Chapter 7: Home Sweet- Oh No

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Roman pulled his trashcan next to the fridge, dumping all of the rotten food in there. He did his best to breathe as little as possible, not wanting to smell any of it.

He threw the containers that had any food in them into the sink before dragging the trashcan back to where it belonged. He put his leftover pizza back in the fridge, since he only could stomach one slice.

His anxiety was making his stomach churn. He knew he should be asleep, it was way past midnight, but he just couldn't. He had laid in bed for what felt like hours, staring at the ceiling. So he found himself emptying the whole fridge, throwing things away and putting whatever was good back in.

Now that he was finished though, he was tired, but still itched to do something. He needed to move, to do something with his hands. Well... there was a sink full of dishes. Looking at it though, he didn't feel like cleaning that so he just filled his sink up with water. He'll let it soak overnight before trying to clean them in the morning.

Roman found himself spacing off as he watched the water fill up in the sink, turning into a sludge brown as different sauces mixed in with it. He couldn't stop thinking about his encounter with the reaper.

He called those things phantoms, malevolent spirits. And other than that, Roman's whole view on religion had changed. He and Remus were at a Christian orphanage, so they were both Christian. And while heaven, hell, and purgatory probably exist, they were created by Death. Death is their god... kinda poetic in a dark way.

Where would have Roman gone to? Rules for the Christian afterlife change depending on who you ask. Many people have told him that he's going to hell just because he's gay.

Remus was probably in heaven, which was weird to think. Despite how he acted, Remus was a good man. He... he had saved a bunch of people right before he died. He died a hero.

Tears filled Roman's eyes, thinking about it was painful. He remembered getting the phone call, and then hearing the witnesses' stories. He remembered seeing the headline in the newspaper when it finally came out, it was the only time Roman actually bought a print.

It said the same thing all the witnesses had said. A group of hostages were taken at a bar, three armed men demanding for 20k and a helicopter. A man in a leather jacket pulls out a switchblade, killing one and injuring the other two, getting shot several times in the process.

After that, the details were fuzzy to Roman. He didn't care how long the other two stayed in jail, or where they're at now. No one else was injured so it didn't matter. Remus had died, and Roman didn't even get to say goodbye. He wondered what kind of phantom was there at the time, and if Remus was able to go to his afterlife safely.

Grief was replaced by anxiety when he heard a strange clicking noise. It sounded... like something that was alive. Did a bug get in?

He looked around to try to figure out where it was coming from. It sounded like it was behind the couch, and it was moving.

Roman grabbed a cup, getting ready to catch a cicada or something. Though it didn't sound like a cicada, it was more clicking than screaming. Still, he got closer getting ready for any size bug.

What he didn't expect was something giant and brightly colored to jump out from behind the couch and onto him. Roman heard something shatter, probably the glass cup, but he was more interested in getting the giant creature off of him.

He grabbed two glowing pink pincers before it could bite him, pushing it back as much as he could. It had four thin, green legs, and the blue body of some kind of bug. When he expected to see a bug, he didn't think the bug would be big enough to make him dinner!

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