Alfred slowly made his way down the hall, glancing around for the right room number. "213, 214, 215…" he mumbled aloud, "Ah! 216!" He smiled in triumph and knocked on the door softly, but loud enough so the person would hear. "Arthur? It's Alfred. May I come in?"
There were a few giggles before he heard a response. "Come in love~."
Al couldn't help but flinch, this part always managed to freak him out. Grasping the doorknob, he took a deep breath and turned it slowly. The door clicked open and he jumped slightly when seeing the blonde sitting by the window. Sure he should be used to seeing his best friend in his usual state but he still managed to be startled.
The light blonde locks that were usually messy looked even more unruly than usual. His green eyes were lit up with some sort of pleasure and stared at something that was above his head. But there was nothing there no matter how hard Alfred looked. But then his own blue eyes landed on the straight jacket that restricted his friend. The brownish material was tight around his frail body, wrapping around every curve and crevice. Arthur turned his head slightly, and his smile widened when seeing the dirty-blonde.
"Oh Alfie~! You finally came to see me~!" he giggled and looked up at the same spot once again, "See? I told you he would come~! You owe me~." The American shoved his left hand in his pocket and held the bouquet of flowers up with his right hand.
"Um I just thought since this is a new hospital and all you would like this. You said that you loved being able to walk in the garden over there. So I thought maybe this would help brighten your room up a bit," he looked up, "Where should I put them?" His heart pounded against his chest, vibrating his entire body. Part of it was fear, the other out of being so close to the Brit once again. Before the accident they had been more than just friends, but now with Arthur being in this state it could never happen.
"Put it by the window~," the Englishman chuckled, "There it will blossom beautifully~. Now can you do your boyfriend a favor~?"
Alfred's heart just about jumped out of his throat. B-boyfriend? Arthur still thought of him as his significant-other? But did that mean that he was referring to him as his girlfriend? This excited him yet scared him in so many different ways. If they could do it again… The adrenaline pumping, the heat, the sweat beading down his forehead, the moans of contentment, the limbs intertwining, the sweet saliva connecting their tongues… he missed it so much. Of course he would do anything to just kiss him one more time before he was shipped off to another hospital. It had already taken him a week to just find out where Arthur had been currently residing. But now as the Brit turned around and smirked at him, he knew it was going to be all worth it.
"O-of course."
"Remember how it was like two years ago~?" Artie smiled, "Well two years, three months, and thirteen days to be exact~. Remember how we were so close before things happened~? You would be by my side every moment you could spare~." His once sparkling green eyes went dark with some sort of anger. "But now… now you come only once a week… or maybe even once in two weeks… you went an entire month without seeing me… do you no longer love me as before?"
Alfred immediately shook his head. "N-no! That's not it at all! I just have college and stuff to be working on-" he started but Arthur stood up.
"We were supposed to go to college together Alfie~. You were supposed to wait for me~. You said that you would never leave~. Have you found someone you love more than me~?" Artie tilted his head to the side, a grin still plastered on his face but it didn't reach his eyes. "Am I not good enough for you Alfie?"
"No! I just need to work on my studies! This is your entire fault anyway!" As soon as the words left his mouth Al's eyes widened. This was definitely not going to end well.
Arthur's eyes flickered dangerously. "MY fault he says…" he glanced back at the spot, "Did you hear that Flying Mint Bunny? He said that this is MY entire fault. Well let's have a pop quiz for the big college student, shall we? Who decided to leave me alone? Who decided to fall for someone else? Who was caught with another man?"
"ARTHUR! I was not falling in love with Kiku! I was helping him with his studies! That didn't give you the right to go out and KILL him!" Kiku had been a foreign exchange student that had been at their high school to do some research on other cultures. The poor Japanese boy had gotten confused with the new education and his GPA dropped drastically so Alfred decided to try to help. Unfortunately, Arthur had walked in on one of the study sessions and Kiku had been reaching over to get a pencil that had happened to be on the opposite side of Alfred so it looked like to Arthur that he had been laying on his boyfriend's lap. That did not sit well for the Brit. He had first stared at them for a few moments but as soon as the Japanese man got up to explain he attacked him.
