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ashs-random-writing · 2 years

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A Haunted Home

~~~~~

Virgil had been in the house for a few years. Of course he had, he had died there, he couldn't leave. What he really didn't like was people in his house. He would do quite a lot to get them out, but one thing he would not do was hurt them. He wasn't a monster.

Patton, Logan and Roman were just looking for a nice new house to live in, but they found a new-ish mansion-sized house that came with a friend. Of course, they moved in

~~~~~

Virgil floated aimlessly as the fifth group that month was touring his house to buy. He didn’t really care anymore, most didn’t buy it, and even if they did, he could just scare them out.

Might as well start early, he supposed, starting to mess with things in the room the humans were about to tour, which happened to be the kitchen. He picked up some of the knives from a drawer, wondering how easy it would be to spontaneously start practicing knife throwing. It wasn’t like he could get hurt..

He put the knives down, concluding that he might hurt someone living. He may not want them in his house, but he wouldn’t hurt them. He started looking through the cabinets for something, only finding pots and pans. He sighed

“I guess these’d work” he mused to himself quietly, starting to bang them together and throw them around. He heard the real estate agent sigh loudly from the next room

“Pay no mind to those noises, it’s nothing really” They stated, pretty convincingly

The real estate agents had figured out that the place was haunted pretty early on, so Virgil had lots of fun messing with them whilst they were looking through the house, or showing people around. They weren’t too bad, really

When Virgil was alive, he had built a fake wall into the house, to make it easier to not get murdered in his sleep, so his bedroom was pretty well hidden. The real estate agents found it and left it alone, not wanting to upset the ghost. Virgil was happy for that, it wouldn’t feel like home if his room was gone. He needed his things. Different was always bad.

And, the agents never showed it to potential buyers, which Virgil was sure could get them fired if their higher-ups ever found out, so he was grateful for that. It was still fun to mess with them, but never the same extent that he did to people who tried to get him out, or perform an exorcism or something

The exorcisms had never worked of course, but they were still unpleasant and annoying.

He zoned back in to listen to the humans question the noise again

“It’s just the ghost, don’t worry. He tends to try chase people away, but it’s mostly just throwing things at walls like a toddler” The last part was louder than the rest of it, obviously aimed to lightly insult him, before continuing “All the people who have lived here only move because they’re freaked out, he never hurts anyone, so you’d be safe, don't worry”

He rolled his eyes, sent them the middle finger, and threw one more pan at the wall before floating off to his room. He could still hear the humans-

He paused his thinking for a second, instead mulling over the fact that his brain kept referring to them as ‘the humans’. Was he not human anymore? His subconscious didn’t seem to think so. He could barely remember what solidity felt like.. He never really felt human to begin with, honestly, so it wasn’t that much of a change

Virgil shook his head, returning to his thought. He could still hear them in the other room, conversing, mostly about him. The real estate agent (Jamie, he remembered) had gone into the kitchen to clean up the mess he had made.

Virgil listened to the humans conversation idly, chuckling at one of their insistences that ghosts weren’t real

There were three humans in total touring the house, each of them being very different from each other. The one who was denying seemed extremely serious, for no particular reason, almost reminding Virgil of his old teacher. The next was rather loud and kept making Disney references, to the point that Virgil had started mentally calling him Princey, and claiming that there couldn’t be a ghost because ‘Ghosts are evil, except for Moana’s grandmother’

Virgil rolled his eyes at that one, still listening to them through the wall

The third seemed rather cheerful, almost too cheerful for Virgil’s tastes. He kept saying how “if there is a ghost, it’s like the house comes with a friend! Besides, I’m just dying to meet them”

He could almost imagine the sunny grin on his face when he said that, and he heard one of the other two humans groan at the pun. Virgil laughed

“Patton, was there really any need to make a pun for the supposed ghost? We’re the only ones who would be living here if we bought the house, you wouldn’t be meeting anyone except maybe a few neighbours”

Virgil rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time, still laughing

“Come on, Lo, I know you don’t like puns, but hearing a few ghost puns won’t.. kill.. you” Another groan was heard behind two people’s laughter

“Besides, how do you explain what happened earlier if there’s no ghost?” ‘Patton’ asked

The serious one sighed “Perhaps something simply fell out of a cabinet and Jamie made something up to make the house seem more interesting? Regardless, I do think it would be a good investment to buy this house, it is large enough for all of us to live comfortably, and still is in budget” Virgil froze at that, they were gonna buy the house?

