Best Served Cold

The Talk - Arthur

            It was a short walk around back of the bluff. As soon as they got there, Vivi settled down on a flat-topped rocky outcropping. Lewis sat Arthur down and scooted out of his body to sit next to him, skeletal again. Arthur immediately hit the ground, folding up onto his side. He tilted his head so he could face the group, but remained laying down. Mystery stayed put in Arthur’s arms.

            “Skeleton?” Vivi gestured curiously.

            “Looking normal costs me more energy.” Lewis answered.

            “So,” Vivi crossed her arms, “You know what I do and don’t know now. Who’s first?”

            Lewis’ eyes shifted over to Arthur, and Arthur groaned. He had the feeling he would have to be the first one.

            “M-me, I guess.” He shut his eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. “V-vivi… just don’t…” don’t hate me, please. “…don’t fly off the h-handle.”

            He sucked in a long breath and blurted, “I… I really like you Vivi.”

            “Duh Arthur, I like you too.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s what best friends—oh.” Her eyes widened. “….oh…”

            Arthur fixed his eyes on Mystery’s fur, unable to meet her eyes. “F-for a long time. But you a-and Lewis… and you were s-so happy. And s-so was he… but I w-wasn’t. And th-that night we went in the cave and got split up. There were just two paths Vivi. One up, one down.” He took a deep breath. “Lewis leaned over the edge to see. And for just a second… I wondered if I would get a chance with you if I pushed him.

            “I threw it out a second later, I never would have done it. But I felt something change. My arm moved by itself, shoving Lewis…” Arthur’s body shuddered, and Mystery whined at the tight grip on him. “And I watched him fall on those… and it was going to take the rest of me, whatever took my arm was spreading. And suddenly this giant beast is standing over me, and my arm is hanging from its mouth and I don’t have my arm anymore… but I had control back.”

            “So I ran to find you, and you had this blank look on your face. I phoned for help and got us to the opening before I passed out. I woke up in the hospital and you were still catatonic. They told me they’d recovered Lewis’ body…” his voice trailed off for a few seconds.

            “What was I supposed to tell the police? I was possessed, I would never have done that to my best friend? What was I supposed to tell you? Sorry Viv, I was jealous and because of that your boyfriend’s dead, can we make out now?” He shook his head. “I just… I tried to move on. But then the mansion… and the second his hair lit up I knew… and I knew he’d come back for me. And I knew I deserved it.”

            “So yeah, I sat there waiting for him to come get me, but you had to come crash that plan. I would have tried to pick up and move on again, but Lewis came and told me I had one week, then vanished. So I tried to put things in order, get one more ghost bust in, and do whatever a dead man walking would do. He…” He glanced at Lewis. “He visited a couple of times. I wasn’t always in the best frame of mind afterward.”

            Lewis was staring down at the sands.

            “You know the r-rest. Wrote my will, visited Lewis’ grave to spill my guts and apologize. I knew you’d b-be back after I kicked you out, so I left for the cave. I didn’t know why I wanted to go to the cave, I thought it was just poetic justice. But when I got there, I’d just settled in when my arm started acting up.” He gestured at his robotic limb. “I pulled it off, and suddenly I was being dragged across the cave, but the force was coming from inside the stub of my arm. I think… I think Mystery didn’t get all of whatever it was. I think there was some leftover, hiding out. It dragged me to the bones of my arm, and when I touched it that thing took over me completely.”

            “Then it was in my mind and it knew my thoughts and I knew its thoughts, and this all happened because it was bound to the cave, and could only leave if innocent blood that was full of shame got spilled in revenge. Well, if I didn’t really push Lewis myself I’m technically innocent. But it’s my fault that thing got in, so I was ashamed, and whatever part of that demon thing leftover in me had been making sure I stewed on it all year. The last part was supposed to happen when Lewis came back to kill me.

            “So then Lewis came and—”

            “Don’t skip over that part, Arthur.” Lewis interrupted.

            Arthur fell silent a moment, knowing which part Lewis was referring to. “Lew, if you want to tell that part you can, but I don’t want t-t-to say it. It’s b-b-bad enough I have to have th-that in my head forever.”

            Lewis inclined his head in acknowledgement and let it pass.

            “Lewis came, and I was s-sure he was going to kill me. But he tricked the demon out of me and took over instead. The d-demon knew it had lost cause L-lewis knew my thoughts and my memories, so it tried to kill us. It almost did, but then Mystery…” He hugged the dog tightly to his chest. “I s-still don’t know what you are bud… but thank you.”

            Mystery licked his chin gently.

            “I th-think you know the rest Vivi.”

            “Why didn’t you say something, Arthur?” Vivi’s voice was low. “I could have helped. We could have talked to Lewis together.”

            Arthur finally raised his eyes. “Viv, he almost didn’t stop at the mansion. If he’d killed you because he was trying to get to me, and you got in the way again… I couldn’t survive that too.”

            “You weren’t planning on surviving anyway.” She shifted, but sighed in acknowledgement. “But I get you didn’t want to take anyone else down with you. You’re still a moron. But I get where you’re coming from.” She stood, walking over and crouching down. “But Arthur?”

            “Y-yes?”

            “If you ever pull the ‘I’ve-got-this-and-I-don’t-need-to-tell-Vivi-what’s-going-on-cause-I’m-going-to-die-soon-anyway’ deal again I’ll personally tie you into a big orange ribbon to hang on my Christmas tree. Understand?”

            A small smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “Und-derstood.”

            “Good.” She stood, dusting her skirt off before returning to the rock. “Okay Lew.” Her voice was a little less steady. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

……………………………

Note: Yeah, it’s kind of a rehash, but I really think each character needs to say what happened to them, even Arthur. WE know what happened, but the other three don’t have all the pieces, and this is them laying all their puzzle pieces out. And yes, the chapter title lives on. The characters belong to MysteryBen and Artsy.