End of the line.
A hand the size of his whole face grabs the front of his shirt and lifts him off his feet. He dangles over the edge of a cliff, suspended by a fist and a flimsy knot of cloth. His one good hand grips the ghost's arm. It won't be enough to save him.
He doesn't want to die. He hasn't tried hard enough to find Lewis yet. Is this ghost trying to keep him from finding Lewis? Did this ghost do something to Lewis, too?
Adrenaline shrieks through his body as he kicks his legs, struggling to get the words out.
Stop.
Please.
I want to live.
I have to find him.
Where's Vivi?
I'm scared.
He can't unlock his jaw. His prosthetic spasms, twitching around to clamp onto the ghost's arm. In that moment, the wrathful skull shifts into a familiar face. Purple hair. Thick eyebrows. An expression more suited to warm smiles than this bitter fury.
Everything shatters.
"Lewis?" Recognition loosens his lips an instant before Lewis drops him over the edge.
Seconds later, his body is torn apart by the jagged rocks.
The pain is momentary, a brief flash of cognizance before his brain shuts down, his body too broken to proceed.
But he is still there. He sees himself now, as if standing back and watching as a strange figure crawls out of the ruin of bone and flesh among the rocks. The new figure looks just like him, except it is only half. One eye, one arm, one leg. His eye is a black hollow with a glowing, orange iris set in it. A soft orange light spills off the edges of his form. Half an Arthur.
The newly formed ghost of Arthur hovers there for a moment, dazed. Slowly lifts a half-face to stare up at the skeleton that peers over the edge at him.
"Maybe… maybe now," the half-Arthur croaks, "we can talk this through?"
Arthur twisted around and flailed as he rolled off the edge of his bed and hit the garage floor shoulder-stump first. Light danced at the edges of his vision as the pain forked across his neck and upper spine. He gasped, writhing to get free of the tangle of sheets with just one arm.
Half. There's just half of me left!
Out of habit, he took a mouthful of sheets between his teeth and counted seconds, focusing on his breath. He pressed his forehead against the concrete. Hard. Cold. Frigid, really, against the sweat beading his forehead. It snapped his thoughts in line. Out of the nightmare. Into reality.
This was reality. In reality, he only had one arm and everything else was fine.
In reality Lewis had called up a memory plane of the cave he himself had died in and dropped Arthur over the cliff. Just before impact, Lewis had dispersed that memory plane. By the time Arthur had hit the ground, the stalagmite-riddled cave floor was just the back of a semi-truck with a bunch of boxed Chicky-Licky supplies. In reality, Lewis hadn't carried through with his revenge. Arthur was plenty alive.
Lewis, however, was not. That also was reality.
Arthur lay there a little longer, allowing more bits of reality to trickle in. Lewis was dead, but not murderous. They were all together again. Trying to work through it. No imminent danger. No threat of—bacon? Arthur sniffed the air.
Definitely bacon. Lewis was at it in the kitchen. If he hurried, he might catch Lewis before he hid himself away. Arthur wriggled again, trying to get free of his cotton cocoon. After a couple minutes of futile effort, straining and grunting all the while, he was forced to conclude that it was not going very well. Huffing, he lifted his head, ready to yell for help. He caught himself as a different idea crossed his mind. A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.
A few minutes later, Arthur had managed to wriggle his way out of the garage and into the hallway. He squirmed and wormed his way to the kitchen where Lewis hovered in front of the stove.
"Hey, Lew. Smells good," he remarked.
Lewis turned, nearly dropping the frying pan when he saw Arthur. Arthur kept wiggling toward the kitchen island, panting from the exertion. "Smelled it all the way from the garage. Nice day. How are things?"
Lewis stared down at him. Arthur couldn't read the expression on the skull, so he threw in the sure fire groaner. "Mind giving me a hand up? I misplaced mine."
Lewis set the pan down on the stove and darted out of the room. A door slammed around the corner. Arthur deflated, letting his cheek rest on the kitchen floor. "But… I thought it would be funny."
It was then he heard a string of rather choked gekkering. He lifted his head and caught sight of Mystery on the other side of the kitchen, his snout between his paws. The pup quivered, his tail twitching as he made little explosions of strange noises. After a minute or so, he managed to raise his head, grinning all the way up his snout. "I think… Lewis just… didn't want to spoil the moment. With his laughter. You see."
