Prologue
It is midnight at Elwood general hospital. A bunny watches her husband's doomed heart surgery, a nine-year-old monkey is told that her legs will never work again, a father awaits the birth of his stillborn son, and an aardvark sits in his hospital bed for no reason at all. The aardvark had a reason to be there, but God had none. God had little to do with Elwood in those days. Perhaps it was the smog that covered the city, that obscured the skies. God would not look at this place anyway, not after what Arthur had done to it.
He awaited the arrival of an old friend as he hid his cane under the bed so that his visitor would think his legs were still shattered.
"It's good to see you again Arthur. I hope you're still comfy." More beast than bear, the Brain smelled awful. His green flesh caught more light than the white walls around him.
"Actually it has been a bit of a bore, Alan."
"My name is no longer Alan. I told you this, remember?"
"Apologies, Mr. Hyde."
His one open eye widened as he pointed his rotten grin at Arthur. "I'm sorry to hear you've been bored, I wouldn't want your misery to extend too far outside of my visits."
"That's kind of you Alan. Now let's get to business."
He pulled a black bag out from his cape. "Wanna guess this one?"
"Just get on with it." He almost said yes to stave off the boredom, but he would rather have Brain out as soon as possible.
He reached in a grabbed grey and curly hair, and grandma Thora's cold dead eyes greeted Arthur. Blood dripped to the floor, and Brain smiled hoping that this time it would mean something to Arthur.
Arthur was glad that Brain was simply killing his relatives. Brain could not know how terrified he was of losing his money.
"She screamed, Arthur." He lied, as he pointed to her face. "You can still see it frozen on her face."
Arthur laughed a hollow laugh. "she wouldn't scream. I know now that you're a liar Alan."
Brain threw the head at the foot of Arthur's bed. "I'll be back again soon, I promise you." He began to walk off into the darkness. "You will feel Arthur. Even if I have to kill every single one of them, I will make you feel."
Arthur chuckled as he walked off and looked out his window. He could barely see the city he was king of, not that there was much left. All that lied past the smog was 5.9 square mile wide crack house. The only value that it had to Arthur was the steady supply of stolen cash register 20s and wasted rent that regularly flowed into his bank account. He hoped that the dealers were still doing their jobs and the coke was still being gobbled up by the useless junkies that his empire was built on, he hoped that Binky was still alive, somewhere. He hoped.