Chapter 9: Chalk and Blood

Disclaimer: I clicked my heels three times and nothing happened. Well, my heels hurt, but nothing useful happened. Aside from the plot, I own nothing.

Warnings: Slight morbidity towards the latter portion and Rome being Rome.

The train couldn't move fast enough for the Welshman. He eyed the clouds that lazily drifted across the azure sky with disdain; every second that they spent in this train was one where Arthur could have possibly gotten himself killed. He leaned his forehead against the cool window, sighing softly to himself. Long ago, things had been simpler. Of course, there were fairies, dwarves and sprites, there was the occasional leprechaun that tried to trick you out of your lifesavings and more than the incidental specter that nearly stopped your heart. But those were the days when there was family. When you could come home after your most definitely illegal party with the warlocks down the street and throw yourself onto a bed with your brothers. Those were the days when there was more than one kind of magic.

But those days had long since faded into the shadowy depths of his past. Llyr shut his eyes, letting the familiar memories wash over him; he could hear his mother's screams in the background, the taunting voices of his classmates, the chants of countless creatures that he wouldn't be able to name till he was far older. Eventually he'd wizen up, pretending that he couldn't see the winged horse that his baby brother had come to love. He'd tried to save Arthur, he really had, but the stupid boy was too trusting, too open. Llyr would never be able to erase the sight of Arthur's green eyes, bright against his pale white skin, as he gripped his mother's hand, walking toward the sleek black car that would take him to a place to, "make him better." Those soft words would resonate in his mind, again and again, reverberating with their childlike innocence, "But you believe me don't you brother?"

Iain wasn't helping matters, with all his fidgeting. Llyr glanced at his elder brother out of the corner of his eye. The Scotsman had something to say but he seemed to be wrestling with himself to say it. Another five minutes of the tense silence passed until Llyr couldn't take it anymore, "Spit it out then man! What is it?"

Iain looked at him firmly, "Ye hae tae teel Arthur ye ken. Sooner ur later he's gonnae realize 'at there's nae way we coods hae reached Boston sae quickly. Ah dornt see why ye cooldnae jist tell him 'at ye hud spoken tae Antonio. Ya bampot."

Llyr bristled, his brother's accent always got painfully thicker when he was worried about something or in this case someone. He'd barely understood the gist of that last speech, but he was fairly sure the last phrase had been something insulting. "Iain, we've been through this. Arthur and I have history all right. I understand that you've resolved whatever past issues you had with him, but I haven't. Things have been difficult for us, I don't want to risk what little we have managed to achieve."

"Wi' th' way ye tois going lookin' fur pixies ur whatever they're called, it's a miracle yoo're still alive. Someday, yoo'll regret nae bein' aroond for Arthur. Stop bein' a blasted coward an cheil up! Be his elder brither fur ance! Arthur needs ye fur heaven's sake!"

"But don't you get it, he needed me all those years ago, when we were children. All I had to do was say that I saw the things he saw. That's it, three simple words and I could have saved my little brother. But I didn't! I sat there, like a damned coward and let him be dragged away and didn't do a thing to stop them. I gave up the right to call myself his elder brother years ago Iain; I don't deserve to ask for it back."

Iain didn't say anything, though Llyr could have sworn he heard the word bampot muttered a few times. Llyr looked fixedly out of the window, letting the silence wash over the duo once more.

*Boston- Modern Day*

"Explique-moi how precisely this will work. From what you have told me, we must burn cette livre oui?" Arthur nodded grimly, "That's right, we need to burn this book, but in the presence of the witch. The faster we do this, the better."

Antonio and Lovino appeared with Ludwig in tow. The Hispanic man nodded his head at Arthur, determination written on his face. "Just like old times eh amigo? Like when that poltergeist decided to haunt the men's bathrooms in college?"

Arthur chuckled weakly, "I'm afraid it's a rather more trying situation than that Toni. But I'm glad you're here with me." He looked at Ludwig, "You're sure that there won't be any civilians this side of town?"

The cop nodded, "Ja. The department has issued a warning to all citizens indicating possible terrorist activity in this area. We've informed them that the area is unsafe and also that any breach of the boundaries will warrant immediate and unquestioned arrest. That should keep people out of the way for now."

