Chapter 4: time

The night before had passed rather slowly because Arthur wasn't able to fall asleep again. And it was obvious, as the bags under his eyes that he now displayed, were slightly red looking and puffy. And he felt like a zombie that morning when he sat down at the dining table, a little too early. His dreams of the demon had robbed him of every bit of energy he'd previously had. It was still raining outside and Arthur wondered if it would do any harm to the flowers his mother had laid out in little flowerbeds and in clay vases all over the garden. Probably not. If anything, it would make them even prettier.

He sat there, eating his breakfast and waiting for his parents to wake up, just because he had nothing else to do. It wasn't completely dark anymore, but not quite bright yet. He hadn't set up a time or day to meet again with Alfred the evening before, so he didn't know if he would just have to spend his unwanted holidays slowly wasting away, or if he would actually be doing something again with the American. Some time later, his parents finally woke up and joined him at the dining table. Even though he'd already finished eating, he stayed there.

"What happened to your shoes, Arthur?" His mother asked him and he didn't know how to answer the question.

"I wanted to ask you about it yesterday, but then you were in your room the whole time, and by dinner, I'd already forgotten all about it." She added. Arthur knew, his shoes were not old enough to be this dirty, especially when he always avoided walking through puddles or mud, whenever he could. And they definitely were not old enough to have so many holes in them. And this must have been the reason for her concern, for his shoes had never any holes, no matter how old they might have been. He took a sip of his tea that was the only thing he hadn't finished yet and that was now cold and somehow tasteless.

"When I was walking home from school a few days ago, I took a different route out of boredom. There was an empty field I went through and I didn't notice there were bushes with thorns until I was in the middle of them. When I tried to get out, they were only stinging harder." He tried to explain, even if was completely made up. His mother slowly nodded her head.

"Be more careful the next time." Was all she said and that was it. No more questions. He was relieved.

His father had to leave for work after his breakfast and his mother would have to go to her shift in the hospital in the afternoon.

Two hours later, Arthur found himself lying on his bed, intensely thinking about what the demon had said in his dreams. He couldn't forget, even if he was awake now, and logical thinking had taken over his mind. The 'thing' had no hesitation to kill someone. Even if it were to be himself, he was sure, it would just be standing there before him, openly laughing at his agony that he would feel while dying. The demon wanted to hurt, and hurt it would. Arthur thought about Michelle. Surely, the girl Alfred liked was by far not the only one with that name, but Arthur just had this weird feeling in the back of his head that it was her. If he were to hurt her and Alfred would see it, the American wouldn't hesitate to protect her, and if it meant to hurt Arthur in turn. He had this hero complex.

The blond owned a cell phone and, while he sometimes wondered why he even had one, he had at least a few numbers saved in his contacts. But when he looked through it , there weren't any missed calls or messages, not even from Alfred who had his number.

As time went on, the rain got lighter, and soon stopped completely. Arthur forced himself to go out of bed and outside to enjoy the good weather, for it wouldn't be long until it was raining again. As he was going down the stairs, his mother appeared at the entrance to the kitchen.

"I'm going outside for a bit." Arthur said and his mother held up her hand, trying to stop him.

"Wait. I'll give you some money so you can go buy a pair of new shoes." He wanted to protest but she had already disappeared in the hallway where her coat with her purse hung on the wall. When she came back again, she had a few twenty dollar notes in her hand. He sighed and took the money that he stuck into his jacket pocket.

"Goodbye." His mother said and he went on his way.

As he was walking there on the pavement that led him further into the town, he wondered if it would be possible to postpone the thing he had to do to Michelle for a few days, or better, weeks. Whatever it was that he had to do. But then again, the demon had given him the freedom to decide. Arthur didn't really have an opinion of the girl. He didn't hate her and he certainly would never voluntarily do something to hurt her. But he had no other option. The least he could to would be to keep postponing the inevitable. The Englishman was on his way to one of the shoe shops in town where he always bought his shoes. He quickly found a pair that he liked and bought, but the shoes weren't of good enough quality that would make them worth destroying to Gilbert's friends. Arthur gave the clerk, who was alone at the shop right now, the money, and with his new possessions in a white and green bag, he walked through the streets. He had no specific destination in mind and was just taking any direction that looked interesting. He passed by a little shop that sold overpriced coffee beans when he suddenly saw a tiny human-looking being that had wings, shining brightly in the sun.

