The Devil and the Dead: Chapter Ten
Based on @ectoimp‘s absorbing AU sketches (Most of which can be found here!).
I’m giving credit and kudos to @arthur-tristan-kingsmen, @phantoms-lair, @answrs and of course, the illustrious @ectoimpfor some of the discourse which guided the idea from vague AU to the story that does not want to stop running through my head.
Summary: At first all he knew was darkness— rage, pain and the ultimate sting of betrayal. And then Lewis opened his eyes…
I am so very sorry this took so long everyone. *hides in shame*
Back to Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten: Quiet; For Just a Moment
The sudden, agonized scream shattered the silence and the stalemate between Vivi and Mystery, but in an unexpected way.
“Lewis!” Arthur, galvanized into utterly forgetting his terror of Mystery, leapt forward, wings folded tight and moving with fluidity like he hadn’t since before the cave. He dodged Mystery’s lashing paw, oblivious to the fact that the paw rebounded off of air a good distance away from his body. All he could focus on was getting to Lewis.
Mystery roared, a sound of thwarted rage, and doubled back to leap in front of him again. His eyes behind his glasses were white-rimmed and more than half mad. “𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖕𝖆𝖘𝖘, 𝖉𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖓!” he bellowed, blue-white foxfire curling around his jaws.
Arthur dug in his claws and darted left, even his atavistic fear of Mystery barely registering over the need to reach Lewis, who was still screaming, an unrelenting shriek of agony. He had to help him!
“Mystery!” Vivi’s voice was uncharacteristically shrill. “Listen to what you’re doing! You’re hurting someone! This isn’t right!”
Mystery sprang to intercept Arthur again, claws digging furrows in the dirt. “𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖉𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖉, 𝓥𝖎𝖛𝖎!” he raged, trying to keep Arthur from darting past him.
Vivi leapt into the fray, jumping between Mystery and Arthur, arms spread. “No, I don’t! Mystery, look at what you’re doing!” There were tears on her cheeks. “I’m scared, Mystery, and right now, it’s you I’m scared of! You’re not the Mystery I know!”
Mystery’s head shot up, ears flicking forward in shock and eyes dilating.”Vivi—?” Then he shook his head. “No. You’ll forgive me when you understand.” One of his tails darted forward, to coil around Vivi and push her out of the way— at least that was the intention. The tail stopped short before it could reach her and could get no closer.
Mystery rocked back on his haunches like he’d been punched, pupils shrinking to pinpoints. All his tails writhed forward, stretching to try and grasp her. None of them came close, stopped in thin air and unable to get any nearer.
Horror filled his vulpine features. “𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝒚𝖔𝖚 𝕯𝕺𝓝𝕰!?” His howl was heartbreaking in its raw terror. Unthinkingly, he darted for her, until he hit the invisible barrier with a strangled “Kii-yiiiii—” and went down on his rump, glasses knocked askew and eyes wild with unreasoning fear. He scrambled to his feet and lunged for Vivi again, slamming against the air with an audible thud. He rocked back and then strained forward, like he could overcome whatever was keeping him away from her with sheer force of will. It didn’t work and he circled her frantically, unable to come any closer to her. Arthur barely had the time to dodge out of his way.
Mystery reared back in his hind legs and threw his full weight into a headbutt against the force holding him away from his human. It stunned him for a second, and he staggered back, shaking his head.
Arthur took the opportunity to dash past him, desperate to reach the church and Lewis...
At least until he heard Mystery make an agonized bellow and then another thud. Hesitating, Arthur turned to look back.
Mystery was repeatedly headbutting the too solid air between him and Vivi, grunting with each impact. Vivi was backing away, her pale face streaked with tears, until she backed into the rusted iron gate and could go no further. “Mystery, stop, please!” she begged.
Mystery clawed at the air and rammed his head into it again. Arthur could see a bright trickle of blood on his white fur, streaking from his nostrils. Vivi had said the ward wouldn’t hurt him but he hadn’t thought he would hurt himself on it! Mystery was going to kill himself at this rate!
