Put back together

47. Make it painful

Warnings: talk about murder, swearing, blood and injury.
Let me know if I forgot something!

Virgil didn't regret stealing from Patton. Not one bit.
Rituals were more witchcraft than pure magic like he used it but over the years of living together he and Persephone had both picked up certain things from eachother.
Still he didn't have too much faith in the talisman like thing (he didn't know what it was actually called and quite frankly he didn't give a shit) he had sewn together.
Still he had considered it his best chance to keep track of them.
He had chosen to track Patton because he had deemed him the one least likely to get left behind or abandoned by the other two. And he hadn't felt like stealing from all three and making this weird thing three times.

To be honest he hadn't expected the thing to work this well - if at all.
The distress it was radiating was about a subtle as the Big Ben's chimes when you're standing just next to it. Like, so close that it actually hits you in the face while chiming and breaks your nose.

The problem was that Virgil had little to no idea what to do.
Should he ignore it?
Take action?
If yes, what should he do?

He decided to find out what was going on first.

Giving in to the slight pull of a coming high he slipped out of his body.
It was hard to actually describe it - especially since he didn't want to use vague terms like 'soul' - but this in-between state of being-there and nonexistence was what mages sometimes used to imitate voices to influence people subtly. Just that actual voices couldn't physically interact with the world around them at all and tended to have no ulterior motives while giving their advice.

With little regard for how his body collapsed onto a heap of leaves he followed the magic connecting his talisman-thing to Patton.
With body it would have likely taken much longer to cross the distance between them and him but barely existing came with a few perks such as being able to cross over twenty miles in a few seconds.

The first thing he took note of was the thick fog of a swamp.
The second was Remus.

Remus looked... different.

That he was naked wasn't much of a shock, Remus had a weird habit of loosing his clothes in strange ways or for - at best - confusing reasons.
They had learned to just deal with it eventually.

The difference was more that Virgil hadn't seen him since when he had barely hit puberty.
Remus had gotten tall and wide. He had filled out and instead of the lanky teen Virgil remembered he was now looking at a muscular young man.

Then there was the fact that apparently he had managed to fulfill the goal he had set out to complete.
There was energy running in his veins.

And he was swinging a mace at Roman.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Persephone was going to pay for this.

Virgil collected magic, taking advantage of the noise of his adoptive brother trying to murder his crush and almost murderer, and let it go in a burst just next to Remus' head.

Using magic in this state was slightly uncomfortable and Virgil cringed at the feeling in his hand (?) as Remus collapsed onto the wood.
Then he pulled him into the in-between.

"What the hell?!" Remus looked around frantically and tried to poke his own motionless body.

"Stop that," Virgil told him. "We need to talk."

Remus looked at him in surprise, blinking a few times.

"Virgil?" Remus looked back down at his body and seemed to put two and two together. "Why did you stop me? They stabbed you, didn't they?"

Virgil sighed.

"I deserved it. And I stopped you because I don't want you to fucking kill them. I can protect myself, you know?"

He couldn't help the anger slipping into his voice but did his best not to yell.
Yelling was too close to screaming. He didn't want to risk crossing that line.

"Yeah, yeah, calm down," Remus puts up his hand in a gesture of surrender. "I get it. I won't kill them."

Virgil took a deep breath to calm down.

"But what makes you think you deserved to get stabbed?" Remus asked. "According to Perse it's a pretty bad wound."

"I fucked up. Roman was right to stab me. Besides... Do you know who his father is?"

Remus gave him a confused look.

"No. What does it matter?"

Virgil created a flickering image in the space between them of the man as he remembered him with a low hum.

"Oh," was all Remus said.

Virgil let the illusion fade and noticed Remus frowning at him.

"What?"

"If I can't kill him, can I at least kill that bastard?", Remus gestured to where the image had been just moments before.

Virgil shook his head.

"No. I want to do that myself," he decided, leaving no room for argument.

Remus pouted.

"Fine!" he then agreed, crossing his arms. "But you better make it really fucking painful!" he added and something dark glimmered in his eyes.

Virgil smirked.

"That was the plan."

He gave Remus a slight push back into his body and watched him stir before deciding that his job here was done.

He pulled himself back into his body and almost threw up.

Turns out letting ones body collapse in the middle of a forest to talk your adoptive brother out of murder was kind of a stupid idea with a god damn hole in ones stomach.
He had bled through his shirt and the pain was paralyzing.

Holy Gerard Way.

He brought a shaking hand to his stomach and screamed as the pain flared up.

Virgil hated using magic like this. Hated turning screams into energy even if it was so much easier compared to speech or humming.
And pained whimpers had never been good for it at all.

Trying not to let the darkness tugging at the edge of his vision take over he wrapped the magic around the wound tightly to stop the bleeding. The pressure made the pain even worse and he lost the battle against unconsciousness, slipping into the darkness.

So, I want to apologize for being gone for so long.
Something really bad happened in my private live and for a while I just couldn't bring myself to write anything.
I can't really guarantee that updates will come regularly again but at least I'm writing again and I can promise that I'll do my best.

I hope you're all doing well and staying safe!

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day!