Arnie, Mervin, & The Blood of Kings

by Pedliham, Luke

  Prologue

  “It’s dark. I can’t see. I can’t hear. I can barely feel anything other than fear, anxiety, and pain,…so much pain. These things are my allies however. I know them well.”

  “It is not the first time I’ve been lost in darkness. I was forced to embrace it many years ago when I was young and weak, by a power unlike anything I had ever encountered before. Trapped in the fragile body of a child, I was defenceless against it. Later I came to understand it and to mould it into something more while in turn it moulded me and as time passed……I came to love it.”

  “I am neither young nor weak anymore. I am old but not frail. I am strong. Stronger than I have ever been. I have power. Raw power syphoned straight from the Earths most dominant source. But it is resolve that drives you on and pulls you up when you are downed - and I have resolve like the world has never seen!”

  “Sinking further and further downwards into her blackness, I am calm and collected. My powers have faded for a time but it is merely a temporary setback. Maybe I am guilty of underestimating my nemesis and his protégé. Nevertheless, I have learned over several lifetimes that patience is a virtue. Patience can mean the difference between winning and losing and life and death. So I’ll let them have their moment, while I wait for mine.”

  “The conceit of these…..children, those creatures and that immoral old man! The fact they think I would be beaten that easily - is a slight of the most heinous kind. And they will all pay for it with blood.”

  “I will take what is most precious from them and show them what happens when I am underestimated. I will pull this cold, hard blade that is being pushed into my flesh closer still and use its power and the power of my own resolve against them. I will take my revenge with great relish as I reign chaos down upon them - and watch them all burn in its bloody red fire!”

  “I will never stop. I will stain Gaia with her own lifeblood and then watch her burn along with everyone and everything else. The Blood of Kings will flow like a river, and then it will be stricken from existence for all eternity!”

  Chapter One: Good morning? What’s so good about it?

  As the high pitched beeping of his alarm goes off, a familiar chill runs down Arnold Gibbs’ spine. He slowly prizes his eyes open and aggressively slams his hand down on the snooze button on another cold, grey February day in South London.

  As he swings his legs around out of his bed, Arnie (as he is commonly known) groans sluggishly as he leans forward and once again greets the all too familiar hollow feeling he always gets in the pit of his stomach around this time of year. He sits on the edge of his bed and takes an all-encompassing look around the polyfiller riddled walls of his drab room, stopping only momentarily to look longingly at a tattered poster of a sunset on a tropical beach that couldn’t currently feel farther away. He sighs and looks away from the poster and towards his bedroom window. The curtains are already open but it is still dark outside at 7am. All that is visible out of his window is a concrete jungle of tower blocks peppered with an overabundance of satellite dishes hanging off their ugly façades and pebble-dashed walkways that are sporadically lit up by a few intermittently flickering streetlamps. There are a few lonely looking trees scattered around the run down housing estate in Bermondsey where Arnie lives with his Mother and Step Father, but there are no leaves on them and there are no signs of life anywhere apart from a few illuminated windows across the estate in another block and the distant sound of large metal bins being emptied as a council rubbish lorry does its morning rounds.

  “Ugh,….I hate Winter” Arnie says to himself as he stands up and lethargically walks over to the chest of drawers by the window.

  He reaches for his crumpled school trousers that are strewn across the dresser next to his bed and throws them on aggressively. To a Thirteen year old kid, winter should conjure up visions of Snowmen, Santa and children playing around in the snow. But contrary to popular belief and unless you are living in a J.M Barrie novel - snow is not often seen in London and is in fact something of a rarity. More common in London during the winter months is grey sky, piercing wind and irritating drizzle, and this was something that depressed Arnie terribly. That said, on the estate where Arnie lives, children wouldn’t play around in the snow even if there was some. Instead, on this particular estate you’re more likely to have gangs of kids of various ages hiding their faces under hooded sports tops and running around causing trouble for anyone they don’t deem to be cool. Sometimes “causing trouble” often meant bringing harm to said un-cool people and unfortunately for Arnie, he happens to fall in to this particular demographic.