Sighing, Arthur replied, "Indeed. That's one relief. The last thing we need is to have to worry about innocent bystanders. Well then Antonio, let's get moving. The faster we move the better." But before he could leave, Francis caught his arm, "Attends… I want to come with you. Please," he added noting the look of disapproval on Arthur's face, "He is my son. I just want to help."

"Francis, listen to what you are saying. What will you do inside with us? I understand that you are worried about your son, but you must know that you coming in with us presents with the additional problem of looking after you. You must trust us; we know what we're doing. We will get your son back for Francis, I promise you. But," he added, "There is one thing the three of you can do."

Digging out an old scroll from his bag, he handed it gently to Francis. "My elder brother Llyr once gave it to me. It was a gift, one of the last things he ever gave to me. This is a protection spell. According to what's written on it, it should create a ward around the area and protect us. I'm leaving this to the three of you alright? I'm assuming that if you read out the words on this, you should be able to generate a ward sufficiently powerful to prevent Leigh from escaping should she attempt to do so." Francis nodded, before planting a soft kiss on his cheek. "Be careful Arthur, I will wait here for you and my son."

Flushing, he turned on his heel. Behind them, Lovino had grabbed Antonio in a fierce hug, "You'd better come back safe alright bastard? Otherwise I'm going to bring you back from the dead so I can kill you myself." Antonio smiled, placing a kiss on the top of Lovi's head, "Si, mi tomate. I'll come back home to you safely."

The interior of the church was quite impressive, but Arthur didn't have time to admire the details. Antonio had done more than his fair share of research however. He pointed towards the south of the church. "We need to look in that direction." Arthur raised an impressive eyebrow. "Why not go up? That's where Alfred saw her first." "Si, but you said that she'd prefer a darker and slightly more secluded spot for the ritual. The tower wouldn't provide the quietness or the space for something like that right? So I was thinking, awhile back, when they were doing some work here, they found a bunch of old coffins. They theorized that this church had been built on top of another structure most probably an early Norman monument of some sort. The remnants are that way, there was an old pillar that marked the entrance but I think they've removed that."

"That's bloody brilliant Antonio. But you needn't worry about us finding that pillar. I've got a better idea." He lifted his hand and closed his eyes, muttering softly under his breath. Antonio had seen this before; it was a 'Seek' spell. He kept his eyes peeled looking for the telltale glow that would show them what they were looking for. "Bingo!" he called out.

A few paces ahead them, a small section of the wall was lit up, albeit faintly. Antonio hurried to the spot; it was unlikely that they'd need magic to get in. While Leigh was a ghost, her victims weren't. There had to be some way that she was getting them inside. Surely enough, there was an indentation between two of the bricks and he slid his fingers deftly into it. Years of handling delicate manuscripts had left him practiced in such intricate work. In a few seconds he had prized off a small number of bricks, revealing a passage that possibly led into the old crypt.

But as Arthur approached, a new problem presented itself. The passage was ridiculously small; the dimensions were suitable for a small child to move through easily but not a fully grown adult. "I'll go first Toni," Arthur said firmly, "You come behind me." Antonio didn't like it, but he knew they had no choice. Arthur managed to squeeze himself into the tiny opening and crawled through it until he reached the end, dropping gratefully onto the rough hewn stone floor. He was just about to call out to Antonio when a sudden burst of energy whizzed by him. He swore as the roof of the tunnel gave out and the passageway sealed.

He knew it would be a waste of time and energy to try and clear out the debris. It was relatively strong magic but by the feel of it, it was a defense mechanism. Leigh had engineered it to prevent people from entering and leaving. It was triggered by the motion of someone in the tunnel. That meant that in all probability, she wasn't here. At the very least, that was some good news, he had a little time. "Antonio, if you can hear me, get out! I'll get Alfred, but don't hang around here alright? Get out and help the others with the charm!"

