"I think I've found a way to let it go, but it's still too soon to know for sure. I'd give everything I am to just feel something."
The world slowly began to materialize, only to fall apart but a moment later.
"Everyone, on the floor, keep your eyes on the ground or we'll shoot your fucking brains out!" Hardly a breathe after a voice that could only belong to a life-long smoker, three cracking gunshots were fired into the air. Arthur immediately fell to the ground without thought, one arm covering his head and the other gripping the pocket watch for dear life. Nausea was fading quickly to be replaced by fear and adrenaline.
He didn't know this place, this cold floor with a very sterile looking design on the gray tiles...He did however know that it would be unwise to not follow the explicit instructions of the man with the gun.
Around him he could hear the faint whimpering of what must be the other people that had been trapped here. Which, by the sound of it, was a goodly amount of people. The whimpers mainly coming from what could only be little children. The thought of that alone made his fists clench together in frustration. No matter how scared he was, it didn't change the fact that he felt the need to do something. Couldn't lay here idly when there was the chance that someone could be murdered...Or even if someone had already been...
Why couldn't he even remember how he got here?
Couldn't remember what business he had...Just those instructions. Those infuriating instructions. Without thinking much of it, he peeked up from his position on the floor, just to see what he was up against. To be frank, he shouldn't have looked.
He really shouldn't have looked.
Four different men, dressed in varying shades of black were dispersed about a large looking foyer, with another casually leaning against what appeared to be a bank teller's window with a huge looking gun, (he couldn't possibly tell the type seeing as how weapons were not his expertise), cradled casually in his arm. Almost too casually. This was a man that was obviously had no qualms with violence, which made the...reality of this only sink in further.
And yet, it almost felt as if this was happening to someone else.
Especially when he heard that hissing cigarette voice shouting something at him. Only, he didn't quite catch what the words were. Just that they were aimed at him. In fact...There were two other things now aimed at him. Very real looking guns.
His breath caught but he didn't dare move.
Instead, he was rooted to that spot as the one of the men strode towards him and proceeded to yank him up onto his knees by his hair. Amazingly enough, he managed to look up into the man's face and meet his steely eyes. There really was no reason to fear death, as far as he was concerned, it couldn't be all that bad in comparison to all of this. Whatever in the world this really was.
It might be nice to drift on into the oblivion anyway...There wasn't really anything else out there, of that he was entirely sure, he wasn't exactly a religious man after all. Not to say he hadn't tried his hand at it...Merely that it didn't stick, didn't compute with his logical brain. Or the fact that the world was just so screwed up, so painful, so...so...He couldn't even think of another analogy.
All he could do was grip that watch tighter in his fist.
"Something wrong with your head pretty boy?" The barrel of a gun was pressed against his temple and Arthur still couldn't bring himself to flinch away.
"You have no idea." Arthur grinned up at the man without much worry in the world. "Why don't you go ahead and pull the trigger and find out just how much?" The man towered over him, for some reason now seeming extraordinarily unsure about this whole situation. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't slightly disappointed when the man moved the gun away and merely looked down upon him.
"Heh," The cold, unforgiving sound of a murderer's laugh came right alongside the sound of another child whimpering, just a tad louder this time. "Let's see just how fucked up you are." It was at that statement that Arthur began to fear just what might be happening here. Even more so as he was wrenched to his feet by the front of a shirt he didn't recognize, green eyes widening as the man looked down and pulled the watch from his hand, looking it over with a what could only be considered a piggish smirk beneath his mask.
"Give. That. Back." It was nearly impossible to keep his voice steady, and he hardly recognized the dark undercurrent in his voice. Knew only that he wanted that watch back. He needed it. Again came the sound of that child, inwardly he wished for it to quiet itself, even as he heard what could only be a parent trying to subtly comfort it.
"Tsk tsk pretty boy." There was a sneer in that voice that made him cringe inside as the man held that precious artifact away from him. "Let's play by the rules, shall we? Wouldn't want to cause undue trouble for all these lovely, obedient folks." Arthur was pretty sure he had never felt so furious and helpless in his life. Francis was nothing more than a playground bully in comparison to this.
