Come Back Home

Chapter 7

Dark

"Virgil! Can you come downstairs for a moment?"

Virgil sighed and made his way down the stairs.

"Yeah?" he called.

Deceit waved him over. "Over here!"

"What's up?"

"Oh I wanted to show you something," replied Deceit. "Sit down."

Virgil sat down. In an instant, Deceit was in front of him. He clapped his hands together in front of Virgil's face, making him jump.

"What are you doing?" asked Virgil warily. Deceit slowly spread his hands apart, and Virgil could see bright yellow strings between them. Virgil started to get up.

"Oh, no. Whatever you're planning on doing, not gonna happen to me."

Deceit stamped down on Virgil's feet, effectively stopping his escape, and quickly started reaching his hands behind Virgil's back, bringing them in and back again, over and over again.

Deceit was tying him down.

"What're you doing?" Virgil yelled. "What the heck d'you think you're doing?"

Deceit stepped back. Virgil could barely move, and was tied so tightly to the chair you could barely see his torso through the bright shine of yellow.

"Remus!" Deceit called up the stairs, still ignoring Virgil's protests. "Come down and watch the fireworks!"

"Sure!" called Remus, bounding down the stairs a second later. "Ooh," he said, stopping at the bottom and looking at them. "So it's happening, is it?"

"Remus, help me!" Virgil yelled, still struggling.

"Nah," replied Remus. "We go through all this trouble only to let it go? No."

"What.."

Virgil looked back to Deceit.

He had tears in his eyes.

"Dee..?" he whispered.

"Virgil," he began. He took a breath. "I can't lose you again."

Deceit grabbed Virgil around the head, not hard but still forcing Virgil to look at him.

"What are you.." Virgil said softly.

Deceit's eyes glowed bright. Virgil's head felt heavy. Suddenly, he knew what Deceit was doing.

He was erasing his memory.

Virgil squeezed his eyes shut tight, but Deceit forced them open.

Virgil's thoughts were swirling painfully.
Deceit grew blurrier and blurrier.

And everything went warm and dark.

Light

There was a giant shift.

Patton went careening into the wall, Roman grabbed the cupboard and Logan fell backwards over the couch.

"Just as I thought," said Logan, sitting up and fixing his glasses. Roman and Patton looked at him.

"Deceit's speeding up the process, to change Virgil."

"I'm going," Roman said immediately. "Now. No time for preparation, I'll go and see if I can find out what just happened."

"Okay, but be careful," replied Logan. "Virgil, for all we know, may have entirely shifted by now."

"I will," agreed Roman. He sank down.

Dark

Roman rose back up into Remus's room, like normal.

There was talking downstairs.

Roman walked downstairs, too incensed to care about being cautious.

"Where's Virgil?" He said asked bluntly, the second he was downstairs. Remus and Deceit turned around. They had been huddled together, fussing over something.

Deceit was grinning, in a way that scared Roman. "Right here."

Remus and Deceit stepped apart to reveal Virgil, looking dazed.

Roman rushed towards him. "Virgil! Are you-"

"Who are you?" replied Virgil.

Roman stopped short. "What?" his voice was barely a whisper.

"Who are you?" Virgil repeated. "Guys? Who is he?"

Remus piped up.

"Oh, he's no-one. Just my brother. Roman."

Virgil turned around to face Remus. "You have a brother?" He sounded faint, and that scared Roman even more.
"Yeah. But like I said, he's just no-one."

"Huh. Okay.." Virgil's voice trailed off.

"Well," said Deceit briskly. "Remus, it would be great if you would take Virgil up to his room. I'll make some food."

"Okay!" replied Remus brightly.

"Okay," echoed Virgil softly.

Virgil slowly stood up from the chair he had been sitting on. He gripped Remus's shoulder tightly. Remus helped him across the room, thumping Roman with his other shoulder on the way past.

Roman watched as Remus helped Virgil up the stairs, with Remus poking his tongue out at his brother when Virgil wasn't looking.

Deceit made his way to the kitchen. "So, Roman, if you'd like to go back to your corner of the Mind Palace, that would be great."

Roman walked straight over to Deceit and shoved a finger into his chest. "I have no idea what you did to Virgil," he said, voice low, "But I can guarantee we are getting him back, no matter what."

Deceit smiled. "Oh Roman," he said, in a worryingly singsong type voice. "Virgil's happy here. Can't you just accept that? You are not. Getting. Him. Back. Goodbye." Deceit stepped back and resumed the task of boiling the hot dog water.

"I will be back. And when I leave, I'm taking Virgil with me."

"Roman..." replied Deceit in the same terrifying voice, not looking up. "Virgil's not going anywhere..."

Roman sank down, almost shaking with rage.

Virgil, I'm coming to get you back, he thought. Deceit can't stop me.