Trigger warning: crying, mentions of previous murders.

Virgil's P.O.V.
I ran as fast as I could out of the castle, trying to focus on three things and three things only. One, get away safely. No being seen, no getting hurt while trying to run away. Two, keep breathing. In through my nose, out through my mouth, no matter how much it felt like the air was escaping me. Three, disconnect from Thomas. I couldn't let him know this was happening to me, otherwise he'd try to find me. More importantly, I couldn't let him feel what I was feeling.

I don't remember getting a horse and taking it to the Enchanted Forest, but I'm told this is what happened. The next thing I remember after running away is sitting against a tree, surrounded by curious and worried animals. I pulled my phone out and put my headphones on. Music, I thought, I need music. I need a song, a tune, a lyric, something. I went through my library as fast as I could and picked Memories by Panic! At The Disco.

He was the congregation's vagrant
With an unrequited love
When your passion's exaltation
Then finding refuge is not enough

Did we ever even have a chance? Really, a prince and an anxious mess. This wasn't some fairytale where there's always a happy ending, so why had I thought that was how things would go?

She was the youngest of the family
And the last to be let go
They decided they would try and make it on their own

What did I think was going to happen anyway? Were we going to get married? Would we have kids? Would we live out our days as a happy, loving couple, possibly never even marrying or having children?

Oh memories
Where'd you go?
You were all I've ever known
How I miss yesterday
And how I let it fade away
Where'd you go?

I started to think that, with Roman and I in a fight, all my options that I never before wanted were suddenly gone. All of the sudden, there was no one I wanted to marry. No one I wanted to father children with. No one I wanted to live out the days of my life with. I had no idea how many options I had until they were all taken away. I picked my phone back up and changed the song to Trade Mistakes by Panic! At The Disco.

Placing a smile at the perfect event
Grazing your skin with the side of my hand
If I ever leave I could learn to miss you
But sentimental boy is my nom de plume

Let me save you, hold this rope

Maybe it was all for the best. I'm toxic. Contagious. Dangerous. I'm meant to bring anxiety. Maybe that didn't just apply to Thomas. Maybe Roman would have ended it all sooner or later, because I was just too much of a burden for him.

I may never sleep tonight
As long as you're still burning bright
If I could trade mistakes for sheep
Count me awake before you sleep
I'll stay awake 'till I trade my mistakes so they fade away

The thought of sleep seemed like nothing more than false hope to me. Yet, somehow, I drifted off to sleep, tears still trickling down my cheeks.

When I woke up, I had a short moment of happiness, when my mind was still too clouded by sleep to remember the recent events. I thought it was the morning after Valentines Day, in some nonexistent fantasy world where Roman and I were still happily in love. But, after only a second or two, I remembered it all over again.

I can't stay here, I told myself, checking the time to see that it was two in the morning. I don't want to see Roman, or Logan, or anyone. I can't be here in the Imagination, I don't even think be in the Mind anymore.

I snapped my fingers, getting rid of my tuxedo and changing into my normal clothes, as well as changing my crossbody bag to a backpack filled with some essential things I would be needing. For one quick moment, I savored the comfort of my ripped jeans and hoodie compared to the tux. Then I teleported out of the Mind. I ended up next to Thomas's bed where he was sleeping, so I quickly and quietly ran out of his house.

In front of me was Thomas's neighborhood, but it was empty and dark. The only lights were the dim streetlights, and the only sound was faraway cars rolling over asphalt. This wasn't a new situation. This hadn't been my first time disconnecting, hiding, or running away. I knew where I could and could not go, when I needed to disguise myself and when it wasn't necessary.

I formed a list of what I needed to do in my head. The first item: disguise myself. Basically just go full-on emo, (I mean, we're talking leather jacket, black hair and bangs, ripped jeans, and a My Chemical Romance shirt) so yeah, I had that one covered. Two, go to the park. I could've teleported, but I really felt like walking. I felt like I needed to go somewhere, and I needed to do so with my own two legs. So I started walking along the sidewalk towards the park.

I knew it would be a long walk, and with the dim moonlight and the lack of streetlights in some places I knew it would also be a dark one. I've never liked walking alone outside of the Mind, as anyone could show up and try to rob or abduct or kill you, but I was so preoccupied with other thoughts that the thought of danger barely crossed my mind. Instead, I just walked and kept walking until I reached the park.

