MISFIT

Chapter 10: What We Wouldn't Do For The People We Care About

Love powers everything. Even if we may not know it, the very fact is love controls all that we do. For all the choices we make the people we care about are affected no matter how small or insignificant you think it is.

Arthur Paragon saw the hard cold truth of that as he once again faced the man in white. While Arthur had been trying to be better, the man in white stalked everyone he loved and used them to put him in his place.

Now he shut himself away hearing every so often on the news that didn't know when to shut up about the murders that were starting up again and in full force. As much as it pained Arthur to listen to every victim claimed by some heartless fiend, what was he to do?

He had two choices, risk it all to stop a madman or leave well enough alone to keep everything he held most dear. Love makes our choices for us and Arthur knew it better than anyone.

Days went by as Arthur pushed through the grind of school and the repercussions of his outburst the other day against Elliot. At home things weren't any better with his brothers barely talking to him and his parents having no idea what's been going on all this time.

Fear, anger, and sadness seemed to grip his heart like a vice as he continued to ignore all the wrong staring right in front of him, but Arthur pressed on reassuring himself that he made the right choice. You can only be naive for so long before reality comes to slap some sense into you.

Wanting to be alone with his thoughts Arthur went out for the night. Hood up, hands stuffed in his pockets, he walked along passing by the places he knew the kids at school went to every night but Arthur never thought about going in himself.

Continuing his trek down the bustling street Arthur let all of his emotions run around inside his head. He honestly couldn't decide how he should feel about everything that has happened to him up till this point. Not even the voice in his head could come up with anything to make Arthur feel like things weren't as bad as they seemed.

Before he knew it Arthur found himself on the other side of the suburbs forgetting how fast he could travel without even needing to think about it. The street lamps barely lit the darkened streets that twisted and turned so much that you could get lost if you didn't know exactly where to go.

Taking in his surroundings Arthur faced a fork in the road, and had trouble deciding which path to continue on. Having never been here before, or at least not at night and on his own, Arthur's heart made the choice for him retreating away to head back home.

Not even getting two feet away from the two paths Arthur heard something stir behind him, a scrapping noise across the pavement and huge wheezing breaths made him regretfully turn back around. What he found next could only be described as haunting.

A man limping dragging his broken, almost detached leg had emerged from the left path clutching his chest which did nothing to hide the huge slashes that cut into his body. Spotting Arthur he picked up speed hoping he had found someone to help him out of his ordeal.

"Oh thank god!" the man cried out as he reached out for Arthur collapsing from exhaustion and pain.

Arthur hesitated for a brief moment to come to this man's aid. As much as he wanted to help his track record for doing so hasn't been all that great to say the least and what could he do for this man other than call for an ambulance, and hope they got here in time to save this poor victim.

"Please help me! There's a psychopath after me and I think he's already killed my friends you got to do something."

"What-what do you want m-me to d-d-do?" Arthur stuttered wanting desperately to just run away.