Chapter 3: ghosts
After Ivan Braginski was found dead in the gymnasium, his body covered with stab wounds, the police stopped questioning the students and the school was closed for the next two weeks. Within the set time frame, they wanted to investigate the case with intensified care but without further risking the students. They told them of Ivan's death but not of the cause behind it. Only one day had passed since the first corpse was found and there hadn't been enough time to inform the students of the temporary closing, so when one arrived at school that morning, they were sent back home.
But it was still enough time for word to spread that Natalya Braginski who was Ivan's little sister, had had a nervous breakdown and was now in a psychiatric hospital. Today it was only raining lightly. Just as Arthur was about to go home, Alfred came running to him.
"Do you know how he died?" He asked and didn't give Arthur enough time to say 'No' and 'I don't want to know'.
"Someone stabbed him with a knife repeatedly all over his body. It must've been pretty gory. They have to repaint the walls now because the blood was everywhere Kiku said. He heard Mr. Roma speaking to one of the policemen." Alfred told him all of this so quickly that it took him a few seconds to process the information. How he wanted the seniors to die he hadn't told the demon. But he felt not even one bit of remorse for his actions. They got what they deserved.
"I mean Ivan really was a complete asshole. But still... that was a bit too much." The American said as he started walking next to Arthur who found it a bit irritating.
"What are you doing, Alfred?" He asked and knit his bushy eyebrows ( passed on from his father). The question seemed to make the American uncomfortable. He placed one hand behind his neck and looked like he was concentrating very hard.
"You see, because we seem to have lots of free time now and my parents are at work and yours too, I'm sure, I was thinking if we could, you know, maybe do something together." He suggested. Arthur had to admit, it sounded like a good idea. And he surely would've found no other thing to busy himself with while his parents were at work, than to spend his time reading.
It felt quite strange to him but he found himself agreeing to Alfred's suggestion.
"So what shall we do? Go and grab something to eat? Or should we go to the park and play soccer or something?" The American asked. He had left his car on the parking lot of the school.
"I thing you mean football." Arthur couldn't stop himself from correcting Alfred who rolled his eyes at The Englishman.
"Whatever." The two were walking on the pavement of a street that led to the park while Alfred was walking a little bit faster than the other.
"I wonder what one can do while the children are normally at school. Somehow I feel like I'm doing something illegal. Like someone will ask me why I'm not at school." Arthur muttered and Alfred nodded agreeing.
"And I wonder if they're showing any good movies." Alfred added.
"At eight fifteen in the morning? If there were any, I'm sure you wouldn't want to watch them." The Englishman snorted. Suddenly Alfred stopped walking and abruptly turned around so he stood before Arthur now.
"What?" The Englishman was startled at the sudden movement.
"I just remembered something!" Alfred practically shouted before he noticed his own volume. "They're showing a horror movie tonight. I wanted to watch it for a long time now."
Arthur knew the next question before he heard it.
"No." He said at the same time when Alfred asked:"Want to go watch it with me tonight?" He didn't seem to have heard Arthur and so the green eyed blond tried again.
"No, thank you. I'm not a big fan of horror films." In truth he liked them very much, especially when they were about paranormal stuff. He just didn't want to watch a film with Alfred, who would probably babble all the time.
"Come on. Pleeease. I read somewhere that it's totally awesome. You have to watch it." The American tried again and his blue eyes were sparkling. Arthur couldn't bear to look at him any longer than that, it was just too cute. But he would never tell the other.
"What is it about?" He asked with a sigh and Alfred beamed at him.
"Ghosts. Ain't that cool?" Arthur chose not to comment on his wording. Actually he was starting to find the film interesting.
"All right." He finally said and Alfred grinned. The two were now walking through the park that was surrounded by a high metal fence on three sites and they soon found an old football that was lying there under a bench all alone and dirty. Alfred was still talking about the movie.
"Imagine if you had some ghost in your house who wants to harm you and your family. How can you possibly protect yourself from an enemy you can't see or touch? Wouldn't that be impossible?"
Arthur picked up the football, ignoring the dirt on it, and put it on the ground directly before his feet. In the park there stood two goals for playing football and there was also a little playground that was empty while its visitors were in school or in kindergarten. A few pigeons gathered by the bench where the football had lain and picked whatever they found interesting. The boys started playing and time passed. They also spoke about random things like the trip to Spain their Spanish class would be taking in a couple months or if hamburgers were appropriate food for breakfast. In the course of the conversation, the topics they spoke about slightly changed. And soon Arthur found himself discussing with Alfred if the boy should ask Michelle (one of the girls in their Spanish class who was hot as hell if you asked Alfred, 'but not as hot as Ivan's older sister') out on a date. This was a little awkward for the Englishman for he had never been on a date before and quite frankly speaking, he was gay. Nobody knew and he planned for it to remain this way. He still tried to sound like he had experience, at least somewhat.
