The heavy, soundproofed door clicked open, and a wall of muscle stepped into the private suite. The man was a towering Black guy in a sharp black suit, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. He scanned the corners of the room before stepping aside.
"You're good, boss," he said.
"Told you it was fine, Joe. Jimmy knows better than to screw with me."
The voice came from behind Joe as another man stepped out. He was a short Black man, also in a suit, but his most noticeable feature was his ginger hair. He turned his attention entirely to Cerberus, his eyes drifting down to his face. A satisfied smile spread across his lips.
"Well, damn. Jimmy wasn't lying for once," The Spider said, stepping closer to the plush leather sofa. He extended a hand. "I'm The Spider. And the giant statue by the door is Joe. He's my bodyguard, mostly just here to make sure nobody gets too enthusiastic."
Cerberus looked at the extended hand, then up at the skinny man standing before him. "Oh," Cerberus said, though even a blind person could hear the disappointment in his voice without needing to look at his face.
The Spider's hand froze mid-air. His smile faltered, and a flicker of irritation crossed his angular features. "Oh? What the hell is 'oh' supposed to mean?" he asked, sounding genuinely insulted.
"Nothing really. Nothing I was just saying like wow." Cerberus explained hurriedly.
The Spider stared down at him, his jaw tightening for a fraction of a second before the annoyance melted back into a smug, knowing grin. He pulled his hand back, chuckling as he paced a slow circle around the edge of the sofa.
"No, no, I know exactly what it is. I've seen that look on a thousand faces before," The Spider said, his eyes gleaming with arrogant pride. "You expected more, didn't you? Well, despite what people like you thought of me, I found my place in the world. Do you know what they called me?"
"The Spider?"
"No," The Spider spat," They called me a 'ninger'. You know what a 'ninger' is? It's the N-word and 'ginger' mixed. You throw two derogatory terms together, and you make me a ninger? But despite the odds I found my place in the world. So yeah, look at me all you want, kiddo"
The Spider took a breath, letting the heavy monologue land before waving a dismissive hand. "Anyway. Enough about the past. What's your name, handsome?"
"Cerberus."
The Spider raised an eyebrow, scanning his face. "Really? Cerberus? Like the three-headed dog from hell?"
"Yeah."
Over by the door, the massive, silent wall of muscle finally broke his silence. "Fuck, that goes hard, boss," Joe murmured from behind his sunglasses.
The Spider snapped his head back toward his guard, his face twisting with irritation. "Shut up, Joe! I know it goes hard. I'm the one who asked."
"Anyway," The Spider sighed, waving a dismissive hand as he sank into an armchair opposite the sofa. "Today, I'm just here to relieve some serious fucking stress. You have any idea what it's like to watch half a billion dollars evaporate into thin air?"
Cerberus tilted his head slightly, playing along. "What happened?"
"The government wanted me to sniff around on this new supe. Leviathan. They offered me a cool hundred and fifty million dollars just to find out where he came from. And you know what I found?"
"Nothing?" Cerberus guessed.
"Nothing! Absolutely nothing, nada," The Spider snapped, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "It's like the bastard dropped out of the sky. No birth certificate, no medical records. A total ghost. And that completely fucked my payday"
He paused, a bitter, crooked smile returning to his face. "You're probably wondering where the rest of the half-billion comes from, right? Well, standard business practice. I was going to double-cross the government. Take whatever I found on Leviathan and auction it off to the highest bidders in Moscow and Beijing. Round it out to a smooth five hundred million. But you can't sell secrets on a guy who doesn't exist."
"Oh, you mean Aldrich," Cerberus said, his voice casual. "Why didn't you just say so? I know him."
The Spider paused, a sharp, laugh slipping out of his throat. "Oh, really? You know the Leviathan?" he mocked, rolling his eyes as he gestured with his glass. "What, did you two pass each other in the soup kitchen? Did he share his cardboard box with you?"
"No," Cerberus replied, looking up with a faint smile. "We're basically twins."
The Spider's smirk faltered, the sheer, deadpan certainty in the kid's voice catching him off guard. But before he could even process the insane claim, Joe's survival instincts flared.
The massive bodyguard didn't understand the corporate or genetic implications of what Cerberus was saying, but he recognized the sudden, suffocating shift.
Joe's hand flew inside his tailored suit jacket, gripping the handle of his weapon. But he never even cleared the holster.
CRACK.
In a literal fraction of a second, Cerberus crossed the space between them. His bare hand was buried straight through Joe's chest, his fingers cleanly wrapping around the giant's heart from the inside.
Joe gasped, a choked sound leaving his throat as his dark sunglasses slid off his face. A heavy torrent of dark blood sprayed violently across the velvet-lined walls.
Cerberus casually yanked his hand back with the heart, letting the wall of muscle collapse like a wet rag onto the plush carpet.
The Spider dropped his glass. The crystal shattered against the floorboards, splashing scotch over his shoes. He pressed himself flat against the VIP minibar, his chest heaving in frantic breaths.
His skin turned a sickly, pale white that made his ginger hair look absurd.
Cerberus didn't look angry. He didn't even look excited. He just grabbed a clean white linen napkin from the table and wiped Joe's blood from his knuckles, checking between his fingers.
"You know, I really don't like killing," Cerberus murmured, stepping over Joe's corpse without a second glance. "Aldrich was the one who loved it. Plucking hearts out, specifically. The other guy isn't really a killer either, he's more of a talker. A speaker, so to speak. Me? I'm just here to enjoy myself and keep the hunt moving. Because no matter what, the hunt must continue. He must be fed."
He chuckled, a soft, genuine sound that sent a shiver straight down The Spider's spine.
"Why are you so terrified spider? Look at me. Don't you see the magnificent opportunity presenting itself to you right now?" Cerberus said as he spread his arms. "Why aren't you taking it?"
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