  Arnie walks to the corner of his room and reaches for the crumpled grey school shirt that is on the ground. As he lifts the shirt he reveals a white Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a black spot encircling its left eye who lets out a similar sigh to Arnie, as if to say “Yeah, I hate winter too!”

  “Morning Lady. Another day in paradise.” says Arnie sarcastically.

  Lady lets out another sigh, this time with a downwards inflection as if she is reluctantly agreeing with Arnie’s last statement. Ok, perhaps saying Arnie had no friends was something of an over exaggeration. Lady here is Arnie’s best friend, and as far as he was concerned, this ten year old Staffordshire bull terrier was all he needed by way of companionship. Other than when he’s at school, Lady never leaves Arnie’s side and has been like that since she was rescued from Battersea Dog Home as a puppy. Arnie walks Lady, feeds lady and baths Lady (when she’ll let him). She eats when he eats – and a lot of the time WHAT he eats too. She is with him when he showers, when he brushes his teeth or combs his hair. She does wait outside when he uses the toilet though, but if it were up to Lady - she would be with him then too!

  Arnie opens the door to his bedroom and he and Lady both descend the stairs together with Lady nearly tripping Arnie up in the process as she zig-zags in between his legs, clearly eager to get to the kitchen for her breakfast. Arnie however is less than enthusiastic to move from one moment of this horrible grey day to the next.

  As Lady arrives in the kitchen and starts nudging at her empty food bowl with her nose, Arnie goes to the cupboard and gets out a box of own brand cornflakes and a plain white bowl, sighing and breathing heavily in the process. He picks up Lady’s food bowl, places it on the kitchen table next to his and proceeds to fill both with cornflakes. Lady stands up on her hind legs with her front paws on the table so she can watch the marvellous spectacle that is food preparation! As Arnie prepares their breakfast, Lady pants heavily with excitement - her mouth open and tongue sagging down to the table like a soggy pink neck tie. Her stumpy tail wags furiously and she salivates uncontrollably at the thought of her next heavenly meal that is all but in her grasp.

  Arnie goes to the fridge and opens it to reveal a fluorescent void that’s as bare as the tree’s outside his window. There is milk, but barely enough for one bowl.

  Arnie looks at Lady with one eyebrow raised and says;

  “Looks like one of us is gonna have to have water instead girl!”

  Lady replies with another upwards inflected doggy-sigh and a slight tilt of the head as a sign of her disappointment.

  Arnie pours the milk over Lady’s cornflakes and puts it on the floor for her and Lady immediately starts munching. He then takes his bowl to the sink and turns on the tap to cover his own cornflakes with something wet and turns back around seconds later only to be faced with Lady staring back at him licking her lips and then letting out a big inverted burp! Arnie laughs and says;

  “Not much of a lady really are ya girl?” to which she responds by letting out a single disapproving bark that doesn’t quite convince of its denia
bility.

  As he sits down at the breakfast table Arnie hears two thuds that signify feet hitting the floor in the bedroom above the kitchen. Arnie looks over at the clock which reads 7.30am and says to Lady sarcastically;

  “I think someone must’ve wet the bed!”

  This was either Arnie’s Mother Elaine or Step-Father Hector, neither of whom would usually surface until close to midday due to them staying up late all the time with friends. His real father left when Arnie was very young, and although he has no memory of him - he is very sensitive about it and subsequently it is not a subject that is ever discussed in the Gibbs household.

  Elaine and Hector are not bad people but they are flawed like everyone else is in one way or another and the harsh truth is that they are not the best role models a child could have. Arnie also has a step brother Cain, Hector’s son, who recently moved back in with his mother following an argument with Hector. Arnie never asked too many questions because he knew his Mother loved him very much, and his step-father’s heart was at least in the right place, but he did think if they would just stop spending all their money on beer and fags they might be able to keep the fridge stocked up and even be able to feed Lady some proper dog food from time to time.