Alfred didn't remember much, when he had attempted to pry the Englishman off of the student he had been pushed off and his head cracked against a desk. The next thing he knew he woke up in a hospital with his head bandaged, Arthur was being trialed for murder, and Honda Kiku was dead. After the Brit was examined by various doctors, it was confirmed he had a mental illness called Schizophrenia. That being he wasn't put to death or anything like that but placed in a mental ward. Yet each mental hospital would only keep him there for a few months. One moment they would be saying how great he was doing, the next begging for the authorities to take him out. They never told Alfred what had happened, only say it was for the good of the hospital.
Now here the American stood in front of a deadly psychopath that was his boyfriend. Not how he expected his relationship to turn. But he had to stay strong. "Arthur… I love you more than anything… no one would ever take your place… please believe me." He glanced at the clock. "I would love to stay but I have class. See you tomorrow. I promise."
Artie looked up at him, smile evident but it was gone from his green eyes. It made Alfred extremely grateful for the straight jacket he wore. "Fine~. But if you don't show up…" he chuckled, "You'll be breaking your promise like a naughty child~. And naughty children will always get their punishment~."
Swallowing hard, Alfred backed up to the door. "Well uh… see you tomorrow then. Love you a whole bunch! Have the nurses water the flowers!" he added before sprinting out of the room and locking the door behind him. Sweat beaded down his forehead and he struggled to make his heart stop pounding. This wasn't the Artie he fell in love with at the beginning of their relationship. He knew when they first met that he loved him, but now he wasn't so sure. The Brit was losing a little bit of his sanity by the day, what if he did something to him that would take it just a step too far?
"Sir?"
He lifted his head to see a nurse walking down the hall towards him. She wore a pink uniform and her hat sat on a crown of brown curls. Her heels clicked on the cold tile and her chestnut eyes studied him with worry. "Are you okay? You look a little pale."
His face flushed and he shook his head. "Uh no I'm fine… I just came to visit a friend of mine that's all. I'm still not used to all of this, he changes every day." He sighed on the inside; no hospital would fix his friend's breakdown. Arthur still believed that he had betrayed him. That he had tried to love someone else. Was it a crime to have more than one person to be simply friends with at the time? Maybe it was just a really bad case of jealousy.
He wished.
The nurse smiled but her eyes landed on the door number and her own face paled. "Y-you're an acquaintance of Arthur K-Kirkland?" she asked, her voice shaking almost as much as her hands.
Curious of her reaction, he nodded. "Yes I am, what's so bad about that? Is there something I should know about his situation? Is he causing any trouble?" The nurse shook her head immediately, still nervous.
"N-no! He's an angel! B-but…" She looked around first to check if no one else was in the hall before leaning in close. "Did the other hospitals tell you," she whispered despite being alone in the white hallway, "Why he was transported to a new one each time? It was always the same reason."
He frowned and shook his head. "No… now that I think about it they wouldn't even tell me when they took him to a new place… or where he was transported…" he looked up at her, "Mind telling me the reason? Just for safety concerns of my friend of course. I don't want to be influencing what's causing these problems."
The nurse bit her lip, debating whether or not she should tell him but sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat. "Well… in the hospitals before he would be fine. One of the best patients there actually. But suddenly one day he would start to act strange, not responding to anyone or anything. Almost like a zombie. That night… he would somehow manage to break out of his room and each time… he killed someone. So far there are no connections. It could be a doctor, a nurse, a custodian. The gender didn't matter either. It would be just a random person found dead and Arthur would be the one with blood on his hands. Not wanting to keep him for the sake of the rest of their employees he would be shipped off to a new one by the day following. So far he hasn't shown signs… but everyone is keeping their distance."
