The day of the party approached rapidly.

Roman had insisted that Virgil come along with him and his friends, and the thought of spending any time with Janus Orm's friends sent his stomach twisting in knots. Still, he agreed with a smile on his face, because he would never deny Roman anything.

Before the party, he spent hours rehearsing his smile in the mirror, trying to find something that could mask how nervous those two friends made him. He couldn't stop thinking about that night, about the photo on the nightstand, the last thing Janus had looked at before...

The shadow in the corner of his room chuckled.

Virgil grit his teeth, looking away from the mirror, and walking into the bathroom. He quickly splashed some water in his face. He needed to stop. When he looked up at the bathroom mirror, Janus was smiling right behind him.

He whipped his head around, but there was no one there. Virgil growled, looking back at the mirror. Janus was still there, that same stupid smile on his face. Just seeing his face caused irritation to spike within Virgil. Since the day he'd first appeared, Janus was a constant presence in his life.

Silent, smiling, dead.

"I'm sick of looking at your fucking face." Virgil snarled to the ghost in the mirror. Janus, unsurprisingly, just smiled in response.

His phone rang on the bed, and when he blinked Janus was gone. He scoffed, walking back into his bedroom and looking at the contact.

Roman.

A smile almost immediately made its way to his face. He answered it with a click. "A call from royalty? To what do I owe this honor, your majesty?" He asked, putting on an obnoxiously fake regal voice.

Roman gave a light laugh that sent a love so fierce through him, it almost hurt. "You're on speaker, Virgil."

"Hey~!"

"Hello."

"Hi!"

Virgil went bright red as the voices of Roman's friend group filtered through the phone. "Hello, everyone." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm gonna guess that you're outside."

The one time he tries to be cute. This was why he preferred the whole dark and brooding thing.

"I'll be down in a minute." He hung up before any of them could reply.

—

When he got into the car, he poignantly avoided eye contact with everyone.

There was silence for a few moments, and Virgil wanted to crawl into a ditch. He couldn't say he had spoken to anyone except the twins alone, before. Even then, his interaction with Remus' was brief and kind of terrifying.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He had been paired up for a lab with Logan Berry once. Though, he didn't really do anything besides watch the other work, not wanting to mess anything up.

Surprisingly, the one to break the silence was Patton Libum. "Hey, Virgil! How are you?"

Virgil blinked dumbly for a few moments. "Oh. I'm, uh, good." He stammered, and then mentally cursed himself for stammering. "What—uh—what about you, though? How have you been with...y'know...?" End him now.

Patton's smile went a little sad, and Virgil felt awful. "Oh, it's been...better." He looked away, letting out a little sigh. "Taking it one day at a time, y'know?"

"Yeah." Virgil muttered, not quite sure what to say.

Logan placed a hand on Patton's shoulder. "We have each other." He smiled, though it was a small one. "So, we'll be okay."

Virgil looked down at his hands, which had clenched into fists at some point. These people...they had loved Janus. His tormentor, the one who saw it as his personal mission to make Virgil's life a living hell, that Janus. He didn't understand. From what he could tell, even from that brief encounter, these were good people.

What did they see in Janus that no one could see in Virgil?

He looked over at Roman, who was rubbing his brother's arm soothingly while Remus zoned out.

No one except Roman, that is.

Virgil pursed his lips. But Roman had loved Janus too. Enough to consider leaving Virgil for him. Why? Was Orm really that good of a manipulator? Was he able to sink his teeth so deeply into these good people that there was no escape? Were they brainwashed into believing that Janus was like them?

Or maybe Janus really was like them, and whatever Virgil had done was so heinous that he never got to see it. Death threats, Janus had said. What on earth could he have been talking about? He wishes he had asked for answers instead of just brushing it off in his shortsightedness. What if Virgil really was threatening Janus, somehow, in a way that he wasn't even aware of?

Did that make his act one of a villain, finally going through with what he'd been threatening to do for who knows how long? What he thought was his form of divine retribution, finally paying back all the pain that Orm had inflicted upon him in one final act of justice, was really just him pulling Janus fully into the tar pit that he'd slowly been succumbing to for years?

He felt sick, and the shadow in the mirrors of the car laughed and laughed and laughed.

Virgil released a shuddering sigh.

Logan Berry glanced at him, and then started the car.

