I'll Find You... I Promise

Chapter 5

Janus had never really been very creative or social. He wasn't all that great with people younger then him. Like, what did kids at that age know? What were the allowed to know? What was he allowed to say? Obviously he wasn't going to go having a conversation with a six year old about how babies are made, but is that an okay conversation to have with a twelve year old? What bad words were they open to? Stupid was one of those low key ones, so was darn. But, what about 'hell' and 'shit'? Those were like, mid-teir swear words. Words that wasn't too terrible if a sixteen year old said them and maybe even fourteen year old could get away with it but could those younger than that say them?

It wasn't like Janus could just fall back on his past experiences because his past experiences weren't all that helpful or relatable. Even those that were, it seemed, weren't quite the real, society set, expectations people needed. So yeah, Janus tried to distance himself from kids younger than him. He didn't want to risk making any mistakes. He didn't want any upset parents coming to him angry that Janus had accidentally had a conversation that was maybe just a little to mature for little Billy Bob.

Virgil had always been the exception.

That kid could get Janus to do absolutely anything and all he needed to do was give Janus those puppy dog eyes, and a "Please [insert heartfelt nickname here]". Thats all it would take for Janus to tear the world apart for his brother. And that little shit knew that. Janus knew Virgil knew that because he would always get that look in his eyes before he broke out those puppy dog eyes. That 'Oh Really? Well, Let's See How You Feel About It Now' look that basically told Janus that there was not a single chance that he was going to win this.

Yet, Janus being aware that his brother took full advantage of this weakness did not mean the superpower suddenly stopped working. No, if anything, it worked even better. Because for some stupid ass reason, Janus always got strangely proud of his brother whenever he managed to snap out of his brothers seemingly hypnotic spell. Because Janus had helped make that manipulative yet innocent little brat. After all, who else would've taught the kid how to trick people? How to lie to them, and make them think whatever you want? That was all Janus, and the fact that his kid-brother was taking those skills and using them against him, well... Janus couldn't exactly say he was against the idea.

But, apparently, Virgil was not the only one who was able to drag janus into his childish shenanigans. Apparently, Virgil was a fan-fucking-tastic teacher and could pass on his 'Manipulating Janus Into Doing What I Want' knowledge to others by what was probably witchcraft. Apparently these twin demons were crazy fast learns. And apparently, Janus was easy pray against peer pressure as long as that peer pressure came in the form of a bunch of gremlin children.

Because that is exactly how Janus found himself stuck in a game of pretend featuring Janus as some sort, quote unquote, "Evil-Alien-Wizard-King" with "Super-Evil-and Scary-Demon-Powers". With Remus, that was apparently the twin in green, as his evil hench men, Roman, the other twin, as the prince/hero of the story and Virgil as the princes best friend whose also a "knight and he has really cool not evil demon powers because secretly he's the evil alien wizard kings brother except Virgil is a good guy cause if he's not then that's to many bad guys and I gotta win because evil never wins and good always does and I'm a good guy and Virgil's a good guy so we gotta win."

Oh! And let's not forget what they were fighting for, because how could Janus ever do something so silly and stupid, that would be just ridiculous now wouldn't? Bitey, who Janus now knew had been named by Virgil and was a weighted stuffed animal you could toss in the microwave to warm up and was specifically made to help people with anxiety, autism, panic disorder, and a few more, was Janus's hostage. Or according to Roman's much more specific and extravagant description he's "A prince from the bat kingdom whose secretly a vampire."