Alfred really wasn't listening by the end; he was too busy having flashbacks. Those times when he asked to go to Arthur's room… the look of fear before he was told that the Englishman was no longer staying at the mental hospital in question… it all made sense now. Everyone knew Arthur has a homicidal maniac, a sociopath even. They feared him. But what would have caused each of those deaths. "Excuse me, but do you mind giving me the records of who was killed and the date? I might be able to figure out the connections."
"Ah…" she squirmed uncomfortable, "I can try since it's in his file… but I have no promises that I'll be able to access them-"
"You better give me a damn list!" he snapped before she could continue, "What if you're the one he's gonna kill? If I don't get the records he could kill every doctor, nurse, custodian, patient, and visitor in this entire fucking building. Or what if he kills himself? Then that would be blood on YOUR hands, not his." Maybe that was going to far, but he had to get his hands on those records to figure out what was happening.
Her face had gone pale as he had continued to talk. Once he had finished she messed with the hem of her uniform. "Then I'll get those forms to you as quickly as possible," she promised quietly, "I just need your e-mail and name if you don't mind."
He nodded gratefully and pulled out his wallet and inside as always was a scrap of paper. He wrote down his e-mail, phone number, and name before handing her the information. "If you don't get an e-mail response from me in 15 minutes after sending then you call me. Okay?"
She nodded. "Yes… Alfred," she added when reading his name off of the paper. He chuckled and waved as he turned to leave.
"See ya tomorrow. I'll be back here," he read her name tag, "Megan!" With that he ran off and out of the hospital.
Little did he know during his entire conversation someone had been watching them. The green-eyed monster had been staring with an untamable jealousy. But this was no fairytale creature of a child's imagination. This monster had motives.
And tonight he was going to hunt.
~LE TIMESKIP~
Tapping on the keys, Alfred logged in his username and password for google:
Username: IamThe1Hero
Password: OfcourseI'mthehero
-and got on his Gmail. He was greeted with a full inbox, but also a starred email from Megan. Quickly he opened up and got a satisfying result. Attached were all of Arthur's records from every hospital, victims, blood tests, stress tests, etc. If this wasn't going to reveal to him what was going on, nothing would.
Saint Luke's Hospital: First Conversation
Dr. Willson: *comes inside the examining room* hello Arthur.
Arthur Kirkland (Patient 203): hello~
D.W: how are you feeling today?
P.203: oh absolutely peachy~
D.W: let's start with some questions, do you have any parents that you see regularly?
P.203: nope~
D.W: godparents?
P.203: nope~ *started twisting in the rolly chair back and forth*
D.W: siblings?
P.203: only bitches who deserve to die~
D.W: *frowns* now Arthur that isn't very nice to say about anyone, especially your own family. Not to mention haven't we told you to stop cursing? That's going to cost you play time-
P.203: *interrupts D.W* how old am I, sir~?
D.W: pardon?
P.203: do you know how old I am~?
D.W: *checks the files* 22 sir.
P.203: that's right~. 22. Over eighteen, meaning I am an adult~. Now start treating me like one before I hop out of this goddamn chair and strangle you~. Understand~?
D.W: *looking nervous* yes. My apologies. So sorry.
P.203: you should be~. Continue~.
That's all Alfred really wanted to read, not in the mood to go on. He looked through more documented conversations and most of them had the same flow. But suddenly he found a very interesting one. Arthur had refused to answer any of the questions and as he looked at the records of attacks, it was the same day.
Frowning, he pulled out the visiting records as well. Weird, he had visited that day though. And the Brit had been acting perfectly normal (well normal for his situation anyway). And he had checked in at about 10:29, about thirty minutes before he had been taking for therapy. And as he looked at the other days he had committed a murder, it showed the same pattern. He would come, leave before therapy, and he would refuse to talk to anyone. Was he doing something to cause these to happen?
He then paired the days with the files of the victims until he had a total of sixteen piles. One for each day and each day with a person, visitor records, blood tests, etc. Bust as Alfred examined everything, he realized these were all people he had seen that day. Talk to even.
