Misinformation Can Be Deadly

Chapter 26: Some Secrets are Best Left Undiscovered

CW: talk of death and curses

Virgil closed the door behind him, glad it was a Friday. He was going to make his way upstairs when he was stopped by Delores.

"Oh! Virgil," she called, picking up a small bag. "Patton and Logan had gotten you something, they dropped it off earlier today."

"They did?" Virgil questioned, stepping off of the first step of the stairs and making his way over.

"Yeah, I think you'll like it." She handed the small blue gift bag over. Virgil frowned in confusion, wondering what in the world it could have been.

He took out the tissue paper and his eyes widened. Speechless, he pulled out a small white box. "They... got me a new phone?"

Delores nodded excitedly. "They wanted to help you out since your last one was destroyed. There's also new earbuds in the bag!"

Virgil looked in to see there were indeed purple earbuds. As well as a small note. He put the phone back into the bag and grabbed the note, opening it to read, "We felt like you needed a new phone, no returning it to us! We already put our phone numbers in it, we hope you like it!" It was signed by Logan and Patton, and Patton had put a heart next to his name.

"This... this is too much," Virgil said, looking back up with tears in his eyes. "I-I can't-"

"I told them that you would feel that way, however they said they will refuse to let you return it to them." Delores put her hand on his shoulder. "They really want to adopt you, and they seem to want to be good parents."

He nodded and blinked back his tears. "I-I'll go upstairs and call them, tell them thanks."

"That sounds like a good idea. Oh, and tonight's leftovers, don't forget to get something to eat later."

"Okay, thank you."

~~~

Roman sat on the other bed, sitting still as he meditated, a bandage wrapped around his finger where he had cut himself. Meanwhile Virgil was still on his new phone, having already downloaded all of his old apps and set them up. It was late at night, the sun had gone down hours ago, but Virgil didn't want to go to sleep just yet.

One joy that having a phone brought was having google again, the only computer in the house was Delores's and was kept in her office. She hardly let any of the kids use it, and Virgil always had too much anxiety to ask.

So any questions he had could be looked up on his phone. He no longer needed to look up how to kill Roman, but he did have other questions. He wanted to know more about the demon's past, including those he worked with.

He only remembered three names that Roman had said, the Dew Flower and Sea Searcher ships, and the Rose Castle. He looked up the Dew flower first, finding several articles about them.

They were a benign pirate ship, one that had found many treasures and had gotten into several fights with both France and England ships. Most importantly, they often had freed slaves from slave ships, taking control of it and steering it back to Africa, though they were only able to free so many.

Virgil smiled as he read on about their deeds. It was clear that Roman had been contracted to them, considering the amount of dangerous stunts they had pulled and survived.

Scrolling down one article about them though, he reached the end titled "Their Grisly Demise." Virgil's heart stopped and he frowned, reading the short paragraphs underneath that described what had happened to them. They had attacked by the English, and executed for their crimes on the spot.

Virgil frowned, not sure if he should believe it or not. If they were contracted to Roman, then how could this have happened? Roman wouldn't have let it happen... would he?