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leskuhTitle: Trying
Fandom/Universe: Hey Arnold!
Character(s): Helga, Arnold
Rating: Teen
Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12
The skin over her knuckles has gone white as she holds the steering wheel in a death grip.
He sighs and lays a hand a top hers.
“Helga.”
She doesn’t answer, only puffs out her cheeks and keeps her gaze fixated straight ahead of her.
“Helga.” He repeats.
“I don’t want to talk to you.” She snaps.
He laughs at her, but pulls his hand back. Tiredly, he lays his head against the cold glass of the side window and lets his eyes fall shut for a moment. It’s been days since he’s actually had a chance to rest and let someone else take the reigns.
It’s too bad, he thinks to himself, that he can’t take her with him.
“So what happens when we get to the Sunset Arms? What’s our next plan?” She doesn’t take her eyes off the road ahead of her for one moment.
“I’ll get out and go in. You go and park yourself at Slausen’s and just sit tight until I come to join you.”
Finally, she looks at him.
“What?”
“C’mon Helga, listen to me - you’ll go park at Slausen’s and I - “
“I heard you the first time!” She interrupts angrily. “I just think it’s a really stupid idea. We should stay together! Or at least I ought to stay parked in front of the boarding house. Slausen’s is blocks away - what if whatever it is that’s chasing us gets to you? What then?” Her shoulders quake with rage. “And what are you even going to do there?”
“Trust me.” He says.
She snorts loudly, but goes quiet again. She’s still heading the right way and Arnold breathes a little sigh of relief.
“If you aren’t out in ten minutes I’m coming to get you.” She says firmly. He opens his mouth to protest, but she shoots him a glance that lets him know that he has absolutely no say in the matter.
“Fine.” He agrees, but he doesn’t look happy about it. “But make it fifteen.”
“Ten.”
“I need time. Helga, be smart about this.”
“Be smart about what?” She gripes as she cuts off a car in the other lane entirely on purpose. She’s pretty sure that road rage is not going to solve the pounding in her head or the rapid beating of her heart, but she figures it’s worth a shot. Besides, if she doesn’t let the growing ball of anger inside of her out somehow she’s pretty sure she’ll switch to punching the shit out of Arnold and then she’ll never get her questions answered. “I don’t even know what the hell is happening here, Arnoldo. At the moment, my view of the world has basically been shot to pieces. Also, you are supposed to be dead!”
He doesn’t have anything to say to that.
“Dammit.” She swears, before sucking in a huge breath and exhaling slowly. “Fine. Whatever. Fifteen minutes and that’s it. And I swear to God if you go and get yourself killed before I have a chance to beat the shit out of you I am going to piss on your grave.”
In response, Arnold begins laughing. It’s loud and carefree and, at the same time, it kind of sounds like he’s in pain. But it’s also ridiculously human and most importantly - alive. So alive that Helga can feel a part of her slowly knitting itself back together. He’s alive. He didn’t die three years ago and he’s living and breathing and here with her and they’re in deep shit, but they’re in it together and that’s enough.
She starts laughing with him, in the same sort of desperate way, as she makes another turn.
“You jerk,” She says between giggles. They are slowly calming down. “I don’t want to feel better about this.”
“Sorry.” He tries to say seriously, but the grin on his face kind of ruins it. “No, really. This day isn’t exactly going the way I expected either.”
“I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
She makes one last turn and suddenly the old neighborhood looms into view. Their surprisingly lighthearted mood immediately sobers.
The Sunset Arms still stands tall amidst the various shops and buildings on the block. However, it also looks somewhat frightening. No longer the cozy hang out spot that it had once been. The windows are boarded up and the walls are covered in graffiti. One of the front steps has collapsed in a pile of rubble. No lights are on.
“I hate this place.” They both say at the same time.
“I never wanted to come back here.” He tells her. “When we moved, I promised myself that I’d never step foot in that place again. I didn’t want to remember.”
“It died when you left.” She explains. “I couldn’t even jump rope across the street from it. It spooked me. It felt like you were still there - sitting on the other side of the door, but you weren’t and that scared me.”
“Maybe it died with me.” He whispers.
“Arnold?” She asks then as she pulls the car to a stop alongside the Boarding House. “What are you going to do in there? Why come back here if you hate it?”
“Well I -” He stops. He hadn’t planned on telling anyone else what he was doing. He really didn’t want to get anyone involved. Telling Helga would be like opening up a can of worms. It’d also make the whole situation all the more real. He’d spent the last two weeks of running in a very dream-like state - never entirely sure of what he was doing, saying the plan out loud would solidify it somehow.
She doesn’t take her eyes off of him.
Surprising himself, he starts talking.
