Chapter Text
Simpler
The flutter and murmurs churned in the back of his mind as he swayed. Below, years away, was a dark pit swirling with green coils of fog. The contrast lazed around sharp spikes that shimmered like deep galaxies full of stars glittering under a haze of light, with no feasible origin. As if the shadows had peeled back from his eyes to reveal what he had no desire to witness. A truth so solid and cold, as only life could deliver in its most critical and indiscriminate moment.
Pain burned through his arm, embers igniting in each nerve as they were severed one by one. Arthur groaned in his daze and gripped his wrist, or tried to. He couldn’t feel his arm. And he could scarcely hear the echoes that clattered off the walls of the cavern. Arthur remembered thinking, Shit. It hurts so much. He didn’t understand why or what he had done, but he was suddenly alone.
Lewis was gone.
He was there a second ago, doing something. Arthur’s heart throbbed harder when he realized he couldn’t recall the most recent events. There was a blank spot, and then the pain. Lewis said something to him and then—
No.
“Lewis?” Arthur shrieked. “Lewis!” He dropped to his knees at the edge leaning far forward, so far he nearly lost his balance as he screamed into the vaporous waves below. “Lewis!” Arthur inhaled the dusty air, and a throaty cackle bubbled out of his lungs. He was laughing hysterically and sobbing, the sensation so awful to his mind he began shrieking until his throat felt parched and needles punctured his lungs. “For god’s sake Lewis, answer me! I said ANSWER—”
The sizzling torment pulsing up his arm vanished in an instant. It was replaced by an emptiness and a sense of falling. This can’t be happening, Arthur remembers thinking. It’s too awful. Too awful.
__
The old back road was littered with segments of advanced deterioration, but hardly any other vehicles used the out of the way roads so Arthur could steer the van onto the center stripe where the asphalt still clung together. The three of them sat in silence for the drive, Arthur vouching to drive first and get them away from the area; Vivi sat curled up against the passenger door staring out the window as the gnarled trees flashed by, an occasional bird would flash by in the early dawn. Mystery had selected to hop into the open back of the van and lay curled up, presumably just under the passenger seat. The orange sun seemed to rise quicker as the hours worked by, until it was full and yellow in the cloud burdened sky.
Sometimes Arthur would notice Vivi begin to shake, and he would glance over in time to see his friend bury her face down into the soft folds of her scarf. Arthur said nothing, he didn’t sense he was allowed to after all that had happened. True he wanted to speak with Vivi, comfort her and fulfill the promise he made to her back in the mansion. But it wasn’t the time. A part of him hoped she would forget again, forget the place of memories, solitude, and resentment. But that would be selfish, and Arthur was done with that. Selfishness had ruined them in the first place. He wondered though if he was being too hard on himself, but the recollection of months in rehab, the funeral – everything crashed back into him in a new wave of agony and he couldn’t bear it.
Vivi was mourning Lewis for the first time, Arthur reckoned, and the delicate scars that decorated his memories were torn asunder. How would they get through this? Arthur wondered. How could they go on now?
A small concern did nip at Arthur. If they left these old roads, would Vivi forget? Would it trigger her memory loss? That enigma did eat away at him.
“It’s so weird.” Vivi’s voice spooked Arthur. He had been so accustomed to the engine of the van and the rattle of rocks kicking into the undercarriage, Arthur had forgotten other sounds existed. He turned to Vivi as she gazed through the windshield at nothing, her magenta glasses murky with dry tears. “I can’t remember anything about him, but I still miss him so much. I don’t get it.”
There was shuffling in the back seat, before Mystery poked his head over the passenger seat and whimpered to Vivi.
Vivi went on, “When we were in the mansion, I remember seeing a mirror.” Vivi kneaded the end of her scarf between her fingers. “My eyes were gone, but I felt a connection to the reflection. Like, that was the real me but,” She sighed and sat for a moment. In the place of her voice the engine hummed, patiently waiting for her to resume. “I didn’t want it to be. It scared me.”
