Chapter 9: This Silence

"Guys, I can't do this," Arthur whimpered, gripping onto Lewis' shoulder with as much power as a bent daisy as they headed towards the cave, taking the same defensive position he always did before being dragged into trouble, "I mean, skull and crossbones aside, the cave has eyes. Angry eyes. And big, menacing teeth-this could be, like, a giant titan and we're just walking right into its stomach. I can't die like this."

Lewi smiled back at him, attempting reassurance with a toothy grin, "We haven't died yet, Arthur, and Vivi's probably right. It's just a cave when you get right down to it, and the only thing to fear in a cave is darkness," Lewis lifted up his torch, waving it gently as a beacon to his scared friend, "Most animals are terrified of fire, anyway, so nothing will jump out at us. And if it gets to be too much for me or Vivi, I promise you we'll be out in a flash."

When Arthur still wouldn't budge, Lewi glanced at Vivi for help. She hadn't yet taken her eyes off of the cave, wonderstruck by everything surrounding her: the curling thorns, the shape of the cave overall, the green gas that flowed steadily from the cave before dispersing around her. As always in the face of mystery and danger, Vivi held a daring smile. When no one spoke, she looked at her friends confusedly, but realized almost immediately the situation. Vivi turned to Arthur with a smile, shivering behind his giant protector uncertainly.

"Arty, nothing in here strikes me as dangerous, and when had my intuition been wrong? We'll be fine, in and out in a flash. Nothing can hurt us when we're together, remember?"

Arthur didn't say anything, only nodded halfheartedly as he felt his fail. Before they reached any danger, he felt he'd probably end up dying from a heart attack or something-this wasn't how he wanted to spend his Saturday at all, and this wasn't where he wanted to be at anytime. Hands still gripping Lewis tightly, the boy in purple began to lead the group into the darkness, lit only by a flickering torch.

Mystery hugged Arthur's heels as they entered the cave, guarding the boy as if he knew something the others didn't. While Vivi chattered away at the interesting formation of the inside of the cave and Lewis lead in focused silence, the dog watched everything at once with complete awareness and contempt. Something in the low growling and big frown of the usually curious dog led Arthur, the only one who could see him in the back of the procession, to believe something was going on outside of Vivi's near-psychic abilities.

"Oh, my god. Those are definitely bats, Lewis. Bats are never a good sign, have you not seen the horror movies? We're probably walking straight into Dracula's lair. In no way is this a good situation, not at all." Arthur babbled, looking up towards the ceiling. He swore the one that stared back at him had glowing eyes of the same green as the cave. Possibly radioactive bats? Count this redheaded coward out.

Vivi giggled a little bit at her friends observation, quiet as she continued on, "They're a natural part of the ecosystem, Arty. None of Washington's bats eat anything but bugs, and they really aren't that active unless you wake them up." Vivi looked back at the cave ahead, quickening her pace as she hurried along with a finger pointing into the distance, "Oh, look Lewis! It breaks off into two different caves!"

The cave had been growing smaller, little by little. Up ahead, it split off into two smaller caves, one of which wasn't much bigger than Vivi herself. Each road was labelled with two very helpful signs sporting three question marks and no further explanation as to the contents of the paths or what was down either. Wooden steps, surprisingly new for such an old looking cave, had appeared gradually beneath their feet, leading them onwards into what looked like a possible light source in either direction.

Arthur was still not that thrilled, "Lewis, are those skulls? Lewis those are definitely skulls. We need to get out of here, those look a lot like human skulls. Come on, this isn't too simple! People died here. Let's turn around and forget about this place, go grab some lunch, maybe go swim in a cheap motel pool or something I mean, swimming is a lot more fun than dying, right?" he rambled on, his voice starting strong with terror before ending in a whimper tapering into nothing.

Lewis actually seemed to be listening this time, looking at Vivi with worry lighting his shaded eyes, "V, he might be right. Those skulls look pretty human, also pretty dead."

She shook her head, pointing towards the smaller of the two paths without even considering ditching this new adventure, "No can do, we're already this far, we better see it through. Mystery and I'll take this path-it's too small for you anyway, Lewis. Go up the alternate route, and we'll meet up again in…" She looked down at her phone as she pulled it from her pocket, squinting through the fog, "thirty minutes. Sound good?"

"Nope. Doesn't sound good at all." Arthur whined as Lewis pulled away from his grasp and towards the opposite entrance.

