"Mom?"

His mother slowly opened her eyes and looked at her son's sad face. Then she smiled softly.

"Arthur, son."

"Mother."

"Don't cry, please. I haven't seen you cry since you were a baby. Even when you were coming back with all those..." - she reached out to him and wiped the tears from his face.

"Bruises?"

"Yeah...so why are you crying like a girl?"

"And how am I supposed to respond to seem manly? I can pretend I'm not crying, I just got something in my eye. Would you believe it?" - Arthur chuckled.

"Yeah. I always believe you. Whatever you tell me."

They chatted for a few more hours until finally, his mother fell asleep. And then Arthur himself joined her, drifting off into a dream world, sitting in an armchair.

"Mother, the doctor said the police came here while I was unconscious and you had a nasty, high-pitched conversation with them. What did they tell you?" - The boy asked the next day.

"What? What? ... As always. What else?"

"So they're not ready to go up against Zack's family even after that?" - With anger, Arthur pounded on the armrest of his chair.

"Did you expect anything different after all these years?"

"No."

"Enough of the sad stuff. Tell me something funny...there's that book you keep holding in your hands all the time. What's it about?"

"This one? You won't like it. You don't read that stuff... Besides, I haven't finished it yet."

"But anyway, boring boy. You can tell your mother, too, since that's so interesting."

Arthur knew she was just trying to change the sad subject, so he decided to play along.

"Honestly, it's just a regular story about a hero rising from the bottom. His name is Eric Mann. And like any self-respecting hero - he was a poor commoner who was only able to get into the best academy in the country through his talent and perseverance..."

"Terribly uninteresting beginning. You're right, I wouldn't read that... I'd burn a book like that," she laughed, but immediately coughed and clutched at her stomach area.

"Mom?"

"I'm fine. Keep talking..."

"Um...okay. Anyway, he goes to the academy, fights all sorts of enemies, survives the constant conspiracies... are you really interested?" - Arthur asked, noticing his mother yawning.

"Oh, yeah, yeah... Just tell me already that he has lots of girls and that's why you like him so much."

"А?"

"I was looking in your laptop, what do you usually read there...shouldn't the main character have lots of girls in stories like this?" - She asked him with a slight tease.

"You... how could you get into your son's laptop? And say it to my face so directly? Where's your sense of shame?"

"I forgot it at home. Sorry, son... Oh, come on, you. Mom just wants to be close to her kid."

"Who does that anyway?"

"The best mother ever?" - A sly smile appeared on her pale face.

"Ahhhh...yeah, he's got tons of girls."

"I get it. That's why you liked it. You imagine yourself in the main character's shoes? You've been dragging one new girl after another into my house lately too...I've even stopped remembering their names."

Arthur snorted. Their relationship had always been like that, very close and trusting. You could rather call them friendly; it was rare to find such a good relationship between a teenage son and a single mother these days.

"No. I imagine myself in the other guy's shoes."

"Hmm?"

"The main character has a brother. Arno Mann. Unlike his older brother in the novel, he's just a minor blot in the text that no one cares about, not even the author. Just imagine, his brother is a super strong main character, and his sister has one of the strongest powers. Even the guy's wife isn't just a usual girl, but one of the most powerful goddesses. And he's the only one in the whole family who's a total loser... like me." - Arthur laughed sadly.

The atmosphere immediately became awkward after these words. No one spoke a word. His mother didn't want to say silly things like, "Oh, no, son, you're not a loser at all," or "You're the best I've got". Everyone understood everything perfectly.

"I think you're more like that main character...what's his name, Eric, I think?"

"Nah, I couldn't be him. I couldn't hit on my own brother's wife. What do you take me for?" - Arthur replied with a laugh to the surprised look on his mother's face.

After a while, his mother cited fatigue and said she wanted to go to bed. But before she did, she almost forced her son to leave and return to his room. Arthur reluctantly obeyed, and it may have been his most monstrous mistake, one that will haunt him forever...In the morning he no longer found her alive.

*******

[Claire Hayes]

[1978-2020]

Arthur shook the autumn leaves off her tombstone. A cold, strong wind forced everyone to stay home today, but the boy didn't care. He didn't want to break his daily ritual of visiting the place.

"...Today I came to say goodbye. We may not be able to see each other for a long time after this...I know you hardly gave me the gift of life a second time for me to flush it down the toilet so haplessly. But... I can't live if I don't get my revenge. It won't be life then, just existence."

He put down the flowers. Red carnations, her favorite. He turned around and set off with a confident stride to carry out his plan.

"Boy, are you sure? You're still very young. Who pissed you off so bad, then?" - asked a bearded man, in a dark leather jacket, sitting in the driver's seat of a battered old Ford.

Arthur didn't answer anything. Only held out an envelope filled with money.

"Okay. Got the cash, no questions. Tell me only one thing, do you even know how to use it? Do you know how to shoot?"

"I do... and very well."

He took the revolver handed to him and tossed it carelessly into his black gym bag. Then he got on his bicycle and rode the alleys in the right direction, on the way he also managed to read that very novel. He only got to the middle of the book, he still couldn't finish it. He would have given it up long ago, but since it was the last thing he discussed with his mother, this book was like a thread with her.

