Once, there was an island.... // MPHFPC one shots, imagines, and misc !

Without me, You're nothing at all! { Caul Bentham}

idk man theres just something wonderful about charismatic yet completly unhinged antagonists. let caul be insane, ransom riggs. let him have some maniac fun times, give me the dramatic villain i want <3
anyways have this quick one shot based off the song above :)//

Caul threw out his arms wide, silhouetted by the blue light of the pool behind him. He stood like a Broadway star, wearing a wild smile as if this was the best day of his life. He was trapped in hell, technically, since the loop was collapsed and his brother was half dead on the floor before him.

" Myron! My darling, charming, idiot of a brother!" He flourished his hand as he dipped into a bow. " I believe you owe me some form of thanks, my dearest blood and bone. I've made myself into a superhuman! I've made us Gods!"

" You've lost your damn mind." Myron spat, blood tracing down his chin. He sat in a crumbled heap by the wall, surrounded by broken jars only he could see. 

" Incorrect! Wrong!" Caul pointed at his brother, dramatically stepping back into the glowing pool. " My mind is at its peak! I've excelled, Myron dearest, and I'm not even done yet!"

His body was swallowed up by the light, another peculiarity seeping into his mouth and killing Myron's bubbling hopes once again. Stomping on every shard of "just maybe..." he had left. When Caul stepped out again, his hair damp and sticking to his face and his blank eyes wilder than ever, Myron felt himself give up. 

" You know what you are, Myron?" He said, with the slightest hint of madness in his tone.
Myron didn't answer. Dread was making him numb. Or maybe it was blood loss. He had spent the last couple hours in a haze, wishing he didn't have the damn morality Jack was missing. If only he had the same loyalty his sister did, the backbone his father had, the commanding voice his mother once carried. He just had his mind, and he felt like he was loosing that too.

" No one. Nothing!" Caul announced, once again with his arms held out wide. " Without me, Myron, you'd be nothing at all!" 

" Where's your shame, Jack?"

" Caul, you ignorant fool. And I left it with our parents!" He laughed, his profile tinged with blue light and a strange feeling of weakness. 

" You've lost yourself." Myron leaned back against the wall. His vision was blurring again. 

" Oh, you're so JEALOUS! Lets deal with the elephant in the room, shall we?" Caul jumped down, gesturing to his brother like Shakespeare did with a skull. " You WISH you were me! Without me, you'd just.... disappear! An loser who's just an upstart, some idiot who's destined to fall. If I hadn't done this, if you hadn't lied all those years ago, OH! What we could be!"

He leaned over Myron, shadows etched cruel lines across his features. There was violence behind his blind eyes, a vile lack of humanity. 

" You've always been such a pain, Myron. Weak. Foolish. One of us had to be better. Better than those insignificant birds. You're a poet, a professor. A pen is no match for a sword."

" Wise is the man who knows when to use a pen rather than a blade."

Caul kicked him in the gut, followed by a brutal, " Oh, SHUT UP.  Nobody knows sad little liar Myron Bentham, no one ever fucking WILL. You're just a damned puppet, brother, and you'll die here and everything I want, every single thing I've worked my ass off for over these years, will be MINE. You hear me? IT'S ALL GOING TO BE MINE."

Myron doubled over, coughing blood across the stone floor. Caul watched him with cold eyes.
" Another one bites the dust, it seems. Took you damn long enough."

" Jack. Jack, please—" 

" Begging like a dog, are we? I really was right."

" Brother, please."

" You really are nothing at all."