Misinformation Can Be Deadly

Chapter 19: The Games Begin, Who Will Have Checkmate Though?

CW: talk of gangs and cults

The loud alarm clock was nothing like the alarm on Virgil's phone, it was much louder. Virgil kept the alarm on his phone silent, the vibrations enough to wake him up, so whenever the alarm on his clock went off it made him jump awake.

He reached over to turn it off, fumbling for a moment to find the button before Roman pressed it for him. The human sighed in relief, melting back into his bed for a moment.

"I don't wanna go to school today," he mumbled.

"Then you can stay home," Roman told him.

"No... I need to go to school." Virgil pushed himself up, glancing at his broken phone. "I need to get that fixed."

Roman sighed softly. "I would fix it for you if Delores hadn't seen it already."

Virgil rubbed his face as he let his feet hang off of the bed. He let his mind wander for a moment before asking, "Did you investigate those kids last night at all?"

The demon's face paled for a moment at the memory. He didn't want to tell Virgil so early in the morning. "Uh, yes I did."

The human frowned at the familiar avoidance that the demon did. "What did you find out?"

"Well uh..." Roman took a deep breath. "It turns out that they're all part of... the Red gang that you told me about."

Virgil's eyes widened. "Really?" The demon nodded, keeping his mouth shut. Of course that only made Virgil more suspicious. "What else did you find out?"

"Oh it's nothing, I just found out that they all live in the same area."

"I might be a bad liar, but you're somehow even worse, and you can't even lie to me. So I ask again, and you need to tell me, what else did you find out."

"Well... the Reds are actually... a cult. The same cult that kidnapped you and used you to summon me."

"What?!"

"B-but don't worry! I'm stronger than any of their demons!"

"The have de-" Virgil took a deep breath and let out a loud sigh. He put his hands into his face. "Why did I ask?"

Roman looked down in guilt. "You know... I'll do everything in my power to protect you. You will be..." The demon frowned as he tried to figure out how to reword what he was going to say. "I won't allow those cultists to hurt you if I can help it."

Virgil frowned at his hesitation when he looked up from his hands. He didn't comment on it though, not sure he wanted to know what it was about. "Okay," he nodded.

"Well, I'm sure you're wide awake now," Roman teased. "So why not get ready for school?"

The human groaned, but got up and made his way to his dresser. He pulled out a new outfit, having Roman look away before changing. He grabbed his makeup and made his way to the bathroom.

When he was done, he went back to his room to grab his bag and everything else he needed. He didn't want to climb back up to his room if he forgot anything.

Everyone else seemed to be either still waking up, or they had been up for a while now. Delores was getting food for the younger kids as Virgil decided to just grab some toast.

"Virgil, I forgot to tell you last night," Delores started. "Logan and Patton planned on taking you to lunch on Saturday! If that's okay with you."

"Oh, th-that sounds nice. Thanks," Virgil told her. For a moment he had forgotten about Logan and Patton. The reminder did make him feel a little better. Hopefully the worst of today will be the news Roman gave him, and whatever else the teachers throw at him.

~~~

Nope. The moment Virgil stepped off the bus and started walking towards the school, he wanted to turn right around and have the bus take him home. Janus was also there, having teleported ahead of them with Remus.

He turned and glared at Roman before hissing, "I blame you for this."

Roman whined, not because of what Janus said but because of the amount of demons that were around the school. They were all imps, low level ones too that probably couldn't even talk, but there were a lot of them.

Several sat on the edge of the roof like gargoyles, others sat around the school yard and the sign. Some stayed hanging from the pillars for the entrance to the school and hissed and growled at every student that walked by, but of course the students didn't seem to see them.

"I'm surprised they didn't do something like this sooner," Remus mumbled.

"What did you do?" Janus asked Roman.

"Nothing! All I did was look around!" Roman told him.

"You- Did you go to their houses? Roman, they have demons there! Of course they would have sensed you, did you not sense them?"

The demon frowned. "I did, however I didn't think they would do something like this!"

"Of course they would! You and Remus enrolling here put them on edge, and now you are going to their houses! You're going to put us in danger."

"Hey, I told him to," Virgil defended his demon. "I didn't think."

"Clearly not!" Roman growled at Janus. "I told you to stay away from them!"

"Why are you so afraid of them?"

"Because they know about me, and they know that I know about them! Why do you think they tried to summon Roman? They were obviously going to use him to kill me and Remus!"

Roman frowned. "You know about them, and you didn't think to tell us?"

Janus rubbed his face. "You don't need to know about them."

"Clearly we do!"

"Okay enough," Virgil said. "Janus, you need to tell us everything when we get home. Right now, I don't think it's safe to discuss this." He glanced over at the nearest demon, which was hanging from a tree and glaring at them.

Roman growled at the demon, his eyes glowing red. The tiny imp scrambled further into the tree, moving like a monkey, but it's many eyes still kept watch of them.

"I can't believe you two," Janus groaned. "Fine, when we get home we're going to talk more about this. Only if Roman tells me more about this stupid stunt he pulled."

Roman opened his mouth to argue but Virgil beat him to it. "Sounds fair to me. Let's just... get through this day without dying."