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SM/DC Chapter 39 : House of Madness
🕑 Added 2025-02-23 22:54:14 +0000 UTCArthur stepped into his house, his boots pressing against the wooden floor with a quiet creak. The familiar scent of home lingered in the air, but something was off. His golden eyes scanned the scene before him bodies sprawled across the room, some slumped over furniture, others piled on top of one another like discarded dolls.
He exhaled sharply, rubbing his temples. ‘What the hell…?’
The men didn’t look like the usual burglars. No ski masks, no black gloves, not even a crowbar in sight. Just… regular people. Their clothes were casual. But their faces some of them had that grin. That wide, unnatural smile. The kind that made his stomach churn.
Arthur’s shadow stretched unnaturally beneath him, and from it rose a kneeling figure. His shadow demons their glowing eyes fixated on him, waiting for orders.
"The shadow i exchanged with did this to them but this is just disturbing.." Arthur asked, motioning toward the unconscious weird looking faces.
Arthur’s voice was steady, but there was an unmistakable edge to it.
"Patrol the area. The whole neighborhood. If you find anyone like this—" he gestured toward the unconscious intruders, his eyes flickering with something sharp, "contain them. No killing. I want answers first."
The shadow demons didn’t need to be told twice. It vanished into the darkness, dispersing like mist.
Arthur clenched his fists. His thoughts were interrupted by a sound of uneven breathing.
Arthur followed the noise, stepping over the unconscious bodies without another word. He walked with purpose, boots clicking against the wooden floor, his senses sharp. As he reached the door, he could hear the sound of breathing, soft and erratic.
He pushed it open.
His mother was huddled in the corner, clutching a fire poker with shaking hands.
The second she saw him, her breath hitched.
"Arthur?" she whispered, her voice cracking.
Before he could say anything, she rushed him.
She wrapped her arms around him, squeezing so tightly that for a second, he almost lost balance. He felt her shaking, her breath uneven against his shoulder.
"Thank God!" she choked out. "Thank God you're okay!"
Arthur, after a moment of surprise, slowly returned the embrace. "...Yeah, Mom. I'm home."
She pulled back just enough to cup his face, scanning him as if trying to make sure he was real. "I thought...I didn’t know if—Arthur, people went crazy! They just came in! Laughing, breaking things I had to hide! And then something killed them...all...something.."
Her eyes flicked over his shoulder.
Arthur barely had time to register his mother’s panicked grip on his arms before he heard it the distinct, guttural growl of one of his shadow demons behind him.
His gut told him exactly what that meant.
‘Oh shit. Already?!’
Arthur turned around, and sure enough, there it was one of his shadow demons that he just sent away, looming in the doorway, its glowing eyes locked onto him. And in its claws?
A man. Writhing. Suspended in mid-air like a freshly caught fish.
The guy was flailing, eyes bulging, his mouth twisted into an unnervingly wide grin. He was laughing but it wasn’t normal laughter. It was a high-pitched, gasping cackle, the kind that scraped against the walls and made your skin crawl.
His mother screamed “IT’S THAT THING!" she blurted out. "It—it killed them! Oh my God, Arthur, it—"
Arthur ran a hand down his face, already feeling the headache forming. "Mom," Arthur interrupted, his voice steady. "Calm down, they are not even dead."
"Calm down? Calm down?! Arthur, that thing..."
Arthur turned to the shadow soldier and, with a simple motion of his hand.
The shadow demon obeyed instantly, releasing its grip, it lowered its head and silently melted into the darkness at the corner of the room, fading back into his own shadows like it had never been there at all.
His mother stared.
Mouth slightly open. Eyes wide.
The man dropped like a sack of potatoes onto the floor, landing on his back but he didn’t stop laughing. Even curled up, coughing from the impact, he still wheezed out chuckles, his lips twisted into that grotesque grin.
Arthur and his mother just stared at him.
The dude just… lay there. Laughing.
Arthur sighed, rubbing his jaw as he stared at the man still laughing on the floor.
“Alright. Enough of that.”
Lifting a hand, he called upon Ruler’s Authority.
