scales of justice (janus + virgil)

chapter no. 9

 By the time Remus and Virgil stepped back into the house, Logan was at the table eating breakfast. He glanced up when the two of them walked in, shooting Virgil a confused look. "Hello, Virgil," he said by way of greeting, ignoring Remus completely. "Is everything alright? Why were you outside?"

"I just went to get a breath of fresh air, but I had company," he answered.

Logan's sharp gaze went to Remus. "Do we need to--"

"No, not him," Virgil interrupted. "Morticus."

Logan blinked in surprise. "I--oh. Well, I suppose my first question still applies... are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess, I'm just a little... confused," he said truthfully. "I don't know what's going on."

"I'll admit that's quite annoying, though Janus told us--" Then he frowned. "Wait a minute. I thought you were forcefully put to sleep."

"I'm not anymore, though those are details I'm not sure Janus has told you yet," Virgil explained. "He wants to get us all together again."

"For a meeting?" When Virgil nodded, Logan looked confused. "Why? We just had one."

"I think he wants to discuss something else," the boy in purple elaborated. "I don't know what it's about either. But earlier he said he made a deal of some sort, and that's why I'm awake."

Logan blinked. "That sounds... like something we need to talk about."

Virgil snapped and made finger guns at him. "Exactly."

"Very well." He adjusted his glasses. "Come let me know when the meeting starts."

Satisfied with that answer, Virgil started upstairs. He disappeared into his room, flopped onto his bed, and put his feet up on the wall, staring at the ceiling. It was quiet throughout the house, except for Roman angrily shouting from his room every now and then; Virgil guessed eventually that he was playing a videogame. He decided to go in there, since he had nothing better to do, and upon opening the door discovered that he had been wrong; Roman was staring at a piece of paper that he held in his hand as he paced the room. He glanced up when the door opened. "Oh, hey, Virgil, what's going on?"

"Are you okay in here?" A playful smile wove its way onto Virgil's lips. "I heard you yelling and decided to come check in."

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just reciting lines to myself," Roman answered, looking a bit baffled. "It's from a script that I wrote. I'm trying to act out all the parts one by one."

Virgil started to enter the room. "Can I do it with you?"

"No," Roman said a little too quickly. "I mean... I'm in the middle of reciting this."

Virgil's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Um, okay. I guess I'll leave you to that."

Without another word, he turned around and shut the door behind him. He snuck back into his room to see a note on his bed. He saw that it was written in a familiar neat script, but the message on it confused him.

Pack up items for a day trip. Meet me out front, unnoticed by the others.

While Virgil was hesitant to do so, he knew that Janus wouldn't send him a note like this unless it was something serious. His heart started to race as he gathered up his things, growing more and more anxious as he did. He shoved all of his things in a backpack, checking his path to the door and making sure no one was there. When he was sure the house was silent, he raced down the steps and slipped through the kitchen. He almost made it to the front door when he heard footsteps on the basement steps. He whirled around and tried his best to hide the backpack behind him as Remus emerged into the kitchen with a tall glass of a suspicious looking substance. Virgil tried to distract him from the fact that he was leaning against the front door by asking, "What the hell is in that?"