Erased - Analogical

[Chapter Ten]

|POV Patton|

"I'm right here..." an exhausted voice spoke from near the door. Shooting my eyes over to see who it was, I could feel my heart sink as I did.

It was Logan but... he looked horrific. He stood there, straightening his tie as his glasses were ever so slightly askew on his face. Behind his glasses, you were able to see the red rings under his eyes combined with the faint tear marks that trailed down his cheeks to his jaw & chin. But despite his seemingly frantic and unkept appearance, there was no emotion on his face. No distress, no upset, no joy, no hope. Nothing.

"I've checked everywhere in the mindscape and I checked out the entire light mind palace. None of the minor light traits have seen Virgil either..." he started pacing back and fourth into the room, "and there's no way he would be in the imagination because if he was, Roman would be able to sense him..."

"Oh? Well, Roman are you sure you don't sense anyone in there?" I questioned him, just for clarification. I was never really good at understanding each sides abilities around the mindscape in all honesty.

"No way..." Roman shook his head, "I don't allow people to just walk into the imagination anymore after a certain brother started messing things up in my part. Now, if someone wants to enter the imagination I have to be with them or give them permission, and there's no way I gave Virgil permission to enter."

"O-oh... I see," my eyes dropped to the floor before I remembered what me and Roman wanted to tell Logan in the first place, "but! Me and Roman think we've figured something out!

"Oh yeah, thats right!" Logans eyes perked up slightly as Roman agreed with me, "it's about Virgils room!"

And almost as quickly as the glimmer of hope in Logans eye appeared, it faded away, "tch... is this 'revelation' that you've had about how you can still feel anxiety in Virgils room, meaning he must still be ok and somewhere in the mindscape? If so, I already figured that out."

"I- you already figured that out? Then why aren't you happier? He's safe!" Romans words were clearly full of confusion at Logans actions.

"Because that's not all I noticed!" The logical trait raised his voice before taking a deep breath in and continuing his words, "sorry for that lash out... but, I noticed the colour of Virgils door and his room in general seemed darker than normal. Now, as our rooms are a direct reflection of a sides emotions, that can only mean that something is happening to Virgil and it's making his anxiety worse which is a horrible sign. And trying to figure out how that fits in with a side 'erasing themselves'... I-it just doesn't make sense!"

Logans deduction had left me and Roman speechless... we should have known that literal Logic would have noticed something we hadn't.

"W-well where is even left to search to try and find him?" I worried, "Logan, where haven't you been yet?"

He paused for a moment to come up with an answer to my question, "I haven't been to the dark side of the mind yet... the dark mind palace."

"Well duh! There's no way in hell we could go there! All of the minor dark traits in there hate us! You two have never been in there and I've been there once with Remus and I almost died!" Roman protested.

"But it's plausible that Virgil could go there...?" Logan suggested as he finally stopped pacing around the room for a minute, "I mean, we don't know how the minor dark traits view Virgil, so they may still be non-hostile to him."

"Ok but even in the situation where Virgil is over there, how the hell are we going to find him?" Roman huffed, "the dark sides, without a doubt, would try harm us, and we don't know our way around!"

"Well you're the creative side, you tell me the plan."

"Ahem! And you're the logical side! You should know what to do!"

"Guys!" I made sure to raise my voice so they both heard it clearly, getting them to cease their argument, "why don't we just.. I dunno? Maybe ask Remus and Janus to help us through there? Remus is- or.. was close friends with Virgil, and Janus owes us because he might be the reason for it all?" I knew suggesting we use the Dark Sides for help wasn't going to go over well with Roman, but I had hope Logan would be on my side and back me up.

And almost immediately, Roman started to deject the idea, "you want to use the help of those two?! Sorry Pat, but Remus isn't really that trustworthy of a guy & Janus is the reason we're in this mess!"

"Do you have a better idea?" Logan shot a glare over to Ro, getting him to trip over his words for a solid 30 seconds before he just replied with an eye roll.
"Butthedarksidesarenttrustworthy..." he mumbled under his breath like a little kid in a loosing argument.

I placed my hand on Romans shoulder as I stood up from where I was laid on the sofa, "I'm sure everything will be ok, Roman... even if we somehow got in there without the dark sides and found Virgil, we may not know how to get out. Janus and Remus know that place like the back of their hand."

The creative trait pouted his lips and sighed, "fine... whatever... but only call Remus right now! If we can do this without Janus, I'd prefer to."

Logan begrudgingly nodded his head in agreement and pulled his hand up in the summoning motion,
"Remus? We need to talk."

[970 Words]