Arthur waited a few moments. It wasn’t safe but he was driving with one arm, his mechanical prosthetic lay across his lap and near useless due to the abuse it suffered. His body ached but he didn’t notice it then, probably due to his lack of sleep and high level of anxiety. The rush of adrenalin hadn’t died down yet.
“Did you wanna talk?” Arthur asked.
Vivi shook her head and adjusted herself. Mystery leaned up over the seat more to lick at the top of her blue hair, as Vivi sank down into quivers. “Not yet,” she whispered.
“Take your time,” Arthur assured. “I’m not going anywhere.” He winced inwardly after he said that. It was his fault. It was all his fault.
It was late morning when they finally left the back roads and made it into one of the small towns that still lingered at the edge of oblivion. The town was about one courthouse and one gas station, but it did have a few restaurants for the obscure or lost passer-byer. None of the group felt much want for nourishing their over taxed bodies, but Arthur stopped anyway to pick up some fries and shakes, and a burger for Mystery.
They sat on the back bumper in the large parking lot of a dollar store, picking at their food and turning eyes to the overcast sky. Anything to avoid a conversation that would designate some normality had been restored. Mystery ate about half of his burger before he lay his head down on his paws and stared up at his companions.
“Vivi,” Arthur asked. By now Arthur had put his arm in a sling and this made people stare at him more frequently than when it was just his prosthetic. He didn’t mind. “Do you think things will ever be the same between us again?” Vivi had the lid of her milkshake off and was drinking the froth down. She looked at Arthur, prompting him to continue. “I’ve tried.” He looked over when Vivi tugged at his sleeve.
“It will,” Vivi said. “You’ll see.”
Arthur lowered his head more, his metal thumb poked at one of the fries in the box he held. He could still work the fingers, and raise the arm some. Make it useful. “Will you ever be able to forgive me?”
Vivi released his sleeve and set her hand back on the cool sides of her beverage. “Ask me later.”
Arthur bobbed his head a bit, while he began rearranging the fries by shape and color with his good hand. “I love you,” he mumbled.
Vivi leaned her shoulder into his. “I love you too.” And for a while they watched the occasional car roll by on the main road through the town.
They had been done eating for an hour, merely poking at their food in a vain attempt to make it disappear rather than the valid effort of consumption. In these cases the stale french-fry tastes better than the freshly cooked order. There were a lot of orders of stale fries in the past and their presence remained consistent into the future. They watched traffic for a bit longer before Arthur decided to take the van around and fuel up, while Vivi and Mystery disposed of the trash at the stores front. Much wasn’t said, it was routine when Arthur made the comment that the van needed fuel.
With the bare minimal of necessities replenished it was back to the long roads of aimless travel, of navigation and waiting, watching and thinking. Vivi trying to come to terms with the contradiction of her thoughts, and failing; Arthur struggling to make some peace with himself, and failing harder. For a while Mystery had sat up front beside Arthur, head on Arthur’s lap and staring up at his companion over the rim of his amber glasses. When Arthur had reached a fidgety hand to Mystery’s head, Mystery had judged his presence was more of a hazard and without a sound sprang into the back of the van.
Back amongst the tall gnarled trees, it felt to Vivi like they had never stopped in the first place. The thought crept into her mind and she began to panic. Vivi thought to ask Arthur if they had stopped, had they gotten gasoline to keep them going? Had they already eaten today? The details were foggy in her head, she couldn’t decide if the town existed or not, like the mansion. The mansion in the woods was never real, but she remembered a place like it from her childhood. She and Arthur had gone to a place like it before when they were little, and Mystery too. Mystery was always with her wherever she went.
There had been someone else, hadn’t there? She couldn’t remember his face. And the mirror. Each of them had taken turns looking into the mirror, she remembered that part vividly like she was there right now. His reflection, though. What was his reflection?
The van began to sway on the road. Vivi looked over to Arthur unsettled as the van began to decelerate and pull over to a clear spot on the roadside. Dust kicked up and the heavy tires growled through the overgrown weeds as he brought them to a stop.