He knew the thing from his dreams the night before and he instantly froze in his steps. The little creature was flying away from him and he heard a soft laughter, as if there was someone directly next to his ear, but there was no one, and the fairy didn't make any sound. It just flew with its little wings quickly fluttering, always a few steps ahead of him, no matter how fast he walked towards it.

He followed the being to a small café where it disappeared again, and Arthur felt like an idiot. He stood there, alone, and realized he'd never been on this street before. But then he saw someone familiar in his field of vision. It was the girl Alfred liked, the girl the demon wanted to see suffering. Michelle. She was easy to recognise with her two pigtails and her light brown skin tone. She sat on a stool at a table that was only big enough for one person and drank something out of a cup while a small plate with cake was lying before her. And then, Arthur understood what the fairy wanted from him. But no, he would not do it. Forcefully, he turned away from the sight and tried to find his way back to the streets he knew. The Englishman turned to the left at the end of one building and that's when he bumped into someone. He almost fell down, but the person grabbed his arm and helped him to stand up properly again.

"Arthur?" The Englishman winced when he heard Alfred's voice. The American looked at him with concern in his blue eyes. "What are you doing here?" Arthur simply showed him his bag with the logo of the shoe shop printed on it, and the other laughed softly.

"Yeah, your shoes were not in the best condition anymore, hm?" Sometimes, he seemed to take Arthur for a fool, even if he was one himself.

"I just saw Michelle sitting in the café. The one that's behind the old record shop. Do you know where it is?" Arthur asked, and he saw the excitement sparkling in the other's eyes.

"Yes, I know where that is. Do you think I should go to her?"

"Why not? It's the perfect timing to ask her out."

At those words, Alfred seemed to gain self-confidence and the American hurriedly walked along the pavement in the direction Arthur had just explained to him.

"Bye, Artie! And thank you!" He shouted and quickened his pace. Arthur shook his head at the sight. At least the two would be happy for now. Certainly, the demon wouldn't give up so easily and the Englishman braced himself for another visit from the being. He was not looking forward to falling asleep tonight. But fortunately he still had a whole day until then.

Later that day, Arthur got a text message on his phone. It was from Alfred.

'I went to the café and sat beside her, had to take a stool from a table nearby. Then we talked for a while and I asked her if we could go on a date together someday, and she said yes. I'm so happy, Artie. We have a date on Sunday evening. Wish me good luck'

He had to smile when he read it and he felt genuinely happy for the American. But Arthur himself was not so happy, for he felt more and more nervous as the hours passed. When sleep finally crept over him, his last conscious thought was :that's it.

But nothing actually happened. When he woke up the next morning, on a Saturday, he couldn't even remember what he'd dreamed the night before. The edginess slowly ebbed away, and he could breath deeply again. He was not hungry that morning and stayed in his bed for a long time. But he didn't know for how long exactly because he'd been too lazy to take a look at his alarm clock. When he looked out his bedroom window he saw that the sun was once again covered by clouds, only today, it wasn't raining. Out of boredom he looked through his phone, searching for new messages, and there were a few from Alfred

'Some seniors tried to beat up Toris. They thought he was the one who murdered Sadik and Ivan. That's so sick! Toris is so nice. Anyway, Feliks stopped them and has actually bitten Gilbert when he was about to punch him in the face. XD Kiku told me. You know him, he knows people who know stuff.'

Arthur grew nervous once again, when he read those lines. He quickly replied.

'Did they do something to Kiku, too? I heard someone saying that it's always the quiet ones who do those kinds of things. Now I'm worried.'

Alfred had sent him the message last night, and right now he was surely still asleep. It would take a while for him to reply. Arthur was really feeling worried, but more for himself than anything else. If Gilbert and his friends were now taking matters into their own hands, he was certain, they would suspect him as well, sooner or later. It just can't not happen, he thought. Someone was bound to remember his interest in occultism and the likes, and start to make everything worse that was already messed up as it was. I'm fucked.

Two hours later, Alfred finally replied to his text message.

'No worries there. Kiku's tough. And Heracles likes him, he defended him. I have to go now, my cousin Matthew's visiting soon and we gonna go watch a ice hockey game. Bye :)'

At least Kiku was lucky. He had someone taking his side and defending him. Arthur had no such thing. He was practically all alone.

