[-me and my brother went to the butcher.-]

by chetopng

Summary:

"boffy sighed as he laid down. he was in a bunk bed, below his older brother, tommy. he, of course, had other family members. dream, for one. but dream didn’t like being in the same room as boffy and tommy. probably because he wasn’t like them.

'like them'. what does that mean, boffy pondered. all he’d been told his whole life was that he and tommy were different from everyone else. different from dream. different from the rest of the compound."

[-or,-]

boffy and tommyinnit are sacrificial lambs, part of a cult.

Chapter 1

boffy sighed as he laid down. he was in a bunk bed, below his older brother, tommy. he, of course, had other family members. dream, for one. but dream didn’t like being in the same room as boffy and tommy. probably because he wasn’t like them.

 

“like them”. what does that mean, boffy pondered. all he’d been told his whole life was that he and tommy were different from everyone else. different from dream. different from the rest of the compound.

 

boffy, personally, enjoyed that he was different. but tommy didn’t. he would always say he did, but boffy could look into his older brother’s eyes and see a sort of resigned sadness.

 

“tommy,” boffy whispered, trying to see if said boy was awake. after no response, he tried again. louder. “theseus.”

 

some shuffling up top. tommy groaned, “don’t call me that.”

 

theseus was the name that the compound had picked out for tommy. boffy personally liked it much better than plain old thomas, but then again he liked anything better than normal names.

 

“you awake?” boffy asked.

 

“what do you think.” tommy said in reply, an annoyed tone tugging at his voice. tommy was always annoyed with boffy. maybe because boffy was favored by dream. or because he looked like dream. something along those lines.

 

boffy paused. “you ever think about why we’re different?”

 

tommy didn’t answer.

 

“toms?”

 

“huh-?” tom seemed to flinch. “oh- uhm. no. i don’t.”

 

boffy laid on his back and clasped his hands on his stomach. the scars on his hands were obvious whenever he wasn’t wearing his gloves. two symbols that were branded onto the backs of his hands whenever he was younger. one a crudely drawn smile, one an ornate crown.

 

“well i do.” boffy said. “i think about it a lot. why does he like us so much?”

 

he.

 

the blood god.

 

tommy sighed. “i don’t- listen, i don’t know, boffy. just- go to sleep.”

 

“come on, you can’t tell me you’ve genuinely never thought about this.” boffy raised his voice a bit. “if he’s so high and mighty, why did he pick two random kids? we aren’t the best fighters, or the best musicians, or the best anything. so then why did he-”

 

“i don’t KNOW.” tommy growled, and a bit of a silence followed. “please, god, just go to sleep.”

 

boffy stayed quiet. he didn’t sleep for a long while after that.

Chapter 2

boffy never liked dream.

 

he wasn’t sure why. well- he was. but still. he had pretty stupid reasons for disliking dream. after all, dream was just doing what he needed to. so what if that meant branding the backs of boffy’s hands? so what if that meant screaming at tommy whenever he broke a rule? so what. boffy didn’t care.

 

so then why was he so angry at dream?

 

the first time he’d found himself angry at his eldest brother was when he was 6 and dream was 13. boffy had broken a pot by mistake, and dream had yelled at him for the first time. of course, their parents yelled at them often. but dream never got so frustrated to yell at either of his younger brothers. that wasn’t the worst part, though.

 

dream hit boffy.

 

dream hit boffy so hard that he’d left a bruise on his cheek. the compound didn’t notice, or at least boffy hoped they didn’t notice. maybe they just didn’t mind. tommy noticed, though. whenever boffy went to bed, he could hear tommy arguing with their parents about why dream should get in trouble.

 

and then there was a loud smack. and tommy went silent.

 

boffy never knew what happened that night, but he could guess from tommy’s busted lip.

 

so, maybe that’s why boffy didn’t like dream. because he got both boffy and tommy hit. but that was just discipline, wasn’t it? everyone in the compound treated their kids that way.

 

so then boffy was back at square one.

