Baited~ Book 2

2

(TW~ Mentions of: Suicidal thoughts, Abuse, self harm, death, and torture.)

"Roman I think it would be best if we..." Janus shook even more losing himself to what he was seeing. The screams of his mother as his father struggled to fight back against the men that wanted them dead. He felt so small again and he didn't like it. He felt like he was that little boy again watching as his parents got killed in front of him.

"D-Don't leave me... D-Don't... I'm..." Janus could feel his throat closing up on him as the tears steadily fell down his cheeks. His vision burst out in yellow as he sat there falling victim to the past. "Don't hurt me."

"Roman..." Logan didn't know what to do. His brother was just sitting there staring at Deceit with this dark look meanwhile the snake was having some sort of attack. Logan could see the translucent snakes wrapping around Deceit as he nearly stopped breathing, both eyes glowing a bright yellow. "Roman, we should leave."

"Nah, I think I'm gonna stay and..."

"ROMAN!" Logan grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him up, snapping him out of whatever thought he was lost in. The purple died down in his eyes as he looked over at Deceit again. "We are leaving."

"We can't just leave hi... ok. Let's go." Roman spared only one glance back at the broken man chained to a wall. Janus felt it as their gazes left. He didn't hear the door close but he knew they were gone and the world quickly plummeted into the cold. His snakes wrapped around him so tight it was hard to breath as he struggled against his thought. Images flashback and forth... some of Virgil before and after Deceit hurt him. Some of Roman when he was kidnapped. But mostly all he saw was of his father and the betrayal. The very betrayal that twisted Janus up until he was that monster Roman was so adamant to call him. He wasn't a monster. Janus wasn't a monster...

Deceit was.

He deserved this. Roman was right. He deserved to be locked up. Even with all this he was still better off than Roman... or Virgil. Especially Virgil... The things Deceit did Virgil was horrible. The mental emotional torture... Got Virgil very nearly ripped his wings off just for a chance at freedom only for Deceit to electrocute him and put him right back in those chains.

But why? Why would he go that far? Why would he do all that to him? Why would he try to push him and break him? What could Deceit have gotten from that?

Janus cried into his arms as his scrambled mind search for some kind of an answer. Why was it that Janus loved Virgil, but at the same time Deceit didn't. It wasn't like they were two separate people. Janus was Deceit but... not. Deceit was what Janus became after all that... madness finally broke him.

The abuse and finally the betrayal from his father resulting in the death of his parents right in front of him. The mental and physical abuse from his 'master' who took him in after killed them. The betrayal of his friends who threw him under the bus almost getting him killed. The struggle of servicing on the street by himself supporting and defending against other thief and bad guys. None of it even ended after the king found him. It was training and madness after that too. Spending the rest of his childhood training to near death to use his powers... doing all he could to prove he was worth something so he didn't get shoved aside or worse. Patton basically raised him. He was more a father to him then the king. He cared about his adopted brother and his only friend... who Virgil... no. It was who he killed by trapping Virgil and setting him off.

Virgil was a need break from all that. With Virgil he didn't have to be Deceit. He could be Janus and be judged. So why... why did he...

Janus loved Virgil. Even now he still cared for him if not as much. When they met Janus nearly had an attack seeing that man on the cliff. Pulling that broken man away took all he had in him, but he was grateful he did. He spend most of his nights just being with Virgil trying to help him and give him the love he never got before. It was all real. Until... Until something snapped. Janus didn't even remember what it was that changed. He doesn't remember why he did any of that, just that he did.