Chapter two: Dionaea Mascupula,Abyssal Benthos

As you now know, Shellville was a small town, but not nearly as quiet.

Street corners buzzed here and there accompanied by police sirens which zoomed through the city-like lifestyle on a Saturday afternoon, as Oliver sits and eats cereal while watching his favorite cartoons.

Typically, he would want to be left alone, stay home and mind his own business, but the night that which slowly shoved the sun down beckoned him to partake, and who was he to say no?

One after another his boredom had gotten the better of him as he huffed out smoke from his hand made joints that which he mixed with other things, his excitement made him fidgety, he wanted more than that.

Something was going to happen tonight, and Oliver would hate to miss it.

The night before to him was peaceful surprisingly so, but that wasn't what he was going for. Oliver thought as he blankly stared at the clock on the wall, which he thought was broken, and waited for the short hand to fall on the six; it was not for any reason in particular, seeing as they were just minutes passing by; but he'll be damned if he's caught in broad daylight.

Being the type of person that enjoyed the cloak of night - and in quiet rooms, would find trivial things to do while he'd talk to himself within said cloak; but what differed from him and a reasonably healthy minded person was that someone else always answered. It was a quiet voice, she was always gentle and he named her Becky; that was the name of his first girlfriend and first victim.

He kind of hated her;

'Where could I get pills?', he asked as he tapped his foot and stared at the cartoon on TV.

' Don't you have some in the nightstand?', she answered.

'Oh yeah, right.' , he thought, slowly sinking into his couch and melted to the dusty carpeted floor like an ice cream on hot concrete steps.

He hated that he couldn't feel nothing.

'Why so sad?', a question his better half genuinely asked him as he crawled to his bed in another room of his quaint yet affordably luxurious apartment.

"Because of you."

'What have I done?'

" Don't play stupid. I don't need this shit right now. And where are those fucking pills!?"

'Night stand...'

She at times had a way of making him feel bad about the things he had done once all the fun was over, he could sometimes feel her eyes all over him as she silently judged and scrutinised him while he did his work, Oliver could feel her right then and there as he now laid down on his unmade bed and remembered that his sock's sole was soaked from the milk he had spilt on the floor earlier in the day and smiled through his numbness;

'You're always fucking crying over spilt milk.', he stated his retort subconsciously, he never did allow her to say anything much, there was very little she had to say in order to make his brain hurt, for he knew what he did and what she would say, but he didn't let her say it because it was all he could think about...all she made him think about, but he could care less about it;

'Just shut up about it... You entice me with sweet words and poetry, then shame me with those damn eyes...', he thought,

'You always were a fucking tease...Just-'

" Shutup, shutup, shut up...", he continued to say like a mantra.

As he then closed his eyes hoping that she'll join him in the silence, hoping that sleep would come to him before her thoughts would if he lay a pillow over his eyes and listened to the loud bangs and bops and kabloowees of the cartoons, as he tuned into the outside world like white noise. Silence was a waking nightmare with her, recalling the eyes of those far away strangers.

Resisting the urge to hold his breath until he felt a head rush or until he passed out, but he loved himself too much to die.

He knew what he had to do to feel alive...

Three hours had passed by...

9:09 pm.

Oliver was so intoxicated by the narcotics that he slept like a child. Finding himself wrapped in his sheets and practically drooling, waking up to the sound of cartoons that he couldn't recognise playing in the background as well as miscellaneous sounds of the outside which were carried by the stale wind of the town's streets up to his third and final floor apartment.

Oliver lied there just a while longer, merely saddened by his boredom. He really was itching to do something... Anything at all to keep his mind busy, to keep it from squirming like a writhing worm in salt.

So he thought for a while as he now lay skyward and came up with an idea for a rush of exhilaration.

Grabbing his spring coat and boots and marched out the door on that note with nothing more than his wallet, butterfly knife and sudden determination to kill his boredom, wherever that would leave him.

And he felt that tonight he needed to do something drastic.

Walking the windy pavements of the town and passing by street walkers and other sketchy characters that earned no attention from him. Oliver was admittedly looking for a fight just to warm his blood or someone vulnerable or huntable that he could just kill and leave for dead to fill his apatite, but that seemed like something to end the night with; he then turned a corner and walked into a convenience store at first, for a pack of cigarettes but figured a few other things wouldn't hurt to steal.

