Fallmouth College was a small, upscale art school in the northwest United States, populated by 800 of the most pretentious and wealthy young adults the country could produce.
Fallmouth was, first and foremost, a party college. Every night, one or more of the 4 dorms hosted a raucous party that would have quickly aroused the ire of any suburban community. Fortunately for the students of Fallmouth, their status and families made it almost impossible for any of them to be arrested or even have the police bother them in general.
As one may expect from typical American college parties, drugs played a large part in both the start and the end of a great many. More often than not, said drugs could be acquired from one of the two "Syn Twins": A pair of identical twin brothers that attended the college.
Jasyn Greer was tall, handsome, charming, and athletic, a slam dunk combination for a young man in college, not to mention his talents in music. More often than not one could find him strolling to or from classes with an entourage of young women at his heels. Jasyn's main flaw in the eyes of others was his fiery temper; no one else in the school got into a tenth as many fights as he did, and his competitiveness didn't help to keep conflicts under the surface.
Jacksyn Greer was much the same as his brother, at least physically. An author by trade, Jacksyn had a way with words that could captivate even the most bitter soul. His seemingly gentle demeanor belied his sharp, vicious tongue, his manner of speaking capable of bringing one to tears in moments. Unlike his brother, he rarely herded women around him, by his own preference. His flaw, in his brother's words, was: "The fact that you try so hard to hide who you really are."
The Greers were both infamous in the school, whether because of Jasyn's propensity for sending others to the hospital, or for Jacksyn's frequent arguments with teachers, several of whom had outright resigned due to either frustration or simply being embarrassed by the young man. Not only were they distinct problem children, but they came from a family that wasn't well to do like the others. When students spoke of the Greers, they did so with a respectful humor. The boys were fun to be around, and even more fun to be friends with.
On a chilly October night, a Halloween party had broken out in the girl's dorm. By the looks of things, 800 students had crammed themselves into the 4 floors of a dorm building that wasn't meant to hold more than 200. Jacksyn and Jasyn had, of course, attended as well, seeing the party as another golden opportunity to peddle their wares and make a pretty decent amount of cash.
So far, the night had been going as planned, and both brothers had one pocket filled with pills and herbs, and several others filled with money. The brothers stood at the edge of a packed dance floor, hastily constructed on the ground floor common room. Every so often a sheepish looking client would slink up to them and make a request. Money and product quickly changed hands, and the buyer would slip back into the crowd, disappearing under the flashing purple and green strobes.
"Hey, Jay, you mind if I get a bit of E?" A voice called out to Jasyn from the side of the room.
Jasyn turned his head, then grinned.
"Duncan! You little shit! 'Course you can, I still got about a hundred left, you can get 1 for you and whichever unfortunate lady that agreed to fuck you for ten bucks." Jasyn laughed.
He tossed the young man who had stepped forward a pair of small blue pills, and found his empty hand filled with a pair of 5 dollar bills. He gave a smirk towards his brother and slipped the bills into his pocket.
"Night keeps going like this and we'll be sold out before the next shipment." Jacksyn said, breaking what must have been a two hour streak of not having said a word.
"Yeah, not our problem, though, people can bitch and moan all we want but if we don't have product, we don't have product." Jasyn laughed.
Jacksyn nodded in response, leaning against the wall, which shuddered in time with the pounding of the music. He closed his eyes, wishing he was listening to his brother practicing guitar, rather than this.
A young woman pulled herself free from the jumble of people on the dance floor and looked around. When her eyes passed over Jasyn, she started, taking a breath and making her way over to him.
"Hey, uh, a few of my friends want to, uh... talk to you." She said, her obvious embarrassment showing even in the darkness of the room.
Jasyn looked at her silently for a second, then turned to Jacksyn, a grin plastered on his face.
"Sounds like it's a booty call. You don't mind if I go fuck around, right?" He asked.
"'Course not, I can take care of things here." Jacksyn responded.
"Fuckin' A. If I don't head down when the party's over, I'll head back to the dorm tomorrow." He said, turning to follow the young woman back through the crowd.
Jacksyn watched him disappear, then snorted with laughter.
"God, what a slut." He chuckled to himself.
He continued to eye the room quietly, his gaze moving back and forth as people swayed to and fro. As he watched, something caught his eye. A young man in a jacket sat silently in an opposite corner of the room, eyeing him the same as he was the others. Jacksyn recognized him at once as Trenton Daniels, a Junior at the school, and the school's drug dealer, at least he was, until the twins had inserted themselves into his business.
