Arthur's Book: Failure

Feeling Blu

Dark clouds loomed like oily smog clinging to the sunlight, showering the world with icy rain, blown around by bone-chilling winds. No one was outside on this particular day; the streets empty, even the busiest. Not for the cold, or for the wind, but for the overwhelming feeling of ill that seems to have been set upon all the town.

Arthur and Atarah were sitting on his couch watching television on this particular day, when Blu appeared from his room, distressed and sodden with sweat; most of his body visible through his thin dress shirt, and his chest visibly moving in the quick rhythm that was his heart racing and his breathing heavy.

"I need... my doctor." Blu gagged, stepping forward. Arthur stood to heed his call when Blu fell to his knees and clenched his chest; his entire body folding in on itself.

Arthur began to run to Blu's aid when his head shot up, revealing his eyes to be entirely black. Blacker than coal, blacker than oil, blacker than... no, Arthur thought, not black. They were dark, and Arthur knew that darkness well.

Atarah stood and quickly placed herself behind Arthur, gripping the cross around her neck. "It's a demon!" She screamed. "Kill it!"

"You're right," Arthur said calmly. "I should kill it." He said pointedly at the monster in front of him.

The demon chuckled, his smile reaching far beyond what Blu's face should've allowed. "Please, you know you can't kill all of me." It raised its arm at Arthur and slowly closed it's hand, speaking in a strange, echoey whisper, from which Atarah dawned no meaning; only an incurable cold from within.

Arthur grunted in pain and covered his eyes with his forearm. It's efforts clearly fruitless, it lowered it's arm and it's smile faded. "Well, no matter; I don't need it any more."

"Need it for what?" Arthur asked urgently, tears welled in his eyes.

"Why aren't you killing the demon?" Atarah yelled at Arthur.

It snapped it's head to Atarah. "Demon? Is that what I am to you?" It questioned pointedly. "And if so, why? Because I am born of shadow?" It asked itself. "Perhaps... but as are you."

Arthur continued to observe the being in front of him attentively.

It raised its eyebrows. "You don't know?"

"Know what?" She stuttered, clenching to Arthur's shirt to prevent her falling over, but keeping her face stern.

"Where we come from holds no meaning!" Arthur snapped. "Only what we make of ourselves dictates-"

"Is this what your lord tells you? Pleads to you that you are important because you are different?" Its grin changed to a screwed up face of regretful hatred. "Imagine what he told us? Imagine how quickly he threw us away when from us a light was born? Think of how he treated you when you came from between the two."

Arthur pulled a blade, much too big for his pocket, from behind his back and brandished it at the thing inside Blu.

It showed no sign of fear, but it held its tongue from what it was clearly moments from saying.

"Fine, if you won't ask... I've come to plead."

"Innocence?"

"Plead for help, you little-" Arthur twirled the blade in his hand.

"I need help..."

"With what?"

"The creatures that I have borne..." It sighed, a look of pure loathing appearing in its eyes. "The light has seduced them."

Atarah, struck by the shock of what was happening, turned to Arthur. "So... you've lost? Arthur, that's good, right?"

But as she turned to Arthur and saw his eyes frozen in fear, and when she turned back to Blu's body, it gave her a look of awe; the look of awe one would give after a completely stupid statement.

She peered at Arthur with an inquisitive stare and he turned slowly to face her, and with the utmost earnestness stated, "Oh... Fuck."