Chapter Text
The car grumbled slightly as it road through the long road. The sky had just cleared and there was a slight breeze outside. The car entered a large driveway with hedges amongst the sides, each with its own unique design. It pulled up in front of a large house, "We're here!" Alfred said as he stopped the car.
"Right lad," said Allistor as he undid his seatbelt and opened his car door, "Now all we have to do is get our bags, go inside and pick our rooms. Dylan, wake up the wee lad if ya don't mind"
"Of course. Arthur wake up we're finally here" Dylan said as he shook his younger brother slightly. Arthur opened his eyes and got up, he saw Alfred and his brother already outside talking about something. He looked to his right to see his brother Sean opening the door and Dylan undoing his seatbelt and following after Sean. Arthur also took off his seatbelt and opened the door, walked out and went to the back of the car. He grabbed his bag and put it on his back, his brothers took out the luggage and placed it on the rocky ground, he took his two bags and walked over to the front door of the house where he was greeted with Alfred unlocking the door. His brothers also came along with their bags and waited for the 20 year old to unlock the door.
"There we go" he said as he opened the doors as if they were some kind of large gates. Each one of them stepped inside and was amazed by the enormous rooms- even though they were only in the front room. "Woah dude, this place looks... awesome!" Alfred finally said. Allistor moved closer to his youngest brother and nudged him slightly, he mentioned something about how this place was larger than Arthur's love life, to which Arthur responded to by gaping at the house, he was still in amazement at how vast the house was.
The five of them had just moved into a new house in Maryland, US. Sean was the oldest out of the five, the second was his younger brother Allistor, next is Dylan. Alfred was the youngest and Arthur was the second youngest. All of them were brothers except for Alfred who was Arthur's best friend ever since high school.
"Right, I guess we should go explore!" Sean mentioned, "And while we're at it we should probably choose our rooms" Dylan added, the others agreed and started walking around the house. Alfred went to the kitchen- as expected- and Sean went to the living room with Allistor. Dylan and Arthur went to go look upstairs and see their new rooms. Arthur was in amazement at his room, the bed was at the side- it was a canopy bed with a white duvet, pillow, blanket and curtains, made out of oak wood- there was also no wallpaper, on the left-hand side there was a large wooden wardrobe and next to it was a wooden desk with a mirror above it. A large window was located at the wall in front of Arthur. Dylan's room looked similar, same wooden floor, same no wallpaper, same type of bed (just not a canopy), same wooden wardrobe and desk with mirror, just the furniture was in different locations. The bed was in front of the window and the wardrobe was next to the door, with the desk at the right-hand side.
Alfred looked around the kitchen. There was a yellow and white diamond patterned wallpaper with a tiled floor. A small, round table, big enough for a family of five, was sitting at the right side of the room, four wooden chairs surrounding it, "What," Alfred started, "W-why is the table like big enough for like a mom, dad, two kids and a dog meanwhile there's only like enough chairs for the mom, dad and kids... poor doggo being left out," he closed his eyes in respect for the dog. Alfred loved dogs, he always wanted one as a pet but his parents never let him.
"But mom! I'm old enough, I can already dress myself up by myself! I'm a big boy now!"
"Alfred, your only six, you still need to wait a bit,"
"But that's gonna take foreveeeerrrrr!"
"Look honey, when you grow up a bit more we'll think about it. I mean, it's a very big responsibility. You'd have to take it out for walks, play with it, feed it, wash it, you're just too young"
"But that's not fair!"
"Dang, wish mom and dad would have let me get one. I'd probably call him something cool like Ace or Hunter!" he sighed looking at the table. He turned around and saw the sliding door at the window, strange for such and old house, "This house is like, a hundred years old and has such modern features, dude cool!". He continued to look at the room and it's stove, oven, fridge, sink and other kitchen equipment.
He walked a bit closer into the room and turned to look at the wall opposite the stove, shelves and the rest of the large kitchen machines. There were three pictures with round frames on them, one had a smiling brown haired boy with closed eyes and a single strand of hair strangely sticking out of the right of his head. He had white skin and was wearing a grey suit with a blue tie. Another picture was of another boy who look similar to the first one, but he wasn't smiling, his eyes were open and the strand of hair was on the other side of his head. He had what appeared to be olive green eyes and was slightly more tanned than the other one. He was also wearing a grey suit but slightly darker and with a red tie. The last frame was more of a painting and had a really tanned boy with chocolate brown hair and emerald green eyes. He had a slightly angry look on his face and seemed to be wearing one of those Spanish black and red bullfighting outfits. Strange, Alfred thought, the two similar boys look like they're from about the 90's or maybe younger meanwhile the Spaniard looks from like, umm... when bullfighting was popular, I guess.
"Woah, this place is big!" Sean said as he walked around the living room. The room had a sideboard table left of the door, pushed against the wall with a houseplant next to it. In the middle of the room was the couch and two diagonally placed chairs on each side with a coffee table in front. A TV was sitting opposite the couch and at the left-hand side sat another couch with another one opposite it with a coffee table in the middle. A fireplace sat beside them with a small picture on it.
Allistor moved closer to the fireplace to take a closer look at the picture frame, "Strange... I wonder who this is..." He narrowed his eyes at the picture. It was a picture of a young boy with spiky blonde hair. He looks Scandinavian, Allistor thought to himself. The boy seemed to have Scandinavian features, which was the thing to lead Allistor to thinking he was Nordic, like blonde hair, blue eyes and seemed tall, at least in Allistor's book. He was wearing some sort of folk outfit and had a friendly look on his face. At the other side of the room was a bookcase and draw opposite to it. A large window was on the wall in front of Sean and had a patio outside.