That was when everything clicked in Alfred's mind. Arthur wasn't killing random people, he was killing people he was jealous of. If the Englishman was watching Al waiting for someone to try to steal him-
He about fell of his seat when a beep went off on his computer. He got to his knees to see a new e-mail from Megan and his heart about stopped when seeing the message.
Arthur is not responding at the moment. All staff is being put on lockdown. This will be the last time I can contact you until tomorrow.
"NO!" he desperately tried to get an e-mail up but it already said that she had logged off. "GOD DAMMIT!" He slammed his fist against the desk, now all he could do was pray that the lockdown would prove affective.
Or else Megan didn't have a chance.
-TIMESKIP BROUGHT TO YOU BY ENGLISH TEA-
Megan made her was down the hallway, pushing the cart as carefully as she could manage, and glanced around at the dark walls. She was definitely on edge, hearing that Patient 102 was currently not responding made her shiver. Nothing good would come out of this and she hoped it was a false alarm.
Suddenly, she heard giggles. Frozen in place now, she gripped the cart so tight her knuckles turned white. Something, or someone, was in the hallway with her. The giggling got louder, until turning into full laughs. "Oh aren't you just adorable~?" a voice chuckled, "So cute~. All innocent to everyone around you~. But really you're just another monster in this world, stealing what's rightfully mine~."
She turned around, not letting go of the handle of the cart. "E-excuse me sir…" she managed to stutter, "But I don't know what you are talking about. Do you need a different nurse-?"
"Oh no love that won't be necessary~" he giggled darkly, "You are EXACTLY who I was looking for~. Now you should know what I'm talking about~. The name, 'Alfred Jones' ring a bell~?"
Eyes widening, she backed up. The boy, the one who had said he had been a friend of Patient 102. But… that could only mean this mystery voice had to be-
Two cold hands grabbed her by the neck. Gasping for air her own hands went to remove the grip on her throat but to no avail. She was dragged down to the floor and the back of her head slammed against the tile floor. She shrieked at the pain in her skull as she stared up at her captor, and her heart just about stopped.
Two glowing green eyes glared at her through the darkness. The only thing that she could see was a faint outline of messy blonde locks and a wide grin. "You don't understand, do you~?" the voice giggled with an obvious British accent, "No one, and I mean NO ONE, is allowed to steal my Alfie."
He raised an object over his head, a pair of scissors. Then without another word he stabbed into her chest. She gasped, eyes wide, as red liquid spurted out of wound. He brought it down again, and again, and again, as he broke through the rib cage. Skin tore off of the chest, showing the white of bones and muscle. The pink uniform was soon drenched with the metallic blood, spreading onto the floor
"Mine…" SHINK, "Mine…" CRACK, "MINE!" His voice had a high pitched shriek to it and he took the now bloodied scissors to move the sternum out the way so he could cut the heart out of her limp body. "SEE THIS?! This little heart that used to feel 'love'?! Well forget it all about it~!"
He threw the organ across the hall and it hit the wall hard, splatting into a red glob. He cut open her stomach next and cut the small intestine in half first. With each organ he removed he threw it against the wall so it would make such a beautiful picture. Soon the nurse's corpse body was empty of any sort of way to sustain life. Eyes, teeth, bones, and whatever else you could think of that rested in the human body. Nothing was left intact. Panting heavily, he stared down at her with some sort of twisted smirk.
"Don't you see~? Alfred's mine~. And I'm not going to let anyone steal him from me~."
-TIMESKIP BROUGHT TO YOU BY TARDIS-
Alfred didn't remember falling asleep, but he found himself waking up in his bed. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and attempted to sit up. But once he opened his eyes, he found them staring into familiar emerald green ones.
"AH!"
Screaming he tried to back away but was rewarded with his head smacking against the wall. He groaned and rubbed the sore spot vigorously as he grimaced, but them looked up.
Arthur sat on him, the American's legs straddled between his own, and a grin plastered on his features. "Oh Alfred you're finally awake~! I thought you would be in that stupid little dream world forever," he blushed and tilted his head to the side, "Were you dreaming about me~?"