Arthur took that in for a moment. "Ah." Lewis laughing might turn the room into a real serious Hell's kitchen. "I didn't think that through."
"No. But it was well intended." Mystery trotted over, grabbed a section of sheet between his teeth, and tugged hard. Between his yanking and Arthur's struggles, the sheet finally came off.
Arthur wound the sheet up in a ball and tossed it back down the hall. "I'll put it away later. Too bad Vivi wasn't here."
"She left for work early."
Arthur blinked. "Why didn't she take you—" More bits of reality filtered in. "Right. I have a follow-up with Dr. Noble today." He sighed, sitting at the kitchen island. "Thanks for agreeing to come with me."
"You owe me a romp in the park," Mystery warned, trotting back to his water bowl.
He did indeed owe that to Mystery. He also probably owed Vivi an apology and a calmer conversation, too. He was Right with a capital R, but she also had a lot of very valid points. Even if she was Wrong about the big picture. Capital W. He ground the heel of his palm into his eye. Why did everything have to be so complicated?
A warm hand settled on his shoulder. Arthur flinched before his brain caught up with the input. He glanced up over his shoulder to see Lewis there, the corners of his eyesockets crinkled upward. Lewis flashed a thumbs up and traced a smiley face over the front of his skull with his fingers. Arthur managed a grin back. "Your fault for making breakfast smell so good. I just couldn't wait."
Lewis rolled his eyes and hovered over to the stove, returning with a plate of bacon and fried eggs. Arthur lit up, forking an egg into his mouth before Lewis could set the plate down. "How do you do that?" he groaned, savoring the flavor. He knew this particular trick was as simple as cooking the eggs in leftover bacon grease, but STILL.
Lewis bent down and portioned out a serving into Mystery's bowl. Ever since the move, Mystery had been getting actual food instead of kibble. No one, least of all Lewis, saw the sense in feeding him like a dog now that the Kitsune was out of the bag.
Other members of the gang were still "in the bag" so to speak. Arthur slowed down after slurping up his third egg and turned over a question that had been sitting in the back of his mind for a while, now. "Hey. Lew. I'm just wondering. Do you think… you'll ever tell your… or try to see your family? Let them know you're not just… gone?"
Lewis turned from the dishes in the sink and gestured at himself from head to toe with one hand, tapped where his mouth should be, then hung his head.
Arthur frowned. "Yeah. But. What if you at least got the speech thing under control?"
Again, Lewis gestured at himself from head to toe, then turned his hand parallel to the ground and held it at knee height.
"I know you don't want to scare your sisters, but if we prepped them before you came out…" he sighed. Belle would probably try to body tackle Lewis, and Cayenne wouldn't be far behind, but it was hard to know how little Paprika would take it. Arthur really needed Vivi helping him figure out what was wrong with Lewis, but that would require talking through their argument and coming to some sort of workable resolution first.
Lewis shook his head and waved a hand, turning back to the sink. Glumly, Arthur finished his food, thanked Lewis, and returned to his room to don his prosthetic and dress for the day.
Mulling through the argument with Vivi kept most of Arthur's brain occupied as he drove himself and Mystery over to Tempo First Medical Center. The trick was not to let himself notice the balancing act between autopiloting through the front doors and the detail-intensive instant replay of the conversation he had playing in his head. He managed to get all the way to the reception desk before his nervous system kicked into high gear, stabbing his lungs with the icy compulsion to GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT. He managed to sign in, holding his breath the whole time, then walked himself over to the waiting room chairs. He sprawled across two of them, gasping like a set of bellows in the hands of a frantic blacksmith.
Immediately, Mystery hopped up into his lap and leaned against his chest, licking his chin. Shivering, Arthur wrapped his arms around Mystery, burying his face in the fur. "I hate this place," he mumbled. "Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Why. I'm such a child. Why can't I handle this myself like a damn adult."
"Arthur Kingsmen?"
His head snapped up. Dr. Noble stood at the door, clip-board in hand, watching him. Before he could stand, she crossed the room. "I'm so sorry, the office should have notified you. I need to cancel the appointment. Do you think you could call in later and reschedule?"
Reprieve. All internal processes dialed back down to a normal, comfortable pace. Relief manifested as a desperately glad smile on his face. "Yeah… sure. Not a problem. Absolutely."
"Perfect. Though I would like to ask you something on the way out, if you don't mind?"