He turned around surveying his surroundings. He was in a dark passageway of some sort; it was narrow and almost pitch black. Running his hands along the uneven surface of the wall, his hand came in contact with one of the old wooden torches that used to line the walls. "Incandesco", he muttered, watching as it lit up almost instantaneously. The passageway divided into two, and although Arthur tried, his scrying spells came up fruitless. There was a sort of barrier that prevented anyone from using magic to discern which way to go. Arthur slammed his fist against the wall. He didn't have time to waste, it was only a matter of time before she returned, he'd promised Francis that he'd get Alfred back safely.

"You could always ask me." Arthur started and swore, almost dropping his torch. "Who the bloody hell are you?"

There at the wall that divided the two tunnels was a spirit; at least Arthur was sure it was a spirit. Tall and slender, the man had long hair that Arthur assumed would have been blond when he was alive. He wore a faintly irritated expression on his face and Arthur got the feeling that he knew him from somewhere. "Of course, whether I would tell you, now that's another thing all together. It's rather dangerous you see, the quest you plan to undertake. Heroic, I grant you that, but dangerous. You remind a bit of Aeuleus, a less handsome version of him."

The name seemed oddly familiar, although it took Arthur a few minutes to place it. "Aeuleus, that's the man from the journal we found earlier… If you knew Aeuleus…then you must be Adalric!" The spirit looked at him bemusedly, "Got it in one. Not bad really."

"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked amazedly. "I was summoned," Adalric replied, "Though apparently not by you. But I can sense what you are doing here, or at least what you're going after. You're chasing that infernal woman aren't you? The one who burnt the town down?"

Arthur nodded hesitantly, "Indeed, she has someone very important to me in her clutches. " "I'll tell you in no uncertain terms now, turn back and don't ever return. She's not like anything you could ever imagine; even Death could not stop her entirely. Forget about this person and pray that they die painlessly, that's my only advice to you."

"What if it was Aeuleus?" Arthur cried out, unable to stop himself. "What if it was him or your child? Would you have allowed them to perish so easily then?" The temperature dropped and Arthur had to fight to prevent himself from shivering.

"We never had children, good Ms. Leigh made sure of that. She took Aeuleus from me when we were very young. Did you know that we were going to move out of that town soon? His niece's parents had died and we were going to take her in and settle down in a quiet French countryside, somewhere near the sea. I fought, I fought every day till he died and then I fought her some more and look what a mess that turned into! She wasted no time in getting rid of me and we were trapped in this existence and will be till she disappears forever. Until then, we are reduced to mere memories that live in the pages of my old journal. So don't speak to me as if I don't know boy, I've been living this nightmare for centuries."

"Look, I'm sorry that all of this happened to you, but that's not going to stop me. Either you tell me the way to go, or I'm going to take my chances and keep moving. If it makes you feel any better, I'm here to make sure that she never walks this planet again."

A ghost of a smile tugged at Adalric's lips, "You're stubborn aren't you. Alright then, since you're so persistent, I'll help you. You seem to have an actual shot at getting rid of her. It's most simple really, it doesn't matter which turn you take. Right or left, they lead to the same destination and both are more or less equal. You see, Leigh realized that one day, people might try to break in and destroy her. But to do that, these people would need to be extremely intelligent. And so, she'd use this intelligence against them. How long do you think people would spend at this junction, agonizing over what was to be done, which direction to take? By the time they made a decision, Leigh's work was done.

Keep moving as fast as you can. The sun has almost set and when it does, Leigh shall return. I'm trusting you to do the job. So, good luck I suppose."

Adalric disappeared almost as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving the passage silent once more, and to Arthur, lonely.

It didn't take him long to reach the crypt or at least the doors that led to it. Old and huge, the wood that had been used in the construction was rotting. But even the decay couldn't hide the morbid detail that ornamented the door. Angels and demons clashed on the doorway and skeletons watched the scenes. Gulping, he prepared to open the door when a familiar voice hit him.

"Arthur! Thank goodness you've arrived!"

He wheeled around, eyes wide in surprise. "Flutter?"

"I'm sorry Arthur, I stayed with him as long as I could, but then she decided to shift him to this crypt and there was so much dark energy that I couldn't enter. You have to hurry Arthur, before she gets him!"

