Lewis floated aimlessly about the room, occasionally glancing at the sleeping Arthur, but finding himself getting angrier every time. He had given him three days, so he could run or even confess to Vivi, but he didn't. Instead, Arthur was actually sleeping. It infuriated Lewis to no end. HOW DARE HE? Lewis floated over to where Arthur was laying, and reached his hand towards Arthur's throat. It was scrawny and covered in sweat. He let his hand hover over the flesh, hate filling his eyes, when a thought came across his head. Would Arthur know his killer like this? Probably not. He wouldn't be nearly afraid enough. That wasn't good enough.
He wanted Arthur to suffer until he wanted death first.
Lewis raised his hand back away from Arthur, glaring as the trembling boy turned back over in his bed. He'd always been the smaller of the two. Arthur had no real physical strength, but he was a smart kid. He jumped a year in high school if he recalled right. That's why he graduated at the same time as him.
And Vivi.
The memory of her name brought a gentle ache to his heart. He looked down at the locket, which had turned a faint grey color. He traced his finger along the cracks and floated out of the bedroom. He drifted quickly towards the young woman's house, slipping into her bedroom with ease. As he suspected, he found the little blue haired angel at her computer desk. She had traded out her blue sweater and skirt for a blue night gown with pink polka dots. Her headband was aimlessly tossed aside, and she had adjusted her glasses all the way back to the bridge of her nose. The little girl was leaning forward as far as she could in her seat, typing furiously into the computer as her eyes darted across the screen quickly. He recognized this look. Vivi was researching, but what he couldn't tell. He inched forward and carefully looked over her shoulder, careful not to let any part of him touch her.
"This is so annoying!" She shouted as she threw her hands into the air. Lewis barely dodged her hands, but he was able to see what she had been looking at. An article about amnesia glowed on her screen. She had scrolled down the page and found the sections on symptoms and cures, which didn't include any information that she could use. At least, that's what he figured by the way she groaned. "How am I supposed to solve this mystery if I can't do anything about this?" With a heavy groan, Vivi turned away from the computer and dove onto her bed. Lewis watched as she flailed around aimlessly for a few minutes, before laying still and staring at the ceiling.
Lewis wanted nothing more than to reach out to her and encourage her, but one look at his own hands deterred that. How would she react to him like this? Would she be afraid? The last thing he wanted was to make her cry, and his presence could cause that. Lewis sighed softly. He wanted nothing more to wrap his arms around her and hold her close like he used to. That's all he wanted, but now he would never be able to do it.
It was all Arthur's fault.
His anger grew as this thought came across his mind, and his fists clenched slowly. He was going to make Arthur pay for what he had done. It's all his fault. If Arthur didn't exist, he wouldn't be a ghost. If only Arthur didn't exist, but that would come soon enough.
Arthur opened his eyes when the alarm went off. He didn't feel like he'd slept a wink, but he had a promise to keep. He reached for his mechanical arm where it laid, and when he couldn't feel it, he leaned forward. He kept leaning and leaning until he finally fell out of bed. Half dazed, Arthur stood up and scooped up the arm. He easily placed it back on and got dressed for the day. Almost sluggishly, he walked out to the van and got in, buckling up before turning it on. Arthur noticed that the heat came on, but it was extremely hot in the van already, so he tried to turn it off.
"The electric must be acting up," He said groggily. He leaned over to turn the crank and roll down his window, but it wouldn't budge. "What else could go wrong," He commented loudly, "I hope it doesn't break down while Vivi's in here." Arthur took off his vest as he started to drive off, hoping to be able to outlast the heat. Halfway to Vivi's house, however, he lost this battle. Arthur parked the van on the side of the road and opened the door, throwing up the remaining bits of lunch from the day before. Arthur leaned back a little in his seat and sighed softly. "This is worse than when I was bullied," He mumbled softly, "Back then, I knew who it was… Now… Now it feels like the entire universe is conspiring against me."
No sooner had the words left his lips that a loud laugh rang throughout the inside of the van. Arthur went pale and took off running as fast as he could. It was Lewis. He knew it for sure now. It was Lewis. Lewis was coming to kill him. That threat wasn't just a prank. It wasn't just a threat. It was a promise. Arthur ran as fast as he could into the woods, knowing that he could make it to Vivi's house in no time with this short cut. He ran and ran, until an invisible force tripped him.
Arthur tumbled downhill a long ways, until he finally fell into a bush and stopped. He felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder, glancing over to see the metallic arm was knocked loose from its bearings. This meant that all the weight of the metal was pulling at his bare nerves. Arthur felt the blood start to pour down his arm. He then managed to get to his feet and ran until he was on Vivi's porch. He used his good arm to pound away at the door. Vivi came to it and covered her mouth when she saw him.
"OH GOD!" She shrieked loudly at him. Arthur looked at her with some dismay, but his eyes somehow wandered to the clock behind her. It was exactly 9 o'clock. Arthur looked at Vivi, watching her lips move, but somehow unable to hear her speak. He let a faint smile cross his lips as the world went black.
"I'm on time V."
