Lies #5: Sanders

Chapter 15

Patton:

It had taken an hour of storytelling, but finally, Emile was finished. He looked extremely tired, as if he'd stayed awake for days. He probably has. This man- Janus, Emile, whatever- had sacrificed his entire life for an experiment to help other people. Everything Patton had known previously had been flipped onto his head and turned inside-out. He never ran away to be with a man. But he was honest about not loving Mom... It was all so hard to process.

"Do you understand now?" Emile began tapping his foot on the floor. Tap, tap, tap. "All of this has been in order to help people like you five. I know the things I've done are horrible to comprehend, but it was for the good of the world. Because of your cooperation to complete these tests, hundreds of thousands of people will benefit. Trauma can be healed through this method. People can learn to consider themselves as human, to admit to their mistakes, to be brave, to forgive themselves. They can learn that it is okay to ask for help when they need it, and in the end, that is the only thing that can cure them. I am proud to say that REMI is a complete success, although I could certainly improve the feature that switches hosts. If you experienced any glitching, that would've been caused by that. Luckily, that was a very rare circumstance."

Roman looked up, looking slightly lost. "That's what Remus meant when he said that I was supposed to be the weapon. I was really going to be your pet serial killer?"

"No," Emile sighed. "You were going to be my partner. If Remus had declined to do as I asked, I would've hired someone else. Of course, as he was a subject too, I knew that he wasn't going to say no. That is something I apologize for deeply, Remus." Before he could get another word out, Remus crushed him in a second hug. They all stayed silent, letting Emile lift his arms to hug Remus back in peace. After a long few moments, Remus let him go. "Thank you. I know you supposedly manipulated me into following your every order, but I also was going along with it more than willingly. Both of us did bad things, so I think we're even."

In a flash, Virgil had stood up and pulled out his small knife. He pointed it at Emile and Remus. Neither of them moved. "Enough of this, how about one of you two go and get Dante, Thomas, and Joan? Because honestly, I don't fucking care about getting past all my shit or whatever. Get the fucking kids here right now."

Emile nodded, "Of course. Remus, would you care to fetch them? I'm afraid that Joan doesn't... appreciate me very much." With a hum of agreement, Remus scampered out of the room. Virgil didn't lower the knife and remained where he was, continuing to stare with narrowed eyes at Emile. Roman stood up and took the knife, "Virgil, I think it's a given that nobody's going to be killed anymore. Don't worry about it."

"Oh, I'll fucking worry about it!" Virgil snarled at Emile, whipping out his other knife. "What were the individual tests for? Why didn't you just ask around for anyone who was traumatized? You didn't have to ruin all of our lives! My dad is dead because of Remus, because of you!" His whole body had started trembling with fury, his eyes nearly glowing with fire. Patton's own eyes widened, Is he going to attack Janus? I have to do something! Quickly, he jumped up and stood between Virgil and Emile. "Stop it! Virgil, if you hurt him, you'll be just like him. I know he did bad things, and trust me, I hate him as much as the next person. But we don't have to act on that hate, like Remus doesn't have to act on his intrusive thoughts. We can be better than him."

For a half second, Patton thought Virgil would shove him aside and murder Emile. But with an angry huff, Virgil stuck the knife back into his boot. "Whatever," he muttered and went to go sit down. Roman went with him and Patton turned around to face his father. "He's right, though. Why did you spend twenty years raising us with trauma when you could've found people who already had some?"