Arthur woke up in his bed with his head throbbing, especially on the right side. He sat up slowly, holding onto his head. He tried to recall what happened, why his head hurt so bad, but nothing came up, it was all just clouded. He stood up shakily and went to the mirror in his room. He had a bandage wrapped around his head, going around at forehead level.

Arthur quickly tore the thing off and he noticed that there was a bruise right around his temple. He touched it gingerly and found it was extremely painful. Arthur sighed, why did this have to happen again?

Trying to remember the events before, Arthur strolled over to the window. He remembered that, before, it was mid-morning, maybe even close to noon. It didn't look like much time had passed since then. His window was closed, and Arthur had a feeling it was open before…

"DAMMIT!" Arthur nearly jumped at the loud voice booming, the sound even coming through the walls of the house. Arthur looked over to where he heard it, and that was when he saw Alfred and Mathew's house.

A few of the windows looked like they had stones thrown in them. Arthur craned his neck to see if he could look into any of the rooms, but he couldn't. Before he had a chance to do anything else, Alfred stormed out of the house.

"CHUCK!" he screamed, slamming the door that was already only half on its hinges. It fell to the ground. Alfred looked beyond angry, he looked about ready to kill as he stormed off through the town.

Arthur immediately put his shoes on and ran down the stairs, ignoring the pain in his side. He didn't really care anymore if Mary Lou caught him outside the house, so he ran outside and started for Alfred and Mathew's house. Before he got very far, though, that herd of girls surrounded him again.

"Hey, Artie, where ya been?"

"Were ya really sick all day?"

"Is that a bruise?"

"Wheredya get it?"

Arthur stopped them all, stepping out of the crowd. "I am deeply sorry, I just have other things to attend to right now, goodbye."

As Arthur turned away from them, he heard them start to talk some more.

"I told ya you couldn't do it!"

"Ah can do it."

"Like he would fall in love with you!"

So that was what all that attention was about… They were trying to get him to like women…

Arthur started running again and went up the stairs of Alfred and Mathew's porch, again ignoring a sharp pain in his side. He stepped into the doorway, expecting something bad to have happened to the sitting room or the kitchen, but they seemed perfectly fine. Mathew rushed to him.

"Alfred, thank God you decided not to…" he stopped, seeing that it was Arthur, not Alfred. "Arthur?"

"What happened to make Alfred so mad?" Arthur asked. The only thing that seemed wrong was the windows and the door.

"Arthur, why are you up and walking around already?" Mathew asked him worriedly.

"What are you talking about, I'm fine," Arthur said.

"You are not fine, Arthur," Mathew argued. "Do you not remember getting hit?"

"Hit by what?" Arthur asked. Was he talking about Chuck punching him all those times?

"That stone Chuck through the window," Mathew said, looking at him nervously. "A-Alfred told me about it, after he helped Mary Lou look you over and bandage your head. You can't have recovered already."

"How long ago did that happen?" Arthur asked.

"It's been a couple of days," Mathew said sadly.

"A-A couple of days?" Arthur stuttered.

"Alfred came to see you a lot," Mathew said helpfully. "I-I only went once or twice, but you didn't look very good."

"I feel fine," Arthur lied. His head was still throbbing, his side still ached, and all of his bruises were causing a lot of pain. But, he still forced himself to stand up straight. "But, please tell me, what made Alfred so…"

"U-upstairs," Mathew looked down at the ground. "We went out for a ride on our horses and…"

Arthur didn't wait for him to finish. He ran up the stairs, wincing at his side. The two doors on the right looked untouched. However, the door on the left, was hanging off of a hinge. Arthur went over to the doorway to look inside.

It was destroyed. The bed was turned over, all of the drawers in the dresser were pulled onto the floor, the clothes scattered everywhere. The mirror on the desk was shattered and the makeup on it was spilled everywhere. The chair's legs were broken and the dress that was sitting on top of it was torn in half. The sheets and the curtains were no longer pure white, they were covered in dirt and dust.