"Hey wanna go see the garden?" Sean turned around to look at his brother. Allistor also turned to see Sean pointing his finger to the glass door, "No thanks, I think I'll stay here and look around a bit more. I mean who knows, maybe this place has some hidden secret," He said mocking Arthur, "Like ghosts!" He grabbed one of the white blanket that was covering the furniture and threw it over his head, "Wooo! I am the ghost of the Swedish hiker who died here!"
"Ahhh! I'm so scared!" Sean chuckled. Arthur loved paranormal activities and was obsessed with magic, almost his whole life was circled around the supernatural. His favorite games were Dungeons and Dragons and Magic of the Gathering and his favorite books were Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia and Alice in Wonderland. He would practice magic since he was five.
"And now, I will make this coin, disappear!"
"Amazing sweetie!"
"Why don't you pull a "wabbit" out of yer' hat, eh?"
"Ok! ... Abra-kadabra! Ta-dah! A rabbit!"
"Ya' mean that old piece of cloth?"
"Allistor, be nice to your brother,"
"Do I have to?"
"C'mon leave the twerp alone,"
When he grew up, Arthur wanted to be either a magician or police officer, that's why he was trying to get into UCLA or Stanford University to study any of the subjects that would help him in becoming one. So I assume you can guess that Arthur loved the idea of moving into an old, Victorian home.
Arthur walked up to the cabinet. A strange pedestal stood hidden next to it in the corner. He opened the white cabinet to find a crown, "I wonder what a plastic crown is doing here," he said, "Maybe the last owners had a kid who just forgot to take it," He brushed the thought off and grabbed the crown. "Maybe now I can really pretend to a princess!" He said to himself as he went to go put it on his bed. He put down the crown and walked over to the pedestal and moved it into view. He placed the crown on top of it, "King Aengus is now dead, long live the new, King Arthur!" he said, pretending to be at a coronation. He picked up the crown, " Long live the King, indeed!" he slowly placed it on his head.
"HEY!" an unfamiliar voice came from next to him. He quickly looked right to see a man with shoulder length, silky, blonde hair, a stubble beard and aristocratic yellow clothes, "How dare you touch mon precious crown Jules!" The man appeared to have quite a thick French accent but Arthur could still make out what he was saying. They stared at each other.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHH!" They both screamed in unison, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?"
"MON? MORE LIKE WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?"
Arthur grabbed a green and yellow lamp that was sitting on the bedside table (which for some reason was standing in front of the window instead). He held it as if it was a baseball bat, "I HAVE A LAMP AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!" He screamed, "I'M WARNING YOU!".
"I'M SORRY, BRITISH BOY, BUT THIS IS THE ROOM OF MON, AND SURELY YOU MUST KNOW WHO I AM!" The man shouted back. Arthur stared at him and blinked. Who was this strange man and what was he doing in Arthur's room? And why was he French!? Each of these were questions that were circling in Arthur's head, but one stood out specifically: How did he get here? It was one thing for him to claim the room was his but how on Earth did he just randomly appear? Did he just waltz on in here or was maybe hiding under the bed. Either way, he was not welcome here, and Arthur knew it.
Perhaps it's time practice my war cry, he thought. He held tighter onto the lamp and ran towards the man as he screamed. The man shut his eyes and covered his head.
Arthur hit him.
Arthur opened his eyes in a state of shock as the lamp had fallen through the man's head as he fell through him aswell.
"Wh-what?-"
He continued trying to hit him, only to no success.
The man stared at him blankly.
"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO HIT MOI! THE DISRESPECT"
"BEGONE EVIL SPIRIT! AGHHHHH!"
"WAIT WAIT WAIT!"
Arthur opened his eyes to see that the man's head had fallen off.
"Ugh great, now I have to put it back on again thank you very much" The man said and Arthur looked down at the floor trembling as he looked at the man's severed head on the floor. The man's body picked it up and placed it back onto it and tightened it. Arthur stood in shock as he had just witnessed a man's head come off.
"I-I-I" he stuttered. The man mocked him slightly and Arthur tried hitting him again, once again unsuccessfully.
The man looked at Arthur in disappointment, "Vissez-Le, I can't be bothered to deal with peasants once again" He said.
Arthur, who had had his eyes closed, had now opened them to find that the man had disappeared. He looked around his room in confusion and fear.
"C-COME OUT AND FACE ME LIKE A R-REAL MAN!" He said trying to strike fear into the man's heart, but he was terrified aswell.
He turned around to look at the window, his brows furrowed but you could still see the fear in his eyes. Suddenly, the sound of multiple footsteps was heard going up the stairs. Arthur turned to his door. It swung open to reveal the four other boys who lived with him.
"WHO'S HURTING MY LITTLE BROTHER!?" The second eldest, Allistor said, hoping to beat someone up. The other three were behind him and each holding something to use as a weapon, apart from Sean who had his fists raised and in a fighting stance just like Allistor. The boys looked around to see Arthur holding the lamp defensively.
"Who, is hurting my little brother?" Allistor repeated.
"Uhmm... well," Arthur looked in front of him confused, "No... one?" He asked.
"Oh..." The four boys standing in the doorway had now dropped their guard, "Al...right..." Allistor said.
The four boys had now left and Allistor quickly told him to be careful. Arthur waved them goodbye as Sean closed the door.
Something was off about this house, who was this man? Why was he in Arthur's room? And why was he French? All these questions pondered around his mind, and Arthur was determined to find out ...