“When we moved, I took everything with me. All except one book. I…I didn’t want to see it anymore. I’d memorized the story anyway. And that damn map….” He trails off. “I left my dad’s journal in my old room. I need it now.”
And then she understands.
“You’re going to find them.” She whispers, her eyes wide. “Like when we were nine.”
He doesn’t even nod, just grunts as he opens the car door and steps out. Slowly, he makes his way to her side of the car and leans his head into the window. She’s sitting perfectly still, eyes glued to her hands.
“Slausen’s in fifteen, Helga. If the police stop you, you tell them I kidnapped you. You don’t know who I am, but you got away. Make up a story. Your neighbor will believe you, I know it.”
“I won’t get caught.” She promises. “I’ll be there.”
“I know.” He smiles at her and then backs up.
“See you then.” She says as she puts the car into gear. She waves to him, before starting down the road.
Arnold watches her drive away. Something inside of him twists as she leaves.
He hopes she doesn’t hate him when she finds out he lied.
Arnold has no intentions of going to Slausen’s in fifteen minutes.
With any luck, he’ll never see her again, he thinks to himself as he walks around the side of the building and slowly begins his ascent up the fire escape in order to enter through the skylight. Walking in the front door just feels wrong somehow.
Down the street, Helga is trying very hard to keep control of herself. Her nerves are shot to hell. She makes it to Slausen’s and parks out front. She takes her hands off the wheel and closes her eyes in an attempt to settle herself. She lets her head fall back against the back of her seat and turns the air condition all the way up.
She doesn’t sleep, but let’s herself drift away - just a bit.
BANG BANG BANG!
Helga screams and ducks down onto the seat beside of her.
And then the laughter starts.
Her eyes fly open and she turns to glare daggers at the two figures standing outside the car door laughing like idiots. She growls and throws open the door with considerable force, causing the two men to jump backwards.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?!” She shouts as she clenches her fists. This causes the two men to erupt into another fit of laughter. She lets out a snarl and sits back down in the front seat of the car. She’s about to pull the door shut and ignore them completely when a hand darts out to hold the door open.
“Aw, Helga, come on! You should have seen yourself.” Sid attempts to compose himself, but keeps breaking into little giggle fits.
“It really was a funny sight. Why I reckon you jumped a whole foot in the air!” Stinky says as he puts a hand on her shoulder. “We really didn’t mean no harm by it, Helga.”
“Yeah, it was a joke.” Sid says with a shrug.
“Ha freaking ha.” Helga scowls and crosses her arms over her chest. She absentmindedly bats Stinky’s hand away from her shoulder. “Look, I don’t really have time for jokes right now. I’m waiting for someone.”
“Boyfriend?” Sid asks.
“It’s none of your business, Sid.” Helga snaps.
“C’mon Pataki, lighten up. You haven't been this irritable in years - it's actually sort of refreshing to see you yelling instead of being your usual mopey self. Anyway, we actually were headed up to your place anyway. Here.” With that he hands her a flyer from a small stack of them. She raises an eyebrow at him.
“What is it?”
“One of Rhonda’s ideas. Y’know how weird she gets about staying in contact with the old gang? Well this is her latest get-together scheme. I know you don’t normally go to these things, but she wanted us to tell you that this one cannot be missed. And she really is going a bit overboard this time. Look -“ He points to the middle of the flyer and Helga’s eyes go wide as she reads over it.
“She’s buying the Sunset Arms and having it completely brought up to code and restored in a week! I-is that even possible?”
“Guess so. Rhonda says it’s supposed to be a sort of memorial to Arnold as well, y’know? I mean, she’s even planned the date to be the same day that he moved ten years ago. The guest list is huge. She’s basically sending these out to anyone who ever knew Arnold. Remember Mr. Simmons, our fourth grade teacher? Even he’s supposed to be there. It’s gonna be wicked awesome.” Sid grins and then hands her another flyer, which she takes in a daze. “That one’s for your boyfriend.”
Helga scowls.
“A party at the Sunset Arms boarding house,” Stinky says, “Who’d have ever thought we’d ever go back there without Arnold runnin’ around?”
“Did you guys just say there’s going to be a party at the Sunset Arms?”
The three of them turn to find a small group of kids staring up at them in awe. The one who spoke is a small boy with a very freckled nose and dusty blond hair.
“Yeah, what’s it to you?” Helga asks.
“Are you guys stupid?” He asks. “That place is haunted!”
“Yeah,” a taller girl with rounded glasses and a long brown braid going down the small of her back agrees. “Everyone knows the story of the Sunset Arms. It’s an old urban legend! Just like the one about the Girl with the Monstrous Eyebrow and the Lemon Pudding Monster!”