He needed to start planning how to chase them away right that very second. He liked living alone, and these humans seemed interesting now, but Virgil knew they’d hate him after a while. They all did eventually, even when he was living

He wasn’t the type to talk a lot, or look people in the eyes, but he was good at listening, contrary to what people believed, and he stored everything he was told in the back of his mind for future reference, but everyone always left

He couldn’t get attached to these humans, they were gonna hate him and leave, so he should save them the effort and make them leave immediately.

He stayed in his room a while until they left, only coming out when he was sure the only person still there was Jamie

Jamie was sat in the kitchen on her phone, and laughing quietly at some video. Virgil decided he should probably apologise for causing a mess and throwing stuff around.

He couldn’t exactly talk to them, so maybe just giving them something would work. He had a small rock collection in his room, and he had seen Jamie looking at them sometimes, and he figured that she would appreciate one of them.

He picked up one of them, shaped vaguely like a dinosaur of some kind, before floating out of his room to give it to the human. He held it out to them, and they smiled

“Is this for me?” He held it out more persistently and she took it, grinning.

“Thank you, it’s very cool. Is this because of earlier?” They held it to their chest whilst asking. Virgil didn’t know how to respond, so he just stayed floating there for a while, until Jamie eventually left

---

Logan looked back at the house as he and his friends drove away, thinking. He definitely did not believe the talk of a supposed ‘ghost’, noises be damned, but the house was interesting, and a reasonable price.

He watched the road ahead steadily, as the others conversed about how fun the house would be once they bought it, and how they would decorate it. Logan pitched in on a few points, mainly how he would decorate his space, and mentioning how nonsensical it was to argue about who gets what room in a house that they might not even buy.

He rolled his eyes fondly, before opening his book from the backseat of their car. Soon, they arrived at their current apartment, which was much too cramped to fit them all comfortably, hence why they were house hunting.

They had been saving up for quite a while, so it was quite a relief to find a nice house that was actually in budget for once. It was a few weeks later when they actually managed to buy it, and a few weeks after that when they managed to finish moving in.

He started moving his things into his room, listening to Roman and Patton’s Disney discussions. Once he had gotten every piece of furniture in place, he started organizing his books on his shelf, and getting his better stuff in place. Once he had everything perfectly placed, he went into the kitchen area to help Roman and Patton with the food, which was a lot easier when there was more room to move around then a tiny room in a tiny apartment.

After they’d all eaten, a few hours later, they all went back to their respective rooms, until a loud shriek sounded from Roman. Logan and Patton both went to investigate, only to find all of the louder man’s Disney merchandise strewn about the room as if it had been thrown (which, of course, it had not been, Roman would never do such a thing and ghosts didn’t exist).

“That damn ghost! He couldn’t just leave my precious Disney stuff alone, could he?” Roman crossed his arms, glaring at one of his many figurines on the floor

Logan sighed “Roman, is it not at all possible that they merely fell off of the shelf? I have already explained the statistical improbability of a ghost residing here”

Roman glared at him “Oh, yes, because all of my Disney stuff, and only my Disney stuff, would just randomly fall and end up on the complete opposite side of the room, how is that more logical than a ghost?” He looked away angrily, starting to pick up the fallen figures (because, yes, they merely fell, there was not a ghost, Logan thought to himself)

Logan and Patton both started helping and it took, at most, two minutes to put everything in the correct places, but Roman still seemed unhappy

“Something’s missing..” He looked over the figures slowly. Suddenly, he gasped

“My Jack Skellington figure! He must’ve taken it! I was right, ghosts are evil!” he pouted

