Transcending Abnormality

Departure Board

It was dark by the time they arrived at the bus station. Logan was wrapped up pretty warmly - opting for a long black trench coat paired with a plaid scarf and dark blue gloves. Not his most fashionable, but, it wasn't really about that.

Virgil trailed behind him inside the building, wearing the combination of layers he'd collected earlier. Patton was unfocused, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings of the reception.

It was carpeted in a maroon red, with dark coloured walls too. In the centre of the room was a reception desk with boards of departures above it.

Logan placed two hands on the desk and sighed, looking down to the receptionist. A short blonde woman with bright coloured lipstick on.

"Can we have three tickets to Arcas please?"

Arcas was a town a few hours away - a nice place, with a shopping scene. Virgil sighed, dropping his duffel bag to the floor and sitting down on one of the waiting room seats. He was pretty exhausted.

"How old are you, young man?"

"Twenty."

"You travelling with any under eighteens?"

He stopped a moment, turning to Virgil upon the realisation that he had no idea how old the boy actually was. Well, he knew he was college age, but people did that at different ages.

Virgil recognised this silence and glanced up to see Logan looking at him.

"Oh, uh, I'm nineteen. Patton is five."

"I'm gonna need to see ID for all adults travelling. The kid goes half price."

Logan turned, nodding. "Your ID, Virgil."

Virgil grimaced, embarrasedly pulling it out of his pocket and walking up to the counter, anxious but placing it down on the counter nonetheless.

Virgil's ID photo was taken when he turned sixteen. It was right in the peak of his 'I have to wear copious amounts of dark-coloured makeup that obscured my face in order to look presentable' phase.

In this particular picture, he had spikes of eyeliner going downwards from his eyes, with purple eyeshadow under and on top of them. His hair was coloured a mid-green at the tips. He'd been choosing a new colour every few months to regulate his 'individuality'.

Ah, the joy of being sixteen and emo.

To be fair to himself, he'd been meaning to get a new photo taken for a while. Life had just been a bit busy.

Logan's ID photo was fairly new, taken only about four months prior. The only real difference in it was that his hair was slightly shorter. 

The woman took the cards, scanning over them, then behind the desk, she carried on her job, printing out three tickets.

"That'll be $320 then."

Logan took four hundred-dollar bills from his wallet and gave them to her, thanking her quietly before leaving with Virgil on his tail.

Patton gasped excitedly when he saw the bus they were going to take. It was large, and black with tinted windows. An expensive company.

Despite the excitement from the boy standing at his feet, Virgil didn't feel too optimistic.

"Alright, let's get out of this fucking town."

—-

Janus sat in his office, idly. He had a lot of thinking to do.

He hadn't seen Virgil yet, he must not have come home from school. Janus hoped everything went okay, because, if it didn't, he was royally fucked.

He flinched back in shock when Remus Hanley appeared in his office.