  Lady sits herself down by Arnie’s feet nervously, looking up to him for a sign of reassurance as she responds to a loud cough and clearing of the throat that sounds like someone’s just started a tractor at the top of the stairs. Arnie gently pats Lady on the head and scratches behind her ears as she closes her eyes and smacks her lips in reassured contentment.

  As we hear the stairs creak under the weight of a person descending them, Arnie hurriedly shovels the last lot of soggy cornflakes into his mouth, not even giving himself enough time to swallow the last lot and rushes it over to the sink. Seconds later, a short, plump silhouetted figure with hair going in several different directions enters the dimly lit kitchen and approaches Arnie from the rear as he quickly washes up his bowl and spoon. ‘It’ grabs Arnie by the shoulders, clears its throat directly into Arnie’s ear and plants a big wet kiss on his cheek;

  “Morning sweet‘art.” ‘it’ says in a gruff female voice.

  Arnie winces and recoils at the smell of stale wine and cigarettes emanating from its mouth, and replies;

  “Morning Mum.”

  Arnie’s mum grabs the kettle from the side and fills it up at the sink just as Arnie is moving away from it. She stumbles over Lady in the process who’s trying to keep out of the way like Arnie, but unfortunately not doing as good a job. She plugs in the kettle and turns it on and then goes to the fridge. Just before she opens it Arnie interjects;

  “Oh, er,…we’ve run out of milk.”

  Arnie’s mum already has the fridge open by about a centimetre at this point revealing a thin slither of light from the door. She closes it again without looking and says;

  “I’ll have a black coffee instead.”

  As the kettle boils and Arnie’s Mum spoons the instant coffee into her cup and pours the hot water over it, she leans over to the top right kitchen cupboard that is too high for Arnie to reach (not that he couldn’t get into it if he wanted to) and gets out a small silver hip flask that was not so subtly hidden behind an old bag of Lentils. It was probably placed here because why would a kid have any interest in something as boring and as healthy as lentils right? Arnie however knows the flask is there as there’s never enough food in the cupboards to hide anything anyway. As his mum removes the flask she has a little glance over her shoulder to see if Arnie was watching. He did see it in his peripheral vision, but pretended he hadn’t and just looks out of the window surveying the badly paved ten by twelve foot concrete area outside they call a garden. He then quietly moves towards the back door to break the descending awkwardness and let the elephant in the room outside;

  “I’ll just let Lady out for a bit ok Mum” he says.

  “Sure babes” replies Elaine as she shakily pours some of the dark liquid into her coffee and gives it a stir.

  Arnie opens the door and lets Lady out to do her morning business and have a quick trot around the garden whilst letting in an arctic blast of winter air, before quickly calling her back in to keep the cold out. Luckily for Arnie and his mum, this didn’t take long what with the garden being that small. As he shuts the door and turns around, his mum is just sitting down at the table and is in the process of lighting a cigarette. She takes a big drag of the cigarette and a mouthful of ‘coffee’ before tapping her hand on the table gesturing to Arnie to sit down.

  “Sit down for a minute Arnie, I want to talk to you.” she says nervously.

  Arnie sits down opposite his mum.

  “So, you know I’ve got a meeting with Mr Brownstone at your school today to talk about all this trouble you keep getting yourself into don’t you?”

  Arnie nod’s in acknowledgement.

  “Well, I know we’ve spoken about this already but I wanted to ask you again if there’s anything you want to tell me or talk to me about?”

  Arnie’s mother takes another long drag of her cigarette and blows it out with a shaky sigh. She reassuringly places her two liver spotted hands, complete with burning cigarette over Arnie’s that are already resting on the table.

  “You can talk to me Arnie. I know you’ve been having a hard time recently, what with Cain moving away and Hector, [bless him] not being the best of fathers…”

  Arnie interjects sharply “He’s not my father!”