"Sure, sounds like a plan," He reached out a hand for Arthur, preparing to pull the boy along himself, "come on, Art, I'll protect you. It's just a cave, and if it goes up enough we'll probably end up outside again. What do you say, buddy?"

Arthur glared at him, shooting daggers through his amber eyes, "If I didn't need you right now, I'd probably punch you in the dick. No, I'd definitely punch you in the dick, no doubt in my mind."

Lewis smiled as his older friend grabbed onto him again, and the two left Vivi and Mystery to ascend into the unknown of the cave. Vivi descended, thinking that her dog was close behind when in all actuality, Mystery, who had been eyeing Arthur for quite some time now, had hurried after the boys with the same disturbed look on his face.

Vivi's tunnel opened up onto an eerily familiar looking clearing, the ground covered in stalagmites and green fog. She could barely see through the thickness of the gas surrounding her, and hoped that it wasn't toxic in any way. The formations that grew from the ground seemed very sharp, like medieval fortifications, and even when she kicked a thin one they were too strong to break. In the back of her mind, she told herself not to fall forward: It would hurt.

She glanced up at the cliff jutting from the side of the clearing, catching a little movement out of the corner of her eye. Purple-pink hair jutting over the edge, Lewis was peering over the cliff, looking directly at her as he spoke something to Arthur, waiting far behind him. She was unsure if he actually saw her, or was just looking at the base of the cliff with the fog so terribly thick.

"Hey, Art, look at how far up we are, you can see this big clearing below." Lewis observed, pointing down into what to Arthur was just more fog, "I think I saw Vivi down there, this must be where her tunnel ended, too. There's another cave up ahead, it wouldn't surprise me if she went up ahead without us, but this is as far as we can go. Come take a look."

Arthur hated heights, and he was feeling just a little bit sick from the thought of being so high without anything to protect him or Lewis, "I know I sound like a broken record, but let's head back, Lewis. We can't go any further, anyway, and my arm is burning really bad."

Lewis didn't even look back, still immersed totally in the sight ahead of him, something beautiful in a horrific way, nearly tragic, "It's probably nothing, Art, just a cramp. Yeah, that's definitely Vivi down there, and either that shadow next to her is a very short stalagmite or Mystery. I hope she'll wait for us." Lewis continued on, but Arthur was only half listening now.

He scratched his arm quickly, looking at Lewis but not quite hearing him as he rattled on. Something was sneaking its way into his head, little whispers that Arthur couldn't quite push away no matter how hard he tried.

He makes you seem worthless.

Without him, Vivi would still count on you.

You're better than him, Arthur.

Don't let him make a fool of you.

Part of his face was growing numb, as though al connections to it had been cut off. He tried to look over to his left to see what was happening to his arm, but couldn't move his neck of face to catch a glimpse. Everything having to do with the left side of his body was no longer within his control, and as his mind fought off the whispers in his brain, he felt his body bow down to the force within him.

No, he;s my friend...Vivi still cares for me, she just needs someone who can indulge her love for ghosts is all, someone who can love her the way Lewis does. I can't do that! I'm just her friend!

She doesn't need you when he's around. If something were to happen to him, something very terrible…

Arthur watched as his left arm was lifted up, his skin turned green by what he could only assume was the gas, or whatever hid within it. He opened his mouth to scream out, feeling his heart racing in panic for his friend, but was cut off once again by the voice in his head taking over, his words never making it to his tongue.

You would be her favorite, Arthur. Her only.

"Lewis!" Arthur finally was able to cry out, his voice echoing through the cave as his body was thrust forward into a run. Nothing Arthur did could slow him down, nothing could stop the run he had broken into, and nothing could stop the cry of pain that left his body as he realized what was happening.

Everything Arthur had ever read or watched or played depicted these moments of adrenaline as excruciatingly slow, as though someone had hit the pause button to watch each and every frame take place, every detail unfold, but to Arthur, it all happened painfully fast. Lewis turned around, smile phasing to confusion and then fear as he realized what his best friend was doing; he heard below the shout of Vivi, calling out the name of the one she had only recently come to love, completely and purely; he felt his own eyes fill with tears as he couldn't control himself, couldn't save his friend, couldn't even say he was sorry. This happened in a split second, no dramatic music to name it tragic, no time to fully register the pain. Arthur knew that what happened in this second was absolute, and all he could do was close his eyes.

