Shinigami-cat: So... I OWN NOTHING!

Welcome to crazy

Arthur yawned and slowly sat up in his bed. He looked at his alarm clock and frown. Someone had unplugged his clock. He assumed it was his mum, not wanting to be woken up early or something. He shrugged and went into the kitchen. He almost lost it when he saw what the time was. It was already the afternoon so he grabbed a burnt piece of toast and ran out the door.

'I hope Kiku isn't too upset with me.' He thought.

"ARTHUR!" Called a peppy Italian. Arthur turned to see Feliciano and Ludwig walking towards him. "You want to come with us to see Kiku?"

"I was just on my way to see him." Said Arthur.

Feliciano beamed and grabbed Arthur's arm. "Then let's go!"

'Why must people drag me everywhere?' Arthur asked himself.

It wasn't long until they got to Kiku's house. Feliciano knocked on the door. "Kiku! It's me Feliciano! And Ludwig and Arthur! We've come to see you!" A few minutes later Feliciano knocked again. "Hello? Kiku? Are you home?"

Ludwig frowned and tried opening the door. It was unlocked. "Strange... Kiku never leaves the door unlocked..." Feliciano gave Ludwig a worried look. "Feli you and Arthur check the house. I'll check the back yard."

Feliciano nodded and walked inside. Arthur quickly followed. They walked into the kitchen and Arthur frowned. The whole place smelt like burnt candles. Feliciano didn't seem fazed by this. He just pouted and walked into different rooms.

While Feliciano was doing that Arthur walked into Kiku's bed room. He frowned. Kiku's bed didn't look like it had been slept in at all... But maybe it had been and Kiku just made his bed. He sighed and rubbed his temples. "I thought he wanted to talk to me about something important. Why isn't here?"

He walked over to Kiku's desk and picked up a book. He flipped through it. It was written in Japanese so he couldn't read it, but there were some pictures and some English words written in it.

Arthur assumed it was a diary of some kind. The pictures were scribbled and looked quite macabre; severed heads, disfigured shadows, snake eyes and such. But it was the words he could read that really interested him. They were all written in bold and scribbled over a couple of times to make sure it stood out. EVIL. RUN. NOT SAFE. DEATH. MURDERED. MONSTER. LAKE. DEAD. SPIRIT. FAIRY KING.

A sheet of paper fell out of the book. Arthur bent down and picked it up. He was surprised that it was written in English.

To whoever finds this letter.

If you are reading this than something has happened to me. If not Im Yong Soo please stop going through my stuff. But if something has happened to me I will assume that my friends have found this letter. Hello my friends I am sorry to have to write such a letter but I believe it is my duty to do so. Let me make it clear that I have no intention of frightening anyone but I must inform you all about this town.

To put it bluntly this town is evil. Fever Lake is a nightmare built upon lies, deceit and lies. I have no intention to bore you with the details about the past few hundred years or the grizzly details about more recent events but I believe that if someone who is not familiar with the town's history I will give a brief over view. Every year since the end of the gold rush people have been disappearing and murdered. It is unclear why this is happening but it always happens every year.

There is a curse in the town. Once you are cursed it is nearly impossible to become uncursed. The person I know who has been spared by the curse is Ludwig, but he has lost a large part of his memory because of it. I am not sure of the details about what the curse is meant to do, but going off historical accounts I can assume that the curse makes people do irrational things and act crazy.

I am scared... I believe I have been cursed or am in the early stages of being cursed... I can hear things I shouldn't hear and I see things out of the corner of my eyes. I believe that my time is growing shorter by the day. I don't want to die. To the person who finds this letter I ask only two things; find out why I was murdered or disappeared. And please run for your life.

From Honda Kiku.

Arthur's eyes widened. "Was this what Kiku wanted to tell me about? This... this is insane... What's going on in this town? It doesn't make any- "

"AHHHHHHH!"

"Shit!" Swore Arthur. "Who the hell screamed?" He dropped the letter and ran into the hall and straight into Feliciano. "Sorry Feliciano." He mumbled. "Did you scream?"

Feliciano shook his head. "No. It wasn't me. It actually sounded like Ludwig... LUDWIG!" Feliciano jumped to his feet and ran to the back yard closely followed by Arthur. Ludwig was standing near the back fence behind a shrub. His eyes were wide and his face had paled considerably. Feliciano ran towards Ludwig. "Ve? What's wrong Ludwig?"

Ludwig held up his hands. "STOP! Don't come any closer Feli!"

Feliciano stoped dead in his tracks. "Ve? What is it Ludwig?" Suddenly he gasped. "It's Kiku isn't it?"

Arthur tilted his head. 'What is Feliciano talking about? Why would Kiku be...? Oh no.'

"No Feli." Said Ludwig in an unconvincing voice. "It isn't Ki-"

"YOU LIER!" Screamed Feliciano. He ran towards where Ludwig was but Ludwig ran out and grabbed Feli and tackled him to the ground. "KIKU!" Screamed Feli. "KIKU! KIKU! KIKU!"