“I’m sorry,” Arthur said, as he slumped over the steering wheel. “I just got to stop and rest some.” Mystery poked his head over the seat to see what the problem was, and Arthur gave the dog a gentle scratch.
“That’s fine,” Vivi said. She began to feel the faint drowsiness that infected Arthur, as it made itself known to her heavy eyelids. “I’m amazed you got us this far.” She began to clamber over the seat to the back of the van, but stopped and looked back at Arthur. “Maybe…” she hesitated, and thought about the mirror. “Maybe Lewis wanted us far away from there?”
Arthur kept his eyes downcast as he fiddled with his arm in the sling. “He wanted you away from there,” he said, and shook his head. “He doesn’t give a crap about me.” Arthur turned his head up when Vivi set a hand on the back of his neck.
“I think,” Vivi began, her voice soft, “I think he was trapped for too long.” It was then that Vivi realized she had no idea how long Lewis had been gone. “And that evil entity may have gotten ahold of him like it did with you, before we ever showed up.” Mystery popped back down behind the seat as Vivi joined him in the back. She leaned over to Arthur as he sat in silence. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Arthur leaned onto the steering wheel more, the old plastic covering smelled of the hands of dozen nameless faces and cold coffee. “Yeah,” he muttered. Arthur only raised his gaze when Mystery leapt over the seat to join him. “Hey Mystery.” He closed his eyes as the dog leaned over and licked at his brow. “Thanks bud.”
The back of the van had thin carpet and was not the most comfortable place in the world, but it saved money, and more than often between the tag-team driving, they couldn’t in all sanity reach a motel before crashing - in the figurative sense – on a random back road was necessary. The sparse few electrical equipment owned by Mystery Skulls was stored on the floor where one could work while the other drove, a few side cuvees on the walls of the van held necessities such as extension cords and their travel luggage, backpacks of supplies, extra flashlights, and many other items deemed useful to long road trips and investigating the paranormal.
Viv moved some of the discarded gear bags aside as she lugged out her ruffled sleeping bag and worked to put it into some order before she lay down. The walls of the van were insulated enough to keep out the harsh temperature variations of the high noon sun, but she still pulled out another blanket in case she fought free of her cocoon. Unlike the front of the van in the tinted windshield and the sunlight crashing through, the vans back was fairly cool and comfortable. It boggled her mind how Arthur could sleep in the direct sunlight the way he did, but the way Arthur twisted about in his dead sleep she never probed him about it. Then again, Arthur was skittish when it came to the shadows and confined areas, and perhaps waking to an open window and sunlight set him to ease. Vivi did wonder though.
Before snuggling down into her warm nest, Vivi removed her glasses and set them beside the wall of the van within easy reach. In the front seat she could hear Arthur settle down, Mystery probably already curled up on his lap and resting comfortably. Vivi couldn’t remember when Mystery had begun to keep close to Arthur, but now suspected it must have had something to do with the accident. Mystery was a mysterious and intuitive creature, it didn’t come as a surprise to her anymore.
A thought came to Vivi as she edged towards dark and placid ripples in her thoughts. She raised her voice until she thought Arthur was listening. “You think it’s safe to stop here?” she mumbled.
A heavy sigh came from the front of the van. “I don’t know.”
Vivi thought about it for a moment, her eyes slipped shut and she felt her mind falling, diving into the warmth and comfort of oblivion. “Okay,” she said. Maybe she should be worried, but they had been through too much to consider further dangers rationally. If a threat was present, it could wait until they had rested for just a bit.
Those that studied dreams would argue that even when dreams are not recalled, the mind still dreams. Vivi always disagreed with that and would tell Arthur that she only counted the dreams, if they could be remembered. There were no dreams for a long time to Vivi perception, and she began to forget the day’s events, her mind wiping away the hurt and the sorrow until it was replaced with happier memoirs. Investigating a potentially dangerous case, sending in reports, contending with a tenacious spirit, unmasking a disgruntled employee, editing photography - the excitement of adventures and traveling, long road trips with friends.
