the taut protrusion like, see you soon, before he stood up straight, underlining an impossible height advantage. Looking down at her, with his gray cargo pants in her face, he honestly couldn't understand how Joe hadn't clocked her as the whore she was.

"Unless you'd like to confess you're just one big greed to get fucked and don't care who you have to step over to get to the biggest cock. I can deliver the message to Joe." He offered. It was more than he'd planned to give her, but he supposed if she wanted to make this easy for him, he'd take it. Maybe she had that kind of insight.