“This cannot be real.” Helga whispers to Sid and Stinky. “Please tell me I’m dreaming and this horrible new wave of children and urban legends is just a nightmare.”
“C’mon guys, they don’t get it. Adults.” The original sandy-haired boy scoffs.
“Wait.” Helga’s request makes the kids pause. “I know I’m going to regret this, but what is the story of the Sunset Arms? Why is it haunted?”
“Tell her, Trevor.” The glasses girl implores yet another kid - this one with a large gap in the front of his teeth.
“Fine. Lead me in, Paulie.” Gap-toothed Trevor says to the sandy-haired kid.
“The legend of the Sunset Arms has been passed down from kid generation to kid generation. And our own Trevor is the Keeper of the Tales.” Paulie says with a slight bow towards Trevor at the very end.
“Thanks, Paulie.” Trevor smiles. “Years ago when the playgrounds were still divided, even before the great fifth-to-fourth grade truce was called - there lived a most unusual boy. His head, they say, was shaped much like a football and he was the greatest ambassador Hillwood had ever known. He was born of the two greatest adventurers to ever exist and he spent his childhood fighting evil and forging friendships with both the city’s elite as well as the residents of it’s dark underbelly. He was invincible - the perfect kid.”
“But perfection comes with a price and eventually the boy fell into a deep darkness. Nobody really knows why. One day he was fine, kissing babies and saving the world and the next he was empty. And when he became empty, so did the world around him. His darkness spread outside of himself and wrapped all around the Sunset Arms that was his home. From that day on - no one came out. No one goes in. And yet sometimes a light can still be seen coming from skylight windows at the very top of the building.”
“Some say he died in there, consumed in some unknowable grief and his death cause the entire place to shut down - the light is the boy, stumbling through his old world. Some say he left first and the Sunset Arms is just waiting for him to return, the light is to help lead him home. Some say it isn’t haunted at all! It’s just some stupid old building that’s been boarded up and left to rot.”
“But the one thing that everyone agrees on is that there was a boy and that, even though we don’t know exactly where he went or what happened to him, he’s not in Hillwood anymore.”
“The end.” Trevor finishes and takes his bow amidst claps from his fellow classmates. Helga, Stinky and Sid stare at them silently.
“That was….” Sid begins.
“Creepy.” Stinky finishes.
“And kind of weirdly accurate.” Helga adds. “Well, almost.”
“Yeah, so a party there is a really dumb idea.” Paulie says as he puts his hands on his hips. “You’d have to be pretty stupid to go in there at all. Especially with all the weird things that have been going on in there recently.”
“Weird things?” Helga asks.
“Yeah,” The girl butts in. “ The legend just talks about the one skylight being on, but lately there’s been lots of lights going on at random times. And Janice says she saw two big looking men through the window just yesterday.”
“That’s weird.” Sid frowns and crosses his arms over his chest. “They aren’t supposed to start the renovations until tomorrow.”
Suddenly Helga feels her insides freeze up.
“What?”
“Yeah, as far as I knew no one’s been in the boarding house since Arnold left.” Sid continues. “It’s locked up pretty tight. Getting inside probably wouldn’t be very easy - it’d take quite a bit of brute strength to do it.”
“Shit.” Helga swears as she suddenly dashes back into the car. The kids let out a giggle at the obscenity, while Sid and Stinky stand back to watch as Helga pulls out and peels away. The car speeds down the road.
“Poor Helga.” Stinky says sadly. “She’s all shook up by that sad story.”
“Let’s go, Stinky.” Sid says as he starts walking down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of Helga’s car. “We’ve got to get the rest of these delivered or Rhonda will have our heads.”
“Oh, right.”
Back at the boarding house, Arnold has finally managed to open the skylight window. He slowly slides down and onto the small steps beside where his bed used to sit. He sighs sadly.
“Really didn’t want to come back here,” He says to himself as he takes a sad look around the room. The wallpaper has faded to an unidentifiable color and everything is gone. His bed, his desk, CDs, books, pictures - all gone. The room is completely empty.
Except for one small thing.
The journal has not been moved as far as he can tell. It’s still sitting right in the middle of the room - at the heart of his old life. He’d planned to let it rot there for all eternity.
One last hope, he thinks sadly.
With a grunt he moves to the center of the room and bends down to pick it up.
And is immediately rewarded with the feel of cold steel against his neck.
“Where is it?” A man’s gruff voice demands. Arnold stares at his attacker’s feet with as much hatred as he can muster.
“Where’s what?” He says somewhat defiantly. The gun is pressed even harder against his throat.
“I’ve been stuck in this smelly old building for a week now. I’m not really in the mood for games.”