His problems around school hadn't stopped. The same bully liked to push him in the halls, trip him when he had the chance, and make him late for class several times. His bullying seemed to get worse by the day, and after a few weeks, Arthur started having trouble hiding the bruises. His shirt covered most of them, but he had to start wearing a vest to zip up and hide the ones that showed a little over his shirt's collar. Arthur could handle it though. He'd been bullied his entire life, so he could handle it.
Until that day.
Arthur was stopped after class by his locker. The brute had two of his pals with him, and his smile seemed unnatural. His friends took one of each of Arthur's arms, and lifted him off the ground. The bully popped his knuckles and looked at Arthur menacingly, seeming to take joy in seeing Arthur tremble.
"Where's my homework?" He asked sharply.
"Did you not do it?" Arthur asked him meekly, but this response was met with a punch to the stomach.
"I asked where it was," He asked again.
"I didn-," Arthur started to reply when he was met by another fist. There was no one in the hallway once again. Where were they when he needed them? The two holding him took him to the ground and started punching him too. All Arthur could do was cower and cover his face. After what felt like a million years, they stopped. The bully leaned down and grabbed Arthur by his chin, roughly pulling on his goatee to make him look at him.
"Where is my homework?" He asked again. Was this supposed to be his fate? Was he always going to get beat on by those bigger than him? Was that the only reason he existed? To be someone else's punching bag? Arthur wasn't brave, but he was smart. He slowly adjust himself, and when the bully smiled again, Arthur sent the hardest punch he could muster into his mouth. The bully dropped him, and Arthur took the chance to do what he did best. He ran. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him and turned a corner. He turned left, then right, then left again. He kept sprinting until he saw the exit in front of him, but just as he neared it, one of the boys came out from behind a corner. He punched Arthur in the face.
Arthur could feel his nose break from the punch, and he collapsed. He could hear laughing as the other two joined the first, and they grabbed him by his arms. They then started dragging him to the right. What could they want to do now? Arthur managed to look up in time to see a locker wide open in front of him. He tried to resist, but six strong hands forced him inside and closed the door behind him. He heard a laugh as a lock clicked. Arthur started to tremble violently, and he slammed his hands against the locker door.
"Wait! Don't leave me in here!" He shouted desperately as he heard the laughter die away.
"Don't worry Arthur," he heard the bully say in a haughty voice, "Someone will come for you." Arthur banged on the door harder as he heard the voice drop into a low, vicious growl. "You know, when we have school on Monday." Arthur screamed.
Arthur collapsed almost the instant she opened her door. He said he was on time, but he looked like he was about to die. She called 9-1-1 and sat next to him on the porch. She slowly pulled his head into her lap and ran her fingers through his hair. Her best friend in the entire world fidgeted, having a nightmare that made some of their ghost hunts seem boring. All she could do was wait.
Standing nearby, though she was completely unaware of it, was Lewis. He had taken a lot of pleasure for making Arthur hurt so much, but the desperate look on Vivi's face broke his heart. He let his anger fuel his actions, instead of his love for her. He watched her cry and wanted dearly to call out to her, to tell her everything was okay, but that wasn't going to work here. She didn't remember him. She didn't have a clue who he was or how much she had meant to him. All she had was Mystery and the murderer.
Lewis felt guilt and sorrow attack his heart, and black tears flooded his eye sockets. She looked like she loved him. The way she held his head and ran her fingers through Arthur's hair made his heart break. He held the locket in his hand and squeezed it harshly, making more cracks form to match his breaking heart, and then he dropped it on the edge of her porch. He felt like scum for making Vivi cry, but his hatred for Arthur was still there. He could never again be what she needed. Lewis turned away and started floating back to his mansion, thinking the empty halls and rooms would be fitting, since they matched his heart.
Vivi watched in disbelief as the ambulance loaded Arthur onto the gurney and took him away. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she could no longer think straight. What had happened to Arthur? Was he in an accident? Was he chased? How did he get hurt so badly? She stayed on the porch for a long time and could nothing but cry. Her heart ached so badly, seeing over and over again the image of his pain filled face.
When she finally regained her senses, she noticed a little locket on the edge of her porch. It was badly cracked, and a faint grey color, but it was still in one piece. Vivi curiously picked up the locked and felt the scratches. She then heard it click. She watched in awe as the locket opened up and showed a picture of her, wrapped in the arms of a loving guy with purple hair. He was smiling. Who was he? Who was he to her?
That's when memories started flooding into her head. The shy giant who came to her school during her junior year, who had become her and Arthur's friend, the owner of the van, and also the ghost who chased them through the haunted mansion. She remembered everything about him, how animals loved him, how he could lift her over his head, how he and her had long conversations about mystery novels. She remembered forming the Mystery Skulls with him, and going on several adventures. She remembered an eerie looking cave that had two tunnels going in different directions. She remember going down the right one with Mystery, while he and Arthur went up the left one.
Then her memories stopped.
What happened next? Vivi couldn't help but wonder, but she figured it wasn't good if he was a ghost. She got up off her butt and closed the locket, then she it gently around her neck. This was a mystery that had been right under her nose the entire time, and now it was her job to figure it out. The fate of her friends rested heavily on it. She looked around slowly and called the name that had been hidden from her for so long.
"Lewis!" she shouted loudly. There was no response to her shrill voice. She was alone.