He strolled down aisles and suddenly desired a change of hair colour and stuffed a tube of black hair dye in his large coat pockets as well as some candy bars in order to stop his ever growing craving for change.

Or in some cases chaos...

He got to the counter and before the cashier could turn to face him, he had swiped a pack of gum before handing the money for only the cigarettes to the pizza-faced brat who looked as though he suffered from some form of mental atrophy, while looking at a muted television screen with a picture of a missing girl in her mid twenties that Oliver recognised as he then grabbed his change and newly purchased box of smokes with a vacant smile on his face.

Oliver then turned to take leave on his way to the entrance slash exit, looking down as he unwrapped his cigarette box of it's sealing plastic before his eyesight slid up momentarily to a glimpse of a gentleman walking towards him in the same aisle.

And with the box now half open, he took a look again...

He had a confident sway in his walk as his eyes trailed and flicked through the items in the isles, his hair was black, voluminous and well groomed and it shone from the light above, his chiselled yet elegant face shed an androgynous light on the stranger, the likes of which Oliver had never seen in this town before as he watched him tighten and flex his jaw whilst he browsed; donning dark and fashionable semiformal attire and a leather jacket to match.

This stranger clearly had somewhere to be, but the whole ensemble made Oliver's jaw ever so slightly slack within his mouth - urging Oliver to pick his head up for a better look while he took out a cigarette. And although he tried so hard not to look at him as he would momentarily look down at his feet from time to time as he put a cigarette into his mouth, he believed this stranger's presence was personable, as they walked straight towards but past one another.

It was an awkward moment that Oliver felt he had felt alone, the short stack aisle seemed to get longer and longer until Oliver felt as though he could recall the stranger if ever they met again, but unbeknownst to himself he was just slowing down in pace. The stranger's face now etched into Oliver's brain by his sharp and chiseled features.

But he didn't really want to meet him officially, people have a away of spoiling things when they speak...

'But, maybe I could tail him... Who in perfect hell is this..?', Oliver kept a straight face as he too flexed his jaw as he stared the stranger down, horsing around with the ideas in his imagination of fooling around with someone like him; watching someone so beautiful fall away from life after possibly fucking his brains out first, whether he wanted it or not.

He could already imagine his hands around his beautiful neck...

His breath then caught in his chest and his thoughts stopped dead in their tracks once the bright eyed stranger's eyes lifted and turned their attention to Oliver.

He couldn't even recall what he was thinking about, as those piercing blue and frosty eyes gave him such a start that his heart jumped as if he'd tripped unsuspectingly or as if he was submerged into ice water. And they both held each other's gaze on one another.

Oliver couldn't stop staring at his eyes, they were as if the actual colour blue, a weird personification of the colour's meaning; they were cold but calming, bright but endless as Oliver couldn't quite spot where the pupil started and where the iris ended, as they rested behind lowered eyelids and on a straight face, as Oliver took notice of a scar that parted his left eyebrow once the stranger got closer. And there was a strange feeling of losing himself in the strange gentleman's eyes from what he could see, forgetting that those stormy oceans looked back at him.

The stranger then did the strangest thing, he smiled at Oliver in a gentle yet unapologetic way, almost as if he was well aware of what he was thinking. That he was graciously flattered but had better places to be, it was sort of sly in a way that then began an uncontrollable tingling sensation in otherwise strange places.

Ultimately dispatching their one-sided secret conversion as he coolly walked passed.

'Damn, that was Fucking...tss.', was all Oliver could think to say. Trying to shake off the feeling left behind by the attractive stranger.

He had to follow him...

So Oliver waited just outside the convenient store until the dark stranger came out and walked by him seemingly without any knowledge of his presence. He first waited a bit before he then dropped what was left of his cigarette and crushed it as he quietly tailed the stranger, keeping his distance while he eyed his surroundings and watched as the stranger turned a corner after a block away from the convenient store. Oliver picked up the pace a bit to catch up and see where to next... But the stranger was gone.

He walked on a little further down the street and found a club shnob at around a minute past ten and decided to go inside, only after being roughly stopped by a large black woman by the door who asked for his ID. It was a good thing he had his wallet...

Looking for the nearest public bathroom he could find to splash his face and change his apparently dull red hair to what the package said was midnight black, he went straight to the men's room. Hoping that this was the place that which that handsome stranger could be found.