After getting to the park, my stomach rumbled and I was reminded that I hadn't eaten since dinner the day before. Man, I thought, just a few hours ago I was eating dinner with my boyfriend and the rest of my family. Now I don't have a boyfriend and I've run away from everyone I know. I tried to drive away my thoughts as I went to a picnic table nearby. Reaching into my backpack, I pulled out an apple and a water bottle and started to eat while listening to my music. After eating, I did what I realized I should have down earlier: check to see that my backpack had everything I needed.

Spare clothes, check. Paper and pens, yup. Little bags of food and water bottles, check. Toothbrush and toothpaste, check. Hairbrush and deodorant, check. Eyeliner, yeah. Portable charger, got it.  A list of backup plans, of course. I grinned slightly, feeling a little better knowing that I had everything I needed and had no need to risk going back to the house to get anything. Grinning a little less, I pulled out a piece of paper and a black pen to write down a poem that had been running through my head for a few minutes.

Pressure on the glass
Water in the clouds
Friction against the rope

The glass begins to crack
The rain begins to fall
The rope begins to fray

The glass shatters
The rain pours
The rope snaps

It wasn't my best work, but I kept it nonetheless, naming it 'Fall Apart' and storing it away in my backpack to continue later. The lines ran through my thoughts over and over.

The glass shatters. A memory from years and years before played before my eyes. Logan dragging me by the arms out of my room, pulling me down the stairs, nearly shoving me into a seat at the dinner table. In the corner of the room was Patton, watching both curiously and fearfully, and in front of me on the table was a sandwich and a glass of water. Confused and scared, I stared at the glass, trying to understand the words that Logan and Patton were saying to me.

The rain pours. I remembered running through the rain, many times. Sometimes running away from something. Sometimes running to something. Sometimes running because, if my soul can't run away, can't I at least let my body?

The rope snaps. Suddenly I could feel the rope between my hands again. I could see the rocks in front of me, and the ground so far below me. And up above me, Roman gave one last tug on the rope, adding just enough friction to it to push its breaking point, causing the rope to snap and letting me fall. Or, almost fall, because Roman caught me. He held my hand tightly and pulled me up with a strength that I had yet to see in him. Then he held me in his arms and hummed a song to me until my breathings steadied and my thoughts cleared.

Just thinking about Roman made my chest physically hurt. Picturing his face, imagining his voice, it was torture. I hated being so lovesick and stupid, but there's no sugarcoating it—I felt like a part of me was missing. A small part of me was saying to go find it, and the rest was screaming to run even farther away.

Thomas's P.O.V.
After being gone for only thirty minutes, Logan stepped through the door of my house, followed by Milly, Patton, and Virgil.

"Virgil!" Owen, Camille, Anthony, and I yelled happily. Virgil, instead of greeting us at all, hung his head low, hiding most of his face from view. Camille, Anthony, and I had noticed this and stopped ourselves from saying or doing anything else. Owen, however, ran to Virgil happily. But Milly, Anthony, and Camille stopped him, and Logan and Patton stepped in front of Virgil..

"Hey," Milly whispered to Owen. "He went missing for a reason. Let's give him some space for a while, okay?" Owen nodded sadly and backed away.

"Thomas, may I talk to you for moment?" Logan asked. I nodded and he quickly brought me away from the others.

"Thomas," Logan began. "It may take much longer to get Virgil to connect to you once more. He's mildly traumatized by last night's events—it appears much more occurred than we previously thought."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Logan sighed and turned back to the room where everyone else was standing. I wasn't completely sure, but it looked like him and Virgil were staring at each other. Still facing Virgil and the others, Logan said, "He'll inform you when he is comfortable with doing so, but it is not my place to tell his story." I nodded, and he started to walk away, but stopped himself.

"Owen and Camille helped you out today?" I nodded again. "Huh. We'll get somebody else next time, because you don't even look presentable enough to spend a day seated on the couch watching television. This can be ignored today, though, as we have much bigger issues at hand." Without another word, Logan went back to stand next to Virgil again.

"Thomas," Virgil said quietly, still looking down at his feet. "I'm.. I'm sorry, but, I can't connect to you."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Roman and I got in a fight, and the last thing I want is for you to feel what I feel." His voice was flat, as if he had no emotion left to show. One tear fell from his eyes to the floor, but he didn't sniffle or shake or even appear to be crying.