Arthur cautiously walked past Feliciano and Ludwig over to where Ludwig was standing before and gasped. There was Kiku; dull, lifeless, clouded eyes sunken into his skull, his hair dishevelled and clung to his face, his mouth slightly open like he was trying to say something, there was one long cut going from just below his belly button to his collar bone, all his internal organs were removed. He was an empty shell. Ants and flies crawled freely inside the empty cavity. Arthur felt like he was going to be sick.

He looked back at Ludwig and Feliciano. Feliciano had stopped trying to get to Kiku's body and instead began to cry into Ludwig's shirt. "Why?" Cried Feliciano. "Why did Kiku have to die? He was always so careful!"

"I know." Said Ludwig in a shaky voice. "Just calm down."

"He always lit the candles on the night of the harvest festival! Nothing should have happened to him! He should have been safe!"

"There's nothing we can do." Said Ludwig.

"HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SAFE!" Screamed Feliciano. "He... he should have been safe..."

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It didn't take long for the police to show up and question them. It was over in a matter of minutes. Ludwig took Feliciano home because he was so distraught. Arthur walked home by himself. The reality of the situation not fully sinking in. 'Kiku... Kiku's dead... He can't be but I saw him...'

He cursed and kicked a can. How could Kiku be dead? He only just talked to him last night. "MAPLE!"

Arthur raised an eyebrow who the hell said that? He looked around and saw Alfred sitting in the shade of a tree rubbing his head and holding a can. Arthur sighed and walked over to him. "Sorry Alfred."

"I'm Matthew." Said Matthew. Arthur blinked. Of course it was Matthew. His hair was longer that Alfred's and he was holding a polar bear... but wasn't he always clinging to Alfred or Gilbert?

"Oh sorry... um where's Alfred? Or are you hanging with Gilbert?"

Matthew shook his head. "I'm hanging with an old friend." He stood up and touched the bark of the tree. "This is Sadiq. He is a Turkish man who was just passing through. He got lost and now he's a tree."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "... Right..."

Matthew turned his back to Arthur and sighed. "Is Kiku dead yet?"

A chill shot up Arthur's spine. 'How could Matthew know about Kiku? Wait... did he ask if he was dead yet as in he knew Kiku was going to die?'

"I believe I asked you a question." Said Matthew a little louder. "Is Kiku dead yet?"

"He... Ludwig, Feliciano and I found his body an hour ago..." Said Arthur. "But how did you know?"

Matthew started laughing. It was unnaturally high pitched and cruel. He turned back to Arthur with a disturbing smile on his face. "Curiosity killed the cat Arthur. If the cat was properly informed he wouldn't be so curious would he?" He pushed Arthur backwards against a tree and pressed his body against Arthurs. Matthew's eyes were dark and venomous. "Secrets Arthur... This town is full of secrets... Very dark and dangerous secrets... You need to learn to ask the right questions... At the right time... But something's are best left forgotten..."

Arthur gulped. "What are you talking about?"

Matthew cocked his head to the side and smiled sweetly. "The curse Arthur... Don't you know about it...?" He rested his head against Arthur's shoulder and chuckled. "Now I get it... Kiku was going to tell you wasn't he? He was going to tell you everything... But we can't have that... no... The curse is our secret... Kiku had to die... I'm glad he's dead... He was getting to close to you... Outsider."

Arthur was trembling. His mind was racing. He had no idea how to react to what Matthew was saying. This wasn't Matthew. It couldn't be. "Who... who..."

Matthew pressed his forehead against Arthur's forehead. His piercing lavender eye's penetrating Arthur's soft green. "Yes Arthur? Spit it out."

"Who are you?"

Matthew smirked. "Oh Arthur you really are too much... Didn't I tell you not to ask questions?" He licked his lips and forcefully pressed them against Arthur's. Arthur's eyes went wide. He couldn't believe what was happening. Suddenly Matthew pulled away and started laughing like a mad man. Arthur pushed him backwards and started to run. The sound of Matthew laughing followed him down the foot path.

'What the hell? This town is insane!'

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Arthur was sitting in his room. He didn't understand what was happening anymore. As far as he was concerned the town was full of psychos. "Hey Arthur did you hear the news?" Asked a shaken voice.

Arthur looked up to see Alfred standing in his door way with Matthew attached to his arm. "What are you two doing here?" He asked.

Alfred swallowed. "Kiku... Kiku's dead."

"I know." Said Arthur. "And I'm sure Matthew knows too. After all he's the one who practically asked me if he was dead yet."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Don't play dumb Alfred. When I finished talking to the police Matthew cornered me and... said some freaky stuff..."

Alfred frowned and held Matthew protectively. "Don't say that about Matthew. He was with me for the whole day. You couldn't have seen him today. Isn't that right Matthew?" Matthew nodded and whispered something to Alfred. Alfred nodded. "Matthew says he was with me the whole day and maybe you got heat stroke or something. People often hallucinate when that happens."

Arthur shook his head. "No it was Matthew. I'm sure of it!"

"Well you're wrong." Said Alfred. "Maybe we should talk tomorrow when you're sane. Let's go Matthew." When they were gone Arthur shook his head again.

"This... this just isn't possible... It had to be Matthew... but he was with Alfred... Was Kiku going to warn me about this? Is this town insane? What's going on? Why is this happening?"

TBC

Shinigami-cat: Well... please review?