#bad pupper

Lewis hadn’t expected it to hurt. The sudden sense of disconnection sent him to his knees, a pain that was both physical and spiritual making his head reel. He knew he made a startled sound, but it felt like he was suddenly stretched to his limit and he was at a distance from the world.  There was a roaring in his ears that he might have thought was his heartbeat— if he still had one.

Three streaks of magenta, his little deadbeats, zoomed into the room, converging on and vanishing into his chest. He could feel them only faintly and it frightened him.

“Lewis!” Arthur’s shout came dimly to him and he could only watch Arthur struggle free of the bed and stumble to his side, still reeling from the blow to his very self. Arthur caught his arm, and Lewis barely felt his touch, even though he could see the fabric of his shirt compressed in that desperate grip. “Are you alright?”

“Arthur...” Even through the surf-like roar in his ears, his voice sounded strange, thin and distorted. “Artie...” he tried again.

Vivi was suddenly at his other side, hoisting his arm over her shoulder. Her face was incandescent with rage, but her hands were sure, even though he could barely feel their touch. “Help me get him to the bed,” she told Arthur, her voice calm and far too controlled.

Lewis wasn't able to help much, but between the two of them they were able to maneuver him to sit on the edge of the bed. Vivi caught his face between her hands and forced him to look her in the face. “I swear, I’m going to kick Mystery’s butt from here to next week. What was he thinking?! That was your anchor he stole, wasn’t it?”

Lewis wanted to enjoy the feel of her hands on his face again, but like Arthur’s touch, it felt distant and unreal. “I— I think so. I know I feel— more real— with it.” He remembered knowing about spectral anchors from before, but somehow it hadn’t really occurred to him how much he needed the locket now.

“Yeah, that’s your anchor. I don’t know what fuzzface thinks he’s doing, but we have to get it back to you.”

Arthur made a distressed noise, his wings flexing under the bandages. “He— he thinks I’m— not me. He’s trying to save you from me.”

Lewis struggled to focus, worried by the tone in Arthur’s voice. “Don’t need saving.” He reached for Arthur, who caught his hand in a desperate grasp. It felt a little more real to him now and Lewis clung to that feeling, wrapping his other hand over Arthur’s.

“Dammit, Mystery! When I catch you I’m giving grandma a fox-skin rug for her birthday!”

“What can we do?” Arthur asked worriedly, sitting on the bed next to Lewis.

“Find him before he does something even stupider than usual.” Vivi’s voice was flat.

“W-what’s stupider than usual?” Arthur asked.

Lewis leaned into Arthur, who spread one of his wings around him, wincing at the pull on his blisters, but still wrapping it tightly around Lewis. He didn’t like how tired he was feeling, because the last time he’d been that worn-out, it had been bad. He winced at the memory. He hadn’t dared let himself get that tired again. He never wanted Vivi or Arthur to see the horror he’d become.

Vivi didn’t answer Arthur’s question, instead crouching in front of Lewis and holding his head steady between both of her palms. “Hey— hey, focus on me, okay?”

Lewis struggled to obey.

Arthur had all but wrapped himself around Lewis, tail and bandaged wings clinging with fierce strength. Lewis liked it. Arthur’s touch was somehow more substantial than Vivi’s; it made him feel more there— more grounded.

With an effort, Lewis dragged his wandering attention back to Vivi.

“That’s better,” she coaxed. “Now, listen, he can’t keep your anchor hidden from you, because it is a part of you. He can hide it from me, but never from you. I know the magic he used messed you up, but you have to concentrate. Tell me what you can sense from your anchor.”

Oh. Lewis closed his eyes and groped blindly after the feel of his locket. It was hard, but having Arthur and Vivi nearby seemed to help. “Dark,” he decided at last. “Dark— and wet and red... Oh my god, he has it in his mouth! Ick.”

Arthur managed a raspy laugh near his ear.

“No, that’s good,” Vivi was quick to interject. “It means he’s still running away with it. He hasn’t stopped to try anything yet.”