Always it felt like something was missing.
Vivi opened her eyes to a wall of black. It took a few minutes for her sense of setting to upload and she recalled that they had stopped to rest and now it was dark. The sun set some time ago but that didn’t shock her, they had been beyond their limits to begin with and had kept going. Driven onward, as Vivi had coined the term. She felt moisture under the blanket her face was curled up in and knew she must’ve been dreaming something good. A sense of peace filled her, but she knew it would be a short reprieve. Unfairly short.
Though the light of the half-moon was cutting through the windshield there was little of her immediate surroundings that made sense to her, but for the bags and luggage shuffled around from her sleep. Vivi pushed herself up to shift some of the soreness out of her side, and was startled when she felt a tug at her scalp. She froze in the dark aware now that something was amiss. She couldn’t see yet but she could sense it, a presence.
Vivi let herself relax. There was Arthur or Mystery. One or both of them could have gotten tired laying in the sun and crawled into the back. But, as Vivi prodded her perimeter with her available senses, she could swear Arthur’s comatose snores were coming from the front seat.
She fumbled along the stiff carpet for her glasses and put them on. Vivi nearly screamed.
A bleached skull lay on its side mere inches from where her own head had been resting. But as Vivi examined its features and the clothing beside the inert thing, her mind began to recognize the characteristics. She reached out and placed her hand upon the sleeve that had been beside her head. It felt solid but not quite, like dry ice or thick smoke. Between the two. The moonlight glistened over ribs protruding from the side of its coat but the prone shape was dark and still, its back pressed into the wall of the van.
“I’m dreaming,” Vivi thought. “This is just a dream.” She wished it wasn’t. The disappointment of her comprehension stung, nearly the same as the many times she thought she could pull an artifact of significant interest with her from a dream and when she awoke, her hands were empty.
Vivi pulled her blanket with her as she crawled over to the silent ghost. She poked at the solid looking shoulder a few times, feeling how airless and empty they seemed. It was fascinating, but not uplifting. New tears slid down her cheeks as she curled up beside the exposed ribs, when Vivi was comfortable enough she gripped at the coat and held on tightly.
“Not this time,” Vivi whispered, “it’ll be different.” She was so tired of crying, but the pain was unbearable. She wondered, as she fell back into the deep pit of dark memories, if she would ever stop crying. Or if she would continue to resent Arthur for what he had done.
As the hours ticked away, Arthur must have fallen into the persistent nightmares he couldn’t seem to escape. Vivi recalled he had nightmares often, she couldn’t recall much of what Arthur babbled about between twitching restlessness but he was always screaming and crying. Vivi would ask if he wanted to talk about it but Arthur would always refuse, his body stiff and his good arm clutched at the wrist of his prosthetic. Now she understood why.
This was different. Arthur’s panic had escalated as if he was being skinned alive, and it awoke Vivi fully. She might have to throttle him to break him from the attack, and surprisingly it had worked in the past.
There was so much noise and confusion Vivi couldn’t get a grip of what she was looking at. A dark shape was huddled at the back seat, and beyond its sides she could just make out the wild movements of Arthur as he tried to dig his way out of the driver side door. Arthur’s cries remained little less than animalistic shrieks, but Vivi could pick out words, “kill” and “sorry,” among the rapid stammers that Arthur might have mistaken for speech.
“What’s happening?” Vivi yelped. Her question went unanswered as Arthur’s voice broke into sobs.
“Did you really think I was gone?” a low voice snarled.
There was a click, as Vivi guessed, Arthur figured out how to operate the door and was taking off. “Arthur! Wait! Who—” Vivi stopped herself as the skull swiveled back to give her a look she did not understand. The skull was vacant of identification, but for soft and distant pink light within the deep eye sockets.
Then it was gone. Through the wall of the van pursuing Arthur, if his peeling shrieks were any indication.