Doing what he needed to do with his hair and blow drying it out under his make shift hair dryer, which was really the bathroom hand dryer. Taking one last look in the mirror as his once light strawberry blond hair turned into a dark black-blue brunette, with now nothing but his light blond eyebrows and barley visible eyelashes as evidence of his change.

'I look so...emo.', he thought as he turned to blow dry his hair a few times more before leaving.

Half the girls there were drunk; not an intellectual in sight and he saw this all as an opportunity to get more drugs while he was here.

Settling himself with a drink now lamely hunched over the bar counter, slightly damp from the back of his pale and freckled long neck. Oliver then felt a chill within the heated atmosphere and ordered;

"Something strong..."

Definitely strong enough to warm him up and away from his senses and get a good buzz going.

"Hey, your looking for some uppers?", a woman stood by him and whispered in his ear. He turned to face her;

"Maybe...", he smiled.

"So, do you want them or not?", she flicked her hair over her shoulder with long and pointy nails, "Maybe, if you tag along I could give you something extra.", this thick and gorgeous female said to Oliver.

He smiled at the last part.

He smiled the way all boys do as he finally caught a proper glimpse of her face as a strobe light past the bar, she was doll faced dyed red head wearing a tight black two piece comprised of a high-waisted leggings and a cropped top. He got excited at the sound of the second offer and immediately grabbed her by the waste, pulling her close.

"Oh, now now...", she pushed him away and wagged her finger at him, grabbing Oliver by the hand;

"Come with me.", she said as they swerved in and out of the crowds jiving and congregations filled with drunk conversations as strobe lights made her every move hypnotic as her hips swayed whilst she walked, whether she was drunk or not, he still saw the opportunity to do whatever he wanted.

But also, he then saw something else...someone else.

It was the stranger from a few hours ago, Oliver knew it was him, for he had a face you couldn't forget. And though this town was fairly small, it was highly unlikely to see someone twice in one day, seeing as if someone cared enough to even notice.

But one could spot him from a mile away for just the atmosphere that he carried around with him, it was serene and a true contrast to the club. The strobe lights revealed the dark, round rimmed shades that the stranger wore in what looked like the V.I.P. section of the free spirited establishment.

Lounging between two beautiful women who seemed to beg for his attention, they were all over him like snakes, making Oliver wonder how in God's name did he fight the urge to just simply swatt them away. Whispering and licking at his face like he was some type of living candy bar, which in truth was a disgusting sight as it was sensual.

And yet, it looked as though he was bored or searching for something or both.

But none of that was any of Oliver's business as the matter at hand was him being dragged to God-knows-where by a beautiful girl who clearly could be more fun. Charlotte was apparently her name, but that was their little secret, and as soon as the two of them got to the nearest bathroom, he knew exactly where this was going.

She then turned around and looked at Oliver who pushed her against a wall once they reached the ladies lavatories at he leaned in for a kiss, she then put her hands on his chest and pushed him away;

"Let me see the money then.", she raised her eyebrow as he looked down at her and waved her fingers to motion of her payment.

"You know I came here for the other offer, too.", Oliver then leaned on the wall and cornered her with his right hand stretched out, touching and impatiently scrapping at the graffiti covered wall.

" Fucking you wasn't what I meant... What if I told you that the offer was off the table? ", she gave him an attitude that made him want her more.

"Then you'd be disappointing a good customer.", Oliver held her by her shoulders with a yearning grapple, the drugs at this point could come later. She was caught by surprise by how rough he was being, but with a sly and foxy smile, she locked eyes with him.

"Open your mouth.", She said, parting her full red lips in an irresistible way. Oliver then grabbed her thin waist and leaned in for a kiss, she put a soft finger in front of his pale pink lips while gently placing a little sky blue pill inside his mouth. He gently held her finger in his mouth as she slid it out and down his face whilst he rammed his form against hers, before she allowed him to kiss her.

He could taste all the liquor she had throughout the night in a strange palate teasing concoction of liquorish, mixed with the bitter-sweet taste of the pill that desolved like a draggie on a candy necklace that which he swallowed, but apart from that, in his mind she was one hell of a goddamn good kisser. And she eventually felt his appreciation, as their kisses got deeper and sloppier as the drugs kicked in slowly like a flood of sweet syrupy goodness as the bathroom corridor shifted under his feet for a moment as he pressed her right up against the wall. She then stopped him, lustfully gazed into his eyes and then pulled him into the female lavatory which took him by surprise and made him crash with his back into a bathroom stall door that which she pushed him into, that opened upon impact as his right foot slipped on a used condom and he landed on the closed toilet seat.