—

Logan pulled up to Remy's house, and they all clambered out like clowns out of a clown car. The entire drive had been composed of idle chatter, with Virgil remaining silent the entire way there. He just listened to these people talk, and wondered if in another life, he would've been friends with them too. If maybe in some alternate reality, things between him and Janus could've ended differently after all.

Patton turned to Logan the second he climbed out of the car. "You have to be back by 11, don't forget." He lectured the driver, who stared at him blankly.

"Go away." Was Logan's reply, though there was no heat behind the seemingly hostile command.

Roman, beautiful, bubbly, and bright, gave Logan a cute little wave. "Bye, Lo!" He chirped.

Logan didn't reply, and just drove away.

Light incarnate had bid him farewell, and he couldn't even acknowledge it? He either had extreme willpower, or was completely oblivious. "Wow, rude." Virgil snorted, though he had so much more to say about the matter.

"Oh my God! Ree-Ree! Ro-Ro! Vee-Vee!" Came from someone walking out of the house. Virgil turned, and Remy stood there with a cheshire grin on his face. In his hand was a drink that Virgil could guess contained alcohol, and around his neck was a belt that likely belonged to someone else. "You made it!"

Virgil paused, processing. "Vee-Vee...?" He murmured.

Remy turned to Patton, patting his head. "And who's this little guy?"

Patton blinked his blue eyes up at him, a confused smile on his face. "I'm Patton!" He beamed, holding out his hand for a handshake.

Remy shook his hand, his eyes going a little teary. "Oh, you're so cute! Tell me, babe. Do you know what a hookah is?"

"Remy." Remus scowled.

"Sorry!" Remy grinned, turning to him. His eyes lit up in recognition when he laid eyes on the twin. "It's been forever since I've seen you, Ree! How've you been? Getting into trouble, I assume?"

Remy smirked, fluttering his eyes innocently. "Me? Trouble?"

"You set the toaster on fire yesterday." Roman rolled his eyes. Virgil blinked. What?

Remus glared at him. "I didn't get in trouble for that! It was dad's idea!" He exclaimed, causing Remy to laugh.

Virgil, once again, blinked. What??

Remy smiled at them. "Come on in, you're super late!" He chirped.

Virgil frowned, glancing at his phone. "It's 6:49, the party started at 6:30?" He raised a brow. Weren't they supposed to show up around now? Fashionably late, and all that?

Remy rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah, late." He scoffed, turning and walking back to the house. "Welcome to my abode." He called over his shoulder, before swinging the door to the house open.

Immediately they were hit with overwhelmingly loud music that seemed to rattle his bones, the smell of drugs, and the sight of dozens of people dancing with the elegance of drunk high school students.

Remy looked back at them, an almost proud smile on his face. "Fair warning, someone put a shit ton of vodka in the punch!" He told them, raising his voice in an attempt to be heard over the noise. "So unless you're prepared, I would suggest getting something out of the fridge!"

And with that, he stepped into the crowd and vanished.

Roman turned to him. "Wanna find something to do?" He asked.

—

They did not, in fact, find something to do.

They tried, of course, but Roman didn't seem to be enjoying anything they attempted to join in on. The redhead was not exactly the strongest dancer, he didn't smoke or do any drugs, didn't quite know how to play pool, and the actual pool was too full of people to even attempt getting into.

That was how they found themselves in a random room that was miraculously empty, sitting next to each other on the floor against the wall. It was just the two of them, Patton and Remus having abandoned them early on to go who knows where.

"I feel like this was a mistake." Roman sighed, staring at the ground forlornly.

Virgil hummed. "I really expected you to be the type to love this sort of thing." Princey was full of surprises, it seemed. He loved him.

Roman huffed. "I did too, but..." He shook his head. "I dunno, I'm just not a fan."

Virgil frowned. He wished he could whisk him away and take him somewhere he could actually enjoy. "Well, we can't just leave. Logan isn't set to come for another five hours." He shrugged.

"Yeah..." Roman sighed, looking back at him. "What do you think we should do until then?" A flash of something entered Roman's gaze then. Something that Virgil had only seen from him once before. "Maybe we could...I dunno..."

His delicate hand slowly began to rub up and down Virgil's arm.

Virgil couldn't look away from the seemingly innocent act, feeling his face begin to grow warm. "Yeah...?"

