Reptile - Janus Angst

Chapter Eighteen

Patton shook Janus as the snake-like side's body went limp and his eyes went distant, causing him to drop his cup and spilling tea on the carpet.

"Janus? JANUS?!" Patton shouted, his voice overflowing with panic and confusion.

The others got up and surrounded Janus' unconscious form with a similar worry to Patton's.

Except Virgil.

Virgil stood up and sped over to Pain, grabbing him by the shirt and ragging him up off of the beanbag.

"What did you do?" he asked in a dangerously low tone. His voice was starting to layer, turning demonic. "What did you do to him, you damn bastard?!"

Pain let him talk with a bored look on his face until Virgil stopped and just glared at him, breathing angrily with dangerous eyes.

"Are you done?" Pain asked.

Virgil reluctantly dropped him and Pain quickly fixed his T-shirt then went over to the huddled group.

"Alright move it, people," he told them as he tried to step up to Janus.

They didn't move.

"What did you do?" Roman asked, his hand hovering over the hilt of his sword.

They were all looking at him with either wary eyes, aggressive eyes, or both.

"I didn't do anything," Pain started with his arms folded. He then looked at the unconscious snake. "Well I guess I did, tech-"

"Why?!" Patton asked with both anger and worry. "Why would you do this? I thought you were going to help us!"

"I am."

This added confusion to the mix of facial expressions.

"Forgive me but I don't see how drugging him helps anyone," Virgil said.

Pain laughed.

"Of course you don't. You wouldn't remember this would you? Or you either, Remus?"

Virgil and Remus shared a quick, perplexed glance.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"It was many years ago when you two and Janus broke down the linked door to my room to find me on the floor starving, barely conscious, and a lot more... animalistic," he said, his voice filled with reminiscence. "That was an interesting day to be sure."

He had everyone's eyes on him. They were less hostile, though, more curious.

"I remember figuring out the cause of my change," he continued. "You, Thomas, were but a young a child who'd recently read an enticing story about a fox who would cause trouble for other animals in the forest it lived in and, somehow, you added some of the fox's traits onto me."

Thomas looked down. He couldn't believe that this was the second time he'd done something like this.

"The horrified looks on your faces when you saw me," Pain muttered. "If it hadn't had been for the situation, they would've been hilarious."

He then focused entirely on Remus.

"You and Dee were the ones who put together the... 'cure' for me," he told him. His tone was bitter.

"'Cure?'" Remus asked with narrowed eyes.

Pain nodded.

"I suppose 'cure' isn't really the right word. More of a way of helping me get control," he said.

He'd been walking as he'd been talking, slowly merging with the small group until he was sat down next to Janus and pulling the unconscious side onto his lap, playing with his hair.

"I'm simply using the same method you two used on me when we were younger."

"Why? For revenge?" Virgil asked.

Pain rolled his eyes.

"Because I don't know another method and this was effective," he said only slightly frustrated at Virgil's constant aggressive nature. "Relax, emo."

"Because you're any different," Virgil shot back but he didn't push it any further.

The others looked down at Janus again.

Logan had pulled his notebook from his pocket and written everything down.

"So what's gonna happen now?" Thomas asked.

Pain lay Janus down on the sofa and got up.

"Now we let him work things out with himself," he said, his voice grim like he knew something less than pleasant was about to go down.