True Deceit

Chapter 43: Thomas- The Meeting- Part 1

Each side was present in the living room, surrounding Thomas who was moments away from commencing the meeting. Virgil and Remus were curled up on the stairs, Roman and Deceit sat atop the large brown sofa and Patton stood beside Logan on the furthest wall.

"Yes, finally, we're all in one spot! No ones in prison, no ones being possessed by evil shadows, no ones wounded or panicking, finally!" Thomas cleared his throat. "So basically, I'm going to choose the first thing for us to discuss, and we will all take turns expressing our opinions on the matter. Then, we will come up with a fair conclusion and then move onto the next topic." He pulled his phone from his pocket and passed it Roman. "You are our time keeper. You ensure no one person is talking for over four minutes at a time, using the phone clock. Logan, do you have your journal?"

"Indeed I do," he nodded, pulling a pad and paper from his pants pocket.

"You need to record what people say best you can to prevent arguments surrounding who said what. Ok, let's do this! Firstly, let's start at the beginning. What happened to Virgil's journal?"

Virgil and Janus shared an apprehension look, before Janus slowly began to speak. "It's in my bedroom at the moment."

"Did you read it?" Virgil asked sharply, narrowing his eyes.

"Bits and pieces," Deceit responded vaguely. "Do you really want me to repeat my findings out loud?"

Virgil glowered. "Are you planning on giving it back?"

"Do I have to? I enjoyed having a glimpse into your mind." Virgil let out a hiss, to which Janus hissed in response.

"Hey guys, cut it out," Thomas raised his voice, clapping his hands together. "Janus, return his journal the moment this meeting is finished." Janus shrugged, raising his fingers in a mockingly Virgil salut.

"Whatever you say, Thomas."

Virgil barred his teeth momentarily, before glancing back at Remus who refused to take his eyes off his Father. 'I love you,' he mouthed silently. Virgil pushed him forcefully. "Hey! Don't worry Virge, I love you too."

"Okay, second topic," Thomas proceeded. "Where is the cell key, currently?"

"In the cell lock," Logan informed, adjusting his glasses. "Should we leave it there?"

Thomas shrugged indifferently once again. "I guess so. Ok, Third topic, who actually is the spirit of evil?"

"Well," Janus voiced, "The spirit of evil is a shadowed representation of me, Creativity and Paranoia." He smirked, watching as Virgil shuffled with discomfort at his name. "There was once a spirit of good as well, but according to him he was slaughtered."

"When did he tell you that?" Logan queried.

"Oh, many years ago. I've know the shadow of evil since I was around nine years old."

"Wow, how did you meet?"

"So you want to full story?" Everyone in the circle nodded. "Very well. I was tired one night, I was in a fowl mood. Virgil was a complete and utter crybaby for his infant years, so I had to continued get up and feed him. I loved holding him in my arms though." He hastily cut himself off from the memories which swam into vision, the gargling baby, Virgil's sweet innocent eyes. God he missed his son.

"Anyway," his voice cracked slightly as he powered on, "I started thinking about neglecting my selfish, distrustful nature for the sake of my sanity, caving in and reaching out to Morality for help. However, just as I had decided that would be my next course of action, a terrible shadow sprung from the darkness. He scared me, I was only nine after all. 

"However, he muffled my voice with my own hand before I could scream out to Remus. Then he told me he could teach me that little trick, as I'm sure you are all familiar with, and so much more. He explained to me the essence of being a dark side, and the position I was in as eldest. Then, he demanded I close the connection between the lights and darks to preserve that essence. Frankly, I quite liked that idea. It meant that Roman couldn't trash my living area for the fifteenth billionth time. However, I did feel some remorse for splitting up such a gorgeous pair of twins.

"The shadow must have sensed the seeds of doubt in my mind, because he got angry. He called me many bad things, and started to make threats against Remus and especially Virgil. I was quick to defend, and agreed to close the connection between the sides so long as he promised to only reign in spirit and not harm anyone. He also mentioned that if I shared his identity with anyone he'd murder me in my sleep. Anyway, after a few night of research and planning about raising my sons on my own, I informed Patton of my ideals and we closed connection. I then gave Remus a dose of my venom to ease the pain of loosing a brother. Not long afterward Roman and Remus reunited one night, to which I turned a blind eye, and the rest is history." 

Roman's eyes were wide. "So you did know about us! And you poisoned Remus to protect him?" Deceit nodded. "Oh my stars! I just thought you were punishing him for the vase, I thought you were so cruel!" 

"Believe me, I was cruel, but I did it out of kindness." Janus lifted his gaze to Remus, who smiled proudly, and then to Virgil. 

"You told me those lies about the light side, that they would hurt me," Virgil whispered. "You said all that to protect me, so I wouldn't cross over and anger the shadow of evil?" Virgil's cheeks were red. "I didn't know, I, I wouldn't have left had I known, I'm sorry." 

Janus raised a palm, signally Virgil to stop. "No, you would have left. A lot of what I did to you was beyond protection; it was abuse. I'm the one who should be sorry for that." 

"O-okay," Virgil stammered uncertainly. "Thanks."