“What can he do that won’t hurt Lewis?” Arthur asked, fingers tightening around Lewis’s. “I mean he doesn’t seem to want to hurt him, just—”

“Free him from the influence of the demon— which he’s not under.” Vivi sounded concerned and Lewis opened his eyes to see her biting her lower lip. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think Mystery’s really thinking straight. I mean, I know I’m missing chunks of my memory and one of those is apparently anything to do with you, but Mystery saw the whole thing go down in the cave and seems pretty set that—”

“I’m a monster,” Arthur finished morosely. “Maybe he’s not wrong.”

“You shoosh your facehole!” Vivi snapped. “I knew it was you the very first moment I saw you, no matter what you look like now. For someone who claims to have been around for centuries, he’s jumping to conclusions, when he knows things aren’t always what they seem.”

Arthur looked doubtful, so Lewis squeezed his hand. “Not a monster. I’ve been there since we fell. There’s no monster here. Just a ghost and a—” Lewis had to pause, trying to get his muddled thoughts to come up with something that wouldn’t add to Arthur’s dismay over what he’d become.

“A winged greenbean!” Vivi piped up with a lopsided grin.

Both their heads swiveled to face her at the same time, like they were on pivots.

“What?” She looked mulish. “I always called Artie a stringbean when he wouldn’t eat enough. I swear I remember someone else saying the same thing too, so it wasn’t just me. Now he’s green, but still skinny as ever, so he’s a greenbean.”

Lewis blinked slowly. “You... are a dork,” he pronounced carefully. He’d been the first one to call his friend a stringbean, chiding scrawny Arthur to accept the plates of food Mama had always been trying to feed him. Vivi had picked it up from him, but seeing that she couldn't remember him at all, she clearly thought she’d been the author of the nickname.

Arthur tilted his head. “You’re both dorks,” he declared. “And we have more important things to worry about. Mystery doesn’t seem to want to hurt Lewis, just... free him. So he can’t use an exorcism or do anything to damage his anchor. What will he think to try? Vivi, this is your area of expertise, not mine.”

Vivi thought for a moment. “The first think I can think that he might try would be a purifying fire. It’s meant to burn out corruption or taint, so if he thinks that ‘the demon’ is manipulating Lewis, that might be the first thing he’ll try.”

“What will he need? That might give us a clue where he’s headed.”

“Just basic Elements. Water, to wash away, earth to ground the spirit, fire to burn it away and air to sweep away the ashes of the fire.” Vivi chewed the inside of her cheek. “The anchor is gold, so that’s a point in favor of purification. In some spells, gold is an element that stands for healing, and If he’s trying to heal you of the control he thinks you are under, he’ll want to use that association.”

“Okay, so— someplace where he can get hold of all four elements.” Arthur’s brow scrunched up in thought. “Anything else? I mean does it have to be on a what-do-you-call-’em— leyline or holy ground or anything?” His wings tightened briefly around Lewis.

“I don’t think is has to be, but I have a feeling that he’ll consider holy ground a better choice. All the better to get rid of the ‘demonic’ control—” Vivi’s face settled into a scowl. “Why does he have to be so— urrgh!”

The talk of holy ground sparked something in Lewis’s sluggish thoughts. He’d made a point of exploring the local area; both to keep Arthur safe and to find any trouble spots before something happened. It had saved them some issues, though there was always something to contend with, be it their unseen, but definitely not unfelt, neighbors, or simply the odd lost hiker Lewis had led to safety.

“There’s— there’s a small church and graveyard, about four or five miles from here,” Lewis stated carefully, cursing at how hard it was to pull himself together. Once he got his anchor back, he was never letting it out of his sight again. “It’s on a bluff, by a stream, really far from any real roads. It looks like it’s been abandoned for years, though—”

“Doesn’t matter. So long as it’s never been deconsecrated, it’s still holy ground. Chances are, that’s where he’ll go. I know his fleabitten butt can sniff out places like that.” Vivi rose to her feet, pacing in a small circle. “If there’s a stream, that’s water. Up on a bluff would be both air and earth too.”

Lewis remembered the swirl of flames Mystery had vanished in. “And he’s already got the fire.”

“We need to get there, and quick.” Vivi declared. “I can’t promise he won’t do something boneheaded if we don’t stop him.”

