Anime High

Chapter Twenty-Two

Arthur woke up early on Tuesday morning. He bolted out of bed and ran to his window which faced Merlin's house. Usually he could see a glow from her bedroom or a hint of the light coming from her kitchen. But today, just like yesterday, there was nothing.

Nobody had seen or heard from her since Shinganshina Prison. She just seemed to have disappeared. Arthur's heart hurt with worry.

He grabbed his phone and tried her number again.

Straight to voice mail.

Groaning, he fell back onto his bed. It killed him that he didn't know where she was.

Two years ago, Merlin had a boyfriend. His name was Escanor and he was the final member of the Seven Deadly Sins. Back then, Arthur didn't think of Merlin as anything other than a friend (or that's what he believed) but when Escanor would take her somewhere, Arthur would always wait up to see her come home. His Mum used to tease him about liking Merlin and he always shut her down until she finally stoped. (The reason she stoped is because she realized she was right and didn't want to get in the way. Arthur doesn't know this)

Arthur couldn't remember a time in his life when Merlin wasn't there. He didn't really get along with his older brother Kay. So he would just play with Merlin. Back then Merlin worshiped her mother. She wanted to be just as beautiful when she grew up. Arthur has a few memories of Merlin's mother. She liked to watch the two of them play. She never said anything but smiled whenever her daughter looked at her.

The day she left Merlin ran after her. Arthur spent the whole night looking for her. He finally found her in a back alley, crying her eyes out. Merlin couldn't understand why her mother left. Her world came crashing in on her. Her father but her in therapy but it didn't help. It took two years for Merlin to come back to herself. No one is sure how she did it but they didn't complain. Soon after that, Merlin started high school and created the Seven Deadly Sins.

Arthur sat up and ran down the stairs. It was still early but he ran into his brother. Kay was a collage student but he had come home for the week.

"What are you doing?" he asked harshly.

Arthur rolled his eyes and tried to push past him but his brother stoped him.

"I asked you a question!" he snapped.

"Back off Kay!" Arthur pushed his brother away from him. "Mum told us to stop fighting."

"Mum went to work two hours ago." Kay grinned. "She got a call from the police in Central about something."

Arthur didn't say anything.

Last year his mother had been working late and Kay had hit Arthur.

In the simplest of terms, Kay hated Arthur. Kay's father had run off before he was born and he hated the fact that Arthur's dad stuck around and married their mother. Then Arthur's dad was in an accident and passed away. Kay took that opportunity to blame Arthur for everything. He did so much that Arthur had started to believe him. He started to blame himself for his dad's death. He blamed himself for making his brother so unhappy. This was back when he wanted his brother to love him.

Then Merlin found out. She was furious! It was kind of scary. She yelled at Kay for a hour then made Arthur stay at her house until his mother recovered a bit from losing her husband.

Kay still liked to cause Arthur pain, just he always made sure Merlin and his mother weren't around.

Like right now.

Arthur felt a twinge of fear but forced it down.

"Are you scared?" his brother teased.

"Let go of me." Arthur forced his voice to stop shaking.