Logan rolled his eyes, the figurine had likely just rolled under a bed or dressing table. The imaginary ghost wouldn’t have taken it, anyway. He walked back to his own room, only to find that whilst he and Patton were helping Roman, someone had thrown all of his stuff all over the room

He took a deep breath, his things had merely fallen. He looked around and- there! The window was open. A perfectly logical answer to his conundrum. Ghosts didn’t exist, so he needed to reason away from them and towards logic

His room’s door slammed shut and locked. It was fine, just the wind, that he… couldn’t feel at all…

He attempted to pull the latch on the door, but instead of being the easy feat it was an hour ago, it now felt as though someone was holding it shut, which, of course, was preposterous, no one but him was in his room, and the latch could not be touched or even seen from the outside

He eventually managed to open it, and leave, only to reconsider his stance on ghosts. Perhaps… maybe.. ghosts could exist. Theoretically.

---

Virgil found it hilarious how easy it was to annoy these humans. The loud one, Roman, had so much Disney stuff, and it was too easy to make a mess in there. Besides, the dude had a pretty cool Nightmare Before Christmas figurine that Virgil decided would look amazing underneath his posters.

Despite everything, the more serious one still denied that Virgil existed, so he decided that a little prank whilst he was helping Roman sort his stuff out was a little necessity

He had seen him painstakingly place each and every thing to perfection, and decided that that’s where he’d start. He threw everything quietly, before waiting for the nerd to reappear.

When Logan arrived, he looked around quickly, before his eyes settled on the window and he nodded to himself. Virgil groaned, he had spent a while on that, so to have it written off as the wind was pretty annoying

He slammed the door loudly and closed the latch

“Good luck blaming that on the wind, nerd” he glared at Logan, as the latter turned around warily, looking a little bit shaken

He walked closer and tried the latch, which Virgil was holding shut, laughing to himself. He shivered slightly as the human’s hand went through his when he was messing with the mechanism

Eventually, Virgil let go, watching as Logan walked through and started breathing mildly more intensely than when he was inside. Virgil closed the door behind him and closed the latch once again, before floating down to his own room and fixing his Nightmare Before Christmas display and his new addition.

It didn’t bother him very much that the figure was technically stolen, it wasn’t the first time he had illegally acquired a new item. Most of the time when that happened it was when he was more down on his luck, needing to.. borrow.. food and drinks from a store, but Karma seemed to think that was bad enough to punish him

He had gotten a large inheritance from his great uncle, and had managed to buy a big-ish house, get a fake wall built in, before the burglar arrived.

He was binging some Netflix show on his couch, in the middle of the night, and the robber probably assumed he’d be asleep. He probably should’ve been, maybe then he wouldn’t still be floating around. The thief might’ve not found him, might’ve assumed he wasn’t home and left with just some stuff, not his body. He had watched the body be carried out, presumably to the river half a mile south

His murder was never solved as far as he knew, so that could explain why he was still here, floating around and just annoying everyone. He sighed, looking around his room, specifically at the signs of no one living there

He looked at the cobwebs that had shown up just about everywhere, the spiders that lived in them, the thick layers of dust that was settled over most of his belongings, apart from his new figurine.

He could hear the voices of the humans conversing directly above him, and he rolled his eyes, starting to reread one of his few books. He knew what was going to happen in it, so it was comforting. He had annotated it when he was alive so he would find it more amusing on future reads. Now, it surely helped him not go insane at least, but it had gotten pretty boring pretty quickly

He started listening to the noise above him, what the humans were discussing. He decided that they were probably discussing the door he had locked from the inside, if the declarations of being correct from Roman was any indication. Patton had started trying to mediate the situation, trying to stop the bubbling argument between them. Virgil felt tempted to go up there and stop it himself, they were getting annoying, how did Patton put up with that? Hell, how did any of them live with each other if this was how often they argued?