A look of hatred was plain on his face as he stared daggers at Jacksyn. Jacksyn smirked, considering whether he should go and taunt the man a bit, but before he could come to a decision, a group of partygoers stepped up in front of his vision. He sighed, turning to face them as he left the man in the back of his mind.
The party came to an end early in the morning, 4AM according to Jacksyn's phone. Jasyn hadn't emerged from whoever's bedroom he had borrowed, and Jacksyn knew he was either asleep or still going at it. He waited for another 30 minutes, but it was soon clear that Jasyn wasn't going to be coming out for a while. With a shrug, he stood up straight and shook out the soreness from standing in place for so long.
He stepped out into the chilly air, the sun not yet peeking over the horizon, leaving the sky dark and obscured by clouds. He could see his breath scatter in a haze beneath the dim lights of the street lamps. The paths to the dorms were completely deserted, but littered with trash from intoxicated partiers. It must not have been too long before everyone got back to their dorms.
The sound of his footfalls thudded dully on the sidewalk, a monotonous pace that quickly lulled him into a slight stupor. His exhaustion was catching up to him quickly, and he knew he needed to get back to his room, shower, and get some sleep. He laughed at the thought of Jasyn coming back, covered in sweat and the smell of sex, as he had done almost ritualistically since they had begun to attend the school.
The pathway began to curve to the left into a small thicket of trees, a landmark that Jacksyn knew meant he was about halfway back to the dorm. Feeling a slight pang of relief, he pushed himself a little more.
'Almost back, Jack, just need to get home and you can crash.'
At that moment, he heard the sound of pounding footsteps to his left. It only dawned on him in the moments following that they must have been walking on the grass behind him, while he was too lost in his own thoughts to notice.
He turned, not sure what was happening, but it was too late. A sharp pain shot across his jaw, and he felt himself fall to the pavement, stinging agony across his face and back.
"Hurry the fuck up, the money's gotta be in his pockets, he ain't got anywhere else to carry it." Came a voice that Jacksyn found familiar, but was far too out of it to place.
He struggled to get back up, but another heavy blow sprawled him back onto the ground. He could feel multiple pairs of hands on his pants, rifling through his pockets and pulling out the wads of money he had stuffed in them.
"Holy shit! These dudes sell like crazy. Did we get the other one?" Another voice asked.
"Absolutely. Retard didn't even realize that he was trying to get with my girl. I'm gonna link up with her tomorrow, she'll have the money." The first voice responded.
As the pain in his head slowly fade, it finally occurred to Jacksyn who had attacked him.
"Trenton, you limp dick bastard. I'll bet your girl let Jay fuck her brains out before she did anything to him." He wheezed a laugh.
Something told him that he wasn't getting out of this alive, even if he stayed silent. No, his heart told him that he'd be looking at a shallow grave somewhere in the secluded areas of the campus. Why not go out with one last laugh. He thought vaguely of Jasyn, wondering if he had just been robbed, or was already dead. He felt a pang of guilt that they weren't together for the end, they had sworn to be, after all.
"Fuck you, Greer. You and your shitbag brother are dead, what the fuck do you have to laugh about?" Trenton spat.
Jacksyn kept his eyes closed, though he felt that he could have opened them. He smiled, before a rush of warm liquid pushed itself up through his throat. He could taste the blood as he spit it from his mouth, feeling it run down the left side of his face. His breathing was getting weaker, he wondered if his ribs had broken and punctured a lung.
"Why not laugh, in the end? Jay and I, we won. Beat you at your own game. Even if I die tonight, you have to live with the fact that we beat you in business. I can die happy, knowing that." Jacksyn laughed, forcing another glob of blood from his lips.
"Can't win if you're dead, Greer." Trenton laughed.
"Sure I can. We walked into your house and shit in your bed. I call that a win. Watch, your back, Trenton, Jay and I can still hunt your sorry ass down from wherever we end up." Jacksyn gave one final laugh, smiling through the pain in his face and chest.
"Get rid of him, we need to bury him somewhere, and we can't afford to waste time." A third voice said.
Silence filled the air, Jacksyn still refusing to open his eyes. He could hear the slightest bit of movement, then, once more, a sharp pain resonated across his face, only this time, he could feel his consciousness slip away slowly, fading out into nothingness. His final thoughts were of Jasyn.
'I hope I see you, wherever we end up, brother.'