"Dear God," Arthur muttered.

"Alfred went into this room every day to make sure that it stayed perfect. It may not look like it, but he can actually be pretty neat and tidy when it comes to certain things." Mathew was right behind Arthur. "This room was his last connection, I think, to our parents. And Chuck ruined it."

"H-how do you know it was Chuck?" Arthur asked.

"Who else would do something like this?" Mathew asked.

Arthur felt himself clenching his hands into fists. That was it, this was the last straw. Chuck just seemed so intent on ruining him and Alfred's lives. Arthur had to set him straight. He realized he may not be very strong, but he knew that he might be able to do something…

Arthur stormed down the stairs and out of the house, ignoring Mathew protesting him and telling him to go back to Mary Lou's house. Arthur set off searching around town, much like Alfred did. Figuring he knew where Chuck might be, Arthur set off behind the row of houses, the ones that were closer to the river. While Arthur was walking around, he felt something wet hit his nose. Then his head, then his ear. The drops came faster and faster, until it started pouring rain.

How long had it been raining like this while he was asleep? He knew those clouds would have brought rain, but how much?

The closer Arthur got to the river, the more he heard it. He could hear the water travelling quickly as he came close enough to see it. He could see the water rush past at break-neck speed and he could also see something that he hadn't seen before when he was at the river. There were rocks. A lot of rocks. It looked deep enough so that, if you just stuck your feet in, it would be no problem. But, if a whole person went in, they would be in trouble.

Suddenly, Arthur felt pressure on his back, enough to push him over onto the ground. It hurt his head and side, more than anything, but he refused to cry out. Arthur quickly turned around and stood up. Sure enough, Chuck was right there, his group around him.

"Hey there, Artie boy," he grinned. "Didn't expect to see ya outta bed this soon."

"Chuck, I-" Arthur was about to talk, tell him off, but he stopped when something hard, a fist, hit him directly in the face. Arthur stumbled backwards slightly, but someone behind him shoved him off in another direction. Someone over there, caught him and shoved him in a completely different direction. This went on for a while, in a dizzying circle for Arthur, until someone stopped him, gripping hard onto his shoulders. Arthur was walked backwards a little bit, far too discombobulated to do anything.

Blurrily, Chuck came into Arthur's view. He was the one gripping onto his shoulder.

"See ya later, Artie boy," Chuck grinned as he pushed Arthur backwards slightly, letting go.

Arthur tried to bring one of his feet back to catch himself, but there was nothing underneath it to put it on. Arthur's eyes widened as he looked behind himself. He was falling into the river. He tried to flail his arms to bring himself upright, but that did nothing. Soon, he was plunged into the water.

It was freezing, to say the least. Arthur was shoved by the current downstream, his head and body slammed against the several rocks scattered at the bottom. Every time Arthur felt his face break the water, he tried gasping for air, but that usually ended up with him breathing in water. The torture seemed like it would never end. It lasted for what felt like an eternity. Arthur knew he would probably drown if nothing changed soon.

Out of nowhere, Arthur felt something grab onto his arms. The current still continued, though, pulling the rest of his body downstream. The force on Arthur's arms pulled him up, causing his head to come out of the water. He automatically started coughing out the water and breathing for air. He tried to do both at the same time, but that didn't turn out well.

Eventually, he was pulled completely out of the water and onto something that felt soft and nice and warm. Arthur used whatever strength he had left in him to go onto his hands and knees and cough and breath and cough and breath…

He still felt the rain pouring onto his back as he dared himself to open his eyes. He saw trees. Arthur sat up right quickly and looked around, still breathing in air quickly. He was shaking, he could tell that by looking down at his hands.

A hand shakily touching his back, soothingly rubbing up and down.

"Y-you gonna be okay?" a scared voice asked.

"No," Arthur muttered with a gravelly voice.

"Shit, this shouldn't be happening to you…" the voice said nervously. "J-just look at you!"