“Yeah, well I haven’t exactly been having the best day either!” And with that Arnold whirls around and lands a hit against his attackers hand, quickly knocking the gun out the big man’s grip. The grunt lets out a roar and charges forward, but Arnold lands a perfect kick right to his stomach. The grunt topples backwards, wheezing as he attempts to catch his breath. Arnold scoops up the journal and makes a mad dash for the door.
Standing outside it is another rather strong looking man.
“Dammit!” Arnold turns on his heel and scrambles back towards the stairs leading up to the skylight. The other man steps into the room and fires off a rather hasty shot towards Arnold. It misses and Arnold pulls himself up onto the roof, and runs back towards the fire escape. He whirls around to see the second grunt making his way onto the roof as well.
He slides down the ladder and runs past the window of his old room, where a dead plant is still perched on the windowsill. He manages to make it down to the next level of the fire escape when the window opens and the first grunt shoots off a volley of shots at him. He swears again and runs towards the next section of ladder.
Helga isn’t going to come looking for me for another five minutes, he thinks to himself, he is royally screwed.
Just as he thinks this, a familiar-looking car turns onto his street and races towards him.
“Helga.” He breathes. The first grunt is now making his way onto the fire escape as well, but Arnold is already on the ground and running. The car squeals to a halt beside him.
“GET IN!” Helga yells and he doesn’t need to be told twice. More shots ring down at them, Helga screams and helps tug him into the car. His door isn’t even completely shut when she slams her foot on the gas and speeds down the street.
“FUCK!” She screams, her knuckles going white against the steering wheel yet again. “Oh god, FUCK!” She puts a hand to her head and lets out a really shaky laugh. “This is… fuck.”
“Helga calm down.” He tries to take his own advice, but his heart is pounding in his throat and he can’t seem to stop running a really shaky hand over the place where the gun had been pressed to his neck. He lets out a soft whimper without really meaning too.
“No! I’m shaking and scared and t-there’s apparently a thousand people after you or something and you’re not dead and I can’t -” Her voice cracks and tears spill down her cheeks.
“We’ve got to get to PS 118.” Arnold says suddenly.
“Are you crazy?” Helga demands. “No more running around Hillwood. We’re getting out of here now.”
He puts a hand on hers.
“I’m not changing my mind this time, Arnold.”
“Then stop and let me get out there. You can keep going. Drive until you feel safe. But there’s still something else I need to get.” He tells her.
“I hate this.” She whispers.
“Me too.”
“How much time will it take? I-I just want to go.”
“Thirty seconds tops. I left something there.” He looks out his window as they head towards the old school. The sky has grown cloudy. “It looks like it’s going to rain,” He mumbles to himself.
“Another stupid book?” She says, annoyed.
“Much more important.” He responds as Helga comes to a stop alongside their old Elementary School.
“Please come back soon. If I don’t get out of here in the next few minutes, I’m going to explode into a billion pieces.”
“Thirty seconds.” He repeats and then dashes towards the gate at the back of the school. He runs onto the playground and ducks down behind some bushes. For a moment he can remember a time long ago when he had used these same bushes to hide from Ruth as he laid his Valentine onto her already large pile. Anonymous.
He pushes aside a rather large branch and reaches down to retrieve something somewhat large and draped in a big cloth. He smiles.
“La Corazon.”
“Arnold!” Helga is shouting for him. He turns to see her waving frantically at him. “Move it Football Head!”
Funny, he thinks to himself, today really isn’t turning out the way he’d planned. He hadn’t meant to get Helga involved and once she was involved, he had planned to leave her after getting the journal. Yet, she was still with him.
He runs back to the car and ducks into the passenger side one more time.
“Here.” She says suddenly, tossing a paper at him, He glances at it quickly and then looks at her.
“A party? Who for?”
“You.” She smiles as her foot hits the gas. “Also, it’s my turn to pick where we’re going. No 'buts' about it.”
He nods.
Helga and Arnold leave Hillwood behind.
a/n: Hee, hopefully there's some nice surprises in this chapter. Yes, we are going to get to see quite a few of the old gang. None of them are terribly plot important, but they'll be helping out a lot.
And La Corazon! <33333 Yes I am totally writing a TJM-ish story at a totally non-TJM time. Or well, TJM happened in this story, but Arnold didn't find ANYTHING. No evidence that his parents are alive or dead or had ever existed at all. And this is sort of the end result of that. It's an Arnold who lost his hope and a Helga who got her life stuck in Arnold's leaving. They're both very stunted emotionally. Arnold gave up on a lot of things and Helga hasn't really formed her own identity. But they'll get there!
And the next chapter includes some answers! They're on a road trip after all - time for Arnold to explain some things.
The urban legend was totally spur of the moment and basically added because of this.
