♠️ Exceptis Centrum ♠️ ✔︎

Chapter 24

Notes:
Warning - This chapter contains mild gore, violence, gruesome imagery and horror

Alfred stared at his reflection, his toothpaste still running down his chin after spending five minutes brushing his teeth, his gums now sore from the intense treatment. His young blue eyes now looked weary, his cheeks were not so plump as they usually were and his hair was not as neat as it should be, and his skin was not as soft as it used to be. To put it bluntly he looked like a wreck, even more so than usual and it was due to the fact that so much had happened today.

He met with the King of Clubs Ivan, a man he disliked and suspected of imprisoning Arthur.

He tried and failed to discreetly pry information from Ivan regarding his garden prisons.

He broke down in front of Arthur after he feel into a depressed state and cried like a baby.

He actually ended up confessing his feelings to Arthur but before he could get a response he was pulled away from him again.

He almost made a fool of himself in front of Ivan and if it wasn’t for Yao there would have been a much larger mess for him to deal with.

Also on that note, Ivan noticed that he had disappeared whilst they were talking, though he didn’t seem to know where.

So many things and all of them were giving him headaches with all the questions and thoughts that plagued him. His emotions were all mashed up and he had difficulty putting them in order. There were so many things he wanted to think about but he didn’t know which one to think of first. Heck, dinner that night was ridiculously awkward with Ivan, who didn’t ask him about his disappearance but did stare at him with curious eyes. Thankfully Francis engaged him in a conversation and he didn’t get the chance to talk to him. Still that whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth.

He also couldn’t get Arthur out of his mind. His desire to free him from that prison that reduced him to such a depressed state was growing by the second. The only issue was he still didn’t know where he was or who held him. It also just dawned on him that he had pretty much revealed to Arthur that he loved him, though he never got the chance to find out if Arthur felt the same way. Did he like him? Did he have similar feelings towards him? Alfred was keen to know but with all these other thoughts in his mind was distracting him and keeping him unfocused.

With a huff he spat out the remaining toothpaste in his mouth and washed his face with a cloth. He treaded back to his room but instead of flopping onto his bed, he hopped on to his couch and flipped the remote to switch on the TV. Maybe watching an action show would help him get his mind back in order, he did recall one of his favourite action movies was supposed to be on today. If there was one thing that helped him feel better it was action packed movies with the latest cgi graphics. It was like a medicine for him, though a temporary medication, after all there was nothing else he could do at the moment and if there was one thing he learned from all this was that he needed his mind in peak condition.

Flicking through the channels he spotted something that caught his interest for a moment. It was one of those old black and white movies depicting a knight poorly fighting a stop motion dragon effect. Alfred wasn’t too big a fan of the old movies, he couldn’t handle at how cheesy they were. He was about to change the channel when the knight boldly declared,

“I will defeat you foul beast and rescue my beloved from that wretched prison!”

The dragon roared at him.

“You terrible fiend will rue the day you locked my one true love away! After I slay you, I will free her from your cruel prison!”

Alfred lowered the remote, that line catching his interest and he continued to watch.