Casting a longing glance at the church where Lewis had to be suffering, Arthur made the hardest decision he’d ever made. Hands shaking with terror, he tugged the leather thong up and over his head. It caught on one of his horns and he yanked until it broke, the little ward dropping from his fingers to the ground. Swallowing harshly, he leapt onto Mystery’s back, his weight making Mystery’s legs buckle with a surprised grunt. He knew it wouldn’t last long, Mystery was huge and could easily recover, but he had to make him stop harming himself.
“Vivi, gimme a hand here!” He shouted as Mystery started to buck beneath him, trying to get his feet back under him. Mystery was snarling, spittle flying from his jaws and all Arthur could think about was the half-lucid memory of Mystery lunging for him up on that cliff, but he only clung tighter, shaking hard.
Something bright blue cut across his vision and a shirtless Vivi flung herself onto Mystery’s head, bearing it to the ground. Her sweater was stretched over Mystery’s face and she used the arms to tie it down over his eyes. She crouched on his neck, wearing only her bra and skirt, and used a loop of her scarf to clamp Mystery’s jaws shut. Her face was still stained with tears but fiercely determined, and she leaned all her weight onto Mystery’s head to keep it pinned. Mystery flailed under their weight until Vivi lunged her head down and clamped her teeth hard on the base of his ear, the hand not holding the scarf digging fingers hard into the scruff of his neck.
Mystery froze with a muffled yip, every muscle locked up, and his tails standing straight out in shock.
Arthur looked up into Vivi’s face, set in a grimace. Without moving more than her eyes, she glanced down at the rest of her scarf trailing on the ground and then at Mystery’s feet.
Arthur took the hint and grabbed the long scarf, practically mummifying Mystery’s legs in the material and yanking a hard knot in it. It wouldn’t hold Mystery for long, not as strong as he was, but he hoped Vivi knew what she was doing. Mystery was starting to come out of his state of paralyzed shock, his tails starting to thrash along the ground.
Vivi released her hold on Mystery’s ear and slid sideways off of Mystery’s neck, arms wrapped around his head and pulling it close to her chest. She kept one leg looped over his neck and pinned that as well, even as the rest of his body began to thrash against the restraints. Without a word, she jerked her head toward the church, keeping Mystery’s blindfolded head held tight against her chest. She began talking quietly in japanese, her tone low and soothing.
Arthur scrambled awkwardly to his feet and wavered for a moment, undecided. Lewis needed him, but Vivi...
Something thumped against his foot and he looked down to see Vivi had kicked a ward at him. Not his, because the thong wasn’t snapped, so it had to be her own. She had to have taken it off to help subdue the more than half-mad Mystery. She glared at it and then up at him pointedly, but never stopped talking softly to the creature she held in a modified headlock.
Arthur’s wings drooped, but he did as directed, snatching up the ward and with one last worried look— he turned away and ran for the church, where the screams at last had tapered into silence, trying not to trip over his own feet. He was afraid of what he might find, but he would do anything he could to protect Lewis. Lewis had looked after him all the time since the cave, now it was his turn to return the favor. He scrambled for the shattered remnants of the door, hoping against hope he wasn’t too late.
******
For an agonized eternity, everything was pain. It wasn’t the familiar heat of a burn, or the agony of his own death, or even the sundering, tearing sensation of his locket being stolen; but some unholy combination of all of those, coupled with what felt like his mind being ripped to shreds. Lewis struggled against the flood of agony, but it swept him away in its unstoppable tide. It felt like he was coming apart at the seams and some distant, still-sane part of his mind wondered if this is what it felt like for a ghost to die.
It felt like bits of him were being flayed away, leaving him raw and bleeding; a torment of millions of tiny wounds bleeding his essence away. He was being torn asunder, scorched red and raw. He tried to hold on to anything, his love for Vivi and Arthur and Mama and Papa, his anger at his own death, even just the color of the sky, but they were all being ripped away and whirled into the maelstrom that was his entire existence now.
