CHAPTER 46: APOCALYPSE NOW, PART 4
As the morning sun arrives in Hillwood, the day comes to an official beginning for its occupants. Waking from a long night of sleep, much of it needed from their busy days preceding before, and some of it merely wanted for leisure or relaxation, the citizens of Hillwood all come to their feet to start a new day in one way or another; some early birds to the worm, others night owls to pick their prey later.
The city is a melting pot, and it now begins to boil over beyond a point of no return. Following many deaths of children after the escape of the Freak, the uncontrollable maniac Valiance breaking the public trust of the Hillwood Heroes, and, now, a church being torn apart from the inside out with its entire congregation dead, the city of Hillwood is beginning to come apart at the seams.
To the young woman named Sheena, her own life has found a similar fate to the city she lives in. She, too, has come apart at the seams, and all because of the massacre at the First Baptist Church of Hillwood. Though many lives were taken within, there is only one life that was lost during the events of yesterday that matters the most to her, and what effects her the most:
Eugene Horowitz, her best friend.
Harboring a deep love for him since the days of their childhood, never had she confessed this romance until recently, knowing well that he was a gay man, and would not have her in the way she desired nor be desired by him in said way. Nonetheless, this did not stop her from trying, and, despite a slow start to where she desired to be, found a bright light at the end of this tunnel; swearing to go on a date in the near future.
Just as soon as this promise was made, Eugene's life was snuffed out violently and brutally before he could fulfill said promise, let alone fulfill any promises of a full relationship. Thrown into a despair and depression unlike anything this once-peaceful soul had felt in her life, Sheena decided to put it to an end.
Slitting her wrists in her bathtub, her body was drained out of all blood, leaving her corpse to wallow in its self-made grave of water and blood running cold as the body within was. Being left undiscovered for several hours, the body was left just as Sheena herself felt in her last moments of life: Alone and unloved.
But, though these may be the emotions she felt, they are far from reality. There are people who care about her, and one of said people is at her door to check on her. Returning from her departure the previous night, Nadine knocked on the door to Sheena's apartment, awaiting an answer.
However, after a few seconds of waiting, Nadine finds no answer, leading her to knock again and call from the other side.
"Sheena? Hey, Sheena! It's Nadine!" Nadine shouted.
After another brief period of waiting, Nadine still found no answer, leading her to knock louder.
"SHEENA! IT'S ME! OPEN UP ALREADY!" Nadine called.
Still getting no reply from her efforts, Nadine resorted to less polite manner of entering her apartment. Lifting up the doormat, she picked up a spare key hiding underneath it, using it to unlock and open the door. After discreetly placing the key back in its hiding place, Nadine entered the apartment.
"Sheena? Hey, Sheena, sorry to burst in, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. You're not-" Nadine began to say.
Stopping in the midst of her sentence, Nadine witnessed the mess made about the apartment, looking upon pieces of broken glass and numerous other housewares scattered across the floor, as well as the presence of blood and shreds of pubic hair on the ground, much to her confusion and concern.
"Sheena? Please tell me you didn't do something crazy. I don't wanna have to be the one to break the bad news to the guys if you did. Tell me you're okay, please. Just say something, anything at all, please." Nadine called.
Continuing to search about the apartment for her missing friend, her search ran short by making her way to the bathroom, reaching the final place in which the absent Sheena could be found. Slowly opening the door to the bathroom, Nadine at last found the person of her current interest, only to find that her discovery of Sheena was far too late.
Watching the lifeless body of Sheena float in the water, Nadine held her hand to her face in shock, holding back a gasp and tears.
The home base of the Hillwood Heroes in regarded as a fortress of solitude for the aforementioned defenders of the city; a hall of justice fit for these watchmen of society that protect Hillwood and all its inhabitants. Their duties of being Hillwood Heroes give each member a sense of pride and grandeur, seeing these emotions reflected in their second home of this home base.
Today, however, it does not serve the purpose of instilling pride and strength into its members. Instead, the base becomes a funeral service for two of its fallen members: Eugene and Sheena. Each Hero gives their own respects to pay to the deceased, some giving a few words of reflection, some offering physical gifts of flowers, but none spared in the pain of loss that is felt today.
The one who bares some of the most is Nadine, blaming herself for not tending to Sheena in a desperate hour like her last. Bashing her fists against Sheena's mural, she curses both herself and her lost friend, unable to forgive herself for neglecting a woman and leaving her to die.