Fandom/Universe: Hey Arnold!
Character(s): Helga, Arnold
Rating: Teen
Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12
The skin over her knuckles has gone white as she holds the steering wheel in a death grip.
He sighs and lays a hand a top hers.
“Helga.”
She doesn’t answer, only puffs out her cheeks and keeps her gaze fixated straight ahead of her.
“Helga.” He repeats.
“I don’t want to talk to you.” She snaps.
He laughs at her, but pulls his hand back. Tiredly, he lays his head against the cold glass of the side window and lets his eyes fall shut for a moment. It’s been days since he’s actually had a chance to rest and let someone else take the reigns.
It’s too bad, he thinks to himself, that he can’t take her with him.
“So what happens when we get to the Sunset Arms? What’s our next plan?” She doesn’t take her eyes off the road ahead of her for one moment.
“I’ll get out and go in. You go and park yourself at Slausen’s and just sit tight until I come to join you.”
Finally, she looks at him.
“What?”
“C’mon Helga, listen to me - you’ll go park at Slausen’s and I - “
“I heard you the first time!” She interrupts angrily. “I just think it’s a really stupid idea. We should stay together! Or at least I ought to stay parked in front of the boarding house. Slausen’s is blocks away - what if whatever it is that’s chasing us gets to you? What then?” Her shoulders quake with rage. “And what are you even going to do there?”
“Trust me.” He says.
She snorts loudly, but goes quiet again. She’s still heading the right way and Arnold breathes a little sigh of relief.
“If you aren’t out in ten minutes I’m coming to get you.” She says firmly. He opens his mouth to protest, but she shoots him a glance that lets him know that he has absolutely no say in the matter.
“Fine.” He agrees, but he doesn’t look happy about it. “But make it fifteen.”
“Ten.”
“I need time. Helga, be smart about this.”
“Be smart about what?” She gripes as she cuts off a car in the other lane entirely on purpose. She’s pretty sure that road rage is not going to solve the pounding in her head or the rapid beating of her heart, but she figures it’s worth a shot. Besides, if she doesn’t let the growing ball of anger inside of her out somehow she’s pretty sure she’ll switch to punching the shit out of Arnold and then she’ll never get her questions answered. “I don’t even know what the hell is happening here, Arnoldo. At the moment, my view of the world has basically been shot to pieces. Also, you are supposed to be dead!”
He doesn’t have anything to say to that.
“Dammit.” She swears, before sucking in a huge breath and exhaling slowly. “Fine. Whatever. Fifteen minutes and that’s it. And I swear to God if you go and get yourself killed before I have a chance to beat the shit out of you I am going to piss on your grave.”
In response, Arnold begins laughing. It’s loud and carefree and, at the same time, it kind of sounds like he’s in pain. But it’s also ridiculously human and most importantly - alive. So alive that Helga can feel a part of her slowly knitting itself back together. He’s alive. He didn’t die three years ago and he’s living and breathing and here with her and they’re in deep shit, but they’re in it together and that’s enough.
She starts laughing with him, in the same sort of desperate way, as she makes another turn.
“You jerk,” She says between giggles. They are slowly calming down. “I don’t want to feel better about this.”
“Sorry.” He tries to say seriously, but the grin on his face kind of ruins it. “No, really. This day isn’t exactly going the way I expected either.”
“I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
She makes one last turn and suddenly the old neighborhood looms into view. Their surprisingly lighthearted mood immediately sobers.
The Sunset Arms still stands tall amidst the various shops and buildings on the block. However, it also looks somewhat frightening. No longer the cozy hang out spot that it had once been. The windows are boarded up and the walls are covered in graffiti. One of the front steps has collapsed in a pile of rubble. No lights are on.
“I hate this place.” They both say at the same time.
“I never wanted to come back here.” He tells her. “When we moved, I promised myself that I’d never step foot in that place again. I didn’t want to remember.”
“It died when you left.” She explains. “I couldn’t even jump rope across the street from it. It spooked me. It felt like you were still there - sitting on the other side of the door, but you weren’t and that scared me.”
“Maybe it died with me.” He whispers.
“Arnold?” She asks then as she pulls the car to a stop alongside the Boarding House. “What are you going to do in there? Why come back here if you hate it?”
“Well I -” He stops. He hadn’t planned on telling anyone else what he was doing. He really didn’t want to get anyone involved. Telling Helga would be like opening up a can of worms. It’d also make the whole situation all the more real. He’d spent the last two weeks of running in a very dream-like state - never entirely sure of what he was doing, saying the plan out loud would solidify it somehow.
She doesn’t take her eyes off of him.
Surprising himself, he starts talking.