He laughed a bit at the surprise before she sat on his lap and continued to kiss until she truly felt his physical appreciation and began to unbuckle his pants. He fumbled like an impatient fool as she stood up again and turned around, dropping her pants and G-string while she steadied herself over him with her leggings still attached to her one leg and he readied himself with his jeans and boxers bellow his bottom before she sat on him, heaving from the pleasure, as they bounced ever so slightly to her own rhythm despite the loud thuds of music that traveled through the walls as he rubbed her thick thighs.

Oliver was salivating, panting as the drug fueled his pleasure invaded mind before she even got started; she simply arched her back and sat there, but as soon as she put her complete body into it, it felt amazing. He held her waist down as he laid back and let her move, he could bet that she would fuck like a fairy on acid at this rate as the sensation ran through his whole body that he could feel it through his spine.

His hair stood up, but not due to the cold white porcelain...

She really got into it, putting her hands out and onto the candy red bathroom stall walls while she used it to bend further over backwards and deepening their contact, unknowingly flicking her long hair into his numb face.

And his head lolled skyward.

They both huffed and heaved heavy breaths as Oliver let the drug's high carry him trough wave after wave of ecstasy.

Time seemed to have slowed down, but they still ended far too soon in his now marsh mellowed mind. He held her down, and groaned with relief before she slipped him out and he pulled out a cigarette.

She then slipped on her little pink thong and turned around to take a cigarette out of the box he had put behind himself on the toilet tank and lit it with his, while still comfortably sitting in Oliver's lap as she looked him dead in the eye through cigarette smoke, but he saw nothing there. And without warning, she got up and prepared to leave.

"So you want the drugs or what?", she tilted her head as she put her cigarette to one side of her mouth and fixed her crop top.

"What, is this the kind of treatment you give to all your customers?", Oliver asked with a bored attitude, slouching on the toilet seat with his hands in his now pulled up pant's pocket smirking a little at her little pink lace G-string, his eyes never leaving her body as she fixed herself up, but never looking her in the face.

She came closer and began to straddle him once again which made Oliver twitch a bit as he sat up straight due to his strained member, but he then agreed to buying whatever pills and melt-in-your-mouth stickers she was willing to sell as she then lifted his shirt slightly and slipped a piece of paper down his boxers with a cheeky smile. Before disappearing out of the stall and coming back with two small baggies, one had blue pills while the other had thirteen little purple devil emojie stickers, tossing them to him before leaving for good with the echo of "Pleasure doing business with you.", in toned down enthusiasm.

Her dealer name was Jin, as he looked down at the scrap of lined paper; like the Arabic word for demon; the mother word for genie. He truly intended to use her number not only for drugs because she definitely fucked like one.

He rubbed his denim crotch and picked up his navy green coat that which had all of his stolen goodies.

Into the crowds and onto the next, he then left the ladies' room. He didn't need a tail tonight anyway as he headed for the bar. His drink might have been taken so he ordered another one.

The pop trap drum music was getting on his nerves.

"May I join you?", said a deep and smooth voice right next to him on his left, and as he then turned his attention to it wishing he could just drink his drink in peace, he was met by a pair of dark shades, round rimmed, and behind them were those oceans from earlier that night.

"By all means.", Oliver replied trying his hardest not to stare as he watched the lights reflect a little bit of his eyes every now and then, swirling the ice in his drink as he shifted in his stool. The attractive stranger then ordered vodka straight and began as he took a stool next to Oliver.

"Is that your girlfriend?", he asked.

"Maybe, maybe not...", Oliver scoffed as they raised their voices above the music, "She's got good pills anyway, but that depends on who's asking."

"Nick.", He said with a dangerous smile.

"Rowland.", Oliver lied, more focused on the fact that this stranger finally had a name. Now, it was a matter of getting him alone...