An unseen force wrapped around the man’s body, lifting him effortlessly into the air. His limbs dangled like a marionette with its strings cut, but that grin never faded. His eyes were wide—empty in a way that made Arthur’s skin crawl—but he just kept laughing, breathless and manic.
Arthur’s voice was cold. “Who sent you, Are you under someone’s influence, poisoned?!”
No answer. Just more wheezing, cackling, shaking.
His fingers twitched, tightening his unseen grip. "Do you even understand what I'm saying ?"
Still nothing.
Arthur exhaled through his nose, patience thinning. “Fine. Be useless, then, it was worth a try.”
Without hesitation, he pulled the man toward him and drove his elbow straight into his gut.
The laughter stopped instantly. The guy’s eyes bulged, his body jerking as all the air left his lungs at once. A strangled croak escaped his throat before his head lolled forward, completely unconscious.
Arthur let him go, letting his body drop to the floor like a discarded puppet.
Silence.
Arthur sighed and crossed his arms and turned towards his mother "Okay, look, I know how this looks..."
"You know how this looks?!" His mother threw her hands in the air. "Arthur, there are unconscious people in our house!, a demon that apparently listens to you just dragged another lunatic here! what part of this is normal?!"
Arthur exhaled slowly, forcing himself to stay calm. "Mom, I’ll explain everything in time."
"But first… tell me what the hell is going on."
****
The room was quiet, aside from the occasional distant sound of sirens echoing through the city. His mother had told him everything, the sudden chaos, the people acting erratically, the growing sense of dread spreading through Jump City. It wasn’t just crime...it was something worse. Something unnatural.
Arthur sat back in his chair, arms crossed as he processed it all.
"I see," he muttered, eyes sharp. "So it's a toxin of some sort affecting people. I already have in mind a few suspects who could pull off something on this scale."
His mother, sitting across from him, suddenly reached out and grabbed his hands, squeezing them tightly. There was an urgency in her grip, a fear laced into every word as she whispered, "These suspects... it's those supervillains, isn't it?"
Arthur didn’t answer immediately. He could see the way her fingers trembled, the way she held his hands as if she were afraid he’d slip away.
She already knows the answer.
Her voice was smaller now, but still steady. "So you have powers like them..."
Arthur’s lips curled into a small, humorless smile. "Yeah... but I have greater powers than the freaks you detest."
His mother inhaled sharply, her eyes flickering with something he couldn’t quite place.
"I..." She hesitated, lips parting as if she wanted to say something, anything...before closing them again.
Arthur watched her carefully, waiting.
Nothing.
He exhaled through his nose and stood up, gently pulling his hands away from hers. "What about my br.." He stopped himself. "What about my brother?"
She blinked, as if just remembering. "He’s at his company...locked in, can’t leave because of..."
She didn’t need to finish. Arthur already understood.
The city was spiraling, and anyone with power or influence would be holed up, trying to avoid the madness.
"Alright." Arthur rolled his shoulders, his mind already working. "I’ll know what to do. If they’re here, whoever did this...I know I can find them."
His mother’s face twisted in concern. "You can’t possibly think to go out in thi..."
"I will."
He didn’t raise his voice, but the weight behind his words was absolute. Final.
She stared at him, searching his face for any sign of hesitation.
She found none.
Arthur exhaled, his eyes glowing with a faint, eerie radiance as he pushed himself up from the chair.
"Time to move."
With a flick of his wrist, shadows twisted and coiled at his side, forming into a familiar shape Blade. The shadow materialized in silence, his glowing eyes locked forward, waiting for a command.
"Stay here. Guard this place. Kill if you have to."
Blade nodded, stepping forward until he stood beside Arthur’s mother. She tensed immediately, her body going rigid at the presence of the towering shadow warrior now stationed at her side.
Arthur barely spared her reaction a glance. His mind was already elsewhere.
"What the hell are the League and the Titans doing, letting things spiral like this?" he muttered under his breath. His jaw tightened as his fingers curled into fists. "Incompetent fools."
Then
"Hello, Arthur."
Arthur’s head tilted slightly, his glowing eyes narrowing.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"Speak of the devil."