"Damn it, Sheena, why'd you have to go and do that?! Why'd you do that, you idiot?! I told you it'd be better!" Nadine said.
Nadine's incessant shouting and beating was put to a quick stop by Arnold, holding her fists from hitting the mural again.
"Nadine, stop. Please, don't blame yourself for this." Arnold said.
"Why shouldn't I? Take a look in my head, see what's there. I left her there when I knew she wasn't okay. I should've stayed there, but I didn't. I left her there, I left her there and-" Nadine began to say.
Still unable to forgive herself for her misdeed, Arnold held her tight, letting her release her tears on him.
"Damn it... Her and Eugene were my friends when I lost Rhonda... They took me right in... and this is how I repay them?! Why can't I do anything right?! I'm just a stupid girl with nothing but stupid bugs!" Nadine shouted.
Pushing herself off of Arnold, Nadine stepped away to be alone; sulking in her own guilt, while the rest of the Hillwood Heroes continued to pay their respects.
Eventually, the service of the two deceased heroes comes to an end, with Arnold Shortman the last to pay his respects, laying his hands on the murals of Eugene and Sheena in shame. Remembering how he had allowed Eugene to take on the task of bringing Lila to justice, he feels as if his permission here had sealed his fate.
And as such, Arnold lets out a tear, one that the Green Eye would not dare cry if he let himself be seen by others.
But he is seen by two others who enter the base to pay their own respects: Gerald and Phoebe. Pushing Phoebe inside on her wheelchair, Gerald led her to the murals of their fallen friends; their journey putting them face-to-face with Arnold Shortman, standing between them and their ability to pay their respects.
With so much bad blood spilled between Arnold and Gerald, the two cannot bring themselves to speak to one another, so Phoebe is the first to speak.
"The guys told us about what happened with Eugene and Sheena. We stopped to pay our respects." Phoebe said.
"Yeah. We were on our way out of this city for good, but we had to stop here first. Eugene and Sheena were our friends, you know." Gerald added.
Though Gerald's words were obviously meant to provoke, Phoebe placed a calming hand on his, urging him to stop, but Arnold seemed unaffected by the comment. Stepping out of the way of the murals, Arnold granted the two access to pay their respects, walking to a corner to be alone.
"I know." Arnold said.
As the couple gave their last respects to the deceased Eugene and Sheena, Phoebe could not help but take pity on Arnold for the rift in the relationship that there was left between him and Gerald, leading her to lend her some of her own support. Turning her wheelchair and pushing it towards him, Phoebe gently laid a hand on his back.
"Hey Arnold? Please don't be so mad at Gerald. You know he just-" Phoebe tried to say.
"He just blames me for what happened to you and hates me for it." Arnold said.
"I don't blame you. I don't hate you. And you shouldn't hate yourself like this."
"Why shouldn't I? I'm supposed to be the person who sets things right, just like I've always done, so why am I failing at that now? Why is everything falling apart around me?"
"Arnold, don't be like that. You're just one man; you can't handle everybody's problems all at once. This isn't like back in middle school where whatever petty little thing we let get between each other broke us apart just for us to come right back together. We're adults now. We don't heal or forget that easy. Even if we should."
"But you know what kind of man I am after San Lorenzo. What my purpose is. What I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to be more than a man because people need me to be."
"You're only hurting yourself by doing this. You care too much."
"Care 'too much'? How can anyone care too much?"
Unable to answer his question, Phoebe went quiet at last. Deep within thought at the question, she tried to reciprocate an answer to such a profound inquiry, but, with all her mind put into the thought, she could give no answer. Instead, all she can reply with is a somber sigh.
Finishing his own final respects, Gerald gripped at Phoebe's wheelchair, giving Arnold only a brief, harsh glimpse.
"Are we ready to go, Pheebs?" Gerald asked.
Taking Arnold by the hand and leading him down, Phoebe gave him a light kiss on the cheek, lightly running a hand over his face.
"Hey Arnold. Just don't give up, okay? Take care of yourself, and take care of Helga, too." Phoebe said.
With Phoebe sharing her final goodbyes, Gerald began escorting her out of the base of the Hillwood Heroes; never to be seen again by any of said members, and especially not Arnold Shortman. To watch two important people leave his life for good, and another to depart from this life forever, is no easy task even for a man who can perform the most extraordinary tasks.