"Michelle is a nice girl, you should do it." He said. Alfred smiled and stopped running towards the ball that had been shot back and forth between them. Arthur stopped as well.
"You know, you never told me what kinda girl's your type." Now this was definitely awkward. Tall and strong with blond hair and blue eyes, Arthur thought. He was surprised at his own thoughts.
"I like girls with black hair who are shorter than me." He said instead. It was purely fictional. But it was alright because Alfred didn't notice.
"A girl who's even shorter than you? Dude, you'll have to look for a long time for someone like that." The American said laughing. Arthur narrowed his eyes at those words. But he was not actually offended.
Suddenly Alfred's stomach started growling.
"Urgh, I better go grab something to eat. Don't wanna starve to death." He looked at Arthur who nodded his head at the silent question and the two walked out of the park and to the next supermarket where they each bought a packaged sandwich and something to drink. Alfred had a coke and Arthur bought a tiny bottle of flavoured water for himself. Without saying anything further, it was clear that the two would spend some more time together. They ate their sandwiches and Alfred emptied his bottle of coke almost without stopping while Arthur took a few sips of his water then and again. They walked back to school so that they could take Alfred's car and drive to his house where they spent a few hours playing video games and chatting. But eventually Alfred had to bring Arthur back home. The two blonds stood on the driveway, next to the fence that surrounded the garden of Arthur's house.
"I'll come back here tonight to pick you up for the movie. Don't forget about it." The American said and smiled as he went back to his car.
"Yes. Goodbye, Alfred." Arthur opened the fence and walked to the front door when he heard the engine of Alfred's car humming. He didn't know how he should feel about all of this.
It didn't take long for Arthur's parents to come home but he didn't feel like interacting with them today. They would probably be speaking about the incident at school for the next few weeks and he didn't want to hear about it. So he went straight back to his room. The blond decided to let the demon be for the time being and settled on his bed with a book about fairies in hand. Fascinating little creatures. While he was reading, he faintly heard the sound of his parents talking in the living room. Like expected, it was about the incident. Arthur wondered if the whole student body would start to panic if a few more died. And wouldn't that be amusing to look at?
It was quarter to four in the afternoon and when Arthur looked out the window he saw the approaching thunderstorm the weather forecast had foreseen for the next couple of days. The pouring rain reminded him of something. He put his book aside and went to the bathroom to take a shower. As he was standing there under the water of the shower head, he thought back to yesterday and remembered what he'd said to Alfred when the boy asked what had happened to his umbrella.
"What if some arsehole has stolen it?" He quietly muttered to himself and his mood got sour. Surely, every single one of Gilbert's friends or the boy himself could've done it. It wouldn't be the first time they had done some petty thing to have a good laugh. Still, it was weird when he thought about it. Their bullying had gotten beyond the childish teasing a long time ago. And now, after seemingly endless hours he had spent playing hide and seek with them against his will because he didn't want to have his head flushed down the toilet, he wondered how it was possible that no one had ever found out about him being bullied. Or someone knew but didn't want to get involved in the situation.
Yes, he didn't only spent recess hiding from Francis and Alfred , but from all the seniors as well. What a messed up life. What if Alfred knows? No, he's too oblivious to ever notice.
Arthur had this type of inner monologue in his head whenever he found enough time to really think, the type where he would constantly be playing question and answer to his worries of how the people he knew would react if they were to find about about his secrets. He didn't want to be known all throughout school as the victim. His secret obsession with books about occultism was not a secret anymore and he got bullied for it. One could only imagine what they would do to him if they were to find out about him being gay. He shuddered violently. Better not think about it. What would Alfred say? He shook his head at the thought.
After a good thirty minutes, the water jet was turned off and the Englishman took a towel from the cabinet that stood next to the sink. He put on fresh clothes and went back to his room where he proceeded to read his book until it was time for dinner.
"Mum, you remember Alfred, don't you?" He asked when they sat down to eat. His mother nodded smiling and picked up her fork.
"Yes. Alfred was the nice boy who always brought you your homework when you were sick." She answered and Arthur nodded his head slowly, clearly uncomfortable. His father quietly snorted, reminded of that one time when Alfred had come to them for the first time and, when told that Arthur's father was a Scotsman, asked if he owned any skirts.
"Yes, that was him. He asked me if I could go and watch a film with him tonight. I said yes." Arthur told his mother. He was old enough and his parents knew they had no right to forbid him of something as petty as going out late in the evening or even at night. They knew their son. He was mature enough not to do something he would regret when he was older.
A couple of hours later Alfred came to pick him up in his Jeep and together they drove to the cinema that was in the middle of the town.