"Oh, Virgil," Camille said, taking one cautious step towards him.

"It's.. it's alright." Virgil said. "What was it you guys were gonna tell me?" Everyone froze. It's not everyday that someone gets in a fight with their boyfriend and then their boyfriend's kingdom gets attacked and they both go missing, so we didn't exactly have an explanation prepared.

"Who wants to tell him?" I asked. Nobody said anything.

"Guys, please tell me." Virgil pleaded, his voice a little less steady.

"Virgil," Anthony said. "Last night, after you left the kingdom, it was attacked by the creatures of the night. Roman and five others went missing."

"What?" Virgil questioned. "N-No, that's not possible. The kingdom, it's too bright for the creatures. And they aren't that powerful, they wouldn't make it past the guards or Roman."

"We know," Anthony continued. "But they did. There are search parties out looking for the missing and plans being put in place for..." Anthony trailed off, not wanting Virgil to hear the next words.

"Look, Virgil," Patton comforted. "There's nothing any of us could have done, but, if you want, we can help now."

"The search parties will be back by Sunday morning," Milly suggested. "And we can help them search again if they haven't found the missing yet. Until then, we can get—and give—more information to try to figure out exactly where the missing are."

"Why are we treating this like some big mystery?" Virgil snapped. "The creatures of the night attacked them, the creatures of the night took them, and where do they go? The Dark Imagination. Everyone knows that now. Did you forget about last January?" Even Owen hung his head with shame for forgetting about the Dark Imagination. We don't talk about January of 2018—at least, not the part about the murders and  imprisonment, the curses and whispers. It's an unspoken rule that we all know, never question, and never break. But Virgil didn't seem to care about breaking our rule.

"We can go search tonight," Patton suggested. "When the door is open."

"Soon," Logan interrupted. "But not tonight. It would be much wiser to wait until tomorrow night. It is crucial that we think through any plan, let alone one as dire as this. If we go into the Dark Imagination unprepared.." Logan trailed off and flicked his eyes to Virgil and Patton. "Well, we all know what would happen."

"Do we, Logan?" Virgil questioned angrily, directing his statement more toward all of us rather than just Logan. Replaying the words in my head again, I noticed that his voice was tinted with an echo. "Do we really know what's going to happen? Do you think Patton and I knew we were going to be stabbed to death last year by one of our own?" This statement caused Patton to, seemingly involuntarily, step closer to Logan and grab his hand. "Do you think the three of us knew that we were going to spend day after day rotting away in a cell? Do you think Camille knew she would be forced to torture her own family? No, we didn't know! We didn't know then, so how can we be sure that we know now?"

Everyone was completely silent. Patton was clinging fearfully to Logan, who was uneasily comforting his boyfriend by gently stroking his hair. Camille had hidden herself away behind Patton, a common habit of hers when she's scared. Owen, Anthony, Milly, and I stood still, looking solemnly at the ground. Virgil's eyes were flicking back and forth between all of us, seemingly daring us to speak. His expression was a mixture rage sadness, and anxiety; his cheeks were stained with tear trails, his fists shaking violently.

For however long, the eight of us stood quietly, bowing our heads or glancing from person to person. Eventually, Anthony broke the silence with a cautious, "Virgil?" Everyone turned to face him directly, but still kept a close watch on the anxious Side.

"This is all difficult," Anthony continued. "But, for right now, we need to do something to help find Roman and the others. It's looking like we have three options: gather more information, help the search parties when they get back, or go search on our own tomorrow night. So let's see.. there's eight of us right now, and three options.. Let's do another vote.

All in agreement with gathering information, raise your hand." Logan and Camille raised their hands slightly. Anthony nodded and they put their hands down. "All in agreement with helping the search parties when they go back out on Sunday." Patton alone raised his hand. "All in agreement with searching on our own tomorrow night." Anthony and Milly raised their hands.

"Virgil, Owen, Thomas," Camille questioned. "You guys didn't vote. What do you want to do?" Owen and I shrugged, silently saying we couldn't decide what was the better option.

"I think it's too soon to decide and too late to do nothing," Virgil answered. "We should start out just gathering information, I think, but if something comes up then we shouldn't hesitate to go search, whether on our own or with the parties." This fourth option seemed much better to all of us, and Anthony cast a new vote.