— And then, like the hurricane, there was a moment of utter silence, the eye of the storm holding the tiniest seed of what he had been in a formless limbo. There was nothing left to hold onto, so he did not try, only existing for a timeless moment, without thought or feeling, without pain or love, just being.
Then slowly, like the gentle plinking of raindrops on a utterly still pond, small things came trickling back. A name, one given by loving hearts to a nameless, lost child. The color of someone’s eyes, a clear, guileless blue, that darkened like stormclouds when they were angry. A shy half-smile, nervous and fleeting, but still speaking of an open, caring heart and humor in everything. Three hands, all of different sizes, but tiny compared to his own, reaching out for him with love and utter trust. A soft, puppyish bark and laughter that went from high yips to the chuckle of someone much older. Two people, whose names he could not find, but whose faces he would never forget. Another face, gruff and no-nonsense, but just as caring in their own slightly unpolished way.
Like the opening of a floodgate, more came pouring back, names, and places, love, and laughter, memories made soft by the passing of time, joy and wonder. There was sorrow too, to temper those joys into something worth holding onto; names and faces of those who had touched his life and left it, those who had come into his heart and stayed, a veritable swarm of things and feelings that made him who he was.
He remembered everything, even to his own death in the cave at the hands of the being that had taken over Arthur, but the things that came with those memories, the burning rage at what he’d thought was betrayal by his best friend, the sheer anguish and pain, the numbing terror of knowing Vivi had seen what had happened to him, were all faded, at a distance, like something from an old story once told to him. He still remembered what it was to die, still remembered everything with merciless clarity, but the bitter, ruinously poisonous emotional overtones were gone, blown away like so much ash.
The hate, the helpless fury at his own death and Arthur’s unwanted and agonizing transformation, the bitter thought that all that he was— was rage given form; only a shade of what he had been— those were not there any longer. He could pull up those things and look at them in the cold light of day, but they were not his be-all and end-all of existence.
In a blinding moment of clarity, he understood. The fire Mystery had called up had not harmed his locket because it could not; the anchor was the best of him, his love for Vivi, Arthur and family. But he had been reborn in the moment of his death; at the thought of the perceived betrayal, as a being of rage and hate. He only thought it had been snuffed out at the sight of Arthur’s body, but it had still been there, like a poison lurking beneath the surface.
It had been a poison, a corruption... and as was its purpose, the purifying flame had found that taint and burned it ruthlessly out. It had hurt because coming back the way he had, so very much of his essence, his soul, had been trapped in that corruption, those toxic feelings that eventually would have stripped away all that was Lewis, leaving behind a spirit that knew only how to hate. Not even having an anchor would have saved him from that fate, not if he had remained as he was.
But because of his friends, he had retained what he was, the humanity, and with the searing flames of the purifying fire, he was free and knew, even without anyone to tell him, that if he chose, he could leave the world of the living and go on to what awaited him. As he had been, he would never have had that option.
And that’s what it was, a choice. He could move on— or he could stay— and become what he had tried to be for Arthur, a guardian, a protector. And really, there wasn’t any choice at all.
With that thought, the church came back into focus around him and he realized he was still standing next to the altar, his locket resting in the palm of his hand. The flames still flickered around him, but they no longer hurt, just a warm tingle across his senses.
Right about then, Arthur stumbled through the ruined door, looking a little worse for the wear. His eyes were frantic as he scanned the interior of the church, lit only by the flames around Lewis now, because the light outside was fading into twilight.
“Lewis?!” Arthur called, his thin face full of fear. “Big guy, c’mon, you have to be okay... I can’t be too late, not after everything!” He was looking directly at the flames, and for a moment, his words made no sense, until Lewis realized he was looking right through him...
Lewis looked down at his hand, realizing it was as translucent as the flames flickering around it. Oh... oops.
He concentrated on becoming visible, and the flames went out, leaving them in near-dark until Lewis called up several of his little will o’wisp lights.
“Lewis!” Arthur exclaimed delightedly, and then made a strangled sound and went a sort of muddy green, his version of a blush, covering his eyes with one hand.
