On the Side of Insanity (A Sander Sides Fanfiction)

11. Virgil's and Roman's

Virgil curled up in a faded purple plaid shawl and sat in the dirty room lined with boxes. Rats scurried around him. His eyes were red. He wasn't supposed to be in here.

Still, it was quieter than anywhere else.

Suddenly he felt a fierce tug on the purple shawl. He tried to yank it away from the rat who'd taken hold of the corner. He reached out and grabbed the rat. It struggled and bit him but he squeezed it's neck.

Pop. The rat went limp. Virgil tossed it away and got up. He opened the door a crack and peeked out.

A small group of people shuffled past. Several adults and around six children, roughly Virgil's age. Most of them were boys but one or two were girls.

It was nothing that concerned Virgil so he stepped out and was about to dart away when one of the adults grabbed him and shoved him into the group.

"No, I'm not-"

"Shut up."

Virgil fell silent and followed.

They were pushed into a dark room. When the door shut the only light came from a barred window high on the wall.

Everyone spread out and sat down except Virgil. Everyone here was obviously off their rocker except Virgil. He wasn't sure what to do. Then he noticed one of the boys was silently crying. The boy wore a muzzle and had a shock of white hair above his forehead.

Virgil awkwardly crouched by him.

"It's... alright," Virgil whispered, trying to be comforting though he wasn't sure what was going on.

The boy's eyes flitted up, searched Virgil's face, met his eyes, then dropped.

"Will you bite me if I take off your muzzle?"

The boy shook his head.

Virgil reached forward and undid the buckles. It sort of stuck for a moment and then came free. Blood from rubbed and blistered skin had glued it to his face. Virgil wondered the last time it had been taken off.

Virgil wet one corner of his shawl on his tongue and lightly rubbed at the boy's face. The boy winced and leaned back.

"Sorry," Virgil whispered.

"You're hurt," the boy's voice was hoarse. Probably because it hadn't been used in awhile and he had been crying.

Virgil looked down at his bloody thumb. "Just a rat bite."

The boy suddenly seized Virgil's hand and licked the blood off. Virgil pulled back, startled.

"Better?" The boy asked.

"I... I guess?"

"I like your cloak."

"Thank you. It was my mother's."

"Is purple your favorite color?"

Virgil nodded. "What's yours?"

"Green."

"Hi, Green."

"Hi, Purple."

"I'm Orange," someone else whispered.

Virgil smiled at his new friends.

"Hi, Orange."

***

A/n: FYI, for those who are not obsessed with Shakespeare like I am, the Comedy of the Errors is a really funny play about some twins that were separated at birth. One is given (sold? I can't quite remember) to a richer family and the other remains with a poorer family. At the same time there is another pair of twins that were born into a serving family. So they are separated and each of them goes to the other twins to be servants. One day when they're grownup the poorer twins happen to venture into the city where their other twins are. Instantly everyone is confusing them for the other two men and they even mix up the servants once or twice. At one point the goldsmith gives the poorer twin a gold chain and asked to be paid later. As the poorer twin didn't order this he's not sure what to do and obviously can't pay. After a bunch of (really funny) scenes the twins finally come face to face and they figure everything out.
I don't know if I explained this correctly, or if it made sense, so it would be safe to just google it.
Also, Roman is somewhere in his late teens in this flashback, unlike the others who were eight (Logan) and fourteen (Remus and Virgil).

Roman sat in the back of the theater and watched some of his friends practice on stage. They were performing the Comedy of the Errors and Roman was the gold smith. But they weren't currently practicing his scene so he just waited.

They only had one set of twins working at the theater so through some makeup magic they had transformed two other actors who were somewhat the same height and build into identical twins.

As Roman watched he suddenly felt a pang of loneliness for his own twin. They probably would have scored one of the twin roles, easy peasy.

But that wasn't really why he missed him.

Remus and him had been quite close. Sure, they would get angry at each other but after a few hours of bored sulking they would find each other to play a game. Remus had been weird but that's what had made him the best brother ever.

What if Remus trapped was trapped somewhere and Roman had to go break him out?

Roman sat back and drifted into a daydream.

A/n: Heyo. Sorry, that was shorter than I realized it would be when I planned out the chapters. This one was supposed to be way longer but then I changed what I thought I was going to have Virgil's memory be.