Family Reunion (A Virgil Afton Story)

7- Into What He Once Was

   The sound tapered off as the sides sat there in shock. What was that? It sounded like a scream, and a horrifying one at that. Patton smoothed down the hairs on the back of his neck, and ran a quick roll call in his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Roman's pupils shrink in fear, then watched the side leap up from his spot on the floor and swiftly sink out of the room. That's when it hit him...

   Virgil opened his box.

   His eyes went wide as he jumped up from his place in Logan's arms and sprinted out of the living room, any common sense leaving his head as he ran to his son, the others following promptly. He rounded the corner of the sides' bedroom hall and slid down the hardwood floor on his fuzzy socks. Only did he stop when he reached his son's door at the end.

   He took a deep breath and reached to twist the knob, with Logan's hand on his shoulder and Remus and Janus in a heap on the floor after the former slid into the latter and knocked him over like a bowling pin. He almost laughed.

   Almost, until a new scream filled the void left by the first. Patton harshly twisted the knob, opening the door to reveal a princely side in tears, knowing he can't help the other figure in the room, lest all his memories be lost. Including those of the sides.

   Patton felt his own eyes spring forth in tears, as his paternal instincts kicked in and he lunged for his dark, strange son. He was stopped of course, by the only remaining side capable of logic, despite the wet drops coming from his own eyes. Logan never cried, and it stopped Patton in his tracks.

   That's right... we can't stop change.

   The sides had no choice but to watch Virgil transform before their very eyes, back into what he once was. They watched as Thomas's features drained from his face, leaving behind a freckled and pale complexion that was twisted into agony from his screams. His hair darkened from Thomas's chestnut brown to a near black that almost seemed to be tinged purple, and lengthened so it was lazily hanging, covering his forehead, neck, and part of his left eye. Thomas's milky brown eyes melted into a deep green that sparkled from his tears that pooled on the floor he lay on, eventually soaking the brim of his black tank top. His figure diminished from Thomas's wide shoulders and tall stature to someone about the size of a scraggly college student.

   They watched these changes with awe... until they realized the reason he was screaming and writhing in pain on the floor.

   Creeping up both his arms were horrible scars, with raised white lines that scored his flesh in a symmetrical pattern, each arm mirroring the other.* They were strange in the way that they formed distinct shapes, with sharp edges that no knife could make. They made their way further and further up his scrappy form, and Patton's eyes followed them up to his neck. His now dark hair shook with each sob until it  revealed his neck... that's when Patton lost it. On the back of his neck, blatant and big, two scars like parallel lines were etching from the nape of his neck into his scalp, disappearing into his hair.*

   He couldn't hold it in, Patton started crying for his poor boy. Not even the three sets of arms that wrapped around his torso and sunk to the floor with his body as it collapsed could comfort him. He wailed at the thought of what could possibly have been done to his kiddo to form such deep and painful scars.

   The tears were blurring his vision, and his glasses had fallen to the floor. He had no clue what he saw, but he could hear.

   He heard his sobbing. He heard Roman scream in anguish and rage for his beloved Stormcloud, followed by a short thud. He probably hit something. He heard shuffling feet over to Roman and heard his cries be muffled by what he could only assume was Remus's shirt. He heard fabric shifting as he felt Logan and Janus remove an arm each from his torso to wrap around and comfort the other.

   Soon the sound of his sobbing lessened as he realized...

   He could no longer hear  Virgil screaming.

   Roman seemed to notice it as well, as both sides were now at Virgil's side, holding his hands as he fell asleep.

   "It's okay, Virgie... you're okay now..." Patton whispered, his voice raspy after crying for what felt like hours. The emo's eyes were fluttering shut, and he was incoherently mumbling as he fell into his slumber. When his lashes finally met, and his eyes finally closed, Patton and Roman simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief, but not before hearing the Anxious side mutter a few sleepy, yet frightened words.

   "...I'm okay Sissy... it hurts..."

   "...get Dad...where's Momma?..."

   "...take care of Bub...promise?..."

   "...always...I love you, Mike..."

(A/N)- AAAAUUUUGGGGHHH!!!! That hurt to write! I'm literally crying while typing this. *Googles 'what to do when you put all of your comfort characters in pain'* I'm glad that's out of the way though. Now I can write the juicy stuff. Also, if any of y'all are wondering about the asterisks in the main story, those are either quoted from or inspired by a certain trilogy's first book.

I told you we'd have some FNaF stuff soon.