The doors flew open with a bang and slammed against the walls, the noise echoing in the silence. The room was small, rectangular with no windows. The sole source of light was a candelabrum at the northern end of the room. There was a stone cross, carved into the wall and an altar. At some point, Arthur reasoned, this place had served as a place of worship. Wielding his lit torch like a weapon, he stared horrified at the walls. Almost every available space was adorned by bizarre symbols, most of them necromancer's pentacles. They were made with some dark staining ink, what appeared to Arthur to be dried blood.

And there at the center of the room, tied to a wooden post was Alfred. Rushing to his side, he was relieved to see that Alfred was alright. Tear stricken, freaked out, but alive and still, thankfully, in one piece. "Come on then lad, let's get out of here and fast."

He untied Alfred and the boy flung his arms around Arthur's neck. Arthur returned the embrace briefly, "Your father's waiting for you. It's time to go." He had barely uttered these words when he was unceremoniously slammed against the wall, the air knocked out of his lungs. He could faintly make out the sound of Alfred screaming in the background as he strove to catch his breath. Something warm and wet trickled down his forehead and he realized he was bleeding.

"I'm most sorry about that. But you see, I need little Alfred here for something very important and I can't have you running away with him now can I?" The voice was feminine, that was undeniable. But it was unlike any woman he had ever heard, or wanted to hear for that matter. Scratchy and high pitched, it was full of malice among other things.

"Jyll Leigh," he ground out, ignoring the throbbing pain in his head. She laughed, "I see you know who I am. But I'm afraid that I don't have the same privilege. Well, I suppose it won't matter in a few moments. Once I have Alfred's blood in me, I'll be strong enough to get rid of you both and then take care of a few others…pests…that have been troubling me. But I do find it interesting that you can see me, just like Alfred here. Fascinating. Incidentally, did you know that was why I had selected him?

I was just minding my own business, looking out through the window in the old spire, contemplating over who would be the next child I took because I needed more energy now, when imagine my surprise, a young man looked up and could see me. Such power runs through his veins. It was incredible, instead of feeding off children repeatedly over many years, I had one single child who could revive me and more."

"You witch, you'll never succeed."

For the first time, Jyll stepped into the flickering candle light. Arthur didn't know what he had been expecting, a depraved lunatic with a knife perhaps but not this. She was a young woman, smartly dressed in a pale blue gown with white gloves covering her small hands. Her long black hair was neatly combed and fell well past her shoulders. But when you looked into her eyes, you could see the madness, the pools of darkness that they had read about.

Her unnaturally red lips curled upwards, "Really? And who's going to stop me? Not you I presume." Arthur struggled against her binds but they were strong, Adalric was right, she was unbelievably strong, not to mention oddly corporeal. God alone knew how many children she had drained like this, gaining her immortality.

She twisted around to grab Alfred and that split second of distraction was all Arthur needed. He wrenched himself away from the wall and rolled onto the floor. He had learned a thing or two in his childhood about escaping malevolent spells and while she was considerably more powerful than the demons of his youth, there was one fundamental similarity: he didn't want to die.

He wanted to burn the book and send her to hell but he couldn't. She was too close to Alfred and he had no idea how much collateral damage would be caused when he finally did decimate the one link that she had to the mortal world. He dodged another attack and tumbled gracelessly onto the floor. Leigh glared at him dispassionately, "You are like me, to a certain extent at least. You know what it is like, to be branded a monster for something that you cannot control! Every day, those 'men of God' would come and swear that they could cure me. They wouldn't let me be! Those stupid fools, they didn't realize that I wasn't the one that needed curing. It was all too much fun roasting their flesh."

Alfred whimpered, trying to escape and Leigh struck him across the face. "Be quiet!" Arthur felt an unknown anger grow inside of him and lashed out at her, using an old spell that he hoped would be effective. It drew a long angry welt across her face that slowly began to drip blood. This apparently angered her to new levels. Her eyes glowed with a new vengeance and she raised her free hand, "I've had enough of playing around with you. It's time that Alfred and I got down to business."

Making a slashing motion with her hand, she smiled grimly and Arthur vaguely noted the cracking of the roof above his head. He moved his hands to shield himself but knew it would be futile and closed his eyes as the rocks came tumbling down.

