Dong. Dong.
Arthur could hear the voice that rang in the emptiness of the high sky. His eyes were filled with crystal clear tears.
"Who was it up there?"
A young Arthur stood at the middle of the field as he slowly blinked at the green grasses. His matching green cloak floating with the cool breeze. He continued his day as the new broken hearts under his cloak continued to increase.
He blinked again and decided to keep the hearts into a cardboard box. After all, no one should see the exact amount of it. Slowly but steadily, the broken hearts of small Arthur was enough to fill up the first box. Although it hurts him much to have built up these hearts, he lied to himself that it didn't hurt, it wasn't painful at all.
"No one would look at me anyways."He told himself.
Arthur had only wanted to had some attention to himself, he just craved for someone to treat him a little kindly. Someone to pat him on the head or praise him. Through the years, he had found stuffs and lost stuffs. One by one, the boxes gotten full and he stacked it higher and higher until it reached the tenth box.
Using a ladder, the still young Arthur climbed onto the ladder and looked at the passer-bys. They always seemed to be happy and they still passed him by without giving any sort of notice to him. He thought that perhaps it wasn't enough yet.
"I've got to make it higher then."He needed the whole world to see him. His forest green eyes shone with determination as he continued in building his tall tower again.
The boxes around Arthur grew in quantity as he grew older into a teenager. He was still sealing all the broken hearts into the cardboard boxes. Then sealing them away and stacking them until his tower of boxes reached the same height as the flying birds.
He placed the ladder again and climbed up onto the boxes, this time a bit more difficult than previous due to the height. He felt like a king, sitting on the top and staring down at the curious passer-bys whose heads were looking upwards.
"They look like ants."Arthur chuckled from his hundredth box.
Arthur stood up to wave to them in victory, glad that no one could reach for him from this height. He silently congratulated himself for achieving such a feat. No one would be able to defeat him from here anyways. No consolation would be able to reach him here. His pain was keeping him away from everyone.
As the sun went down, he sat by the edge of the box, swinging his legs childishly. He kept telling himself that he was special and no one was like him. All he was trying to do was to reassure himself with lies. He was destined to be alone on top of this high tower of boxes. Everyone was looking up to him anyways. He was on the top of the world, he was strong.
The Arthur who had just became an adult was still sealing away his broken hearts that was created throughout decades, centuries of heartbreak. Everything around him seemed to always end up the same results. Stacking higher and higher, his tower of hearts finally reached the white, fluffy clouds.
Sitting on the top of the boxes, he felt like a king, like a god. Always higher than everyone else. He was powerful and undefeatable.
One day, he found the small Alfred who was crying. He patted his tiny head and comforted him. Arthur knew Alfred wanted attention, so he gave him lots of attention, making Alfred grow very fast, soon taller than Arthur himself. He knew how much it hurts to be alone, so he gave away all his affection for the small american child. American Revolutionary War came, leaving Arthur to cry alone in the rain again. All alone again.
His box of broken hearts just kept growing without stop.
"Hey." Francis patted Arthur on the shoulder, and was going to ask him for a talk. The latter flinched away and ran off. Francis frowned as he saw the distant back of Arthur disappearing into the horizon. The last time he remembered, Arthur never acted like that.
Soon, Arthur stacked up until his a thousandth box. He looked down from his high spot and felt so dizzy. His ladder then chose that moment to fall away from the boxes as he freaked out. Trembling, he then found out that he was truly, very lonely.
"No one's looking..."
His state of fear turned into him crying on top of the high tower of pain he had built for himself. He didn't say anything to comfort himself this time. Tears just kept spilling out from his eyes. He was speechless, too sad for any lies he would weave for himself this time. Just before he had lost all hope, he heard a song which sounded all around him.
The boxes jerked and he went down quite an amount. The sound of knocking boxes travelled into his ears as it came in steady rhythms. Alfred was below, swinging his iron hammer to bring down the boxes. He looked up towards Arthur.
"Everyone wants to talk to you."
Arthur looked down in shock. Alfred and Francis had spread word and everyone was slowly gathering by the boxes, smiling at him. They were waiting for him to come to the same level as them. The knocking sound got louder as he kept falling from above, a step by a step.
He tried to cling onto air with no avail. He just keep falling, keep on falling from his high, lonely spot. When Arthur had finally reached the lowest height, his nose was still runny from his crying, face downed. He looked up and saw everyone smiling at him, even Francis was kneeling in front of him.
"Would you join us?"