For a man who can feel exactly what anyone else feels, all he wishes for now is that someone could feel like he does.
With a total of 4 members of the Hillwood Heroes gone, the remaining members are left at Nadine/Insect Girl, Sid/Bad Boy, Stinky/Dirt Man, Harold/Star of David, and Buckley/Valiance; the manpower of their team nearly cut in half over just a few days. Having only one place to look for answers, all of them turn to Arnold for guidance.
"Hey Arnold? What are we supposed ta do now?" Stinky asked.
"Yeah, we, like, lost almost everybody, man. How are we gonna stop the Freak?" Harold asked.
Having no answer to the question, Arnold halted in his words; his lips pursed in anxiety and unmoving. Looking to the other members of the team surrounding him, he had hoped that one would speak an answer in his place, but did not find a single Hero raise their voice or speak.
Feeling just as fearful as many of his peers were, he still could not find a solution to this problem he was stuck in: All his teammates looking to him for answers as their leader, but unable to provide any sort of guidance himself. Trying to retract himself from the situation, Arnold looked to the floor and at his surroundings, trying to make everyone else invisible in his mind.
One would not let herself be made invisible, as Sheena put a hand on Arnold's shoulder, forcing him to give an answer.
"Arnold. We don't know what to do now. You gotta tell us what to do." Nadine said.
"I... I... Uh... I..." Arnold stammered.
Feeling overwhelmed by this encounter, Arnold turned away and began running out the door, needing to escape from the ordeal. Knowing him for more strength than displayed here, the reaction of Arnold Shortman brought confusion to the Hillwood Heroes, with a growing sense of despair.
"What-? He left? Why did he just leave?" Sid asked.
"I don't know. What we can hope for right now is that he manages to pull himself together soon enough." Valiance said.
Running away from his stressful place of the base of the Hillwood Heroes, Arnold Shortman returns to the Sunset Arms Boarding House to find a more calming place that he can still call home. Stepping back in the front door of the building, he let out a sigh of relief in hopes that he will find peace in solitude.
The instant he steps inside the building, however, he does not. At this time of day, the foyer would be at a dead silence; the tenants all away at work or whatever sort of vices take hold of their limited time on Earth. Here, the sounds of concerned talks of adults fill the halls, with the Shortmans and the tenants all speaking together in a heated discussion.
To add to the noise assaulting him at the senses, his sense of touch found a startling boost of stimulation as well. Looking down to see the cause, he found both William and Annie, the two children of the Grossmans, clinging to him out of fear. Kneeling down to the scared children, Arnold listened carefully for their concerns.
"Mr. Arnold, Mr. Arnold!" William and Annie said.
"What? What is it, kids? What's wrong?" Arnold asked.
"The grown-ups are all acting scared about what's going on." William said.
"They were really upset about that horrible shooting at the church." Annie said.
"Oh, that. I know, guys, that was pretty scary, but you don't have to be so scared. You're safe here at home. Nobody's gonna hurt us here." Arnold said.
"But the grown-ups said that we won't be safe here for much longer. They're talking about leaving the boarding house." Annie said.
"What?"
"Mom and dad made us stay home from school because they wanted us here where we wouldn't get hurt. They're starting to look for somewhere else to live." William said.
Taking just a brief glimpse into the hearts and minds of the adults at the discussion circle, Arnold found that the children were indeed correct in their sharing of information. The tenants all shared a collective sense of dread and fear from recent events in Hillwood, wishing to flee the city, where Miles and Stella shared concerns for the safety of their tenants, trying to urge them to stay.
Regardless of whatever arguments were made in between one another in the discussion circle, Arnold did not wish for the children to hear the talks, deciding to take them somewhere that their minds would not be focused here.
"Mr. Arnold, you don't think we'll really have to go, do you?" Annie asked.
"Of course not. I'm sure your mom and dad'll all work it out. But don't you guys worry about that right now. How about we go play a game instead? We can just play and have fun and not have to focus on grown-up stuff. Sounds good?" Arnold asked.
"Sure." William and Annie said.
As Arnold led the young William and Annie away from the conversation to put their minds towards something more innocent and calming for the spirited youngsters, the aforementioned discussions continued on between the adults, with little change of the Overton window in either direction.
Knowing that the tenants would be safe under the watch of the Green Eye, Miles and Stella urged the tenants to stay, while still trying to keep the secret identity of their son a secret. To try to convince their tenants not to leave under those parameters was a challenge, and not one that they would easily accomplish.