His first destination lay in an area very familiar to him from his childhood days. This was where he had played a lot with his friend...former friend.

He stopped in front of a nice two-story detached house. Daniel's parents were fairly well-off people, unlike the Hayes family. But despite this difference in income, they both attended the same school, and for a long time were considered the weakest there, so they became close. Except that Arthur later found the strength to change, but his friend chose a different path.

"Woof...Woof," came the dog's bark as he climbed over the brick fence and fell into the bushes.

"Sit...Good dog. Hi, Weasel." - he tossed the familiar dog a piece of meat he had brought in advance.

Then he got to the back door, which was never locked in the house, and went inside. Arthur knew that Daniel's parents were businessmen and very often absent from home. And now he was sure it was the same case.

Walking down the hallway, Arthur heard excited shouting and swearing. Apparently, his former friend was now actively playing his favorite video game.

So it was. Walking a little farther forward, he entered the spacious living room and noticed sitting in front of a huge television set with headphones in his ears Daniel that was quickly pressing buttons on a joystick.

"Damn it, what kind of jerks have I got in my team? Why am I alone fighting for the whole team...? What the fuck?" - yelled the guy as the TV screen suddenly went out. He ripped his headphones off in a rage and rushed to the damn thing that had stopped working, thinking there was a technical malfunction.

"Hey, Daniel."

The boy jumped in place at the sound of what he thought was a familiar voice echoing through the empty apartment. His heart raced. He turned and saw Arthur standing there with a revolver pointed right in his face.

"...Ahhhhhh...Arthurrrr?" - he trembled his whole body and fell to the floor.

"I said hello... aren't friends supposed to say hello to each other?" - Arthur asked in an icy tone.

"I..."

Daniel stared at the gun in his friend's hands. Sweat coursed through his body. He had known Arthur for a long time and understood that he wouldn't bring that thing just for a stupid joke. He tried to say something but fear paralyzed his body.

"You? Maybe you wanted to apologize?"

"UH..."

"No? You don't? Well, then..." - Arthur put the revolver directly to his forehead without the slightest shadow of a doubt.

"Don't. Don't shoot," Daniel wailed. Tears and snot began streaming down his face.

"You know why I'm here, don't you?"

"Mmm...yes...I'm sooo sorry. Forgive me, Arthur. I swear to you, I didn't intend for any of this to happen. They just... they..."

"Let me guess, they said something like: We'd only scare him or We'd only play a little. And in return, they'd let you go, right?"

Daniel, under Arthur's stifling gaze, only blinked dumbly a couple of times in agreement.

"Okay, well, I see they really did keep their promise. You're cheerful over there, content with life. I don't see any fresh bruises on you...looks like you got the world at the cost of my mother's life."

"Arthur, I'm sorry..." - fell at his feet Daniel, trying not to look into those two demonic eyes that seemed to devour his sinful soul.

"Of course I forgive you... We're friends, after all."

Hearing these unexpected words, Daniel looked up and saw the devilish grin of his former friend. And then there was the sound of a gunshot and the carpet in his house was stained with fresh blood.

From there, Arthur's path lay far out of town. To the large country mansion of Zack's wealthy family. The boy had learned in advance the route to get there and found out if there were guards and other details. And today as far as he knew would be a perfect day. There was a party there and Arthur was going to sneak in unnoticed. He probably wouldn't be able to escape once he was done, but he didn't care. The main thing was to finish the job.

He was riding his bicycle on a nighttime road with thickets of woods-growing along the side of the road.

"About two kilometers to go." - he said, checking the road on his cell phone.

After a while, the bright light of car headlights hit him in the face. A truck was coming toward Arthur, but since the boy was on the other side of the road, he wasn't worried at all... and it was a huge mistake.

The truck, when it seemed they should have missed each other without any problem, suddenly jerked toward him. Arthur tried to dodge on his bike and go sideways, but did not have time and was hit by a multi-ton impact from the heavy vehicle.

His body flew off the bike and flew through the air for several meters before collapsing onto the paved road.

"Ahhhh." - Arthur groaned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a silhouette come out of the truck, but he couldn't make it out because of the bright light hitting him right in the face.

Sounds were lost, and his sense of touch also stopped working. Then his vision went out, and finally, everything vanished into nothingness.

A trickle of blood slowly trickled from the back of his shattered head. And next to him on the ground was an unread novel, Rise of Darkness. It had fallen out of the backpack on impact.

A silhouette approached the dead boy closer and closer. His features gradually loomed. If Arthur were still alive, he could see a gray-haired stately man in a suit and stylish glasses.

"Forgive me, boy." - uttered the man's voice. Dr. Meroving adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down his nose again, and continued:

"An accomplished revenge - makes a man weak, deprives him of motivation. Unfinished revenge makes you stronger...One day you'll understand me...Good luck, Arthur Hayes."

Meroving turned around and walked back. Except he didn't make it to the car. His body dissipated as if he had never been there.

The red blood running from Arthur's body had already pooled in a small puddle, even wetting the book. A sudden gust of wind blew the book open and the pages began to turn endlessly. And finally, the novel itself began to glow bright red.