| Plaything | Antisepticeye x Reader

Chapter 14: Arendt

Again, it takes me a moment to blink away the glitched, distorted clouds from my eyes. When I do, I find myself in a room I don't recognize. It also has a bed, but this one is in the center of the wall behind me. It's cleaner than Lukas's, and there's an armoire on the wall by the door.

"Who's room is this?" I ask Anti, who glides the knife blade across his tongue. I make a face at the action, but he continues to lap the blood off of the weapon.

"Guess."

Another scan around the room and my eyes land on a photo on the person's nightstand. It's a lot of people I don't know, Lukas, and then... Arendt.

"Oh, Arendt. Shoulda known," I express my lack of surprise.

The mentioned person enters their room, just as shocked to find Anti and I as Lukas was. Arendt's bedroom door slams shut. The demon holds a hand behind his back, keeping the severed limb out of sight. Arendt's eyes go from Anti to I, then back again, too stunned to speak. Their bright eyes are wide with fear, pupils dilated.

"[Y/N]," Anti says, "mind telling them what happened to their boyfriend?"

I tsk and make another face, as if I'm finding the situation uncomfortable and awkward. "Well this is embarrassing," I begin. "You know, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but um – oh, how do I put this gently? – Lukas bit the dust."

Arendt's eyes widen further, which I didn't think was possible. Their face seems to be stretched out like rubber, jaw slack. Their body, however, is as rigid as cement, perfectly frozen in place.

"...what?" they exhale, barely moving their mouth enough to form the single word.

"You know – kicked the bucket, croaked... died, is what I'm trying to say," I explain, taking the tone of a mortician. "But death is a perfectly natural part of existence. We'll all die soon, except for him –" I gesture to Anti "–but it's something you'll have to come to terms with. Some just die sooner than others."

Anti produces the detached limb, which had up to now been providing a steady drip of blood behind his back that had created a pool on the wooden floor beneath him. "We made sure to bring you something to remember him by," he laughs, throwing the thing at them.

Arendt screams, beginning to gag. Anti takes the small knife from before and approaches them. "You don't like it?" the demon asks, tilting his head with a bright smile. "That's too bad."

The limb drops to the floor, and Arendt quickly scurries away from it, bumping their back into the door behind them. They press their back against the wood, as if they can phase through it if they press hard enough. I'm still mildly grossed out by the arm on the floor, but it's manageable.

"You want anything from this one," Anti asks. "or should I just kill it?"

I smirk, placing a finger on my chin in thought. "Nah, you can just get rid of them." I wave a hand in dismissal.

Anti quickly rips through the tissue making up Arendt's neck. They make a gurgling sound, grasping at their throat. As they fall back, their eyes land on me for a moment. I shrug and put up my hands.

"Hey, the record shows that I did not condone his death," I say.

They drop to the ground by Lukas's arm. Anti brings out the larger knife again, and I cringe.

"What're you gonna cut off now, and why?" I ask, already beginning to turn away.

"Another trinket," is all he says.

Anti buries the blade into Arendt's left arm. He begins to saw back and forth, and soon hits bone again. I hate the sound of the metal grinding against the human structure material, feeling phantom pains in my own right arm. The rough noise ends, and I steel myself as I turn around.

"Why do you need that one?" I ask. "Just take Lukas's."

"I'm not keeping this one," he says. "I'm giving it to the other guy."

Suddenly, I clap my hands in realization. "I have an idea. It's kinda gross, but I'm sure you're fine with that." Anti tilts his head to the side and raises an eyebrow, interested. "What if you attached Lukas's arm to Arendt, and vice versa?"

A toothy, fanged smile stretches across the demon's face. "I like it."

He takes a  variety of pins and needles from his pocket. Why he has them, I have no idea. Taking the boy's arm, he approaches Arendt's body and crouches by it. Waving a hand, he beckons me over. I squat by him and hold the corpse in place as he uses the pins to keep the skin together. When he's finished, he takes me back to Lukas's body, secondary arm in tow.

We repeat the process, finishing just moments before we hear the front door open from downstairs. Anti grabs me by the arm and teleports me back to my own house. I wash my hands in the bathroom sink, making sure there's no blood left on them.

"Well, I'm not getting those images out of my head for a while," I say, letting my hands fall to my sides. I lean back against the kitchen counter and take a deep breath.

"You're not half bad, for a human," Anti says, placing his hands on the countertop behind me, one on either side. I realize with anxiety that I'm trapped in front of him.

The demon leans forward. I can smell his breath: it's icy cold and has the underlying scent of iron – probably from the blood he licked off of the knives. I tense. He notices, smirking, and leans forward a bit more so that our foreheads are almost touching.

"That was pretty gruesome... I like it." With the last part, he leans to my right ear, his voice a half growl. I shiver, goosebumps running up and down my arms from the surprisingly low tone and freezing exhale.

"You should act like that more often. It's more like you."

"What do you mean, 'It's more like me?'" I ask with annoyance. "You've known me for a couple of days – How could you have a grasp of 'what I'm like'?"

Anti giggles and grabs my face with his hand, squeezing my cheeks. "You're so cute when you're frustrated," he teases. I brush his hand off, shaking my head. Anti's hand quickly grabs me again, index finger and thumb gripping my lower jaw while his other fingers wrap around my neck.

"Those nightmares aren't all fun and games, you know," he explains. "I've got a ton of information on you, [Y/N]. Strengths, weaknesses, fears... I know you much better than you think."

His grip tightens, somewhat, and he scowls. It's not enough to cut off my air, but it's more than enough to worry me. I keep my expression calm and continue to look him in the eyes. My stomach, however, does somersaults and sinks. Then, Anti's face breaks into a large smile, again.

"So serious all the time," he laughs. His head tilts to the side a bit too far. "I'm not gonna hurt you, or anything."

Anti drops me, and I take a deep breath and rub my sore neck. He laughs and walks away from me. I pause, to be certain he won't get angry for me for leaving, then quickly head to my room.

{A/N} I feel like I should mention something, since I saw a bunch of you guys commenting about how you thought that Anti was gonna give the arm to Dark. I regret to inform you all that I am not, in fact, a Danti shipper. There isn't gonna be a crossover between books, and I probably won't show any of the other personas in this book. Sorry, guys. Ship them if you want, it's just not my thing.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter of "Plaything" as much as I enjoyed writing it. Comments and votes are super appreciated. Thanks for reading! ~Blue