"Not at all." Arthur nudged Mystery, who hopped back down to the ground. Arthur grabbed the end of the leash and stood, following Dr. Noble out of the office. He could swear the air pressure was different the moment he stepped out. "What do you want to know?"
Dr. Noble waited until the door closed behind them. "I want to know if you'll forgive me for a bit of subterfuge. There's no need to reschedule, I'd like to have our follow-up now, but I propose a less stressful environment. I'd also like to ask you a few things off the record. We have a pond out back with nice fountains and a few benches. Plenty of open space and nobody to overhear. Is this acceptable?"
Tension flooded back, but it returned at manageable levels. Swallowing, Arthur nodded shortly. "A-after you."
She paused. "How is Mystery with squirrels?"
Arthur clutched the leash. "No trouble, Doctor. He's well trained."
"Alright, alright. It's okay, Arthur. I'm not sending him off. Just making sure he doesn't bolt and leave you when you need him. Come this way."
She led him down a few hallways, then waved open a set of automatic glass doors. A cement walkway snaked down a grassy slope, splitting off a few times before one branch reached a small pond. It was ringed with slabs of slate and had small trees, bushes, and flowers growing around the edges in orderly intervals. A large marble bench stood on one side of the pond. In the center of the pond, a fountain sprayed water in large, lovely arcs three times Arthur's height. Arthur sat at one end of the bench, scrunched up against the arm-rest. Dr. Noble sat at the other end. Mystery climbed up between them, resting his head in Arthur's lap.
Dr. Noble flipped a couple pages on her clipboard. "Thank you for coming. Let's start with the new medication. It's been a couple weeks since the new prescription, so talk to me about how it's managing your pain and any side effects you've noticed."
The sound of the fountain spray hitting the pond was soothing. The air smelled like cut grass. Arthur hadn't realized how high he'd hunched his shoulders until they started to relax. He pulled out his little notebook, detailing daily doses and his physical and mental response to the changes. Nightmares, he noted, had increased, but that was probably just normal processing, not the result of his medication. He passed the notebook over and waited as she scanned the pages.
He wondered if it was possible to have all his sessions outside, but dismissed it as unlikely. One couldn't have blood drawn or other samples taken like this. No point asking. Still, if he could just have his follow-up sessions this way...
Dr. Noble pursed her lips. "Alright. All this all looks good. Thank you." She shut the book and passed it back to him. "Now. Here's the part where I go off the record."
Arthur eyed her, wary.
"I'll swear strict confidentiality, but whatever information you can give me will be helpful." She traced a finger down a readout on her clipboard. "We found a foreign agent in your bloodstream. It emerged in trace amounts in the blood draw during prep for your second surgery, but we couldn't match it to anything. Not drugs, not basic diseases, and strangest of all is that your immune system isn't attacking it."
Arthur stared at her.
"Now, there's no issue with your immune system, as you've been fighting off normal infections. The healing around the prosthetic implant is a good sign of that. But we can't identify this foreign agent, and it seems to be increasing its presence gradually. We've traced an increase through the last several blood draws, and like I said, your body still isn't treating it like an invasion."
Blank. Everything in his head went blank. "What. What does it. What."
Mystery barked. Arthur sucked in the breath he'd been holding as Mystery pawed at his thigh. He tried again. "What does that mean, Doctor? For me?"
"I don't know. I was hoping you could shed more light on it."
Arthur tried not to think about the chasmic unknown this cleaved into his future, focusing on the time frame Dr. Noble had given him. "So. Right before the rest of the stump was removed." It was long before the third surgery that had given him the prosthetic implant, so it couldn't have anything to do with the prosthetic.
"Is there anything that happened, then? Or anything you may have taken?" she asked.
Arthur blinked. "I didn't… are you asking me if I shot up? Or-or pills? No! Of course not!"
She held his gaze, leaning forward a little. "Arthur, this is why this conversation is off the record and in strict confidence. If you did, even once, it's important that I know. This isn't about judging you or putting a mark on your record. This is about figuring out what this foreign agent is so we can get ahead of it, and there's always a concern about contaminants when dealing with unregulated drugs."
There were no walls to close in on him, but the smell of grass and chlorinated water began to choke him. "Nothing. I s-swear. I ran off to-to the woods one time right after they sewed me u-up. I don't remember much about that time, but no drugs. I couldn't have." He stared down at Mystery. "I c-couldn't have...?"
Mystery gave the tiniest shake of his head.