“Um, Vivi—” Arthur’s voice was hesitant and his tail lashed restlessly against Lewis’s leg. “Wouldn’t it be— better if he finished the purification ritual? I mean, he’d maybe be convinced that— that I’m not really a demon?”

Lewis could see the desperate desire in Arthur’s eyes; the hope that Mystery’s spell would prove he was still himself, still Arthur Kingsmen and not the demon, despite the shape he now wore. Lewis tightened his hand on Arthur’s.

Vivi shook her head, lips pursed. “It won’t prove anything to him; not now, not in the state of mind he’s in. He’ll think that the demon has done more than just control, especially if he attacks Arthur and we try and defend him. He’ll— I hate to say it, but he’ll probably try a more drastic approach... and that could be really bad.”

Arthur shuddered.

Lewis knew what would be the next thing out of his mouth and it was the very last thing he wanted him to think— or Vivi to hear. “Not your fault,” he reminded Arthur gently, before he could go back down that self-destructive mental path again.

Vivi stopped her pacing and hurried over to cup Arthur’s face and turn it up to hers. “Hey, you listen to me right now, Artie. I think Mystery— he’s really not thinking clearly at all right now. I think the cave, everything that I don’t remember but that he does— it hurt him too. Maybe it’s that he saw you both fall, one to a monster that stole your body from you, and one— in a weird kinda way— to himself. From what he said earlier, he’s blaming himself for not being able to save both of you.”

Arthur shivered again and drew a hitching breath before nodding. “Okay— okay, so we have to stop him. But even if we do, how do we stop him from trying again, if he’s that messed up?”

“You leave that part to me. I’ll figure something out even if it means siccing grandma on him.”

Lewis had opened his mouth to respond when he felt the tiniest bit of strength trickle back in. He forgot what he was going to say, concentrating on feeling for his connection to his anchor. It was stronger. Still too far away from him, but no longer stifled under the aura of Mystery’s magic. It was enough to clear his head a bit and he straightened up a little in Arthur’s hold.

The little deadbeat that had tried to restrain Mystery was still on the floor where it had been tossed aside. Lewis concentrated on calling it to him. It was the stray spirit that had attached itself to him. The others had been forced to retreat into him with the theft of his locket, but this one was just a tiny bit more autonomous, it seemed.

Warbling sadly, it rose into the air unsteadily and came to him. He could feel its remorse for being unable to stop Mystery. He let go of Arthur’s hand with one of his and cradled it close, reassuring it silently that it was not to blame. He tried feeding it a little of the strength that had returned to him and watched as it steadied. “I can lead us to the bluff. Vivi, did you bring the van? We’ll need something faster than our own feet for this.”

“I did, but it’s parked down by where the highway divides. We hiked the rest of the way in.”

“Close enough. Let’s go.”

Arthur hesitated. “Maybe I shouldn’t go. I might only make him do something. It’s me he has it in for.”

Vivi shook her head firmly. “Nuh-uh, buster. We all go in together. I’m not risking you out of my sight again.”

“Vivi—” Arthur’s protest was shut off by Vivi clamping a hand over his mouth. “No. You are coming with. There is no debating this.”

Lewis tried to push himself to his feet. It didn’t work so well, and he had to lean rather heavily on the shoulder Arthur hastily shoved under his arm. “Vivi’s right, Arthur. We need to stay together. What if he stole my locket as a distraction and decides to come back and finish off the so-called demon once and for all?”

Arthur swallowed hard and went a sickly shade of pale-green. “Y-you think he would?”

“I don’t think I would put it past him, as screwed up by this he is.”  Vivi shook her head. “We’re all damaged by what happened that night, but I honestly never realized just how hard it must have been on him too. I lost my memory, and while I’m not forgiving him just yet for lying to me about things, he was trying to keep me safe and maybe from going a little mad in the search for you, Artie.” She took Lewis’s other arm and began to steer them toward the door.

Arthur ducked his head. “I— We should have— would have contacted you sooner, but I—”

“It doesn’t matter now. I found you,” Vivi corrected. “We are back together, and right now, that’s what matters. That and getting back your friend’s anchor.”

Lewis winced again. There it was again; the reminder that she didn’t remember him at all. Everything between them was lost.

Arthur understood. His arm around Lewis tightened. “Let’s go then.”