Doppelgänger

Surrounded by dark and dying warehouses with only a blinking street light to see by, Arthur Kirkland and Francis Bonnefoy bickered. Suddenly, or rather as they had hoped, a human-like creature swooped down and latched on to Arthur. "Fuckin' vampires!" Arthur spat as he stabbed a steak through said creature's heart. "They always come at me!"

Somewhere behind him, he heard his companion chortle. "It's because you look so small and sickly, mon cher!"

"Fuck you, you wine-bastard!" Arthur hollered back as blood spurted onto his jacket as the vampire gave its final shriek.

Stepping forward with a lit cigarette between his teeth, Francis grinned and purred "Now, now mon cher, you 'ave to buy me dinner before I'll let you do that."

Releasing his hold on his stake, Arthur let the dead vamp fall to the ground at his feet and grabbed the other by his collar. "Dammit Francis! You deserve to get your face eaten off by a bloody werewolf!"

Laughing, Francis let the younger continue to rant for a while. Then, he turned them so he could sweep Arthur beneath his arm and began to lead them away from the vampire. "'ow does a pub sound, hm? Beer and gin for you, a fine lady for myself~"

"No thanks!" Arthur sneered as he shoved the other away. "I'm going back to the hotel."

Pouting as he watched the other walk away, Francis shouted "Aw! You always go back to the 'otel! You know, Arthur, you can't always be this stuck up! One day you'll want a woman and she won't 'ave because your people skills are atrocious!"

Giving the other the birdy, Arthur continue the walk to their hotel room alone. Keep his ears perked and his hand at ready on the pistol in his pocket, he began to let himself think freely. Today was Halloween. The day he killed his first monster. Stewing on this, Arthur realized he remember it like yesterday...

Arthur had just finished taking Conor trick-or-treating and was fuming quietly as he shoved his brother into their family's home.

"Go take a bath! I'll be in a minute!"

"But Arthur! I wanted to go around the block again!"

Glaring at the tiny boy wearing a super hero's cape, Arthur slammed the door on his brother's face. "No!" He yelled.

Walking down to the edge of his family's lawn, he rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a box of cigarettes. "Fuckin' Paddy! It was his turn to go trick-or-treating with the little brat!"

Lighting one, he put it to his lips and took a long drag and looked to his feet. When he looked up, he saw a face just shy of identical to his own. Jumping back, Arthur gasped and attempted to understand.

"You're going to die," his ghostly pale double whispered. "Tonight."

Arthur, frightened and very much only fourteen turned heel and attempted to run to his home. Instead, the double grabbed him by the back of his collar with inhuman strength and brought him to the ground where he attempted to strangle him.

Fighting dirty, Arthur eventually managed to get the upper hand on his double and reaching for the pocket knife he kept in his boots, he slashed the imitation's face.

His double gave a furious cry and lunged at Arthur's throat.

Tears blurring his sight, Arthur scarcely had a clue to where his knife was aiming, but...suddenly, the double was limp. Dead. Getting off the body of his imitation, he saw that his pocket knife had gone through his double's eye.

Breathing hard and terrified, Arthur looked around and was relieved to see the lawns around him empty and the house lights dim. Grabbing the heel of his imitation, he dragged it to his backyard and grabbed a shovel from his family's shed and began to dig.

Just over an hour later, the body of his double was three feet beneath the ground and covered with dying autumn leaves and dirt. Crying his relief over his double's grave, Arthur vowed to find out what this imitation was and what it meant.

Stamping out a cigarette, Arthur recalled how he researched in the library for weeks after until the closest explanation he could come up with was that he'd had a run in with a doppelgänger. A creature that manifested to predict your death (or maybe it caused it, Arthur had mused) and It was a short while after his intensive research that he began to look into other supposedly mystical creatures; vampires, werewolves, ghosts and ghouls. He'd found them all to be real and very much dangerous over the years. If it hadn't been for Francis...he'd probably have died several years ago during his first werewolf hunt.

Who knew the prissy upperclassman knew about the things that went bump in the night? Not Arthur, that's for sure. But he was glad in the end for the help the other gave him. Without it, he'd be dead and more people would have their innocence ruined thanks to untimely encounters with the supernatural.

Stopping, Arthur let his cigarette fall from his lips and he stamped it with the toe of his boot. When he lifted his head, he jumped back with a gasp.

"You're going to die," his doppelgänger whispered, "tonight."

And just like seven years ago, Arthur attempted to run...

Happy Halloween! What did ya think of this little AU? Interesting? Uninteresting? Was there anything you liked in particular? Or didn't like?

Thanks for reading and please review!

And if you liked this Halloween season fic, you might also like:

Final Message - Arthur commits suicide. But he has one final message for his family...

or

Trick or Treat - Northern Ireland wants to go trick or treating. Both England and Ireland refuse to go and he knows better than to ask Scotland or Wales...so what does the teenager do? He decides to use a spell to turn England and Ireland into a couple of kids, of course! (because they'll totally have to do what he says to then).