Erased - Analogical

[Chapter Nine]

-Possible TW for razors & insinuation of past SH-

|POV Roman|

I swear to Hercules I had to have gotten whiplash from how quickly all of that just happened. Logan pushed past me to leave the room in a hurry, clearly extremely emotionally torn, leaving me, Patton and...Janus alone in his room.

I had no doubt in my mind that my appearance to Janus must have come across as a mix of furious and disappointed, which in all honesty, I was. I just couldn't understand how someone could go from being such good friends with Virgil to being the reason Virgils missing. And as much as I desperately wanted to challenge that callous cobra to a sword fight right then and there to avenge Virgil in his absence, I knew full well I couldn't just abandon Patton while he was going through clear emotion distress.

One look at the friendly father figure told me all I needed to know about how he was feeling. The pupils of his eyes had dilated a significant amount as they were visibly shaking. His hand covered his mouth to repress any large bouts of upset emotions that were threatening to spill while hot tears were already streaming down from his eyes. Regretfully, I unsummoned my sword, knowing more violence against Janus would only put more unneeded stress on Pat.

Walking over to Pattons side, I held my hand out for him to take, trying my best to keep my strong appearance up no matter how much I felt like just collapsing into his arms. He took a moment of thought before intertwining his fingers in mine and holding onto my hand with a deathly tight grip. I pulled him slightly closer so he could rest his head on my chest and get some comfort while directing my glare over to Janus. He really did just look dead behind the eyes, unmoving and unemotional til his gaze matched mine. I squinted my eyes to sharpen my glare, making sure that Pattons head was completely leaning into my chest so he couldn't see the look of fury I gave the deceptive side.

"Janus," I spoke, my voice coming out more intimidating and pissed off than I intended it to sound, "get out of his room. Either go and sit in the living quarters or stay in your room. I don't trust you to be wandering around this place without anyone watching you." Well hey, atleast because my voice was stern sounding he had less of a chance to go against what I asked of him.

Without even a word of confirmation or a nod, Janus just got up and left the room in direction of his own room next door, leaving me and the moral trait alone. I was holding him tightly in my arms as I was able to hear his muffled sobs into my outfit, tightly holding onto my sash. In return, I leaned my chin on top of his head for a moment and placed one of my hands to the back of his head, softly stroking his curled hair.

"Pat... why don't we go and sit in the living quarters for awhile?" I suggested, softening my voice down, "we can relax there for a bit while we try and think of what to do. If Logan needs us at all then we'll be easy to find, and if... Janus wants to confess anything else to us, he can."

At first, I didn't seem to get a response before I heard a muffled "Mhm".

"Tch... c'mon, lets go try calm down a bit," I continued to reassure, letting go of Patton slightly so I could proceed to pick him up bridal style and carry him down to the living quarters. He seemed content with my actions, allowing me to be able to see a weak smirk grow on his face.

Once down in the room, I laid him onto the sofa so his head was resting on a pillow in replacement of my chest. The exhaustion in his eyes was so clear, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. It was so well known that Pat saw Virgil as his kid, so it really was basically like Patton was missing his son now.

"Roman..." Patton whimpered softly, "do you think Logans going to be ok..?"

I took a short sigh in at the question, still remaining standing in contrast to Pat who stayed laying on the sofa, "I'm sure he will be fine. Maybe he just needs some time, I know him and Virgil are close... but, we can still try and help him out here! I mean... all we need to do is find some proof that Virgils ok and safe! Because what does 'erase myself' even mean..." I began to ramble ever so slightly, "that's not exactly the wording I would use if I was gonna hurt myself. Plus, we can't even die through stuff like that! I mean, no matter how much it hurts or how much time it takes us to recover, we can't die unless an outside force is used. Not to mention , Thomas doesn't seem much different right now? But maybe it's cause he's had no reason to feel anxious & so we haven't noticed. Argh! Why is this so complex!" I began cursing myself.

After my brief ramble was done, I noticed Patton looked slightly zoned out? Like he was listening to me but just wasn't processing it.
"Hey, Padre? You feeling ok?"

"Huh-? Oh, yeah I'm fine!" Patton snapped out of it, shoving a fake smile on his face, "it's just Virgils room always makes me feel more on edge than usual, so I think I'm just coming down from that little anxiety peak."

"Oh, makes sense," I mumbled slightly before a realisation hit me like a ton of bricks, "oh my GOD PATTON YOU GENIUS! That's it!"

Pats face was just one of confusion though, his facial expressions asking me 'huh? What did I say?'

"You were still feeling anxious in Virgils room! If Virgil wasn't still present somewhere in the mindscape then we wouldn't be able to get that sense of anxiety in his room!" My voice exclaimed.

Like a switch was flicked, Pattons eyes lit up with hope, "wait so- you're saying there's still a good chance we can find him?"

Nodding slightly, I returned a smile to him, "that's exactly what I'm saying!"

"Well then, we need to tell Logan!" He declared before he stopped himself, allowing his smile to fade away slightly.

"Pat-? What's up? You don't look that happy anymore?" I asked, puzzled by the sudden change.

"Roman I- I need to show you something I found in Virgils room while Logan isn't here," he hushed his voice, "I just... don't want Logan to panic more over it, b-but I can't keep it a secret to myself!"

"I- uh, of course Pat, go ahead?" My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I watched Patton reach into his back pocket and pull out some kind of metal tin. Holding it out to me & placing it in my hands, he seemed to now be avoiding all eye contact with the item in question.

Slowly pulling the lid off, I was able to feel my eyes dilated at the view inside the box. Half a dozen razors, all laid out ontop of an ever so slightly stained red piece of tissue. It was sickening to even look at, thinking how harshly our friend must have been suffering that made him resort to such a thing. But now wasn't where I started showing any weakness, I needed to stay strong for Patton right now, no way he could see me break down over this revelation.

Scowling at the box, I pushed the lid back on and stormed out of the room for a brief moment into the kitchen, opening the bin and simply dropping the blades in along with the box.

"Don't worry Pat," I reassured as I came back into the living quarters, "they're gone, no one else needs to know anything about them for now. Especially Logan..."

"O-oh-? I mean... if you're sure?" He was clearly not trying to push with questions about what I just did, "so... should we go and find Logan now & tell him what we found out?"

Before I could even give my response, a voice coming from the doorway spoke.

"I'm right here..."

[1408 Words]