The Cursed Prince

11

"You're insufferable," Janus told Remus. Both of them were hidden away from the others at the top of the watchtower.

"You'll never get rid of me, though," Remus sang to him.

"Oh what a horrible life I'll have then." Janus pulled Remus in by the collar of his shirt and gave him a kiss.

Remus giggled. "You're so pretty when you're mean to me."

"You're so disgusting when you..." Janus trailed off as he glanced out into the forest.

"What?" Remus asked, turning around.

"There's lights coming from the forest." Janus grabbed a nearby spyglass.

He dusted the dirt off of it and looked through the glass.

"Do you see what it is?" Remus asked, very curious.

"Holy sh- we gotta tell your brother."

"What is it?"

"I'm really hoping I'm wrong, but it looks like there's an angry mob coming this way." Janus tossed him the spyglass.

Remus looked out over the castle walls. Janus was right, a crowd of people with torches and any kind of weapon they could grab was on their way. The man leading them held a shotgun in his arms, urging them on.

"What the hell? How do they know where the castle is? I thought the witch put a barrier around it to hide it from most people."

"To be fair, Logan found this place by accident, shortly followed by Virgil. Come on, are we going to warn everyone or not?"

"Right." Remus set the spyglass down and followed Janus down the watchtower.

While looking for Roman, though they had a feeling he was with Virgil probably saying goodnight, they ran into Patton.

"Wow, why are you two running?" Patton asked.

"There's a mob coming this way," Janus explained, "we need to warn Roman."

Remus hadn't even bothered to stop, he kept running towards Virgil's room. He saw Roman holding a book and cup of tea as he opened Virgil's door, though he turned his head when he heard someone running.

"Roman!" Remus shouted, startling both Roman and Virgil. He ran into Roman, grabbing his arm and making him drop the tea cup. "There's an angry mob coming this way."

"What? What do you-" Roman tried to ask.

"You know the stereotypical mob, torches, pitchforks, and they're heading this way! Jan and I saw them when we were up on the watchtower."

"What's going on?" Logan asked as he opened his door. He heard shouting and glass shattering.

"It's- god it'll be better to show- no there's no time," Remus struggled to explain. "Giant angry mob coming this way."

"How much longer until they get here?" Roman asked.

"I don't know, ten minutes? They all looked pretty angry, I don't know why they're coming, there's a guy leading them with a shotgun and he seemed to be shouting a lot-"

"Wait, a shotgun?" Virgil had asked, he had gotten up from bed by now and was standing in the doorway with his cane. "Did he have black hair? Tall with tan skin?"

"Yeah, why does it matter?"

"Lukas," Logan and Virgil growled at the same time.

"I should have known he would have done something, this could get very messy and violent," Logan said. He turned to Virgil. "I want you to hide, you're still hurt."

"I'm not going to hide! I want to help stop them! Explain that Roman isn't dangerous."

"No, if Lukas is leading them then I want you here in the room. You know how persuasive he can be, he's probably the one who hyped up all of the villagers. Plus if they see you injured, they might assume Roman did it."

"I'm not hiding and you're not going to stop me."

"Virgil please," Roman agreed with Logan. "You can barely walk without support."

"Don't you dare try to stop me either."

"Ugh there's no time for this," Remus complained. "I'm going to try to find a way to stop them." The other three heard footsteps leaving as Remus ran off.

"Roman can you lock this room from the outside?" Logan asked.

"What?! Are you seriously considering locking me in my room!" Virgil shouted.

"Y-yeah, but are you sure-"

"Do you have the key on you?"

"Yeah I grabbed the keys from-"

"Sorry." Logan took Virgil by the shoulders and pushed him inside before he closed Virgil's door.

"Dad! Stop!" Virgil protested, Logan felt him tugging at the handle.

Logan held his hand out and Roman quickly grabbed the key ring from his pocket, searching for the one to Virgil's room. He gave it to Logan and Logan locked the door.

"Roman don't let him do this!" Virgil shouted. "I'm not going to let them hurt you!"

"I'm sorry, Virgil," Roman told him, putting his paw against the door. "But I promised to protect you."

"It'll be fine, I'll come back for you when this is over," Logan told his son.

"No, I can help! Just let me out, it'll be fine!" Virgil insisted, starting to tear up from frustration and fear.

"Roman come on, Remus said that we don't have much time."

"Don't you dare leave me here!" Virgil banged against the door, trying to get it to budge. He was met with silence and in anger he smacked the door with his cane, breaking it in half.

He looked around for anything that could help him, there had to be something in this room. He looked towards the balcony and saw it had started to rain. He wasn't that desperate yet.

Looking around some more, he saw the fire fork next to the fire pit. He started walking towards it, using the wall since he didn't have a cane anymore to help relieve pressure on his ankle.

Who knows what Lukas is planning, but Virgil had a feeling he wouldn't let Roman live no matter what they did.

Logan pulled Roman down the hall, thinking of how to calm the villagers down. He'll avoid a fight if he can.

"The villagers probably think you're dangerous and evil," Logan told Roman. "So I'll do what I can to stop them and calm them down, you need to wait out of sight."

"Are you planning to lock me up too?" Roman asked. "I won't stand by idly while my castle is under threat once again."

"No, I'm going to have you hide and then I'll call you out to introduce you to the villagers. They don't always listen to me, but hopefully this time they will."

Logan turned the corner and saw below the staircase to the front entrance, Patton, Janus, and Remus seemed to be bordering the door with furniture.

"Are all the windows locked?" Patton asked.

"Yeah, but they can still break them," Remus reminded him.

"Hopefully it won't get to that point."

"Roman go hide in your room," Logan told him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, just go! I'll have Remus or Patton get you when everyone calms down."

Roman nodded and turned to leave. Logan started to come down the stairs as the others tried to remember any other entrances the mob could break through.

"Patton," Logan called. "I need to get to a place where I can talk to them. I'll do my best to calm them down before anyone gets hurt."