"Look, I understand everybody's frustrations. None of us are happy that the Freak's out there, and that he's already hurt people." Miles said.
"None of us are 'happy' about it? Of course not, Miles. None of us feel safe in this city anymore." Herbie said.
"Our kids go to P.S. 118, you know. After I saw those poor kids were eaten alive, I couldn't help but worry that it could've been Will and Annie with them." Goldie said.
"We're parents, too, Goldie. We understand that better than you realize." Stella said.
"That doesn't change the fact that we have to get out of this city, if not for the safety of our family. We're already making some arrangements for a hotel out of town."
"And I'm heading back to my parents' place. Aaliyah's coming with me." Chris said.
"I'm heading to stay with my grandson. He's wanted me out of this place forever, guess he finally gets his way." Barry said.
"Okay, okay, everyone settle down, please. We get it; things are dangerous right now. You're right. You have every reason to want to leave. But you're all forgetting something. We have someone protecting us, someone who'll make sure we don't. The Green Eye. He's beaten this guy before, and he can beat him again." Miles said.
Not content with Miles' reasoning, the tenants shared a collective groan.
"The Green Eye? C'mon, Miles, I thought that you would have the good grace to see through him at this point?" Herbie asked.
Trying to hold back a sense of offense, Miles asked for clarification under a heavily restrained face.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Miles asked.
"You know. He's been keeping that Valiance nutjob on his side, even letting him beat up protesters." Herbie said.
"He tried to stop that, and you know it."
"That doesn't change the fact that he's still keeping him around. What kind of hero keeps psychopaths like him around when he knows he's capable of things like that?"
"You saw what the Freak's capable of, he's probably got no choice but to keep him around if he wants to beat him. He just needs all the help he can get." Stella said.
"So is he gonna beat the Freak soon, or does he need more help to do it? You can't have it both ways."
"Yeah. What are you two, anyway, his lawyers?" Chris asked.
"True. You are acting very defensive of him." Barry said.
Trying to think of an excuse to brush away their concerns over their son, needing to preserve his identity, Miles and Stella thought for a quick answer.
"Well... He saved our son's fiancee. I guess we owe him our trust a little." Miles said.
"But, really, won't you please just stay until the end of the week? You've already paid it off." Stella asked.
"Forget it. You can keep our money, but we're going somewhere safe where our kids won't get hurt. We've all discussed this, and we're all in agreement. We leave tonight." Herbie said.
"Like he said. I'm glad Helga's safe and sound, but, I don't care how much you trust the Green Eye; we don't anymore. Heck, I wouldn't even trust him around our kids at this point." Goldie said.
Ironic is reality for the Grossmans, although they will never realize it, but the aforementioned superhero, if off-duty at the moment, does just that. Rather than go on any daring activities as the nightstalking avenger known as the Green Eye, Arnold Shortman indulges instead in activities of fun with William and Annie in the Grossmans' apartment.
Playing a scavenged board game of Guess, the 3 eagerly try to resolve the murder mystery of the death of the host of the mansion, with some closer to the end conclusion than others. Having deduced a good number of possibilities, Annie prepared to make her accusation.
"I got it. Mr. Maroon did it in the garage with the screwdriver." Annie said.
Taking the correct answer from the dossier, Arnold checked to confirm if her accusation matched with it, finding the answer to be a...
"Yes! You got it!" Arnold said.
While Annie cheered in victory, William groaned in anger, frustrated over losing the game. Turning away from his playmates, William crossed his arms and frowned, shaking his head over his loss. Trying to give him reassurance again, Arnold reached over and pulled him in for a talk.
"Hey, William, don't be so angry. It's just a game." Arnold said.
"Yeah, but I don't like losing. It really sucks." William said.
"Well, nobody likes to lose, but we can't always win at everything. You did your best to win, and that's all you should keep in mind."
"Yeah, but I don't like losing to my little sister. She's always such a kumquat."
"Oh, yeah? Well, you act like a real jerk!" Annie said.
"Guys, guys, don't be like that! You're brother and sister, you shouldn't be fighting like that." Arnold said.
"Why not?" William asked.
"Yeah, why not?" Annie asked.
"Because you're family. You guys might not always agree with each other, but you should always love and care about each other." Arnold said.
"Well, yeah, I do care about her, but she's still a meanie-head." William said.
"Not as much as you are sometimes." Annie said.