"God, I know!" Arthur snapped. "Shut up about it…"

"A-Arthur, I'm sorry," the voice muttered. Arthur recognized it as Alfred's voice. "It's all my fault this is happening to you…"

"Yeah," Arthur coughed and sucked in a deep breath. His head was pounding in his skull, it was all he could do right now to stay awake. And his side with the cracked rib was killing him. He felt several more cuts and bruises already just by sitting there.

"I-I'm just fed up with it already!" Alfred cried out. "I just wanna leave! There are only, like three good people in this town! I just want to go away!"

There was a long silence.

"You should come with me."

"What?" Arthur looked up at Alfred, his voice still hoarse.

"I'm gonna run away with Mattie!" Alfred said excitedly. "You should come with us!"

"What the hell are you-"

"Just hear me out!" Alfred said. "We can get away from everyone here, and…and not have to worry about this happening again to us! We don't even need to find a town to live in, we can just make our own house in the middle of nowhere and not even care about the outside world!"

"I-I," Arthur coughed horribly, and he winced at his side.

"I don't want to live in this town anymore!" Alfred whined. "Ever since my parents died, it's all gone downhill! There was a new mayor after Pa died and…and he just sucks! And now no one'll listen to Jim anymore because his wingman's gone! No one even listens to reason anymore! It's been 10 years and no one has turned up that has tried to make sense of it anymore! A-at first I thought Chuck would try! But, even though he's only been here three years, he's turned everyone to shit! I just…I just…" He couldn't finish, he just burst into tears. "I can't take it anymore!"

Arthur watched as the scene unfolded before him. Alfred had turned into a mess in just a matter of minutes. Arthur blinked a few times before asking. "A-Alfred… If that's how you feel…"

"You have no idea how many times I've wanted to run away!" Alfred yelled out, his head was in his hands now. "Just forget about the world and ride and ride until I just died! I would ride off the end of the Earth and nothing could harm me after that! Mathew was the only reason I stayed!"

"Alfred…"

"But if we run away, we won't have to worry about it anymore! A-And we could just forget the town and just the rest of the world! That's all I want! I just want to get away!"

"I know how that feels," Arthur muttered. "And I know that's not what you want to do."

"What?" Alfred looked up at him.

"I wanted to get away, and I was being stupid and immature," Arthur sighed. "When I left, I figured out that the real world isn't what you would expect it to be… You can't run away from the world, just your own problems…which will only come back to you again later."

Alfred looked at Arthur for a while. They sat there quietly, just staring at each other. Alfred moved first, leaning towards Arthur, cupping his chin, and kissing him. Arthur leaned in and closed his eyes. All of his pain washed away for the mere seconds that they were connected, until Alfred separated them. He stayed close, though.

"Thank you for saving me," Arthur muttered, trying to appeal to Alfred's hero complex. Make him at least a little happier.

"I think you just saved me…" Alfred muttered, and pulled out an obviously forced smile.


Alfred brought Arthur home soon after that. Mary Lou was beyond pissed by the time she saw Arthur. Without even a thank you to Alfred, she forced Arthur inside and began looking him over.

After about an hour of bandaging in almost every place (Mary Lou was classy and told Arthur to take care of that "other bit" by himself), Mary Lou forced Arthur to go to bed.

It was still pouring rain outside, so Arthur wound up falling asleep.

And dreaming of home.


Sixth in a row, and my streak ends here. I am going camping over the weekend, so you'll have to wait until Monday for another update! Sorry!

And I'm sorry about the ending of the chapter. That was me just being lazy, mixed with me being exhausted, and being hungry and dinner being on the table. So, yeah, sorry about the ending.

More attention brought back to my pole. It seems like people want "Kidnapped" the most so far, so that may be what I write after I finish "Salem Alfred Traials"...

Please review! I got a lot of positive feedback last chapter, most of it was long reviews, which I am ever so thankful for! I love all of you that have reviewed already and I know the number of people who read it is far higher than the number of people that review. Please review! Please?

And I own nothing! I swear!