The whole day dragged on as if in slow motion, and all Arthur could remember of his dreams when he woke up on Sunday morning, was a black German Sheppard chasing him through an abandoned amusement park. It had been dreadful but short-lived. The temperature today was quite cold and he wondered where Alfred had planned on taking his date.

"Hopefully somewhere warm." Arthur muttered to himself. He yawned and stretched before he went to the bathroom where he took a long shower. The blond spent the day at the library in town, looking for books of different genres and reading a bit before he then decided if he should borrow them or not. He couldn't stop himself from also looking at the section with books about occultism. He quickly found a book that was about a group of demons that could change forms. With this book in hand, the others he had already put away because of lack of interest, he took a seat at one of the tables that stood at the window site of the huge hall.

Time quickly passed while reading and he found the book interesting, but it was just not what he'd been looking for. Almost. But it missed the questions he had in mind that were about the demon. When it was time for sunset, the library closed for that day and Arthur went back home where his mother was already preparing dinner.

"Have you had fun, Arthur?" She asked him and he nodded. From the kitchen, she couldn't see that he hadn't borrowed any books, so his hands were empty now. Until it was time for dinner, he was lying on his bed, pondering. Alfred will be having his date soon. And suddenly, he felt all alone. Not just now, but all alone in this world.

"Arthur! Dinner is ready!" He heard his mother shouting.

Later that evening he got a text from Alfred again.

'Michelle is so cute, I really like her. We went to the zoo and I took a picture of her and the penguins. I asked her if she wants to be my girlfriend and guess what she said? She said yes.:D We're a couple now.'

Arthur was happy for Alfred, he really was. But when school opened again and he was shoved against the wall behind the cafeteria first thing in the morning, he regretted having rejected Alfred's countless tries at befriending him so often. He wished he had someone to defend him now.

"It was you, am I right?" Arthur heard the obnoxious voice of Gilbert Beilschmidt who just stood there with his hands in his pants-pockets, while two jock friends of his held Arthur firmly pressed against the brick wall.

"What are you talking about, you wanker?" He asked annoyed before he realized what he had just said. The two seniors pushed him once again and his head collided with the building. It hurt a lot, and he gritted his teeth.

"Don't play stupid. We all know about your little hobby. Do you do voodoo as well? Or did you make a contract with some demon? The albino now sounded angry, but Arthur had already frozen in place. The other had hit the nail on the head.

"Those are only myths, one cannot enter into a contract with a demon when they don't even exist. I don't do voodoo, and I'm really sorry about your friends, but I have nothing to do with it." He hoped so much that the German (or Prussian as the other called himself) would be rational, at least after the tragedy that had befallen two of his friends. The two jocks at his side certainly didn't look like they had understood him. The bell rang. They had to let him go now and he quickly ran into the school building. On his way to his maths class, he saw Alfred and Michelle walking to their classes together and talking happily to each other. He took his usual seat by the window and waited for the teacher to arrive, like everyone else. But his pulse was racing. He wanted to get rid of them so badly, once and for all. Ludwig who sat two seats to his right, was more stern-looking than ever before. And generally, every single one of his classmates looked like a mix of sad, anxious and angry. They were afraid, all of them. But nobody had died while the school was closed and Arthur knew this even before the teacher arrived and informed them of what the police had found out. Not one thing. He had to hide during recess like usual but today, he felt even more on edge, and it bugged him that Alfred flirted so openly with Michelle, now that they were officially a couple. He was wearing his new shoes today. If they were to destroy them too, his mother would find out that something was wrong.

"The mood is so depressing." He winced when he heard a voice speaking. But then he remembered the person.

"Francis."

"Arthur." The Englishman knit his brows. The Frenchman sat next to him without asking and sighed like the drama queen that he was.

"It's terrible what happened. But now Gilbert's behaving like some wannabe Sherlock Holmes. I would laugh at him if it weren't so sad. He said he wants to find the murderer on his own because the police is about to make this a cold case." At those words Arthur actually felt a bit of sympathy for the albino. But then he remembered what had happened only a few hours before and he almost wanted to punch himself for his empathy.

"He also said he thinks that I'm the murderer." Arthur added with his voice dripping with sarcasm. Francis snorted.

"You really are a weird fellow, but I know you would never do something like killing a person." They spent the rest of recess in silence.