Kind of gave him a new view on life.
"Fine," He lowered his gaze for a moment as his mind tried to run through a quick synopsis of whatever the hell his options might possibly be in this situation. His main motivation being to get that watch back... And to protect the other people here of course...Couldn't bring the innocent down with him in this. "Just tell me what you want." He tried to ignore the few indrawn gasps, the sighs of disappointment at the hope he might be able to step and be a hero here.
It's not like he was a cop or anything. Didn't even have any training with physical combat, let alone disarming five fully capable men. Two of which watched with amused expressions as the one that had been at the teller's window stuffed wads of loose bills into a large canvas sack. (The presence of which was laughably unoriginal, but that was a thought he'd like to keep to himself thank you very much.)
"Now that's what I'm talking about." The man casually tossed an arm about his shoulders in such a way that Arthur immediately felt the desire to take a shower. "First thing I want you to do is to shoot that kid right over there in the corner before it starts crying again." It was uttered so casually that for a moment he thought that he had heard the man incorrectly and stood there with a blank look of shock on his face.
A look that was mirrored a thousand fold by the self-same child he had heard before, not to mention the very delicate looking mother that was now desperately clinging onto him.
"Don't worry, I'll let you use my gun, and if anyone gets in the way, just pull the trigger. Pretty simple huh?" Arthur felt sick to his stomach at the thought, but still managed a somewhat brave reply.
"And if decide to aim the gun at you instead?"
All he earned from that was another sharp peel of laughter, only this time it was echoed amongst the man's mates.
"I'm a pretty crazy bastard too, so even if you do shoot me, I won't give a flying shit. But you will get everyone else in this place shot, yourself included. We don't take too kindly to some foreign pretty boy trying to play the hero around here. If you'd kept your mouth shut we coulda done this like we do just about every other damn day. This is why we should keep the fucking gates closed to the country, gotta keep trash like you out."
Arthur's hands began to shake and his brows drew together in frustration. A moment after that, a wicked smile crossed his face.
"Hand me the gun." There was something in his voice that he never thought to hear. The determination that it would take to kill a man. Or a child. Or anyone. He really was a monster. There was no hope in the world after all, not really. He was aware of that much. Any heroes had long since fallen into the pages of a child's storybook fantasy. The man seemed to see the change in his demeanor, from one killer to another.
It was with a grin that the man relinquished his weapon and dangled the silver watch in front of Arthur's face.
"Do it."
The gun a lot heavier than it seemed. But then again, he'd never so much as touched one before. Never seen one up close. And here he was...With the power of life and death haphazardly cradled in the crook of his arm. He knew without a doubt that all eyes in that place were firmly locked upon him. Only a few sets were watching with a curious approval, while the numerous others with a disgusted fear and fascination.
He could do it.
He could become a villain.
Around him the world seemed to blur. He saw the path he could take. And it would be so easy. The mere flexing of a single finger. That's all it would take to end a human life. To solidify the truth that he knew to be real. And then the sounds began to come at him.
The heightened breathing of all of those within the foyer, the whir of sirens that he hadn't picked up on earlier alongside the faint hum of a voice in a megaphone. He hadn't even realized that the police were here. It was laughable really. The people that knew what they were doing, that trained for a life like this...Idly sitting by as he held life and death in his hands. The world seemed to be watching with a sick sort of fascination.
Oh how the world loved its' monsters. How they embraced tragedy as if it was just so unstoppable...And he was no different. He was reveling in this darkness that seemed to wriggle and writhe which each passing breath! He was no different!
No hero hiding behind the facade of a fragile man!
For a dangling moment he considered turning the gun on himself. Simply taking his life out of the equation in general. Would he wake up somewhere else? Would this dreamlike dystopia dissolve at the crack of a gun?
Would he even be able to tell if he was dead or alive once he was done, or would he merely wander forever in this crooked existence? There was a harsh buzzing at his ears, like the keening of a banshee. The world was flipping to shades of gray.
If only it were so simple.
"Go on pretty boy, pull the trigger before we grow bored with watching you."
"Please, have a heart!"
"Shut her up pretty boy."