He acted on the temptation with minimal hesitation, throwing a small object at the wall between the humans

Patton reached out to catch it, fumbling with it a bit, before dropping it, albeit gentler than Virgil did

“Hey, uh, Ghost, could you not throw that, please? It’s made of glass, and pretty fragile, so, uh.. Anyway, I’m Patton, what’s your name?” Patton asked, usual sunny grin on his face. Virgil kinda felt bad that he couldn’t answer in a way that Patton could hear.

He answered anyway, just so he could say he tried

“Virgil.. My name’s Virgil”

Quite predictably, they didn’t hear him. He frowned, he had kinda wanted that to work.. He shook his head rapidly. No, he didn’t want that to work, he wanted the humans to leave, he didn’t want to be their friend. Not when he knew they’d have to leave him at some point. Ghosts were eternal, humans were not

Patton’s grin dimmed slightly at the perceived silence

“Are you still there? If you are, would you be able to hold something, so we’ll know?” Virgil nodded, mostly to himself, picking up another small object

Before Patton could reply, Roman jumped in, pointing at his general direction

“Aha, fiend! Tell me where you’ve taken my figure!” Virgil rolled his eyes and threw the thing in his hand at him. Roman gasped in offence, as Virgil started floating away

He went down to his room, going back to his book boredly. The nerd had some pretty cool looking books, maybe he could take one of them. Virgil sighed to himself, deciding that everything would just be miserable for eternity if this was what got him excited. He didn’t know how it wouldn’t be.

He could still hear them talking but he stopped listening. Let them talk, he thought, let them talk about him, he couldn’t stop it either way. They weren’t arguing this time, so he just concentrated on reading again. He got bored pretty quickly and started concentrating on his ghost abilities a little bit more.

If he really concentrated he could keep a visible form, but not well. He could be seen, but he was still mostly invisible, you’d still be able to see the wall behind him before you’d notice him, really. He looked at himself in the mirror sadly, specifically the blood covering his chest. He wondered what he would be doing if he hadn’t died. Probably binging Netflix again, honestly. He could hear the humans again, this time a little closer than before.

Virgil, once again, paid it no mind, instead going into what he called ‘ghost sleep mode’

It wasn’t really sleeping, it was more disappearing from the plane of existence he was currently on for a few hours, and replaying memories from life, the happiest ones specifically. There wasn’t really a lot to play for him, he hadn’t had a very happy life

He was shown bits and pieces from childhood, that time a nice old woman paid for all his groceries when his card declined, the time he bought his house. When he started decorating his room, the first time his hair was cut short, the time the neighbour’s kids invited him to play with them, memories of his old friends before they left him, fractions of bittersweet memories.

It was a while before he reformed in the living world, and as usual he was accompanied by a small flash of light. He rubbed at his eyes, and looked at the clock. He’d been in the in-between for five hours just about, making it 11:30 pm.

The humans should be asleep by then, right? Well, maybe not Logan, since Virgil had locked him out of his room, but the others probably were. Maybe. He wasn’t really one to judge other people’s sleeping habits, since his own messed up one was what had gotten him killed in the first place

He floated up to where their bedrooms were, checking on them, making sure they were safe. He didn’t like them, but for now, they were sorta like guests, so he had to keep them safe. Logan was asleep next to his door, and Virgil finally gave in, unlocking the door for him. Logan needed to sleep in his bed, if he didn’t then Virgil would be worrying that what happened to him would become a shared experience

The door swung open, but Logan still didn’t stir from his sleep. Virgil looked at him a while before sighing and grabbing the back of his shirt and dragging him towards his bed. If that’s what it took to make them be a little bit more safe, then sure, he’d do it

Logan finally woke up, starting to struggle against his grip. Virgil let go, dropping him unceremoniously on the floor

Logan looked around a bit, before talking quietly “Were you- were you trying to make me go to bed?”