"Guys, guys. Remember what I said?" Arnold asked.
William and Annie stood in silence for a brief moment their eyes looking back at one another and occasionally darting to the floor.
"Fine. I'm sorry. You're pretty good at this game." William said.
"I'm sorry, too. You're not too bad at the game, either." Annie said.
"There we go. Now why don't you give each other a hug?" Arnold asked.
The brother and sister hugged each other in apology as Arnold asked, with Arnold himself joining in to congratulate their efforts.
Watching in from the corner of the door, Helga took notice of the approach Arnold was taking with the younger Grossmans, observing his skills on handling children. Taking note of his gentle approach and emphasis on empathy and kindness, she pondered over how he would bare as a father, with a child of his own.
As Arnold took notice of her, Helga put the thought aside, looking at him as he looked back at her. Breaking off the hug with the kids, Arnold stood up and gave them gentle pats on their shoulders, bidding them both a temporary goodbye to speak to his fiancee alone.
"Hey, guys, I've got to go talk to Helga. You have fun on your own, okay?" Arnold asked.
"Okay, Mr. Arnold." William and Annie said.
Exiting the room, Arnold followed Helga down the hall and up the stairs to his room, giving them a place of privacy for their discussions.
"Listen, Helga, about last night, I-" Arnold tried to say.
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you like that. You were just trying to keep me safe. I... I saw about Eugene on the news. I'm... It was horrible. I'm sorry. He was my friend, too." Helga said.
"Sheena's gone, too."
"What?"
"She was in love with him, even though he was gay, and she killed herself last night after he died. They're both dead."
"Oh, my god..."
"We had a small service for them at the base. Nothing special; just a couple of murals. We'll hold some real funerals for them both soon, I'll let you know when that is."
Feeling his own guilt start to get the better of him, Arnold sat down on the bed, placing his head into his hands.
"You know, I... I sent Eugene into the church. I was gonna go myself to stop Lila, but I got caught up with that protest downtown. It was because of me that he got killed and Sheena died, too. If I'd just gone down there myself-" Arnold began to say.
"No, no, no, Arnold, don't beat yourself up like that. That's not your fault, and you know that." Helga said.
"Why wouldn't it be my fault? Look at everything that's happened since I came home. Curly turned into a maniac, Rhonda died, Rhonda came back and raped me, a crime lord's put the town under martial law, Phoebe's paralyzed, Gerald hates me, they're both gone, and, now, Eugene and Sheena are dead. All I've been doing so far since I've been home is ruin more things."
"And what about how many people you've saved? Even if you blamed yourself for all that, don't you think you've done more good than harm? This city was in absolute ruin after you left. We needed you. I needed you."
"Tell that to Eugene and Sheena. I mean, I sent him there to stop Lila, and she wasn't even there."
"She wasn't?"
"No. She's sided herself with Curly. That little boy, Joey, she killed his mother and he tried to go to the police, but the church said they'd never heard of him or Lila before. It was all just a stupid waste. Helga, I... I've already lost half the team at this point, I don't know if I can keep going on like this."
"What are you-? You're not gonna quit, are you?"
"I can't just quit... but I don't know how I'm gonna keep this up any longer. Almost everyone's gone. With Curly having my powers now, it's not going to be easy fighting him. I don't know what I'm going to do."
Sulking in frustration and guilt, Arnold's head swam through a sea of confused thought, in search of some kind of answer to his dilemma, but only managing to sink further and deeper into the darker waters of despair and hopelessness. Always offering herself to comfort her fiancee, Helga held Arnold tightly in her arms, trying to keep his mind off negative thoughts and onto her instead.
Though the idea did not bring her pleasure, Helga once again brought up her previous suggestion, hoping that this time she would bring him to reason.
"I know you're not going to like this suggestion... but I can still help you." Helga said.
"Helga, no, I-" Arnold began to say.
"Arnold, listen to me. Like you said, you have half a team to work with. You simply don't have enough people to do what you need to do. You might not want me on your team, but you need me on it. You need help. I'm already at risk with Curly out there. I might as well be right by your side, where it's safer, and we can both fight him."
Just as dissatisfied with the suggestion as it was made before, Arnold let out a sigh of frustration, knowing that he had no argument this time around. With little manpower left within the Hillwood Heroes and even less choice of recruitment options, Arnold finally gave a reluctant nod, agreeing to Helga's proposal.
"Okay. You're right." Arnold said.
