Worlds Apart

Logan

TW: Mentions of death

I put on the black cloak and put the hood up. I'm wearing a brown shirt, black pants, and black shoes, all torn up and dirty. The best way we can get close to see the castle is dressing like we live in the village.

I walk into the livingroom and see everyone dressed up in dirty and old clothes. Patton, Virgil, and Emile have dirt on their face and messy dirty hair. It's almost hard to recognize them. Remy is wearing dirty clothes like me and a hood along with Roman.

Virgil looks at us, "Are you all ready to go?"

We all nod, I look at Virgil and kiss him, "Be careful and stay by my side."

Virgil grabs my hand, "Don't worry Lo, I know. You and everyone else will need to be the careful ones."

He then turns his attention back to everyone, "Remember to keep your heads low, stay quiet, and if things take a turn for the worse hide. If we run into Janus and Remus hold your tongue, bow, and if he tells you to apologize to him, do it. We are only doing this to scout out the area."

Everyone nods, though Roman seems to hesitant. I hope he doesn't let his ego get the best of him. We all walk out and Emile teleports us to the edge of the town. Everything looks worse than before.

The cobblestone paths are mostly dirt and plants, the buildings are falling apart and have plants growing on them, and it's as if happiness and joy have been sucked out of this place. Not literally. But it is depressing.

We start walking down one of the paths, Virgil leading the way. We keep our heads down, though I steal a couple of glances. I see other people as well, they look very unhealthy and I'm sure if the wind blew hard enough they would be knocked over. Remus is starving his people.

Roman whispers to us, "Should we stay in a group? We might look suspicious."

Remy shakes his head, "Unfortunately you are right. Not many people have complete families anymore. There are chances we will be spotted by Remus or Janus and become targets. Let's split off into groups of two."

I nod, grabbing Virgil's hand, Remy grabs Emile's hand, and Roman grabs Patton's hand. We all say a quick goodbye before splitting up.

Me and Virgil walk down a different sidewalk, letting Roman and Patton have our original route, and Remy and Emile get a different route.

I look at Virgil who seems to be calm but I can tell he is worried, "Everything is going to be alright, Virgil. I know this is not as we planned, but nothing we plan ever stays the same. Something always has to change."

Virgil nods, glancing at me, "I know but I still have to worry. There are other things we didn't tell you and Roman about those two. We don't like thinking about how much worse he is but..." Virgil pulls me into a tight and small alleyway.

There are trash bags, trash, and a dead carcass that I think is a possum.

Virgil speaks quietly, "One day, Janus was left in charge of everything for a week. I needed to find out why but I had no idea where Remus went. I tried tracking him down but came up empty handed every single time. But the day he came back... He had a group of elders, about nine or ten stand in the center of town. Everyone was there. Scared and confused. Remus he.... He..." Virgil squeezes my hand tightly, "He had tentacles come out of his back. He never had those before. But they were there and he killed them all in an awful, gruesome way."

I hug him tightly and kiss the top of his head, "I'm sorry Virgil. You or anyone should never go through that or witness that."

I should have stayed here, at the house or looked for Virgil. But I didn't. I went home and lived my life like nothing happened. I couldn't help him. I hold back my own tears and take a deep breath to calm myself.

"Let's keep going. I hope Patton informs Roman of that or I will. He needs to know."

Virgil nods, "Yeah I know but... I should have said something. Someone should have, I know that Remy knows that too."

I nod as I take in the information, "We can discuss this more later."

He nods, "Yeah. Let's go."

We walk out of the small, dirty alleyway and keep walking down the sidewalk, everything was going as according to plan. The key word being was.

Virgil stops walking as his eyes go big, "Lo."

I stop walking as well and look at the sky where he was looking. There was smoke coming from a building. Virgil looks at me and pulls me into another alleyway. This one is also small and dirty but there are no dead things here.

"Stay here, I'll come get you after I check that out," he demands.

"No, you are not going alone," I state. I cannot let him go into danger, especially not alone.

"Lo-"

"No. We go together or not at all."

He sighs and nods, "Alright fine. Come on. Let's go before we miss whatever is going on."

I nod and we rush towards the burning building. Stopping and hiding behind a nearby building.

Remus is there with Janus, both yelling and looking around, Janus runs past us, not seeing us. Remus looks at the ground and grabs something shiny, picking up. I freeze when I see what it is. That necklace belongs to Roman's mother. He always carries it around.

"We should get back to the house, now," I state.

Virgil stays quiet for a couple seconds watching Remus, then nods. We both rush to the house, hoping everyone is okay.