"No. Nothing, Doc-doctor." It didn't ease the pressure in his chest. There was something in his body and it was probably killing him slowly, and Dr. Noble didn't know what it was. "Do you know how long I-I have?"
Mystery squirmed in his lap, but Arthur was beyond sensory anchoring. Every pulse beat felt like he was drifting further away from his body.
"How long you… I never said it was killing you. We don't know what it's doing, if anything. Right now, everything seems to be functioning well. Actually, your cholesterol results have gone down a bit. But because it's unknown, we have to keep an eye on it. Try to figure it out. Arthur? Arthur, breathe!"
Arthur nodded. The leash slipped out of his hand. He couldn't feel his pulse anymore. He couldn't feel Mystery, either. Dr. Noble's voice pitched as the scenery tilted around him, but he couldn't hear her very well either. He was dying. Definitely dying. It was just going to be very slow. Lots of hospital visits. Lengthy stays. Probably he'd waste away in some sterile white room. Probably—
Water sprayed him in the face. Dr. Noble shrieked. Arthur spluttered as his clothes went from dry to drenched in a second. He scrubbed his face on an arm too wet to help much and quickly located Mystery, who continued shaking pondwater out of his coat as Arthur scrunched up against the bench. As soon as he'd shaken himself off, Mystery turned around and plunged back into the pond, wallowing around and eyeing Arthur with a glint in his eye.
"Are you kidding?!" Arthur yelled, vaulting over the back of the bench and making a break for it. Putting the bench between them bought him precious seconds, but it was no contest. Ten strides later, four legs overtook two and Mystery propelled himself into the back of Arthur's legs. Arthur buckled to the ground where he endured a second thorough wettening from Mystery's coat.
"I reek of soggy dog!" Arthur groaned.
Mystery snorted, stepping up to Arthur's head and barking straight into his ear. Arthur recoiled. "Rude!"
Dr. Noble hurried over. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He lay there a moment longer, then pushed himself up. "I'm sorry you got wet too. I really needed that. I think I was pretty far gone for a moment, there."
She stared down at Mystery for a long moment, then slipped a hand in her pocket and produced a dog cookie. "I have a friend who bakes gourmet canine treats. They're a bit pricey, but…" she trailed off, then dropped the treat for Mystery, who caught it before it hit the ground. "You have a top quality animal, there. He seems to know exactly what you need, even if that means a soaking."
Arthur shrugged. "He's on loan, but he's the smartest dog I've ever known." He grinned weakly. "Call me cliche, but it's almost like he understands everything I say."
Mystery snorted again, but wagged his tail and stood still while Arthur grabbed the end of his leash. He ran a hand through his hair, sending another sluice of water down the back of his shirt. "Did you like the cookie, Mystery?"
Mystery was practically dancing on his paws as he yapped an affirmative. Arthur held a hand out to Dr. Noble. "Got a card for that friend of yours?"
Dr. Noble nodded, producing a business card and proffering it. She held onto her end as Arthur grabbed the other. "Arthur, you're sure there's nothing you can think of?"
Deep breath. Arthur looked her square in the eyes. "No, Doctor. Not that I know of. If I remember anything relevant, I'll call you up and make an appointment right then." He eased the card out of her grip. "I promise."
Notes: Sometimes I feel guilty about not writing enough "plot" in this fic, and then I scold myself, "That's literally what I made this fic to be. A place where I didn't have to deal with big huge intricate plot arcs." And then I stop feeling guilty and enjoy writing at potentially the slowest pace I've ever gone in my entire fic writing career. Does this fic qualify as a "slow burn"? I guess I have to ask because I don't think I've ever read a slow burn fic. I probably should rectify that. It sounds like the sort of thing I might enjoy at this stage in my life. By the way, there is no romantic pairing that involves Dr. Noble. She is just a good-hearted doctor working slightly out of bounds to accommodate a patient she's extra worried about.
Thoughts now that The Future is out: I've only the faintest clue how Shiro Mori may crop up in this story, and NO ideas for Murder Mystery. This story will probably diverge from canon in regards to the smackdown Shiro Mori got and the transition from Mystery to Murder Mystery. But we'll see. For now, assume this fic's setup is aligned with everything up through Arthur getting dropped but not dying. Beyond that point, I'll see what the characters in this version of the universe are telling me happened. Also, I'm going for canonical sister portrayal in this story, so the Cayenne in this story has NOTHING to do with the Cayenne in the Just Legends series.