“I am through with you!” The voice again.
Vivi lunged to the front of the van searching for the two figures, but didn’t see them through the windshield. On the floorboard of the passenger side was Mystery huddled down, his white fur unmistakable under the silver moonlight above. Vivi ducked away to the back of the van doors, screaming, “Wait! W-wait! Lewis!” She thrust her shoulder to the door when the latch held. It sometimes got stuck if the lock wasn’t pulled up all the way. She jerked the lock up and jammed her knee to the door. “Don’t kill Arthur! Lewis! DON’T!”
She was losing her mind. This wasn’t a dream, it had never been a dream. She was cuddling up to the phantom that wanted to kill one of her few living friends, and now she had to stop vengeance incarnate. That’s what he was now, wasn’t he? Lewis? A wraith. He wouldn’t stop until Arthur was dead. Rationally speaking, he couldn’t stop. That’s what a vengeful wraith was.
“Arthur! Lew! Wait!” As Vivi tore out of the open back and stumbled across the rocky ground, she could hear the thump-thud of shoes and an eerie scraping on the van’s roof. It reminded her of the urban legend of the girl and her boyfriend out in the woods, parked under a tree.
“I swear! I didn’t do anything!” Arthur shrieked. He was already sliding to the opposite side of the vans roof, away from the fearsome spirit gliding around the side of the vehicle. It looked odd with its gaze fixed on Arthur and moving, but not rising up to catch the panic stricken victim. “It’s a misunderstanding!” Arthur said, out of Vivi’s sight. “I – juz – geh — LISTEN!”
A guttural howl came from the other side of the van, once the spirit had decided to fade through the amber walls to cut Arthur off. Vivi dashed around the backside in time to snare the sleeve of the spirits arm and shook its bleached hands away from Arthur’s leg.
“Stop it! Stop it now!” Vivi screamed. She forced herself between the vans side beneath Arthur’s feet, and the annoyed glare of the spirit, scorching focus now fixed down on her. “That’s enough,” Vivi said.
Lewis’ eye sockets blazed brighter as he lowered his arms. “I swore I would never hurt you,” he said. “But he has gone too far this time!” Lewis jabbed a finger over Vivi’s head, in the direction of Arthur. Vivi refused to lower her eyes from the spirits eye sockets.
“Tell me,” Vivi said, voice low, “what he did this time.”
Lewis, if possible, appeared disgusted as he shifted back and set his boots down on solid ground. “He took my locket,” he said, and in the same instant Arthur shrieked out:
“I didn’t take it! I didn’t!” Arthur moved his legs away from the van’s edge, and away from the ghosts reach. “I protected it. I… I’m, it was for Vivi.”
Vivi took her eyes off the hovering skull and looked back at Arthur. Arthur’s prosthetic hung pitifully across his lap and dragged when he moved his shoulder, causing more eerie scraps to come from the vans metal.
“You don’t remember? Do you?” Arthur said. He didn’t move forward, but Vivi could detect a note of disappointment and sadness in his voice. “Lew. The locket is your anchor? Isn’t it?”
Lewis’ rage had not dispersed remotely. He hissed through his jaw at the question. “That’s why you tried to take it,” he accused.
“I didn’t take it!” Arthur snapped. “You can’t remember, or maybe you won’t. But when that evil spirit possessed you it tried to… it was going to break it.” Arthur fumbled with the loose fingers of his metal arm, trying not to meet the gaze of the spirit.
Lewis leaned back, the moonlight fluttered through the vacant holes of his skull. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” He sneered, “I can’t be possessed like you.”
“But…you were,” Vivi said. Her mind went back, rewinding to the moment when Arthur was gone, when she had lost him too. What had Arthur said before that? “I wasn’t the target. It wanted Lewis.” The thing in the cave wanted souls, it stole souls in every manner possible. Humans were worthless. But….