"Shades in a night club, what? Too cool to see..?", Oliver jabbed with the intention to offending but Nick just laughed as he then said;

"The lights hurt my eyes, I'm really just here for the drinks and the drugs...", slightly raising his now empty glass in the air, " And anything else in between.", Oliver simply scoffed again at his answer;

"I hope you find what you're looking for.", he then turned his attention back to his drink as he played the hard-to-get with a hint of jealousy, trying stir the pot.

It would seemed to be working, and Nick completely turned in his bar stool to face Oliver as he leaned in close to his profile and said;

"Your place or mine?"

Oliver looked at Nick's deadly gaze knowingly;

"Yours.", Oliver then answered, and with that Nick got up, took one look at him over his dark shades and then turned for leave. But before he did he first then leaned onto the bar counter and exchanged words with the bartender while swirling his finger in the air as if drawing a circle on the ceiling, to which the bartender nodded and Nick continued to move towards the exit. Oliver forgot about what was left of his drink and soon followed him, losing sight of Nick momentarily as the place wasn't as spacious any longer and he fumbled around in his coat pocket for his knife, accidentally grabbing a Snickers in the process. But once they both make it outside, Oliver found him sitting on the hood of a polished matt black '76 Dodge Charger that which was parked on the other side of the street as Oliver J-walked across.

He relaxed his face with subtle surprise as he blinked at the car while approaching.

"What?", Nick shrugged as he got into the metallic stallion, Oliver soon followed him in.

And within about fifteen minutes they arrived into the west side of town at a vista like establishment comprised of apartments or rather as it were luxurious lodge building. Entering the vast and open traditional Italian Florentine architecture with it's flourishing touch of culture, complete with a water feature as they were greeted by two to three staff members of the building who were moseying about their own business after dark with last minute requests and clean ups, one still had the effort in him to offer a complimentary mimosa that which they both took as Nick swung his leather jacket over his shoulder and hanging it on his left hand index as he exchanged a look to Oliver while raising his glass in his right. Resting it's thin stem between his middle and ring fingers as he then turned to lead the way down a well lit, sienna tiled, red Persian carpeted corridor filled with doors to unknown rooms.

Oliver did the same with his glass in his left hand and quietly followed suit, but put his right hand into his coat pocket...

It was a shame, but Nick would make a handsome corpse.

How his strong neck would look like in strain from intense pain, or how he would bare his white teeth in agony, or how his tight and strong muscles would...

Wait wait wait, Oliver was getting ahead of himself as he paged a flip book in his head of him tearing Nick apart and cutting him up like a paper doll as he eyed Nick's back, and while he proceeded to open the door with now an empty glass in one hand along with his jacket over the same forearm.

"Didn't even know this place existed.", Oliver sliced the otherwise awkward silence in two.

He slid his switchblade into his back pocket.

Nick smiled as he put down his things;

"Hmmm, small talk. Not my kinda thing.", he said

"Then what is your thing?", Oliver said before downing what was left in his glass in one breath.

Nick unbuttoned his shirt half way.

Oliver then walked across this house called a hotel room and put his glass upon the night stand with a clink just as he then heard the sound of a belt buckle. He was about to take off his coat, but Nick had silently moved closer to him and leaned on the mosquito netted dark wood Victorian four poster bed and watched Oliver;

'Like, are we going to fuck or can I just kill you?', Oliver thought, looking up and down on the open fly and open shirt combination.

Nick's eyes reminding him of the reason why they were there, figuring that a good fuck around before he killed Nick gave him the best of both worlds.

He started walking towards Oliver from the bed post, and as Nick soon reached him he tugged on Oliver's jacket;

"How rude of me, please, allow me...", he said as he peeled the coat of him, glaring at Oliver with those intimate oceans again and soon enough Oliver was drowning.

'I gotta get me some of that first...', Oliver thought a bit taken back by this apparent paragon that stood right in front of him, towering over him by half a head.

The closer he got the warmer the room felt.

Oliver said nothing as he traced his eyes like a painting, he wanted to touch him but he waited, for some reason he waited and he couldn't wrap his head around that. A sudden vibration or something else rather crushing hit him, a feeling rarely felt made him want Nick just as much as he wanted to kill him, the excitement that this human brought him was destroying him by the second and Nick slowly took off Oliver's spring coat and lingered with very little space between the two of them but only hovering without touching Oliver.

Then suddenly an ice cold hand slithered it's way up Oliver's shirt, which made him open his mouth as if he wanted to say something but was stopped by a deep kiss that came all at once like a snake bite that made Oliver's neck spring backwards a bit.

