Always Chasing Stars

-19-

  ~Hello hello hello. Yes, I know, I was sorely missed. Thank you for your concern. 😁 I am back. I deleted Wattpad for a hot minute just to take a break from it, for mental reasons and because I just needed to figure out my own story. I've had some "character development" and even a very shockingly clear main character moment. Y'know? I'll emphasize later.

  On here, I felt a certain pressure to constantly update and write my books. . .something that made writing not fun.

  Now I think I'm ready to start again. But, for whatever god(s)/goddess(es) are out there, please feel free to ask questions or dm me! It feels like I'm sitting on this rock in the center of the room and everyone one of you is just staring at me, nodding mindlessly. It feels lonely. So, if y'all don't mind, I simply ask that y'all interact a bit.

  Cause, for whatever reason, I feel the constant need to be validated and a spot of actualization gives a rise to my dopamine levels. Sorry if it's needy or whatever, but I've changed a bit and feel like I needed the break.

  Also, my book layout is gonna change a bit. By that, I mean, A/Ns won't be bold anymore. I'll just put a '~' before and after A/Ns. I'll make other changes along the way for my formatting, so just be patient with me.

  Now, without further ado, I give to you more Virgil flashbacks.~

TW: death, panic attack, horror, self deprecation (in a technical sense)

Virgil POV

  I sat with my legs propped above my head on the backrest of the chair, my hood pulled tight around my face as I sat upside down.

  "Come on, bro! Don't be lame," Deceit said, his voice lacking its normal eccentricity.

  I simply sighed in response. He hadn't left me alone all day, let alone the past seven months. I sat up and turned, allowing my feet to plop on the ground. We'd been sitting outside the dark mind palace, all the time Deceit had spent trying to convince me to go to the light mind palace.

  "Come on! We'll miss it!" His eccentricity was back with a pang of frustration. "This is the first time we'll get to see a dark side actually materialize."

  The same thing he'd been saying all day. I didn't believe him. The fact that he has never seen a dark side being born was one thing, but believing that we would be able to see it was another. Despite the fact that he's literally Deceit, I don't know why he thought it was going to work.

  I understood it was possible, it did happen to me, after all. But witnessing it was very rare. The only people to ever witness the process were the light sides. . .the two of them got to meet creativity when he was first born. Long before I was, that was for sure.

  But there was only one thing that tugged my curiosity:

  Why would a dark side be born in the light mind palace?

  That was the ticket for me. I stood up  and my chair disappeared. I stared at Deceit for a select few moments and then sighed.

  "Fine. We'll go."

  Then we turned in the direction of the light mind palace.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 years later

  The ground around me was cold and hard. The air was dead silent. The only noise was my ragged breathe as I sat up, instantly regretting it as the blood rushed back to my brain.

  The stars danced in my vision, an explosive burst of energy came through me. I stood up fast and began sprinting in one direction. The air behind me pricked like a million pairs of eyes boring into my back and neck, goosebumps rising as tears filled my eyes.

  The feeling of being watched as you run fearful in the opposite direction. The feeling of dread as your footsteps collide and echo off the ground.

  I took one glance behind me, saw nothing there, and kept running. The sky was dark, the moon a waning sliver of a crescent, providing barely any light.

  I felt the ground rush up to me once again. I felt a scary moment of weightlessness and then my head slammed against the ground.

  Stars exploded in my vision as I lay there for a minute or two.

  Quickly, I stood up and started walking again. The black expanse of nothing in front of me was awful. I felt my eyes water and my breath hitch. I was a few short seconds from a panic attack. My knees buckled as the weight of my situation hit me.

  I was alone, I was running from nothing, and I didn't even know where I was.

  I sat down in the fetal position, trying to calm myself while also feeling the need to explode. The sensation of knowing you need to cry, but you can't because there's more important things to be done.

  Like figuring out where the hell I am.

  I screamed into the air, hoping to pass out. I screamed and screamed and screamed. . .

Until the air. . .screamed back.

  My heart jumped into my throat and the goosebumps were so bad my arms felt like ice. I stood up faster than my mind could register, my arms like lead as my legs carried me away from the direction of the scream.

  I ran and ran until I came across a shape on the ground. It took a few steps and a hard bit of squinting to realize it was a person, shaking and convulsing in the ground.

  I took two more steps before I saw the creature standing over the person.

  It was tall and thin from behind, a pair of huge black feathered wings almost hid it from view. The person on the ground screamed again. . .the same scream I heard earlier.

  I stood and watched in fear as the creature did nothing but stand over the person, cemented in place and not moving.

  The person's screams and convulsions slowly calmed until they stopped moving altogether.

  Only then did the creature move.

  It turned on its heels and look right at me. I stared at it's horrifyingly red eyes, its face. . .another sharp breathe. . .

  My face.

  I stepped backward and it rushed forward in one quick step. It covered seven feet in a second. It looked just like me. But. . .horrifying with four red eyes and the wings. My back suddenly felt lighter from looking at the size of them.

  It had black veins running throughout it's skin. Its lips grey and its teeth sharp.

  It pointed a finger at me and spoke with a bone chillingly awful voice. It sounded like mine, but with two other voices talking at the same time: a higher and lower voice. A demonic voice that was raspy.

  "You won't ever belong. You. . .you are a darkness that only spreads. Thomas. . .he doesn't need you. Nor want you. You hurt him with your existence," it whispered angrily.

   Then its tone changed to a cheerful whisper.

  "You and I both know you can't run forever. They'll find out. They'll reject you. Then it'll be you and me again. Only us. Yes. . .we are awful."

  It stepped aside and waved a hand at the person in the ground.

  My vision blurred and my stomach lurched. The person on the ground was grey and lifeless. All the color sucked from their body. Their hair a dark grey, the pink of their lips now a faint grey.

  I only remember the cruel and raspy laughter of the creature. High, raspy, and completely manic. Then I realized. . .

The person was dead.

. . .

The person was Roman.