Chapter 53: Everyone is Falling Apart in Different Ways

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CW: blood, kidnapping, hospital, overstimulation, self deprecating thoughts, mental break downs

Pane stumbled when she teleported away. There was a deep gash on her shoulder, and her wings were cut up badly. There were a few other scrapes and cuts littered about, making her dizzy. She was weakened, and needed somewhere safe to rest.

"Those damn demons," she growled, walking off.

She seemed to have teleported in some neighborhood, though it didn't seem familiar. Why did she go here? Did she mean to?

As her senses returned she realized that there was a heavy presence of demons in the neighborhood. She gasped and summoned her bow, pulling back the string as a few imps crawled out from behind bushes and cars.

"Oh my, you've certainly had quite the fight," a voice said. Pane turned to see a woman walking down a driveway. She seemed to live in the house behind her... "Why don't you come inside dear, we'll take care of you."

She was talking to Pane. She could see her. And she's dangerous.

"Who are you?" Pane asked.

"Someone you'll get to know very soon." The woman snapped her fingers, and all the imps closed in on Pane.

The archangel shot as many as she could, but one jumped on her back and threw her off balance. Another jumped onto her arm and grabbed the bow from her hand.

"Hey! Stop it! Stop it now!" Pane shouted, trying to pull the imps off of herself. It didn't take long for her to be overwhelmed.

~~~

Patton slammed the hospital door open, running to the hospital bed so fast he almost tripped. Janus was sitting next to the bed, his ankle healed but the cut on his cheek had to be bandaged up. He looked down at the ground in shame.

"Oh my god, Virgil!" Patton cried, tears sprouting to his eyes as he grabbed onto the hospital bed to keep himself from cradling his son.

Virgil was unconscious, laying still in the hospital bed. There were tubes going into his nose to help him breathe, and that annoying, yet comforting, beeping from the heart monitor. Bandages covered his shoulder, peeping out from the hospital gown. His skin was pale, and sweat covered his face.

Logan put a hand on Patton's shoulder and held him close. "What happened?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Janus brought his legs up and hugged himself. "Um... I-I don't know the whole story I..." What was he supposed to say? "I'm sorry." Tears dripped down his cheek, some being soaked up by the gauze taped on his cheek and stinging his cut.

Logan walked over to him and put his hand on his shoulder, rubbing his thumb in a comforting circle. "It's okay, you don't have to say right now. Maybe when Virgil wakes up he can tell us?"

"He-he," Janus hiccupped, his face burning in shame. "His shoul-shoulder was in-injured b-but the doctors s-said he'll be o-okay."

Logan relaxed slightly. "Thank you. Take some deep breaths, okay? Everything will be alright. Do you know where your parents are?"

"They-they should be c-coming soon." Janus wiped away the tears from his face but they kept coming.

"That's good, let's just work on calming down, okay?"

Patton bit back his tears, shutting his eyes tight as some trailed down. He hated this. He hated the smell of sanitization, he hated the heart monitor, he hated the noise from the lights and how bright they were, it was making him dizzy.

He stepped back and sat down on a chair, putting his hands on his face. How could they let this happen? How did this happen? They came home and found the window broken, shattered from the outside no less, Virgil was missing, and then they got a call from the hospital. Was he kidnapped? If so, what was Janus doing there? He seemed to be hurt too... What happened?

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