“You really don’t remember,” Vivi said. Lewis turned his skull down to her, his aggression melted away. “You threw Arthur out a window when he tried to stop you. When he tried to save you.” Vivi took a step toward the spirit and he recoiled, skull lifting higher above his collar. “Then you attacked me.” Lewis stared at her with no note of comprehension in his bleached skull.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Lewis said. “I would never. I couldn’t.” An odd expression bloomed in the hard white features, odd and unbefitting to the recent ferocity that had burned so brightly before.
“But you did,” Vivi insisted. “Or, it tried. You resisted.”
“You’re wrong,” Lewis whispered. He retreated from Vivi a few inches and began to fade. “No. No. Never in—” Lewis regained some of his solidity when Vivi took one of his hands.
“I thought you left,” Vivi murmured. She moved her hands over his hand until she gripped his fingers in hers. “I thought you were lost.” She pulled his hand to her face and pressed his knuckles to her forehead. “Don’t leave me again.”
Lewis stared at her, eye sockets thinned, darkened, brooding. He lowered his free hand a bit as he curled his fingers tightly, and opened his fist again. Lewis did this a few times, imitating a slowly thudding heart, before he tore the captive hand from Vivi’s grasp and wrapped her up in his heavy arms. Vivi shook as she cried into his coat. “Don’t leave,” she begged. “Please, no more empty dreams. I just want you. Don’t disappear.”
Lewis lowered his skull to her head and cooed, “Shh. I’m here. See? Please don’t cry, mi arandano.” He stroked her back and adjusted his skull, nearly perched upon her head. “I never wanted you to shed tears over me.”
As silent as a shadow, Arthur slipped off the side of the van and away from the two. Arthur cradled his metal arm to his chest until he was on the gravel, over on the opposite side of the van and stationary. Without a glance back, he gave a shallow sigh and climbed into the open driver door. Mystery was still there, curled down in his spot on the passenger floorboard. Mystery raised his head as Arthur climbed over the seat and into the vans back, careful not to make the vehicle shift under his weight.
In the dark Arthur fumbled for a flashlight in one of the cuvees of the vans side. When he found it he snapped on the flashlights pale yellow beam, and began going through the bags shoved beside the vans wall. He paused, listening to the steady tempo that was muffled but present on the air. He found the bag that the sound lifted from and opened the zipper, a few bottles and a small tape recorder was in the way, but he easily located the spare shirt he had wrapped the glossy locket in before he packed it away. When he pried back the edge of the shirt, the soft sky blue sheen reflected off his face and Arthur felt the glean swell up behind his eyes. He set the flashlight aside and sat on his knees, as he held the weightless heirloom in his palms watching it gently quiver with the same pace of his own heart. Arthur wondered if it was the same for Vivi. When she was drawn to it, was it because she felt the same steady thrum in her chest?
Arthur clutched the glistening heart to his chest. He sat for all the time in the world recalling good memories, fun times. All in the past, too many generations ago; so distant they might as well have been wishful dreams he could never exist in. When Arthur looked up, a white face was peering over the backseats at him. Mystery had his head tilted in a bored manner, and gave a large yawn when Arthur noticed him.
In due time, when he felt interrupting Vivi and Lewis would not be immediately life threatening, Arthur quietly climbed out from the back of the van and hid beside the open door. He cleared his throat and tensed, ready to bolt if that may extend his short life.
Lewis’ eyes blazed dark red when he turned to acknowledge his ‘friend,’ the light of those eyes glint in Vivi’s glasses. Arthur didn’t step out immediately, but he held up his hands and the locket still wrapped partially in the shirt. The look of utter betrayal in Lewis’ gaze hurt Arthur somewhere deep.
“I didn’t know,” Arthur began. He chided himself not to look into those burning eyes, or his soul would tear free of its own body. “But I did know I couldn’t let it… break.” He felt his hands shaking as he raised the locket to Lewis, strained between protecting himself and returning the possession. “I was going to give it to Vivi, when the time was right.”