When Lewis had turned around, he had only seen a flash of orange. He was falling now, falling and reaching and screaming as his torch was flung from his hand, trying and failing to grab the ledge as it fell out from beneath his feet. He looked to the side, watching in horror as Vivi tried to run for him, throwing her arms out as though she were going to catch him, her eyes pouring tears as though she were a heavy raincloud. In that instant, Lewis felt two emotions fill his body with a passion he had never felt, something extremely large, two-sided, and terrifying.

He was filled with the purest form of hatred, icy and chilling as it sent thin fingers of frost to freeze his glass heart into ice, Arthur's face cradled between the feelings of betrayal and the pain that comes with not only the loss of a friend, but the loss of faith in them. On the other hand, he was filled with the most burning sense of love as his eyes met with Vivi's, and in the clearness of his chilled heart, he was filled with an orange passion, the flames of affection turning the shell of anger into something alive, something beating.

His last thoughts were of Vivi, and with them, he prayed to whatever god that might listen that she would not remember any of this, that she would wake up the next morning without a clue as to who he was.

She didn't deserve his death.

Still her voice cried into the depths of the caverns, and still he fell. Part of him grew to accept his fate, the fate of a dead man, but the majority of his emotions pointed towards feeling incomplete. In other words, the young Lewis was not prepared to move on. He didn't plan on leaving this realm without some form of revenge.

He refused to leave without her knowing how he truly felt.

And just as soon as he fell, Vivi watched the boy she loved fall onto a stalagmite, his lifeblood pouring through his chest and mouth in a flood of gushing warmth with his arms thrown back as though he had angel wings. If he did, they wouldn't be here right now. If he could fly, why would there be so many tears in her eyes?

The world around her was quiet, but this time, the silence wasn't the comforting blanket of night she so loved and adored. This silence was that of death and despair, the inability to speak grasping the lungs of those who have forgotten how, preventing their cries be heard so that they may suffer alone. This is the silence of loss, and of reaching for the one who you so recently held to your breast in love. This is the silence of a broken heart which is not heard as it falls to the floor and shatters into a million pieces that can never be placed back together, no matter how much glue is dumped upon it or how many kisses a loved one bestows to heal it. Vivi had stopped running now, falling to her knees beside the large stalagmite in front of her as though she were praying to the lost. Her head bowed, shoulders slumped, cries echoing as though a choir mourned.

She heard in her ear the whispers of the one lost, a promise she could never remember before her sobs were muted. This is the silence of Lewis' last wish, of his soul bursting from the shell of his body to grip with both hands the eyes of the beholder, the gateway of her soul and mind, to force his life from her memory, to leave her with nothing but her name before freeing himself into the night, into the unknown. This is the final gasp of a fallen lover.

Up above, Arthur was still fighting in vain, his left side battling his right in an attempt to gain total control, but he was weak. Riddled with self-doubt and hatred, his conscious was faltering to the confidence of possession, the unwavering loyalty to oneself that come with pure evil. The part of him that wasn't possessed was trying its hardest to stumble towards the cliff, hoping with some false courage that somehow he would fall off of it himself to meet a fate beside Lewis. Everything was burning to him, and the only escape he saw was the cool clutches of death and decay.

His mind was gone now, all he could feel was the greenness that overtook him. Something was growling wildly, something with red eyes and sharp teeth staring at him with distrust and anger, but his vision was cut off by the spreading veil across his head. He wanted to faint, to be done, but what if this monster found Vivi?

Just then, he felt the pressure bound away from his mind, the whispers screaming into silence as they were ripped from their anchor and forced back into the fog as he gained his control back. His face synchronized with the tearful frown of his right, his legs all his own to use and walk away from the cliff with, his arm…

As his shoulder was once again in his field of control, Arthur cried out in the most bloodcurdling scream of pain, gripping the bone where his arm had been. Those flashing red eyes gripped his arm between their jaws, aggressively and ferally crying at him while its six tales whipped around angrily, saving his life with the pain of a lost arm. Even when he couldn't hear himself, when the world was synchronized into one long note, Arthur could feel his lungs grow raw from screaming continuously. He was growing faint from watching his life spill upon the ground around him, covering the rock at his feet with blood.

His breathing labored and overall his prospect on living slim, Arthur didn't really notice his feet falling out from beneath him in an attempt to walk away. As he was falling back, he felt his head hit something hard, and Arthur fell unconscious immediately after.