Sanders Sides Oneshots and Short Stories

Haunting

Not requested.

Ship(s): Platonic Analogical, past familial Logicality and Logince, past platonic Loceit

Category: Hurt/Comfort

Warnings: Mentions of death

Summary: Logan has begun haunting a college student in his boredom. He doesn't expect the student to be able to see him.

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"I don't understand the point of this class anyway," Logan muttered, leaning back in his chair. Biology. What was the payoff for taking a class that dehumanizes you? The more he learned about the body and its systems, the less he felt like a person. Well, that was true, anyway.

The class was silent. Everyone ignored him, as always.

As soon as the lecture ended, Logan jumped out of his seat and began tailing his latest project; a 23-year-old named Virgil Black, who wore black constantly and sketched beautiful drawings in his sketchbook. Logan took up a new project every few months, where he would follow a certain student and learn everything about them. Perhaps that was creepy, but it wasn't like anyone cared. When they were out of the room, he'd pick up a pencil and finish the last question on their psychology homework, or supply them with helpful notes. None of his projects lasted very long, seeing as he got bored with them quickly.

Virgil went down a flight of stairs, his hands stuffed into his pockets and a purple bag slung over his shoulder. His hair was a tousled, messy black color, and fell into his eyes when he leaned forward. Logan was super interested in him, more so than his other projects. He followed closely, sliding down the railing instead of walking like a normie.

"You know, the biggest problem with the educational system in the presence of stairs," he rambled, hopping after Virgil as the student turned a corner. "I think that they should all be replaced with slides. Like, huge plastic slides that you would find at a playground, all winding and opening at each classroom. Really efficient."

Virgil quickened his pace. Maybe he was late. Logan tended to space out and not pay attention to details like that.

"Or, even better, if they had like full on jungle gyms and stuff leading to each class. That'd be really neat. Everyone could swing on the monkey bars and land on top of the slides, and-"

"Why do you keep following me around?" Virgil demanded, whirling around and glaring at Logan.

Logan blinked. "What?"

"You'd been following me for who knows how long before I noticed!" Virgil exclaimed, tossing his hands up. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"You... You ca-can see me?" Logan gasped. His hands flew to his chest, where he quickly checked his transparency. Same as always.

"See you?" Virgil scoffed. "Of course I can see you."

"Wait, but-" Logan shook his head, taking a step towards Virgil. "-but no one can see me! Or hear me, or feel me. Why are you any different? What makes you so special?"

"What?" Virgil stared at him incredulously. The disbelief hovering over him was palpable. "Why wouldn't I be able to see you?"

"Because I died four years ago," Logan said solemnly. He dusted off his tie. "I got pushed off the roof and fell to my death. I've been walking around the college invisible, ever since."

"Right..." Virgil spun on his heel and began to walk away. "See you never, creep."

"Wait!" Logan lunged forward and grabbed Virgil's shoulder. His hand went right through, rippling and flashing blue like it always did when he touched a living person.

Shuddering, Virgil sprang away from him, rubbing his shoulder. "Did you just touch me with ice or something? Why are you so cold?"

"Because I'm dead, genius," Logan spat. "And I'd prefer if you didn't leave the moment I discovered someone I can finally talk to!" Breathing heavily, he straightened his collar in a poor attempt at looking put-together.

Virgil hesitated. He slowly slipped his bag off and set it on the ground. "Prove it."

Logan tapped his chin for a moment, then stepped forward with one foot, and landed on empty space, about a foot off the ground. He brought his second foot up, until he was standing on thin air. He moved forward, jumping to another patch, then another, until he had reached a height of over 10 feet. Virgil remained on the ground, gaping up at him, brown eyes wide with amazement.

"Proof enough for ya?" Logan called down. "I can go higher if I wanted to!"

"No, no, that's enough," Virgil replied shakily. He leaned against the wall and rubbed his eyes in shock. "Come down before I freak out."

Logan took a single step off of his invisible platform, and sank easily to the ground, hitting the floor gently. "Now, can you explain why you can see me?"

"I-I don't know," Virgil whispered, threading his fingers in his hair. "My parents told me I could see things others couldn't, but they never told me about this. Maybe, um, tell me more about yourself while I try to calm down."

"Okay." Logan hummed slightly. "I lived with my dad, Patton, and my older brother Roman. My best friend was a pathological liar named Declan. Roman and Declan were part of the reason I died, actually. But I've forgiven them since then."

"What happened?" Virgil asked, massaging his temples. "If you don't mind."

"Nah, it's fine. I've long since gotten over it." Logan leaned back on an invisible chair, crossing his ankles. "Declan and Roman had this friends who weren't such great people. They did drugs and skipped all their classes, that sort of thing. One day, the two of them invited me to the roof for a surprise. I was closer to them than anyone else, so I trusted them. When I got up there, their 'friends' decided to play a prank on me by blindfolding me and dangling me off the roof. Well, when Declan told them to stop, they threatened to hang him over too, and Roman just watched. Eventually, they got bored of my terror, and Roman pulled me back over, but one of the jerks shoved Roman as a joke. He lost his grip on me and I tripped off the side of building, and, ya know, splat! The concrete was a mess, really. Anyway, I woke up on the sidewalk with all kinds of aches, and my whole family was there, crying. Declan was gone, and Roman was so upset he tried to overdose. My family moved to Oregon after my funeral."

Virgil gawked at him for several long moments, before saying, "And what happened to Declan?"

"I dunno. I never saw him again after that, but I heard rumors that his family admitted him to a mental institution in Germany." Logan might have seemed impossibly nonchalant about the entire situation to Virgil, but after being dead for so long, you get used to the morbid stuff. "So, tell me about you. What makes Virgil Black so special?"

"How about we go back to my dorm first? To sort things out?" Virgil wrung his hands anxiously. "I'll show you where it is-"

"Oh, I've already been there, multiple times." Logan waved him off carelessly. "Let's go."

"Wait, how do you know where my dorm is? And my last name?!"

"All in good time, dear fellow. All in good time."

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