“Arthur!” Lewis floated toward his friend, so glad he was alright. A little roughed up, but no real damage. Vivi’s charm must have worked.
Arthur flailed at him with his wings. “Pants! They are a thing!” He backed up a step with a strangled squawk. “A thing you seem to have lost between when you left and now!” His voice scaled up, and he flapped the hand not covering his eyes wildly in Lewis’ direction. “How does a ghost even lose his pants, Dude?!”
Startled, Lewis looked down at a very definitely bare chest and arms... and lower. He made a mortified squeak and tried to cover himself with his hands.
Arthur turned his back, tail switching like a cat’s, the tuft of fur at the end standing out like a bottlebrush. “What is it with everybody taking their damn clothes off today? Is it like something in the air?”
Lewis could feel the blush creeping down his very bare shoulders and chest. Utterly abashed, Lewis tried desperately to figure out how to put his clothes back on... at least until something else Arthur had said got through his distraction. “E-everybody?”
Arthur’s tail lashed so hard it sent up a plume of dust. The murky blush was spreading over his shoulders too, and he scraped at the stone floor with his toe-talons.
“Arthur?”
Arthur deliberately kept his back turned to Lewis. “Um— yeah, kinda. Mystery went a little cuckoo and Vivi sorta took off her sweater to blindfold him.”
“Is she alright?” Lewis knew her wards were effective, but he still couldn’t help but worry.
“She— yeah, she’s okay, big guy. Are you? I mean, we heard you screaming out there!”
Lewis made sure he had figured out clothing before answering. “You can turn around now, Artie, I’m decent.”
Arthur kept his hand in front of his face as he did, peering out from between his fingers before heaving a sigh of relief and lowering it. He didn’t stop blushing, though, as he examined Lewis like he might be able to see something wrong with him.
“I’m okay,” Lewis reassured. He really was. “It hurt me, yeah, but— I think it helped me too.”
“Helped you how?” Arthur ventured a step closer, reaching out to touch Lewis’s arm, as if he were reassuring himself that Lewis was still there, still real.
Lewis covered Arthur’s fingers with his own, squeezing lightly. “It’s a long story, but I promise I’ll tell you. First, though, we need to check on Vivi.”
“R-right,” Arthur stumbled over the word, fingers tightening on Lewis’s arm for a second. He averted his face and suddenly lunged forward to hug Lewis tightly. He was trembling.
“Artie?” Lewis wrapped his arms around the slighter figure. “Hey, what is it?”
Arthur had buried his face in Lewis's chest, and didn’t look up. “Nothing. Just— just glad you’re st— okay.”
Lewis understood what Arthur had been thinking, and smoothed a hand over his hair. “I’m still here, Arthur. Not leaving you or Vivi, ever.”
Arthur made a small sound and nodded against Lewis’s chest, but just continued to cling for a moment, wings curling around Lewis and tail winding around his calf.
In spite of his concern for Vivi, Lewis was just content to hold Arthur, let him feel he was there. His locket beat steadily where it was pressed between them and Arthur slowly relaxed, an inch at a time.
Finally, Arthur sniffed a little and pushed away slowly. “Sorry.’ His lashes were damp.
Lewis cupped his cheek. “Nothing to be sorry for. I’m only sorry it scared you.”
Arthur shrugged, a deliberately careless motion, but still leaned his head into Lewis’s touch. “Yeah, well, it can join the crowd. There’s a lot of things that scare me.”
“You shush,” Lewis scolded affectionately. “You’re brave when and where it counts.”
Arthur snorted, but didn’t try to argue, simply content to stand there in Lewis’s loose hold.
The moment was broken by a warbling trill, as the deadbeat Lewis had sent away before he dared the fire swooped back in and looped wildly around them, trilling excitedly.
Arthur glanced up at it, a small half-hearted smile curving his lips up. “Guess we better go see if Vivi needs any help with Mystery.”
A/N: The title of the chapter comes from the song “Hurricane” from the soundtrack of Hamilton: An American Musical