“When we moved, I took everything with me. All except one book. I…I didn’t want to see it anymore. I’d memorized the story anyway. And that damn map….” He trails off. “I left my dad’s journal in my old room. I need it now.”
And then she understands.
“You’re going to find them.” She whispers, her eyes wide. “Like when we were nine.”
He doesn’t even nod, just grunts as he opens the car door and steps out. Slowly, he makes his way to her side of the car and leans his head into the window. She’s sitting perfectly still, eyes glued to her hands.
“Slausen’s in fifteen, Helga. If the police stop you, you tell them I kidnapped you. You don’t know who I am, but you got away. Make up a story. Your neighbor will believe you, I know it.”
“I won’t get caught.” She promises. “I’ll be there.”
“I know.” He smiles at her and then backs up.
“See you then.” She says as she puts the car into gear. She waves to him, before starting down the road.
Arnold watches her drive away. Something inside of him twists as she leaves.
He hopes she doesn’t hate him when she finds out he lied.
Arnold has no intentions of going to Slausen’s in fifteen minutes.
With any luck, he’ll never see her again, he thinks to himself as he walks around the side of the building and slowly begins his ascent up the fire escape in order to enter through the skylight. Walking in the front door just feels wrong somehow.
Down the street, Helga is trying very hard to keep control of herself. Her nerves are shot to hell. She makes it to Slausen’s and parks out front. She takes her hands off the wheel and closes her eyes in an attempt to settle herself. She lets her head fall back against the back of her seat and turns the air condition all the way up.
She doesn’t sleep, but let’s herself drift away - just a bit.
BANG BANG BANG!
Helga screams and ducks down onto the seat beside of her.
And then the laughter starts.
Her eyes fly open and she turns to glare daggers at the two figures standing outside the car door laughing like idiots. She growls and throws open the door with considerable force, causing the two men to jump backwards.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?!” She shouts as she clenches her fists. This causes the two men to erupt into another fit of laughter. She lets out a snarl and sits back down in the front seat of the car. She’s about to pull the door shut and ignore them completely when a hand darts out to hold the door open.
“Aw, Helga, come on! You should have seen yourself.” Sid attempts to compose himself, but keeps breaking into little giggle fits.
“It really was a funny sight. Why I reckon you jumped a whole foot in the air!” Stinky says as he puts a hand on her shoulder. “We really didn’t mean no harm by it, Helga.”
“Yeah, it was a joke.” Sid says with a shrug.
“Ha freaking ha.” Helga scowls and crosses her arms over her chest. She absentmindedly bats Stinky’s hand away from her shoulder. “Look, I don’t really have time for jokes right now. I’m waiting for someone.”
“Boyfriend?” Sid asks.
“It’s none of your business, Sid.” Helga snaps.
“C’mon Pataki, lighten up. You haven't been this irritable in years - it's actually sort of refreshing to see you yelling instead of being your usual mopey self. Anyway, we actually were headed up to your place anyway. Here.” With that he hands her a flyer from a small stack of them. She raises an eyebrow at him.
“What is it?”
“One of Rhonda’s ideas. Y’know how weird she gets about staying in contact with the old gang? Well this is her latest get-together scheme. I know you don’t normally go to these things, but she wanted us to tell you that this one cannot be missed. And she really is going a bit overboard this time. Look -“ He points to the middle of the flyer and Helga’s eyes go wide as she reads over it.
“She’s buying the Sunset Arms and having it completely brought up to code and restored in a week! I-is that even possible?”
“Guess so. Rhonda says it’s supposed to be a sort of memorial to Arnold as well, y’know? I mean, she’s even planned the date to be the same day that he moved ten years ago. The guest list is huge. She’s basically sending these out to anyone who ever knew Arnold. Remember Mr. Simmons, our fourth grade teacher? Even he’s supposed to be there. It’s gonna be wicked awesome.” Sid grins and then hands her another flyer, which she takes in a daze. “That one’s for your boyfriend.”
Helga scowls.
“A party at the Sunset Arms boarding house,” Stinky says, “Who’d have ever thought we’d ever go back there without Arnold runnin’ around?”
“Did you guys just say there’s going to be a party at the Sunset Arms?”
The three of them turn to find a small group of kids staring up at them in awe. The one who spoke is a small boy with a very freckled nose and dusty blond hair.
“Yeah, what’s it to you?” Helga asks.
“Are you guys stupid?” He asks. “That place is haunted!”
“Yeah,” a taller girl with rounded glasses and a long brown braid going down the small of her back agrees. “Everyone knows the story of the Sunset Arms. It’s an old urban legend! Just like the one about the Girl with the Monstrous Eyebrow and the Lemon Pudding Monster!”