Virgil would be blushing in embarrassment if he had any moving blood, but instead, he threw something at the human and flew back to his bedroom as quickly as possible. He buried his face in his hands

He didn’t care about the humans, he wanted them to leave, he didn’t care about them. He didn’t care for them, he couldn’t care for them. He- he just couldn’t. They’d leave, they’d move out, they’d hate him, if they died, they wouldn’t be ghosts with him, they would just die, they’d go to the afterlife and he wouldn’t be able to follow. No matter what, they’d leave him eventually.

---

Patton didn’t really know what to think of the ghost, really. He seemed to keep to himself a lot, only throwing stuff around, just like Jamie had said.

He seemed to have calmed down after a while. Patton noticed that he left them alone for a while until they started arguing, which was when he showed up. When Patton had tried talking to him, he had seemed content to chill until Roman provoked him..

He went to sleep with these thoughts in mind.

It wasn’t long ‘til he woke up. He went down to the kitchen groggily, intent on fixing up some breakfast for everyone. A few minutes after his first batch of pancakes, Logan walked in, looking a bit bewildered

“The ghost was trying to drag me into my bed last night” was the first thing he said

Patton looked up “Uh, could you explain that more, Logan? What do you mean”

Logan looked at him with wide eyes, seemingly trying to also make sense of what happened “well, the ghost had locked my door, as you know, so I had fallen asleep on the corridor next to my room, but I woke up to something invisible dragging me into my room, towards my bed. I asked the ghost if that’s what he was doing, but he just threw something at me. I- I think he might’ve been embarrassed..” Logan sat at the table as he was given a plate of pancakes and some jam

Patton thought for a moment “Well, let’s be glad that he’s such a thoughtful ghost and not an ‘I’m gonna make the walls bleed and stuff’ type ghost”

Roman soon came bounding down the stairs with all the energy of a toddler on a sugar high

“Good morning, Patton, Nerd” He nodded to them happily, grabbing a plate of pancakes and sitting diagonal to Logan at the table, “I am happy to report that the ghost was not tormenting me or committing thievery against me last night!” he exclaimed loudly

Patton smiled “That’s great, kiddo! Logan says that the ghost was trying to drag him into his bed last night when he was sleeping in the corridor, so I think he might not be as bad as you seem to think,” He smiled, making more pancakes

Roman scoffed “For nefarious, evil purposes probably” He mumbled, crossing his arms and looking away

“Name one ‘nefarious and evil’ thing that he could’ve been doing that for” Logan countered

“Uh, he could’ve been trying to get you in another room so he could make a ginormous mess” Roman stated matter-of-factly, a smug look adorning his face

Patton spoke up “Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case, does it? He’s not done anything when he’s been left alone, so I personally don’t think he’s all that bad” he shrugged, sitting down with his pancakes

Roman scoffed “He stole from me!”

Logan shook his head “You don’t have any proof of that, besides, even if he did, he only took one small figurine, that hardly qualifies as robbery”

“One small figurine that I bought! And he just took it!” Roman crossed his arms, glaring at his nearly empty plate

“Well, we are living in his house, so its kinda fair” Patton pointed out, trying to stop the argument that was brewing.

Roman simply stormed off, muttering angrily to himself, and Logan shook his head, making a comment about ‘childish behaviour’. Patton didn’t really hear what was being said, he was too busy feeling guilty. He didn’t want to make Roman upset..

He walked upstairs to his room, almost in a trance, before collapsing into the bed, crying. He just had to get involved in the argument, didn’t he? He couldn’t leave it alone, could he? He felt a small chill go through him, but he paid it no mind, instead just hugging a stuffed cat to his chest as tight as humanly possible

He wiped his eyes, or tried to at least. He should’ve been happy, they had a new house, his own room, he should’ve been happy, not upset. He could feel someone looking at him, but he hadn’t heard the door open. He turned around warily, only to see a floating stuffed bat that he had never seen before

The ghost, he realised suddenly. He looked at the plushie for a few moments before asking “Is that for me?”

