Running

"I want you to make a choice."

TW: Death mention, Cursing, Pills, Handcuffs, Murder mention

Roman's POV:

I have so many questions.

What was that? Why did he do that? Did Virgil do that, or was it someone else acting for Virgil? Did Melanie know he could do that?

I would ask Virgil all of these questions himself, but he got dragged off somewhere. He screamed so much his voice went hoarse.

Logan's dad baisically took charge of the whole lab, and threw the now 11 of us in this room. I feel bad for those three girls. They literally had nothing to do with it.

"So." Remus says. He's nursing a sprained wrist from getting thrown accross a large hall by Virgil, and even though I don't like him all that much, I'm glad he's alright.

"What was that, Mel? D'you know? I mean- If anyone here were to know, it'd be you." He continues, talking rather quickly. He does that when he's stressed.

She draws in a long breath. "We've grown to calling that part of Virgil a seperate name entirely. It doesn't happen much. Only when he gets too upset. He- He's never killed anyone before." She pauses. "That part of him, I mean. He's killed a lot of- anyway-"

"What do you call that side of him?" Zion asks, putting his hand under his chin and balancing his elbow on his knee.

"We call it Paranoia."

There's a silence, before Patton talks. "Why?"

"Did you see the way that Mr Johns was before that? He was terrified. That was Paranoia. If it were up to him, that man would've been smug and cocky until the moment he took his last breath. That's what Virgil does when he's like that. He drains all emotion. All emotion other than fear."

"Okay, but, this is the second time that Virge has neglected to tell us about a power that he has. Are there any more we should know about or should we wait until he kills someone to find out about it?" Janus says, very spitefully.

"I think that's it."

"Think? Or know?"

"Think. We only found out about that power when Virgil was fourteen. Who knows what else there is." She says, looking down at the floor.

Virgil's POV:

For a moment, I forget about every consequence in the world, and I think to myself.

I killed him. Fuck yes!

I. Killed. Him.

He's dead. That son of a bitch is dead.

Hopefully in hell.

No, not hopefully. Defineately.

And I'll probably see him there.

I tilt my head backwards and find myself smiling at the ceiling lights.

Now that I think about it, I don't feel guilty.
Why don't I feel guilty?

Okay, I've gotten over the fact that he's dead.. But it's right about now that I'm overwhelmed with fear of what's to come. What will they do to me when they get round to it?

The beeping of a keycard sounds at the door to the room I'm in. It's got white walls and a grey concrete floor. The lights are just about as bright as that in a hospital.

The room is also quite small, maybe the size of the little bedroom in every house that the younger sibling gets stuck with, all because they were born second.

Can you tell I'm a younger sibling?

Was. Was a younger sibling. Because, yknow. I killed my brother.

Anyway, the mechanical sound of a keycard clicking against the door fills the room, and a random man who I've never seen before steps into the room. The door locks behind him.

"G'devening, young man." He says, leaning against the wall, hands in pockets. He has a sort of dad-bod, and tanned skin. His head looks like it's been polished proffessionally. I smile at the thought.

When I don't reply, he speaks again. "That's a nice set of wings you've got there."

I look at the floor. "What do you want?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you clearly want something. You didn't come in here for a chit-chat, did you?"

"Alright, alright. We can skip the small talk. I have an offer for you, Virgil."

I consider this before deciding to be smug. "You know my name. What's yours?"

"Formally, it's Sir to you."

I raise my eyebrows in mock impressal.
"But since you're so kind, you can call me Marcus." The sarcasm drips from his voice like an ice cream melting under extreme heat.

There's a silence.

"Are you nervous?" He asks, out of the blue.
"No." I reply.

His eyes do a dance down to my left leg, which I'm just now noticing has been bouncing quite quickly while we've been speaking. I rest my elbows on my knee, stilling it.
"What do you want?"

"I want you to make a choice." He stops, and pulls a small pill bottle out of his pocket.

"You take this pill, and Mr Johns died under 'mysterious circumstances'."

I run my tounge along the front of my teeth and look at him in the eyes. Then to the pill.

"But, this pill will perminently deactivate all of your powers. Except for the wings, of course."

My fingers fiddle with the chain on the handcuffs connecting my left wrist to the chair I'm sitting in.
"And what if I said no?"

"If you say no to taking this, Mr Johns was murdered by you. In cold blood. And this state doesn't prosecute murderers too kindly."

Marcus waits about ten seconds for me to think. "Come on, you're a smart kid."

"I'm seventeen."
"I said what I said."

My eyes are glued to the pill sitting calmly in his hand.
It's white all around, and the bottle is white with an orange cap.

"Permenently?" I clarify.
"Permenently."

We wait a few minutes, and it seems he's decided that it's enough time.
"So, Virgil.." He balances the small white shape on his fingertips and a smile creeps accross his face.

"What'll it be?"

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Hi! So sorry I missed last week's update.

I just wanted to make this author's note really cheesy for y'all, and let everyone reading this know that I appriciate it so much. It makes me so happy to see people interact with this book.

This book was also recently added to somebodies reading list called 'Books that need to fucking update' and I've never felt more called out. It did make me laugh though :))

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great rest of the week and next week too!

Stay safe!

When I can't think of a title for a chapter, I just name it something random because you need a title to save, and I so nearly hit the publish button with the chapter titled "lawn mower"
Goodness Gracious