"You don't have to do this!"
"Everyone, just STOP!" He had shouted this before he'd even realized it. The words tore from his throat of his own volition, burning a strange trail up along his vocal cords. Where was the silence? That's all he wanted anyways. Just silence. Peace. Oblivion. Something pure and bright that could never possibly exist in this place. With a sharp, cruel grin, he turned and jabbed the barrel of the gun in the instigator's gut, pushing enough to make the threat obvious.
"Are you a fucking idiot?" The man spat the words, but there was a frantic look in his eyes. As might have been expected, his fellows merely stood there and watched with grins of amusement. Human lives were disposable to them after all, besides, this was providing more amusement than they had even hoped for in the first place.
"I'm a just another man." His grin seemed to widen as he watched the fear grow in the man's eyes, his hands up in the air in a gesture of surrender, even if one of them was still gripping his watch. It only added fuel to his fire. Made his hands shake as he held the gun resolute. "And I've been pushed much too far."
"Will you guys just shoot him already?" Naturally, his friends merely laughed at the fear in their comrade's voice. So easily replaced.
"Looks like you've been abandoned, but let me tell you what, give me the watch, and I won't blow a hole through your useless cowardly innards." The man let out a nervous gasp of laughter and held his hand out shakily to in an effort to hand the silver memento over. Arthur reached forward with one hand, the other still holding the gun to the distraught figure before him.
The metal was warm in his hand, and when he looked down at the clock's face, it had only a single crack down the middle where before he was sure it had spider-webbed across most of the glass...Now that was strange.
Not so strange as the sudden burst of armed policemen breaking through the bank's doors in the moment of silent confusion inside. All other weapons were dropped...Except for Arthur's. He couldn't bring himself to let go of it. The robbers dropped to the ground, hands over their heads as they had forced upon the patrons to do. The patrons that were now hesitantly beginning to look up and shakily move to their feet as the men were apprehended.
There was one uniformed man that carefully moved towards Arthur and the anonymous man he held at gunpoint.
"We heard what happened. Please lower your weapon, whether you realize it or not, what you've done today is nothing short of heroic." Arthur nearly choked on tears at the sound of that word. Couldn't stand it. Didn't ever want to hear it again.
There was no such thing as heroes.
He turned to the officer, a relatively young one by the look of things, with tears in his bright green eyes. He just barely caught the slightly taller man's piercing summer eyes beneath his helmet. The gun fell from his hand and clattered onto the floor.
It was nearly laughable.
Of course he recognized the officer, by this point, he could recognize those eyes anywhere. Yet again he'd conjured Alfred to his side just when he was about to destroy himself. He fell to his knees and looked up at the him with tears freely rolling down his face, the watch clasped like desperately like a nun's rosary beads within his hands.
"Please...Don't call me a hero." He sniffled, not hearing the sound of the forgotten assailant picking up the gun in a rash moment of revenge. It's human instinct to react out of anger and humiliation. Above him, the man that could only be Alfred widened his eyes and pulled his gun from the holster at his hip. There was a brief acknowledgment of defeat as there was the click of a trigger being pulled.
A single shot wedged itself into the anonymous man's heart just a moment later.
Arthur felt the bullet whistle by him. Just barely heard the man fall behind him, the dull clatter of that damned gun nothing but a farewell whisper. He had done something far worse than pulling the trigger himself. His eyes never wavered from Alfred's face as the realization sunk in.
He'd made someone else do it.
The one person he cared for above all others. Turned that pure-hearted man into a killer. Whether it was intentional or not. Necessary or not.
It would be a lie to say that he wasn't grateful as he looked down into his hands to see the twisting leaves moving around the clock's face once more. Watched with desperate anticipation as the seconds began to tick away. He was crying once more as the blackness began to encroach. He forced himself to look up one more time to meet Alfred's gaze as he began to be pulled away.
"I love you Alfred."
He was pretty sure the words were only audible to his ears. The world dissolved around him far slower than it had before. It was a sign of insanity that Arthur thought he had heard a reply as he was tugged away. Knew it was impossible. Inconceivable.
Arthur could have sworn he heard his name being called.
