Paranoid

Fix me

Virgil had his hoodie up and hovered his hand over the door. He wasn't looking for acceptance. Just for guidance. He fixed it once, he can fix it again. He knocked lightly, three times, and waited. His leg bounced up and down in anticipation. He hasn't really seen Janus since he became, well, better. Remus stood over Virgil, with the same level of confidence as his brother. "Well what do we have here? Looks like I don't have to buy the ending of 'Finding Emo,' he's right here." The duke smiled as Virgil rolled his eyes.
"Where's Janus?" He put his hood down.
"That slimy little snake is with the others discussing something. He wouldn't tell me what it is though." Remus shifted the weight on his feet. "We haven't been the same since he's been helping Thomas."
"Look I'm not here to solve any type of relationship issue you two might be dealing with. I just need his help and then I'll get of your-"
"Ass?" Remus finished but was nowhere what he was gonna say. Virgil sighed.
"Yeah. Can I wait here?"
"Of course, the dark sides always have a place for you." Virgil walked in and sat on the couch. Remus followed behind after closing the door.
"I would've thought it would've disbanded considering."
"The light sides and us aren't that different you know. We just were just smacked with a different label. We want what's best for Thomas. Don't we?" Virgil didn't answer. He just needed to be fixed. "So why are you here, Virgil? You aren't usually crawling into daddy's lap like this." He looked at his shirt for a minute before grabbing the collar and pulling it down. The darkness was rising up his collarbone and up his neck.
"Dude!" He pulled back, releasing Remus's grip.
"I've seen that before." Remus started to chuckle. "Why are you afraid, Virgil?"
"I'm not." He tried to sound convincing but ultimately failed.
"You're here so Janus will fix you!" He began to laugh. Virgil grunted in frustration.
"Is it so hard to want to be normal?"
"Oh honey you can't with me. But it was never about me. To quote a great man, 'um bitch, what is your deal?' Why are you letting Janus change you?"
"This isn't about that."
"Isn't it? You're so afraid of yourself, you won't even be who you are. A dark side." Remus was beaming with jealousy over the small, anxious man. He was able to win Janus over so easily.
"I don't even know why I'm humoring someone who wants to dance on YouTube naked." Virgil stood in frustration, making his powers stronger. "You're trying to change me too. Change me back into the horrible person I was."
"Virgil open your eyes, man. You're forgetting who you were. You were one of us. You won't admit it, but you were happy as one of us too."
"NO!" His voice echoed as the room shook. Remus ducked with his hands over his ears. Virgil's hand went over his mouth as the other hand snapped. Remus was hanging by his hands as his feet dangled above the ground. "Listen! I can't do this anymore!" His voice was deafening as Remus struggled to cover his ears. The blackness rose up his body, acting as a cradle hanging over a treetop. As Remus struggled to get free, it got tighter.
"Oo kinky." Remus grunted but smiled. Virgil gagged in disgust.
"I'm sick of this! And I'm sick of you trying to change me!" Virgil covered his mouth again as he grabbed his throat and tightened his grip. He felt Remus gulp through his hand. "You don't know me!" A dark cloud formed over Virgil's thoughts. As if all he could think about was hurting him.
"Virgil..please stop. You're crushing me.." Remus choked out.
"You don't know what it's like to be an outcast! I don't belong anywhere!" Tears welled up in his eyes.
"But I do know..." Virgil snapped out of it and backed up. Remus gasped for air.
What am I doing? Virgil thought.
"This isn't right, I'm not a monster! I didn't mean to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you." Virgil tried to leave Remus hanging there.
"Where are you going?"
"Where I can't hurt anyone." He said before he vanished.
Meanwhile
Roman answered the door to see Janus standing there. He nodded gently. Roman hesitantly let him in, even if he'd rather prefer him outside. "Oh good, Janus." Logan smiled, shuffling his papers.
"Good thing someone here is happy upon my arrival." Roman rolled his eyes but Patton gave him a wry smile. "Okay what is it?"
"I brought you here because you know Virgil better than anyone."
"Most likely, though that boy does like to keep to himself." Janus admitted with no surprise to anyone. "But what brought this up?" Roman spoke up.
"He attacked Logan." Janus looked over at Logan. Patton chimed in.
"It wasn't exactly like that," he quickly defended him, "we just had a little disagreement. Virgil just had a panic attack. That's usual for him." Patton interrupted Logan. Janus thought for a minute.
"This isn't good. Did he have something on him?" Logan looked at his notes and nodded.
"Yes, an unknown black substance appeared on his fingers and grew in size quickly."
"You had to write that down?" Roman asked.
"Of course, to get everything correct to choose the perfect choice of action. So Janus, what do you think?"
"He's reverting back to his first self. Paranoia. He could really hurt Thomas if this gets out of hand, and it looks like it already has."
"Well what do we do?" Patton asked, innocently. Janus sighed.
"Virgil isn't the fighting type. But he is defensive, and can get scared easily. Our best effort would be to fight." Patton's eyes grew wide. Janus turned to Logan. "Do you need assistance for battle strategies?"
"I might ask for it in time, but for now no."
"Woah woah, kiddo, aren't you taking this a bit too far? Virgil is our friend."
"I know, but it's the only way to settle him down. We might have passed the talking things out stage."
"How would we know?" Roman asked. The room began to shake violently.
"Earthquake?" Patton asked.
"Very rare for Florida, Patton." Logan shook his head.
"We have to act quickly. That's Virgil. His voice can be deafening." Logan wrote this down in his notes.
"Wait, what about Remus?" Roman said, eyes widened.
"He must be with Virgil." Janus said.
"Do you think he'll work with us?" Patton asked.
"What choice does he have?" Janus said, leading them to save him.