  Arnie’s mum removes her hands from his, and visibly recoils in her chair. She goes back to her ‘coffee’ gripping the cup with two hands as she is too shaky to hold it with one, takes a big gulp and another drag of her cigarette and just looks back at Arnie with an understanding, yet disappointed look.

  “I know he’s not love, but he’s the closest thing you’ve got isn’t he? I wish you could have known your real father I really do but that’s just not going to happen is it? All I’m saying is I would like you to let me in from time to time and talk to me. I might just be able to help. Hector doesn’t need to know about it. It would just be between me and you…..”

  Arnie realises he has hurt his Mothers feelings which was not his intention.

  “I’m sorry Mum, I didn’t mean to snap. Hector is…”

  Arnie pauses as he thinks of a way to express his honest opinion without hurting his mum again

  “…well, Hector’s alright! I just miss Cain and still don’t know what happened between them two. Hector won’t talk to me about it.”

  “He won’t talk to anyone about it Arnie. Not even me!” says Elaine disappointedly.

  Arnie breathes in deeply and exhales with an audible sigh before saying;

  “Listen, don’t worry about me mum. There are just a few kids at school that have been giving me a hard time since Cain left, but I can handle it.”

  “It’s not about you handling it Arnie. You shouldn’t have to handle it! The little sods……” replies Elain angrily before continuing;

  “I know you’re not happy Arnie and it breaks my heart….”

  Her voice trembles as her words wobble and seem to fall out of her mouth as she fights back the tears;

  “….and always around the same time every year? I know it’s a bloody miserable time of year Arnie and nobody really likes Winter with all the cold and dark etc, but it seems like you actually take it personally?”

  Arnie looks down at the floor solemnly. He knows his mother has just hit the nail on the head. He does become depressed, sad and reclusive around the same time every year, but what makes it worse for him is that he doesn’t know why! He does know however that what he feels in his stomach every morning when he wakes up is different and can’t be explained as just being miserable. His mood seemed to reflect the conditions that he was surrounded by and with barely seven hours of daylight in a day, and those seven hours being decidedly dull, Arnie’s soul seemed to share in the cold, dark, damp conditions of the outside world.

  “I know mum,
I’m sorry, I just,…..I just……”

  Arnie looks at the floor and his eyes move around erratically, searching for some kind of answer on it. Then they fill up with water and his bottom lip starts to quiver as clearly no answer is forthcoming. He hits his clenched fist on the table forcefully enough to demonstrate his frustration and looks up sharply, making direct eye contact with his mother as a single tear rolls down his cheek;

  “I can’t explain it Mum, I just feel like I’m empty and just……alone!”

  Arnie sniffs up the snot that has just bungee jumped out of his nose, speeds up and continues;

  “..but I know I’m not really alone because I’ve got you and Lady…..and Hector but…”

  Arnie begins to sob gently into his hands as he just doesn’t know why he feels this way or why he is less able to handle these feelings that other people. As he begins to lose himself in his own self-pity, his mother moves around the table to where he’s sitting and grabs hold of him and hugs him - tightly pulling him against her more than ample chest while the ash from her cigarette that’s dangling out of the side of her mouth falls on Arnie’s head. She quickly dusts it off and puts her cigarette in the ashtray;

  “Oops, look what I’ve gone and done. We should’ve called you Ashley!” says Elaine as she releases him from her grasp;

  They share a brief laugh as Arnie wipes his eyes and lets out another deep sigh. His mum grabs him on either side of his face pulls him close and looks him square in the eyes, her own filled with emotion and sincerity and says;

  “I love you Arnold. More than you could ever know. We’ll get through this I promise.”

  Lady barks in agreement as she wags her tail and looks up at Arnie optimistically.

  They both laugh again and Arnie nods hopefully as he wipes the tears from his cheeks with his sleeve. But deep down Arnie knows that despite his Mothers good intentions - pulling himself out of this rut was going to be difficult, and a task he fully expected to face alone. Elaine gently taps the side of his face and says;