The plushie was set on his bed next to him, as a paper and pen started writing with what seemed like no one holding them. He read the note that was handed to him and started smiling

‘its for you, her name is Trylla, take good care of her and please don’t be sad

-V’

The rest of the name was scribbled out, but Patton didn’t mind. If he didn’t want to share his name he didn’t have to

“Thank you, Vee, she’s very cute, I love her!” he hugged Trylla to his chest protectively. Another thought popped into his head

“Oh! Uh, Roman is pretty convinced that you took something from him, so, um, if you did, would you be able to give it back? He’s really upset about it” There was no response, but he decided to hope that the ghost was listening

He started re-watching one of his comfort shows on Netflix, still hugging the bat to his chest. A few episodes later, Roman came bursting in, figurine in hand

“Patton, look! The ghost returned my figure! This proves that he took it” he had a smug look on his face, and Patton sighed

“Yes, but it also proves that he was nice enough to return it when I asked him, and look, he gave me something. I think you’re wrong about him, honestly. He doesn’t seem very evil to me” He held up the purple bat to him as proof, before hugging it again

Roman rolled his eyes “Fine, I guess I can admit he’s not too bad, but you gotta admit, it’s pretty interesting. Where is his storage space? All the rooms were cleaned out, so where did he get that bat thing? Where did he take my figure? I think we should try find it” Roman seemed to be getting excited at the idea

Patton was less excited “Wouldn’t that be an invasion of privacy?”

“It would be an adventure, that’s what it would be! Besides, we own the house, not him, we can go wherever we want”

Patton frowned slightly, he didn’t quite know why invading someone’s privacy would be an adventure, but there was lots that he didn’t know, so he kept quiet

---

Virgil was panicking. Why’d he have to do that? If he hadn’t of given that stuffed animal to Patton, he wouldn’t have given Roman his figure back, meaning that they wouldn’t get the idea to try find his room

What was he supposed to do, though? He saw one of the humans crying, he gave them a stuffed animal, simple, right? Wrong. Apparently, he couldn’t do anything nice for the people he was letting stay in his house, without them deciding to try find the one place in the house that still felt like it was his.

Of course.

In his panic, he couldn’t even work up the energy to make himself tangible enough to throw something at Roman, instead floating down to his room and sitting on his bed. How bad would it actually be if they found him? He was foolish to believe his space would last long, but he was still reluctant to imagine that they could take it from him.

If he was able to touch breathing things, he could probably push them out, fight them, but he couldn’t. He could touch their clothes, but even that took more effort than other things. He grabbed a comfort item and held it to his chest as tightly as possible.

It wasn’t the same as when he was living, instead of him feeling its warmth, it was hard for him to even work up the strength to feel it at all. He cried into it, like he had countless times in life. It still wasn’t the same, his tears evaporated when they touched things that were solid.

It was one of the reasons he gave Patton his stuffed toy, Patton could use it more, it wouldn’t be different for him. That turned on him though, the humans were trying to find his safe space, and they would probably take it from him.

He gave up. They were gonna find it eventually, there was nothing he could do, instead he started ‘sleeping’, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

It showed the usual stream of happiness for a few hours, but this time, along with living memories, it showed him giving Trylla to Patton and watching the other’s face light up. He teared up at that. He really didn’t hate these humans, which made it all the worse for him. What was he going to do when they left him?

After a few minutes of crying in the in-between as the memories ended, he was shoved back into his room. The humans were gathered there already it seemed. They immediately looked in his direction at the flash of light, and he uncurled from the foetal position that he always spawned in.

He knew that he would be visible for a few moments, before fading, but he just stared at them, feeling oddly hurt at them invading his space. God, why did he have to go and get attached to people so easily?

They stared back at him, seeming almost in shock. Virgil could feel himself fading, and he glared at them in his final visible moments, before going to sit on his bed, facing away from them. He didn’t want to look at them in that moment, he knew that this would happen, but still, it felt like a betrayal coming from them.

He could hear the sound of hushed whispering, but he couldn’t make out the words. He thought about how easy it would be to go and listen in without them noticing, but he decided against it. He wasn’t rude enough to invade someone else’s privacy.