"I don't want to do this just for fun, Arnold. I'm doing this because I want to help you." Helga said.
"I know. I'll have to get you some training soon, but I can try to-"
Before Arnold could finish his sentence, the phone began to ring, taking away his focus on the discussion and prompting his attention to the call. Picking up the phone from its charger, Arnold put it to his ear to answer it. Though not expecting too much from this particular call, what the following conversation entails is the last possible thing he could hope to expect.
"Hello?" Arnold asked.
"Hello, I'm looking for a Ms. Helga Pataki?" A woman asked.
"Who's calling?"
"This is Seattle Women's Health, we were calling for feedback on a recent appointment that Ms. Pataki had with us."
"What, uh, what kind of appointment?"
"My records show here that Ms. Pataki entered for a pregnancy test. Is she present at the moment?"
Hearing the words of the other end mention a pregnancy test, Arnold slowly lowered his hand in silence; his face staring a thousand miles ahead.
"Hello? Hello?" The caller asked.
Hanging up the phone, Arnold placed it back on the charger, soon returning to his place on the bed as he laid his head into his hands. Unknowing of the conversation that occurred on the phone, Helga pried for information, wishing to know the reason behind his shocked face.
"Hey Arnold? What's wrong? Who was that?" Helga asked.
"A women's health clinic in Seattle... they told me you took a pregnancy test?" Arnold asked.
Unprepared for a question regarding her secret visit, Helga quickly went over the situation in her head, trying to think of the best answer to give.
"I wanted to tell you later when this all blew over." Helga said.
"Oh... Oh, my god..." Arnold whimpered.
"What? Arnold, don't be so upset. Look, we've probably got a few hours before the guys need you, why don't you just give me some training now before we head out?"
Astounded by the suggestion that Helga was proposing, Arnold stood up from the bed; clenching his hair in a molotov cocktail of shock, anger, and frustration.
"WHAT?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Arnold shouted.
"Wh-What?! What'd I say?" Helga asked.
"YOU'RE PREGNANT, AND YOU WANT TO GO RISK YOUR LIFE AND OUR CHILD'S LIFE AGAINST THAT PSYCHOPATH?! ARE YOU INSANE, HELGA?! HAVE YOU COMPLETELY LOST IT?!"
Pausing once again in her speech, Helga quickly analyzed the best response to give to this question, speaking it as soon as it came to her.
"I-I'm not that far along, I'll be fine, really. I'd be more at risk alone then by your-" Helga began to say.
"Jesus Christ, Helga, are you even listening to yourself? You don't have a say in this anymore. That's our child you're putting at risk. Yours... and mine." Arnold said.
"Please, Arnold. I thought that this would convince you to teach me to protect myself better, help to try to make a better city for both of us to-"
"No, Helga! Absolutely not! I don't want any risk coming to you now! Not now!"
"I'm already at risk every day with Curly out there, trying to kill me again! So what if I'm cooped up here? He knows I'm here, and he can kill me anytime he likes. I might as well join you out on the streets."
"Tell me something, Helga. Did you pick up horrible parenting skills from your own parents, or is it just a Pataki trait? I want to make sure that I'm not putting my child in bad hands if that's going to be your approach."
Appalled by the awful and uncalled for comparison that her fiancee had made towards her, Helga's attempt at a reasonable approach devolved to pure rage.
"What the fuck did you just say to me, football head?" Helga asked.
"You heard me." Arnold said.
"Obviously I didn't. It sounded like you just compared me to those sacks of horseshit known as Bob and Miriam, but I'm going to give you exactly 5 seconds to correct me of that statement."
"Or what? Are you going to cry and write in your stupid diaries like a little girl?"
"No. If that's the game you wanna play, then I'll say this: Who are you to criticize my relationship with my parents? After all those years of trying to get them out of San Lorenzo, you up and ran away from them and from home when your grandparents died. I hate my parents, but I have my reasons for it. Your parents love you, but you don't love them. You're just a self-centered little child, and you never loved them."
Filled to the brink of rage from Helga's comment, Arnold clenched his fists and gnashed his teeth together; a sign of negative emotion never before seen from a man so typically calm as him. As unexpected and as rare as this sight was, it was nothing compared to the response that followed.
Lifting one of his hands in the air, Arnold slapped Helga in the face, with a force strong enough to send her back onto the bed and left with a large red mark across her face. Never raising a malicious hand against Helga in his entire life, Arnold instantly realized the error of his mistake, leaning the same striking hand forward in hopes it would be received in its compassionate manner.
