Arthur.
About 'Arthur'[]
This Story is about a two-faced man, a deformity at birth that lead him to a hard life growing up and with the point of being mistreated by everybody he met - had no friends, no parents and had never felt what love feels like.
Although cast aside, the two-faced man named Arthur built a solid defense mentally that restricted him from offense and torture. He lived like a monster would, alone, hidden, but he had his face to talk to keeping him never 'truly' alone but forever he would be a freak - a nobody.
Arthur's other face, which looks as if it is squashed into his actual face droops moreso than the other and speaks with a slow and snotted voice. This face looks like it has one eye, but the two-faces share sight across their long face - even though they separately have vocal chords of their own. A large head containing two brains and with long and uncared for hair that scribbles oddly along the bumpy hairline. Arthur is 8.5ft tall and wears the same clothes all the time, barn-found clothes checkered and buttoned. Large denim pants that flare out unmissably and finally, size 16 clog shoes that give off the same sound that a horse would.
In a town called Seagail is where Arthur lives. Some use him as a creepy campfire story to tell in the widespread Woods that envelope the town, "Arthur comes only in the night...they say his horse-like steps is what you hear first, then? You'll hear his retarded side of his face groaning and crying in the distance. Before you know it? He's 'right' there. When he gets ahold of you, you see things unimaginable to the mind. You never survive when Arthur comes." Parents use Arthur for their children, "If you don't get to bed - you know who - will be waiting for you." and others? Well, they never made it to tell the story. The only part of the story they could tell was a story at the morgue.
One night, The Buillemont Family were winding down after a whole day of celebrating Katie's 13th birthday. Her younger brother's Lucas and Shane, 5 and 8 were already in bed. A bunkbed in their own bedroom, designed wallpaper of Toy Story characters covered the walls and the floor was scattered with lego, jigsaws, a stretch Armstrong, action men and the like. Their bunkbed had it's own section of the room which was cut off from the rest of the room by a thick black curtain. Lucas and Shane would call this their 'den' where no girls are allowed - ever. Apart from tonight, Katie will be joining them and at the dinner table previously had Lucas saying, "But they aren't the rules of the room!" It was Katie's birthday though, she knew it was a boy's room and partly herself knew that it would annoy Lucas. Shane, being a couple years older than Lucas giving him the title of 'big brother' gave him the clear. "Just for tonight Luke, we'll spray her germs out tomorrow." The family laughed at this comment, respectively.
With Mum and Dad in bed but still awake, Katie had finished brushing her teeth and set on her way to her brother's room. Stickers saying 'Do Not Enter' masked the door.
Katie knocks on..."What's the password?" Says Lucas from inside. She sighs, hesitating for a moment but then tuts, "You smell. Just let me in!"
The door opens and Shane and Lucas stand with toy machine-guns aimed at her. Katie smarmily pushes by Lucas and takes a seat on a big plushy beanbag smiling and looking at her brother's in silence...Then Shane yells 'Fire!' they both begin to shoot tiny foam discs at her, hitting her all over her body as she tumbles off of the beanbag and lands on a basket of mixed toys pouring them all over the floor. "Stop it you freaks! What is this?!" Shane crouches down and says, "You got the password wrong, sorry, rules of the room sis." She huffs and stands up, confirming her position back on the beanbag.
"Sit," Katie says as she points in front of her at the floor. "It's story time and I have a really good one. Heard it at School today. It's scary...real, scary." Her eyebrows lifted in a daring manner. Lucas looked worried, turning his gaze to Shane who didn't look much different. Katie 'pffs' and says, "What? Are you scaaaared?" Within an instant her brother's laugh awkwardly, "No! I'm definitely not scared! Luke? You?" Lucas shook his head left to right, really: he meant up and down.
"Okay wimps. Here's the story..." She stands up to switch the light off, then turns on the nightlight for a spooky glow. "The story is about a man with two-faces called Arthur. He's really big and scary and if you saw him - you'd have nightmares forever! He lives right here in Seagail, deep in the Woods in a small wooden shack." Lucas looks terrified but acts as if he isn't, Shane is listening intently. "Many search parties have looked for Arthur's shack but none have found it, they say that you CAN find it but only if you go out there at night - alone. The people that have? Never seen again..."
Katie sits back in the beanbag acting impressed, examining her nails femeninely. Shane, confused and not-so scared as he anticipated says, "That it?" Katie looms forward suddenly making Lucas bob his head back. "No. Just getting started." Lucas moaned under his breath...
"Arthur, as big as he is can sometimes be heard in the night. He clumbers through bushes rustling through them as he searches for children to capture. Much like our garden, it's never 'foxes' in the night, it's Arthur. His two scary faces aren't just scary, they are smart. Genius brains hidden by horrible faces. Arthur was born a monster for a reason: to have extra-special side affects. He can sense fear, he thrives off of it - so if you're scared at night he will definitely smell it on you and find a way into the house to get his dirty, large hands on you. He walks in big silly shoes that sound like when a horse walks, they are for his posture as his head is so huge and heavy. They say that's why it's best to go it alone in the Woods because Arthur can easily capture one victim. It's better that one person dies instead of two, but reports of a whole family going missing exists. Arthur is a monster. Loud steps or not, he's gonna get you - and tonight...I didn't wanna say it in front of Mum and Dad, but I heard them speaking privately in the kitchen and they said that Arthur is coming tonight, to the street - our street. He is hungry for a child or two. Don't be scared though and you'll be fine, it's easy. One victim was my friend Louise's little brother? She said that the sound of a horse walking past her bedroom woke her up. Then? She heard her little brother scream - apparently, all they found was his teeth and nails and wedged in his nails was long, straw-like hair. Arthur's hair."
Katie stands up from the beanbag and walks directly out of the bedroom. Lucas and Shane remain on the floor, both of them entirely horrified by the Arthur story. They don't admit it to eachother yet, but they both know they are scared. "We can't be scared, Luke..." Shane says as he stands up nervously. "If Katie isn't scared then we aren't. She's a girl and were boys. Boys don't get scared!" he says as he shrugs off the fear and steps into bed. Lucas is frightened but he can't help it. He climbs up the ladder of the bunkbed and peers over the bars, he sees Shane reach out and close the curtain of their 'den'. It blocks out the shine of the nightlight making Lucas even more uncomfortable. He pulls the covers up to his face and hides partly under them, leaving a gap to breathe that also sifted unknown small gusts of air in, creeping Lucas out further.
It felt like a lifetime but only 40 minutes had gone by. Lucas could tell that his brother had fallen asleep. He began to feel hot. So scared that he was concentrating entirely on Shane's breathing in, out, in, out, in...Lucas paused. Shane wasn't breathing anymore. He listened harder but couldn't hear him. Facing the wall-side, Lucas began to slowly turn keeping the covers over his face as he did so. The bed made a creaking sound which broke the silence immensely. Stopping in his new position that faced away from the bed, he listened one last time. Relief, as he hears breathing. Lucas paused again...the breathing sounded different - closer - it was more thick and carried a hazy undertone.
Lucas slowly pulled the covers from his face. Standing tall over the bunkbed was**