Roman smiled. "We could...play around a little." He tilted his head, his skin glowing in the light. Virgil felt his face turn scarlet.

"Pl-Play around?!" He squawked, brain short-circuiting. "H-How do you mean?!"

"Well, it's just a suggestion, but..." Roman's hand trailed its way up Virgil's body, his fingers stopping to trace his jawline. Virgil felt shivers run up and down his body, he couldn't even think. "We could—"

Roman's phone rang.

He frowned slightly, pulling away from Virgil to look at who was calling him. His brows raised in slight surprise. "Oh, it's Lo." He hummed.

Virgil could only nod in response, more focused on trying to tame the heat in his face.

He felt like he was constantly discovering new sides to Roman. He was like a book that Virgil never wanted to finish reading, but wanted to absorb every detail about. He hadn't known it was possible to want to know someone on such an intricate level before.

Roman brought the phone up to his ear. "Hey—!" Virgil heard Logan begin speaking, cutting off Roman's greeting. The redhead's brow furrowed as he listened. "...uh, no?"

There was a shadow in the corner of the room.

A sense of dread began to pool in Virgil's stomach.

"...o...okay?" Roman murmured, seeming incredibly confused by whatever Logan was telling him.

Janus began laughing loudly, causing Virgil to flinch.

Roman suddenly stood up. "...what?" He whispered, eyes wide in shock. "I thought it was marked as a suicide?"

All the blood rushed into Virgil's ears.

Janus' laughs turned into cackles.

His vision was going hazy, heart beginning to beat loudly in his ears. He needed to calm down, he didn't know anything for certain yet. Despite telling himself this, he could feel himself beginning to grow pale, digging his fingers into the carpeted floors in a desperate attempt to ground himself.

Roman continued talking with Logan on the phone, but Virgil could barely hear him over the howling laughs of Janus. The laughter seemed to bounce around his skull, mocking him in a way that only Orm was capable of. It wasn't real, he knew that, but it was becoming harder to convince himself as Janus doubled over in hysterics.

Roman hung up and turned to Virgil, something horrified in his eyes. "We have to go to Logan's house now."

Virgil could barely speak past the lump that had formed in his throat. "Did something come up?" He asked, though he was certain he didn't want to hear the answer.

Roman huffed, glancing away. Please no. Please. "Janus' death was marked as a murder." His voice was trembling as he spoke.

Virgil could only stare at him, barely breathing.

NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo—

He glanced at the corner, but Janus was gone.

"We should get the others." Virgil heard himself say, barely audible over the sound of his own heartbeat.

Roman nodded firmly. "Right."

—

Roman and Virgil set out to go look for Remus and Patton, but the latter wasn't doing much searching. The redhead took charge of the task, and Virgil just focused on walking.

He had been so careful.

He looked up, and saw Remy dancing across the room, completely oblivious to what Roman and Virgil were up to. The party-goer met eyes with him, and for a split second, he could've sworn his father was standing next to Remy, whispering in his ear, but when he blinked, there was no one there.

Virgil shook his head, focusing back on Roman.

Roman seemed incredibly shaken by the news, but determined as ever to find his brother and Patton Libum. Idly, he wondered how his lover would take the news that the person who killed Janus was standing right behind him.

Not well, likely.

Roman stopped in front of a closed bedroom, and opened the door. His eyes widened once he looked inside, and he quickly averted his gaze. "Jesus!" He exclaimed.

Virgil furrowed his brow, curiously looking inside the room to see what had caught the redhead so off-guard.

In his surprise, he burst into laughter.

Patton and Remus were practically on top of each other, the shine of Patton's lip gloss on Remus' mouth. The twin's shirt was slightly unbuttoned, Patton's hand still on one of the buttons. They jumped away from each other, both going bright red in the face.

Remus laughed awkwardly, quickly moving to redo the buttons on his shirt. "Ro! Wh-What are you—?! You should learn to knock, sometime!"

Patton was fanning his flushed face, pointedly looking at the floor. "D-Did you need something, Ro-Ro?"

Roman's expression grew colder. "Logan's coming to pick us up. We need to go. Now."

Remus took one look at his brother's expression, and instantly straightened up.

The shadow in the corner of the room watched them leave. 

A/N:

Two updates in two weeks? Who am I??