"H-Helga, I'm... I'm sorry, I... I don't know why I-" Arnold began to say.
Returning Arnold's strike with a full retaliation of her own, Helga threw a punch right to his face, making sure that her punch was not pulled. Arnold noticed this firsthand; shaking off a temporary blackout from her punch and holding back a nosebleed from her hard hit.
Rushing right back up to her, Arnold found another punch coming his way, stopping it by quickly grabbing Helga's dropping fist. Trying to land her other fist into him, Helga found her other fist grabbed before it could make its landing, leaving both of her hands caught in his.
Struggling to free herself out of his hold, Helga kicked at Arnold's legs, only to find her hopes were to no avail.
"Let me go, you son of a bitch, let me go!" Helga shouted.
To put an end to her kicks and the rest of her attacks, Arnold threw Helga to the floor, continuing his hold on her arms and pinning her to the floor. Helga still struggled back against his hold, still making her last attempts to free herself, but still could not do so, left only to look at Arnold's scowling face looking back at hers.
After each party had caught their breath, Arnold and Helga brought their enraged faces to a kiss, quickly leading to its next conclusion as each removed the necessary clothing. With Helga exposed for him, Arnold madly and angrily thrusted away into her, taking out all his rage on her and tainting the pure act they had once shared.
To them, this is longer an act of making love.
To put it in no grandiloquent terms, this is simply a hatefuck.
Being done out of hatred rather than love, the act finishes much quicker, and leaves the two not any closer together. Helga had gained her own pleasure from the act, and wished to spend her time in Arnold's arms, recuperating herself from the violence that had unfolded earlier.
Arnold, however, did not share that same passion. Pushing Helga off and walking up to the sunroof, he left her alone to wallow in what qualified here as an afterglow. Feeling shame and anger upon herself for continuing the rift that existed within their relationship, Helga curled up into a fetal position on her place on the floor, wrapping her arms around herself and crying.
Likewise, Arnold felt much shame and anger as well, fleeing the rooftop of the Sunset Arms to find a place to vent his anger elsewhere. Running far away from the place he calls his home, he eventually led himself to a distant rooftop; away from any more familiars or prying eyes.
Alone to vent himself at last, Arnold screamed aloud, punching a brick wall with all his speed and rage. Each strike against the wall took out tears of flesh out of his hands, with his healing factor healing said cuts as fast as they came, only to reopen again with each repeated and enraged strike.
Having his fill of punching the wall, Arnold took to pacing himself in circles, now attempting to vent himself through briskly walking in place until he had relieved himself of his anger. Once again, this solution did not suffice, leaving him to grab at his hair and scream in rage again, cursing at the sky and eventually falling to the ground and crying.
Grabbing his knees and rocking back and forth on the ground, Arnold cried in a fit of rage and humiliation; unable to compose himself after the scene prior.
"Oh, goddammit... What's happening to me?! Why can't I get anything right? How could I just hit Helga like-" Arnold cried.
Unable to finish his last sentence, Arnold buried his head into his knees, trying to shut himself off from the rest of the world. Turning his empathic mind back on itself, he made himself an island in this one moment in time, focusing on nothing more than himself and his own head.
Eventually, this manages to calm him down, and his crying came to a stop. Taking his next breaths deep and slow, Arnold placed himself into a position of meditation; taking time to further calm himself and shed away his rage and frustrations, making himself a moment of peace when all around him is chaos.
However, that one sweet moment of peace does not last, with an intrusion of his mind making itself present.
Hey Arnold. It said.
Gaining a glimpse of the one who had been bringing this chaos to his life with the whisper of the voice, Arnold immediately recognized its owner.
"Curly." Arnold said.
You looking for me? Come and get me. The Freak said.
The sound of his voice came with yet another glimpse; one that gave him an image of a small concrete park sandwiched in between a series of apartment complexes, with the Freak standing alone in the center. With the Freak seeming to look right at Arnold, his glowing red eyes piercing through to his mind, he gave a smile to his enemy.
This proposal was no doubt a manner of a trap set by the Freak, but such a concern was not Arnold's at his moment of emotional turmoil he was in. All he cared about was having something or someone to have his troubles beaten into, and the opportunity had presented itself.
Rising from his place on the rooftop, Arnold set out to pursue the Freak.