"Alright, take that back," he announced. "Raise your hand if you like the fourth option." Everyone raised their hand. "Raise you hand if you prefer any other option?" No one. "Alright then, it's decided."

Patton's P.O.V.
After taking a couple votes, we broke into the part of the conversation we had all either been trying to avoid or trying to get right to. For this, we all sat down in Thomas's living room.

"Alright kiddo," I began, wanting to start this difficult topic gently. "Let's just start with this: Thomas needs you. No matter how much good or bad you do, you're an important part of who he is." Virgil was still looking down at the ground, but I could see a tiny grin nonetheless. I always love when someone is able to make my little anxious baby feel good about himself.

"Now," Logan continued. "That being said, and past events being taken into consideration, you surely understand that it is not only unwise but dangerous for Thomas to be without you. Am I correct to say that?" Virgil looked up slightly more   and nodded.

"So, if you're comfortable with doing so," Milly said. "Then please, explain to us why you don't want to connect to Thomas again. Again, if you don't want to, you don't have to, but we really want to help you feel comfortable enough to reconnect."

"I've already told you guys," Virgil sighed. "I can't.. I can't let Thomas feel this. I shouldn't." The way he added 'I shouldn't' made everyone else confused. But he continued, "When he goes through a breakup, no matter how frustrated or depressed or anxious or confused he feels, that's his experience and his emotions. But this, my experience and my emotions, they're not his, so he shouldn't have to deal with them. It's not right for him to suffer because I.. because I couldn't get enough words out to explain what's really going on between me and Logan and that we're not cheating on our boyfriends. I alone should suffer the consequences of my mistakes."

Camille, Owen, Anthony, and Thomas, who had all yet to hear what had happened to Virgil, were silent with shocked looks on their faces. Virgil hid his face again, pulling his hood back up over his head.

"Look, I'll reconnect with Thomas," Virgil added. "But not right now. I'll go slow, starting in a couple hours, I guess, but I don't want everyone to be with him while I do this—he might freak out even more. Okay?" We all nodded, then a long and uncomfortable silence fell over us. None of us knew if we should say something, leave, or just do nothing. For ten whole minutes, the eight of us sat completely silent, until Anthony finally announced, "Okay, I'm going to go home and eat, then I'm going back to the kingdom to get some more information."

He stood up from the floor (there was not enough room for everyone to sit on furniture) and walked over to Virgil. Carefully, he patted him on the shoulder with a sad smile, then he sank down back into the Mind. Virgil looked up, but not quick enough to completely see Anthony before he sank down.

"You know what," Owen said, standing up. "I'll go with him."

"Me too," said Camille. The two said their goodbyes and sank down, leaving Thomas, Logan, Virgil, Milly and I alone in the living room.

"I think I'll go too," Milly mumbled, sinking down without a goodbye. A few seconds later, Logan said, "I, too, will leave," and sunk down. I followed him after saying goodbye to Virgil and Thomas.

When I got back to the house, I noticed something that I hadn't quite seen yet. Of course, I had seen it, but I hadn't truly acknowledged it as it was until then. Almost every Side was in a different place than one another.

Anthony and Owen were in the kitchen together. Virgil and Thomas were in the latter's living room together. Though I didn't actually see them, Milly and Camille were undoubtedly alone in their rooms. Logan was waiting for me in the living room, as usual.

Us Sides were breaking away from everyone else, or picking one other to stick with. Whether we meant to do so or not, each and everyone one of us were starting to pick Sides.

A.N.
Hola readers! I've got a couple things I want to say. First off, the poem that Virgil starts in this chapter is one I actually wrote a couple months ago in the middle of my second period class. I thought of Virgil when I finished writing it, so I decided to put it in here as his poem.

The second thing is, as I think I've mentioned before, I take acting classes. This weekend my class had a showcase at a downtown auditorium where we performed skits that we've been practice for a couple months. It was so much fun being on a big stage again, and it was also fun to watch the chaos of backstage unfold. My parents and a couple other family members came to watch me perform, and my dad bought a bundle of roses to give me when the showcase was over. When I got home I had an idea for a nice picture, and got my mom to help me take this:

Everything I'm wearing except for the mask is part of my costume (which was very convenient because it was just my everyday clothes), and the mask is just a thing I do for photos.

Alright, that's all for now. Adiós, guys, gals, and non-binary pals.