He waited for the onslaught of pain, but there was none. Cracking open one eye wearily, he gasped. There was another specter, shielding him. This one was bigger built and had a kinder face. He had shorter, darker hair than Adalric but his eyes looked tired somehow. "Aeuleus?" Arthur breathed.

The man beamed, "Ah I see you met Adalric then! It's nice to meet you! Well, not in these circumstances really, but you remind me of someone I knew once, a long time ago." Leigh did not take kindly to being ignored, and she screamed in anger. But as Arthur turned to face her, he felt the first beam of hope he had in a long while. Leigh had let go of Alfred's hand in the confusion that ensued, and the young boy was being quietly led away by Adalric.

"Now," said Aeuleus, "You must hurry up. It's high time someone put her in her place. And I want to move on with Adalric. They say heaven is quite a wonderful place, you know like the song? The cooks are French and the police are English and," before he could finish anymore of his description of heaven, another rock went flying past Arthur's face narrowly missing his ear. Aeuleus swallowed thickly, "Although perhaps this isn't the best time for that. You do have a plan on how to get rid of her right?"

Arthur nodded and whipped the book out. "Incendio," he said, watching with pleasure as the book went up in flames. Leigh screamed and tried to stop them but there was nothing she could do. Her spirit caught fire and she moved closer towards them. As she faded away, the altar cracked and smoke filled the room. "This would be an excellent time to run," called out Aeuleus. He and Adalric helped Arthur and Alfred to the entrance of the passage.

Flutter had already cleared it out it seemed and Arthur helped Alfred crawl through. He was about to continue when Aeuleus put his hand on his shoulder. He smiled at him and said, "And this is where we part ways I'm afraid. I want to thank you Arthur, for your help. Leigh had trapped us in this form because she wanted to know where Adalric had kept those papers from all those years ago. Let me tell you, being a ghost is not all it's cut out to be. Oh sure, you can haunt people but that gets old after awhile and then Adalric started getting cranky and I don't even want to get started on how difficult it was to have sex."

Adalric cleared his throat and nudged Aeuleus. "Um, yes the point being that we can finally move on. Look after your family Arthur, don't let them slip away from you."

Arthur smiled, "I won't. And thank you both for all your help; we could have never done this without you. I wish you both all the happiness possible for your afterlife."

He crawled out, grabbing Alfred's hand and then ran towards the church entrance. The throbbing in his head was growing worse but this was no time to think about that. They reached the bridge and he let go of Alfred's hand, overcome by a sudden rush of dizziness. Alfred ran ahead to his father, who picked him up and hugged him tightly. The group was so busy with Alfred that they failed to notice Arthur's increasingly clumsy steps. Iain was the first one who looked up, he and Llyr having arrived around a half an hour ago.

"Arthur!" he cried out, running forward. Arthur lay on the ground in the middle of the bridge, a small but steadily growing pool of blood surrounding him. "He's lost too much blood," worried Iain, cradling the younger boy to him.

"Call an ambulance!" Llyr instructed Ludwig. Francis and the others watched in horror as Arthur turned paler and paler, now looking for all the world like a piece of chalk that had been dipped in red ink.

Author's Note:

And here ends chapter nine! Reviews would be appreciated, every review goes to buy Arthur some tea, and he gets grumpy without it.

Translations:

The Scottish bit at the start: "You have to tell Arthur you know. Sooner or later, he's going to realize that there's no way we could have reached Boston so quickly. I don't see why you couldn't have just told him that you had spoken to Antonio."

I'm not precisely sure what bampot means, I think it goes along the lines of idiot.

With the way you two go looking for pixies or whatever they're called, it's a miracle you're still alive. Someday, you'll regret not being around for Arthur. Stop being a blasted coward and chin up! Be his elder brother for once! Arthur needs you for heaven's sake."

I'd like to reiterate here that I know no Scottish, and all translation was done online. If there any mistakes and I feel there might be, please let me know and I'll remedy it.

Explique- moi –Explain to me

Cette livre- this book

Incendio and Incandesco are both Latin phrases that essentially mean fire.

As an ending note, when I finished the last chapter, I had intended to bid farewell to Rome and Germania and then I watched Hetalia-Paint it White, so here they are! Also, yes that song is his heaven and hell song.