Everything around him melted as the sound of the champagne glass breaking broke the silence as Oliver knocked it down trying found his balance, as this dark stranger named Nick fueled his serotonin levels, as if being literally altered by hand.

His lips were sweet with the mimosa and were pushing against Oliver's kiss with such impatience that they both fell onto the bed, stopping for a moment as Nick landed with his knees and continued to straddle Oliver, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him close. Forcing him to position himself up right and closer to Nick's body, as he bit Oliver's lip so hard that it bled.

Oliver pushed him away and abruptly stopped their kiss and licked his now bleeding lip but, the pain just made it interesting for him.

Nick couldn't help but smile as Oliver leaned in for more, and desired to play with his soft hair as his closed eyes thoughtfully trailed Nick's sculpted and strong jaw line as his hands made their way to the top of Nick's head. Moans escaped Oliver's mouth as Nick grabbed him by his bulge while trailing down his neck - totally in control of Oliver's every move at this moment as he slowly rubbed ever so teasingly.

Oliver's hips started to buckle under the intensity as Nick went at a painfully slow pace, while coming back to his lips. Attempting to unzip and unbuckle Oliver's pants but just then, he gently placed a hand on Oliver's chest in the midst of deciding to take over, and failed as the hand that lay on his chest pinned him to the sheets, breaking their heavy kiss momentarily once again, long enough for the both of them to catch eyes as Nick stared into the green black holes that were Oliver's. Who's hands rested under his own head as he obliviously closed his eyes and continued to bask. Nick's eyes were wide open and carried the look of lustful and demanding thoughts as he stopped rubbing and continued to consume him with his kiss as the low moans that Nick made out with his mouth started to sound like growls of laughter, he was getting rough again as he shook Oliver out of his daze once he gave a tug at his denim, making his boxers' waist band snap against his skin as he this time started to use his teeth.

But then... He suddenly stopped all together.

Nick clearly enjoyed the raw emotion that Oliver endured as his loins suddenly ran cold.

He then smiled that irritating smile.

"Why the fuck did you stop..!?", Oliver asked officiously, furrowing his brow in frustration.

" I'm sorry...I just...", Nick began as he wiped the remnants of a wet kiss mixed with a bit of blood off of his soft rose pink lips, the disappointment killed Oliver's interest in the up and coming conversation but he lent an ear anyway. He didn't really have much of a choice, he was under Nick.

" You just, what?", Oliver then used his elbows to sit up a bit, with that demanding tone of his.

"I actually came here on business but,...", he chuckled awkwardly as he comfortably groomed his messy hair, "...Got a little...carried away.", He said, now a little serious as he looked down at Oliver with intense and icy eyes.

"What the fuck are you talking about?", Oliver questioned and in the midst of the moment, when the confused and yet irritated eyes of Oliver locked with in Nick's, he noticed a smile of pity laced in this dark stranger's face.

But before anyone would have known it, Oliver felt something cold and hard press against his stomach and under his rib cage slightly on his left, he looked down but before he then heard something that sounded like a shot of suppressed air before a sharp gaping hole of pain and then everything went...fuzzy and the air got heavy.

Nick had just shot him in the chest, strategically from stomach to heart, though lungs. As not to get any blood on the very white sheets for the cleaner's sake, and as he watched Oliver with his head tilted to one side; He noticed that he was not taking death gracefully as he gasped for air like a fish out of water. He had somehow gotten hold of his blade and tried to jab at Nick, but with one hand he was undermined until his arm lay limp and he dropped the knife as Nick gently lowered it.

"Liar liar...", Nick chanted softly.

As Oliver's head was filling with unimaginable pain, Nick thought to make this easier for them both; so he grabbed Oliver as he hunched over one last time and pulled him in close. Locking his soft rose pink lips on Oliver's and inhaled deeply upon his last dying breath as if it were the last passionate kiss either of them would ever feel. And once done, He then dropped Oliver with a bored expression on his face, and continued to crawl over and past the wide eyed blank staring corpse - towards the miniature refrigerator filled with among other things, liquor.

Taking out a cigarette and lighting it, staining it here and there with tiny stains of blood that he wiped from Oliver's mouth.

And poured himself more champagne.

He will deal with the body soon enough...

The perfect place to start our story, I'd say...