Lewis gazed on Arthur’s with tangible distrust, as if pending for the exact moment Arthur would shatter the gently thrumming heart between his bare hands. He still held Vivi in his arms, as if protecting her from the inevitable event. After a long moment of debate, Lewis raised one hand from Vivi. Arthur flinched back but held his ground; he could feel what weight the locket did have fade from his palms. Arthur shuffled forward fearful it would fall, but the locket did not. The pulsing shape swayed under the silver moonlight toward Lewis’ awaiting finger tips. With a gentle gesture of his hand, the glimmering heirloom fastened itself just above the ribs of Lewis’ suit and there it stayed.
“Thank you,” Lewis said softly, skull averted. Arthur made to speak but Lewis cut his voice off with the slight raise of his hand. “This… it’s not the time for that.”
As the night continued to drift by, the three stood in silence mulling over their personal existence and current standings, as if sentinels to the watchtower awaiting the scourge of gravediggers to the cemetery below. Vivi couldn’t bring herself to untangle from Lewis’ solid arms, and Arthur remained steady but unsure of how to approach the barrage of anguish that littered his mind.
“Did you like the mansion?” Lewis asked, at last. His sudden voice from nowhere caused Arthur to spook and knock the door with his metal arm, generating an audible and pleasant resonance. To Lewis’ question, Vivi nodded and gave a small smile. She placed her hand over the blue locket on his coat and felt the warm little pulses it produced. “It’s gone,” Lewis supplied. Vivi sniggered. “You find that funny?”
“It’s the way you delivered it,” Vivi said. Lewis made an odd sound of acknowledgement that didn’t sound right.
The gravel crunched under Arthur’s feet as he turned away. “I’m going to get some more sleep,” he said. “Lewis.” Arthur peered around the open door enough to catch the harsh smolder of the eye sockets. “Don’t…” he hesitates, faltering under the irritated gaze. “Don’t go anywhere without telling me. Please?” Arthur wouldn’t leave until the skull gave a very miniscule bob.
“You won’t leave? Will you?” Vivi asked, as she pulled back from Lewis and looked into his eye sockets. The matter that he had not restored his plush hair style throughout their most recent interactions was not lost to Vivi. Faint fire burned in his eye sockets, but the skull remained bleached. It appeared off to her, since she never saw him without the style upon his scalp and she had attributed to his weakness. After he had—
“Let’s sit for a while,” Lewis said, puncturing her thought bubble. “And enjoy the night.”
This didn’t bode well in Vivi’s mind, but she walked with Lewis to the back of the van. Arthur was silent at his usual post at the front, either asleep or pretending, but Lewis didn’t seem bothered at this point. With Vivi cradled in his arms, Lewis glides back a few feet before settling down. The effort seemed to take a toll on Lewis, but he makes no comment and is content to keep his arms folded over Vivi. Together they stare out onto the long dark road that was bypassed earlier that day. No traffic was out this late, not on these old forgotten roads. They were alone and isolated here, and for them it was safe.
The wind whistled through the bare tree branches, and Lewis made an odd whistling sound with them. For a short time Vivi tried to discern if he was making the sound on purpose, or if the wind was cutting over the exposed teeth of his skull face. Maybe to a normal person it would look morbid or frightening, but to Vivi it was Lewis. This was Lewis.
Vivi curled up more into his arms and out of the breeze, and listened to the soft thrumming of the locket. “If you leave,” she warned. “I’ll find you somehow.”
Lewis seemed to melt around her, his skull again nestling down onto her head. “Pease don’t,” he hummed.
“You can’t stop me,” Vivi said. She closed her eyes and pressed her face into the soft magenta tie he wore. “We’re you… buried in this suit?” she whispered, fingers gripping the edges of his coat. When she woke up, he would be there, she willed it. Dream or not, it didn’t matter.
“I don’t know,” Lewis admitted.
Vivi sighed. “It’s nice.” She would never let go. Even if it was one more day, or one more year, there was still time. Time enough left to reflect and remake lost memories, and turn the minutes into years and the hours into lifetimes.