The town per se wasn't exactly huge but its citizens had everything they could ever possibly need within walking distance, and if one had needs that were hard to fulfill, the next bigger city wasn't that far away.
When they took their seats in the cinema hall excited about the movie, Alfred had a huge bag of popcorn in one hand and a soda in the other. Arthur had brought some nachos for himself. When the movie was half over Alfred's bag was empty and the Englishman was sure the other would start complaining any second now, but surprisingly the American stayed quiet until the end.
The movie really was 'totally awesome' like Alfred had said.
Tired but happy they exited the cinema and sat in the car. There was the faint sound of thunder in the distance but where they were, it was only raining lightly.
Alfred drove Arthur back home and the Englishman almost instantly slumped down on his bed when he came into his room.
That night the demon visited him in his dreams. At first Arthur hadn't understood why the child stood there so suddenly, directly before him in a puddle of blood that looked black in the dark. Arthur himself stood at the shore of an ocean. A few ravens flew across the sky. They were hard to see because it was the middle of the night and Arthur wondered, why aren't there any storks? Ravens didn't belong to the beaches and oceans and as he thought this, the ground beneath his feet started changing and now the sand was concrete. Arthur looked up and he saw the top of a huge Ferris wheel further in the distance. The child before him was not a child anymore, but a black German Sheppard with its eyes glowing in red and yellow. Truly, it was the two colour at the same time and Arthur thought again, if I was awake now it would be pretty weird because in reality one simply cannot have two eye colours at the same time in both eyes. This is a dream, it's not reality.
And the dog started talking to him like a human. It could've been silly but it was not. It was frightening.
"Hello Arthur. I assume you are pleased with my work." The dog said and it even moved its jaw like a human.
"Yes. I am. Thank you very much." Was all he was able to get out.
"Look at this." The dog changed forms and what now stood before Arthur made his blood freeze in his veins. It was a horrendous morph of Sadik and Ivan. Like someone had put pictures of the two into a computer program that was supposed to do exactly this with them: morph them together. It didn't fit one bit and Arthur was able to see every wound on their bodies. Or body. Two corpses melt together. There were the dozens of stab wounds that represented Ivan, and Sadik's neck was black and blue all around with his eyes removed.
Arthur almost cried out in shock. Then the dreadful thing changed forms and Arthur was surprised once again, when he saw an extremely tiny human with butterfly wings flying towards him. It was a fairy. The Englishman was in a forest now, a huge and dense forest with a clearing full of pretty flowers in front of him. The fairy sat on top of his shoulder and weighed practically nothing.
"As you probably already noticed, dear Arthur, this is only a dream. But I am not. I am real and you can touch me. You can hear me and you can see me. What I'm about to tell you know is your reality. You have no other option than to accept it. That makes it so much easier, believe me." Arthur nodded his head. He felt imprisoned in his stance and the flowers before him were sparkling in all colours. He could see this even in the complete darkness that surrounded him. He felt tired. He wanted to just lie down on the field of flowers and never wake up again. But he stood. Frozen.
"Firstly, I only killed the Turkish boy out of goodwill. Because I like you. But sadly I am not a human being. I am still a being, though not a good one. I am not an angel, I cannot be good. That is not in my nature. Secondly, because I was nice enough to kill the Russian for you I want you to return the favour. There is this one girl at your school. I don't like her. She annoys me to no end. You don't have to kill her, I know you could never do something like that. Hurt her somehow. No matter how. But I want her to cry. I do not want to see her happy and grinning like an idiot any longer." When Arthur turned his head so he was able to properly look at the tiny fairy, its eyes were pitch black without even a hint of white in them.
"You will do it Arthur, won't you? Hm? Won't you?" Its voice now sounded mocking and the blond wondered how he could ever find fairies cute. This one was awful. But he knew he had no chance of escaping the matter.
"What's her name?" He asked and the thing started grinning from ear to ear. Its little teeth were razor-sharp.
"Michelle." Suddenly Arthur felt like he was underwater. He couldn't breathe and he was cold. And then everything was black. He woke up, though it was slowly, that he opened his eyes.
His awakening as such, wasn't abruptly. It was a conscious blending from his dream to reality. He lay there in his bed and looked at his alarm. Only a few minutes after three in the morning. It was completely dark in his room and he felt the realisation of the things the 'demon' had said, slowly creeping into his mind. His fingers were shaking and he had to keep in a whimper that was about to come out of his mouth. Arthur felt like a complete fool for the first time in his life. He didn't want to do it. But he was afraid. Afraid of a little child, of a dog, of a fairy. He was afraid of the demon. Time passed while he lay there without ever moving and he felt dreadful. For the first time ever he thought about suicide.