 

he sighed, looking down at the paper in front of him. he and tommy were in school, learning about the blood god. every other kid in the compound was in the other room learning about something or other. but boffy and tommy were different. so they were alone.

 

boffy leaned back in his chair, looking over at his brother. “what’s the answer to number four?”

 

“300 years ago.” tommy replied.

 

boffy quickly jotted down the answer, looking at the next question and suddenly losing all motivation to do his work. not for any particular reason- the question was easy. but for some reason, boffy just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

 

silence always distracted him. he wasn’t sure why. maybe it was the idea that the gap could be filled with anything. or maybe that the gap was supposed to be filled, and just wasn’t. he’d been told that tommy got these kinds of feelings too. that this meant something good was coming. but boffy didn’t really believe it. it was more of an annoyance than anything.

 

he tapped his pencil on the paper, looking around the blank, almost empty room. he always found it weird how the normal kids got better-looking, colorful rooms. meanwhile he and tommy were stuck with this.

 

boffy took a breath, listening to the ticking of the clock.

 

tick.

 

tock.

 

tick.

 

tock.

 

god, he was bored.

 

he looked over at tommy, who was tapping his pencil on the paper in idle thought.

 

“toms,” boffy started. when tommy didn’t respond, he spoke again. “why do you think you got a cool compound name? why not me? i want a cool compound name. i could be something- something like benvolio or something.”

 

tommy scoffed. “you’re more a mercutio than anything.”

 

“not the point.” boffy said. “..what time is it?”

 

tommy glanced at the clock. “11:35.”

 

“what time do we get out for lunch??” boffy groaned.

 

tommy sighed. “you ask this every day. 12:30, boffs.”

 

boffy huffed, and put his head down on the desk.

Chapter 3

boffy watched his first sacrifice when he was seven.

 

it was late at night, and he and tommy had been awoken by dream. they were taken from their quarters to the church. dream seemed particularly excited that night, but neither boffy nor tommy knew why.

 

dream led them through the crowd of people, wading through them like lilypads in water. his smile grew as they got closer and closer to whatever was going to happen. as they finally made it through the metaphorical lilypads, boffy could see a person in the center of the church, with a grinning ram-man standing over them.

 

the ram-man raised the sacrificial knife he was holding in his hoof-like paws, bringing it down into the chosen’s heart quickly.

 

they screamed, and then they stopped.

 

boffy tugged at dream’s shirt. “what happened, clay?”

 

for once, dream didn’t correct his usage of the name clay. he simply stared, before ruffling the brunette’s hair. “they went to the blood god.”

 

and boffy accepted that.

 

there he stood again, near the center of the church, watching the same ram-man hold up the same knife, and bring it down the same way. it was getting to be normal, at this point. something that happened once a month, to appease the blood god. routine.

 

boffy heard tommy huff, and saw him look away from the sacrifice. dream quickly shoved tommy’s shoulder, and the boy looked back.

 

the ram-man tore the blade out of the chosen’s chest. as everyone was about to leave, though, he cleared his throat loudly, making his way up to the podium.

 

“children of tha’ blood god..children of mine..” he started, “i’m afraid we’ve made our lord angrier th’n usual. people have been questionin’ him.”

 

boffy briefly thought about the conversation he had with tommy a few nights ago.

 

“so,” the ram-man continued, “i’m afraid i’ve gotta do somethin’ about it. we all know about our little chosen ones, right? josh, theseus, and dream. my sons.”

 

boffy tensed. he almost forgot his real name. he looked over, and he could see the beginnings of panic on tommy’s face. did tommy know something he didn’t?

 

the ram-man straightened his tie. “we know tha’ blood god loves them very much. normal sacrifices don’t seem ta’ be cuttin’ it nowadays..so, i figured, why not give ‘im somethin’ a bit more important?”

 

oh.

 

father looked down at boffy. “josh,” he said, “you’ve been chosen for the sacrifice next month.”

 

oh.

Notes:

i dont know if it was obvious but the ram-man is jschlatt and jschlatt is the father of boffy tommy and dream