“This cannot be real.” Helga whispers to Sid and Stinky. “Please tell me I’m dreaming and this horrible new wave of children and urban legends is just a nightmare.”
“C’mon guys, they don’t get it. Adults.” The original sandy-haired boy scoffs.
“Wait.” Helga’s request makes the kids pause. “I know I’m going to regret this, but what is the story of the Sunset Arms? Why is it haunted?”
“Tell her, Trevor.” The glasses girl implores yet another kid - this one with a large gap in the front of his teeth.
“Fine. Lead me in, Paulie.” Gap-toothed Trevor says to the sandy-haired kid.
“The legend of the Sunset Arms has been passed down from kid generation to kid generation. And our own Trevor is the Keeper of the Tales.” Paulie says with a slight bow towards Trevor at the very end.
“Thanks, Paulie.” Trevor smiles. “Years ago when the playgrounds were still divided, even before the great fifth-to-fourth grade truce was called - there lived a most unusual boy. His head, they say, was shaped much like a football and he was the greatest ambassador Hillwood had ever known. He was born of the two greatest adventurers to ever exist and he spent his childhood fighting evil and forging friendships with both the city’s elite as well as the residents of it’s dark underbelly. He was invincible - the perfect kid.”
“But perfection comes with a price and eventually the boy fell into a deep darkness. Nobody really knows why. One day he was fine, kissing babies and saving the world and the next he was empty. And when he became empty, so did the world around him. His darkness spread outside of himself and wrapped all around the Sunset Arms that was his home. From that day on - no one came out. No one goes in. And yet sometimes a light can still be seen coming from skylight windows at the very top of the building.”
“Some say he died in there, consumed in some unknowable grief and his death cause the entire place to shut down - the light is the boy, stumbling through his old world. Some say he left first and the Sunset Arms is just waiting for him to return, the light is to help lead him home. Some say it isn’t haunted at all! It’s just some stupid old building that’s been boarded up and left to rot.”
“But the one thing that everyone agrees on is that there was a boy and that, even though we don’t know exactly where he went or what happened to him, he’s not in Hillwood anymore.”
“The end.” Trevor finishes and takes his bow amidst claps from his fellow classmates. Helga, Stinky and Sid stare at them silently.
“That was….” Sid begins.
“Creepy.” Stinky finishes.
“And kind of weirdly accurate.” Helga adds. “Well, almost.”
“Yeah, so a party there is a really dumb idea.” Paulie says as he puts his hands on his hips. “You’d have to be pretty stupid to go in there at all. Especially with all the weird things that have been going on in there recently.”
“Weird things?” Helga asks.
“Yeah,” The girl butts in. “ The legend just talks about the one skylight being on, but lately there’s been lots of lights going on at random times. And Janice says she saw two big looking men through the window just yesterday.”
“That’s weird.” Sid frowns and crosses his arms over his chest. “They aren’t supposed to start the renovations until tomorrow.”
Suddenly Helga feels her insides freeze up.
“What?”
“Yeah, as far as I knew no one’s been in the boarding house since Arnold left.” Sid continues. “It’s locked up pretty tight. Getting inside probably wouldn’t be very easy - it’d take quite a bit of brute strength to do it.”
“Shit.” Helga swears as she suddenly dashes back into the car. The kids let out a giggle at the obscenity, while Sid and Stinky stand back to watch as Helga pulls out and peels away. The car speeds down the road.
“Poor Helga.” Stinky says sadly. “She’s all shook up by that sad story.”
“Let’s go, Stinky.” Sid says as he starts walking down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of Helga’s car. “We’ve got to get the rest of these delivered or Rhonda will have our heads.”
“Oh, right.”
Back at the boarding house, Arnold has finally managed to open the skylight window. He slowly slides down and onto the small steps beside where his bed used to sit. He sighs sadly.
“Really didn’t want to come back here,” He says to himself as he takes a sad look around the room. The wallpaper has faded to an unidentifiable color and everything is gone. His bed, his desk, CDs, books, pictures - all gone. The room is completely empty.
Except for one small thing.
The journal has not been moved as far as he can tell. It’s still sitting right in the middle of the room - at the heart of his old life. He’d planned to let it rot there for all eternity.
One last hope, he thinks sadly.
With a grunt he moves to the center of the room and bends down to pick it up.
And is immediately rewarded with the feel of cold steel against his neck.
“Where is it?” A man’s gruff voice demands. Arnold stares at his attacker’s feet with as much hatred as he can muster.
“Where’s what?” He says somewhat defiantly. The gun is pressed even harder against his throat.
“I’ve been stuck in this smelly old building for a week now. I’m not really in the mood for games.”