Alfred choked on air basically, not sure how to even process what was going on. Arthur was sitting on him, in his house, not in the mental hospital, and gazing at him with some sort of look a predator did to a piece of prey. He wasn't sure to just go back to sleep and see if this was all a dream, or stay awake to enjoy the ride. Nothing too bad could come out of a simple conversation with the Brit.
Right?
"A-Arthur…" he managed to stutter, "W-what are you doing in my room? More importantly how did you get into my house when you're supposed to be in the freaking hospital?!" How he managed to find his voice so quickly? It was a mystery to him as well.
The Englishman pouted at the oblivious American. "Oh Alfie… are you saying you don't like me?" Even though he was pouting, he felt some sort of anger boiling underneath his skin. Why was he disappointed? Didn't he want him to stay with him? Or did he hate him now? Was there someone else in his life now? Someone he had managed to miss in all this chaos? No one could steal his boyfriend's heart. Yes… boyfriend. Arthur had to be the girlfriend, right? But Alfred didn't have the guts to really top. He was too scared.
Meanwhile Alfred was just trying to calm Arthur down. "Now… you know I do like you! I was just… startled that you are here right now. Normal people don't randomly pop up in someone's room while they're sleeping," he added to emphasize his point. But then after he heard the Brit's giggle he felt a creep of fear enter him.
"Oh Alfred~," he took his chin, smiling, "When have I EVER been normal~?" Alfred swallowed hard and removed the Englishman's hand.
"Well I'm sorry but right now I need to get to class, I've already missed two days because of being sick." He waited for Arthur to get off of him but instead the Brit lowered his head, his bangs covering his eyes with a dark shadow.
"Who is it..?" he whispered softly. Alfred sat up straighter and raised an eyebrow.
"Who is what-?"
"The person you love more than me god dammit!" Arthur snapped, looking up with green eyes blazing. The American scooted back until his back was pressed against the wood wall, his blue eyes wide with fear. What was he talking about?! Was this the whole, 'Kiku' issue all over again?! All he wanted to go to school so he didn't fail! Was that such a crime now?! That wasn't cheating on him! Maybe Arthur was better off in those stupid hospitals!
"Artie… listen… I only want to go to school… nothing more… now can you please get off of me so I can go get dressed?" he asked, choosing his words carefully.
But it didn't do him any good. Arthur grabbed him by his tie, he had fallen asleep in his clothes from the day before, and tugged him close so their noses touched. "Listen here Alfie~," he chuckled, but it was dark this time, "I am telling you to stay~. Can't you do that for me~? Alfred…"
He turned his head the slightest before pressing his lips against Alfred's. His eyes widened in shock, Arthur was kissing him? After a few heartbeats, Al couldn't help but close his eyes and fall into the kiss. There it was… the memories his missed so much. Arthur might have changed his personality slightly, but his lips were still warm and soft.
Then, Arthur licked the American's bottom lip, asking for entrance. Without a moment of hesitation Alfred opened his mouth just enough so the Brit's tongue could slide right in and entangle with his own. In it went, exploring the familiar cavern. Their tongues touched and fought one another, trying to proclaim dominance. But Alfred found himself letting the Brit win this time, things would be much more interesting then.
It took five minutes before the two ran out of breath and had to pull away. Saliva strung their tongues together, their cheeks were red, breath was hot, and sweat already started to bead down their necks. Arthur still had a firm grip on Alfred's tie, so he looked up and smirked.
"Why don't we do it again Alfie~? Please~?" Arthur begged, looking up at him with hungry eyes. He needed something more than a few murders to satisfy him. And only the American had what he truly needed. Something to stop the untamable monster that was ready to break free any moment.
What other answer would there be? As Alfred slowly let Arthur slide his clothes off, he realized that this wasn't all that bad. Sure he was going to miss a few classes, who cares?
He had his own pretty little psycho.
The End~