“Yeah, well I haven’t exactly been having the best day either!” And with that Arnold whirls around and lands a hit against his attackers hand, quickly knocking the gun out the big man’s grip. The grunt lets out a roar and charges forward, but Arnold lands a perfect kick right to his stomach. The grunt topples backwards, wheezing as he attempts to catch his breath. Arnold scoops up the journal and makes a mad dash for the door.
Standing outside it is another rather strong looking man.
“Dammit!” Arnold turns on his heel and scrambles back towards the stairs leading up to the skylight. The other man steps into the room and fires off a rather hasty shot towards Arnold. It misses and Arnold pulls himself up onto the roof, and runs back towards the fire escape. He whirls around to see the second grunt making his way onto the roof as well.
He slides down the ladder and runs past the window of his old room, where a dead plant is still perched on the windowsill. He manages to make it down to the next level of the fire escape when the window opens and the first grunt shoots off a volley of shots at him. He swears again and runs towards the next section of ladder.
Helga isn’t going to come looking for me for another five minutes, he thinks to himself, he is royally screwed.
Just as he thinks this, a familiar-looking car turns onto his street and races towards him.
“Helga.” He breathes. The first grunt is now making his way onto the fire escape as well, but Arnold is already on the ground and running. The car squeals to a halt beside him.
“GET IN!” Helga yells and he doesn’t need to be told twice. More shots ring down at them, Helga screams and helps tug him into the car. His door isn’t even completely shut when she slams her foot on the gas and speeds down the street.
“FUCK!” She screams, her knuckles going white against the steering wheel yet again. “Oh god, FUCK!” She puts a hand to her head and lets out a really shaky laugh. “This is… fuck.”
“Helga calm down.” He tries to take his own advice, but his heart is pounding in his throat and he can’t seem to stop running a really shaky hand over the place where the gun had been pressed to his neck. He lets out a soft whimper without really meaning too.
“No! I’m shaking and scared and t-there’s apparently a thousand people after you or something and you’re not dead and I can’t -” Her voice cracks and tears spill down her cheeks.
“We’ve got to get to PS 118.” Arnold says suddenly.
“Are you crazy?” Helga demands. “No more running around Hillwood. We’re getting out of here now.”
He puts a hand on hers.
“I’m not changing my mind this time, Arnold.”
“Then stop and let me get out there. You can keep going. Drive until you feel safe. But there’s still something else I need to get.” He tells her.
“I hate this.” She whispers.
“Me too.”
“How much time will it take? I-I just want to go.”
“Thirty seconds tops. I left something there.” He looks out his window as they head towards the old school. The sky has grown cloudy. “It looks like it’s going to rain,” He mumbles to himself.
“Another stupid book?” She says, annoyed.
“Much more important.” He responds as Helga comes to a stop alongside their old Elementary School.
“Please come back soon. If I don’t get out of here in the next few minutes, I’m going to explode into a billion pieces.”
“Thirty seconds.” He repeats and then dashes towards the gate at the back of the school. He runs onto the playground and ducks down behind some bushes. For a moment he can remember a time long ago when he had used these same bushes to hide from Ruth as he laid his Valentine onto her already large pile. Anonymous.
He pushes aside a rather large branch and reaches down to retrieve something somewhat large and draped in a big cloth. He smiles.
“La Corazon.”
“Arnold!” Helga is shouting for him. He turns to see her waving frantically at him. “Move it Football Head!”
Funny, he thinks to himself, today really isn’t turning out the way he’d planned. He hadn’t meant to get Helga involved and once she was involved, he had planned to leave her after getting the journal. Yet, she was still with him.
He runs back to the car and ducks into the passenger side one more time.
“Here.” She says suddenly, tossing a paper at him, He glances at it quickly and then looks at her.
“A party? Who for?”
“You.” She smiles as her foot hits the gas. “Also, it’s my turn to pick where we’re going. No 'buts' about it.”
He nods.
Helga and Arnold leave Hillwood behind.
a/n: Hee, hopefully there's some nice surprises in this chapter. Yes, we are going to get to see quite a few of the old gang. None of them are terribly plot important, but they'll be helping out a lot.
And La Corazon! <33333 Yes I am totally writing a TJM-ish story at a totally non-TJM time. Or well, TJM happened in this story, but Arnold didn't find ANYTHING. No evidence that his parents are alive or dead or had ever existed at all. And this is sort of the end result of that. It's an Arnold who lost his hope and a Helga who got her life stuck in Arnold's leaving. They're both very stunted emotionally. Arnold gave up on a lot of things and Helga hasn't really formed her own identity. But they'll get there!
And the next chapter includes some answers! They're on a road trip after all - time for Arnold to explain some things.
The urban legend was totally spur of the moment and basically added because of this.