He looked back at them sadly, before curling in on himself slightly. They were all friends, they cared about each other, and they just took Roman’s suggestion straight away. It just showed that they didn’t care about him. He cared enough about them to try keep them safe and happy, but they were just wandering into his safe space with what seemed like no remorse

He grabbed a stuffed spider and made himself as touchable as possible, to try replicate the feeling of warmth cuddling it gave him when he was alive. It wasn’t the best, but it was all he could do.

One of the humans cleared his throat, and Virgil looked back at them

“Um, Virgil?” He stiffened at that, putting the spider on the bed next to him

How-

“If you’re wondering how we found your name, its in the front of most of your books” Virgil scoffed, picking up a book looking at the inside of the cover (which, as expected, had his full name written out: Virgil Pierce. He ignored the scribble of a previous name of his) before throwing it at the human that had spoken, Logan.

So they weren’t just going into his room without permission, they were looking through his stuff as well. Good to know.

Logan looked down at the book, before looking in Virgil’s general direction

“What was that for?”

He didn’t bother responding, they couldn’t hear him, so he should just save his non-existent breath for something else. Besides, they should be able to figure out why he was upset, it was pretty obvious.

More whispering was heard, but this time he could make out some words. An uneasy feeling spread through his chest. They obviously didn’t want him to hear them, but would it really be so wrong to listen in? He sighed, deciding to take the moral high road, if only to help his chances to get into heaven if he ever passed through the in-between, to the other side.

Roman cleared his throat a few minutes later, looking around the room, presumably for Virgil

“Um, we’re-” Logan nudged him, staring pointedly, which made Virgil laugh a little. They were treating this like siblings having to apologise to their parents after a fight

“Fine, *I’m* sorry for invading your privacy without permission, and for dragging these two into it as well,” He turned to look at the other two, seeming like he was annoyed “There, I apologised, happy?”

Virgil fully laughed out loud at that, before covering his mouth. He didn’t quite know why, they couldn’t hear him either way, but its what he always did when he was alive.

He watched Patton press on for more of the apology

“Fine, I’m sorry for calling you evil and creepy, but in my defence, you did steal from me” Roman pointed a finger at where Virgil was floating, getting just a bit off

Virgil rolled his eyes once more, grabbing some scrap paper and a pen from his desk

‘youre in my house, i can do what i want. now get out of my room’

He passed the paper to them, and retreated back to his bed, still watching them. The whispering started up again, this time only a few seconds, before they nodded

Patton smiled at him “That’s fine, we can go. You have a really cool name by the way!”

The humans left, closing the door behind them, and Virgil felt a swell of pride grow in his chest at the compliment. That was one of the first times people had complimented his name and not called it weird.

He pushed it down, he would rather not have anything growing in his chest other than a new set of unpunctured lungs, thank you very much, especially not affection for the people who were invading his privacy and living in his house.

He gave a sigh, running a hand over his face. It was gonna be very hard on him when they eventually left. He stayed in his room for a few more hours, until it was past late night and into the early early hours of the morning, one am to be precise.

He went to check on the humans, knowing that it was very likely that they’d be asleep, but he needed to know for sure.

He was about to float to their bedrooms, but instead heard the sound of talking and the Netflix opening sound coming from the living room. He froze. They needed to go to bed, he needed them to go to bed. He didn’t want them to die..

He flew into the room as quickly as possible, before seeing a pillow fort built out of the couch, and feeling breath that he didn’t have catch in his throat. Everything was just like the night it had happened.

He sunk to the ground, wrapped in his memories. Hearing the kitchen window smash, being too afraid to even move. Making eye contact with the robber and feeling the cold metal of a gun being pressed to his chest. It all had happened so fast, he had woken up to the sight of his body being dragged outside and he had screamed.

His show was still playing as the crime scene was being rid of evidence, it was still on the ‘are you still watching?’ screen when his house was being looked through by detectives. It had been switched off by the time the investigation was half way through.

He didn’t remember much about those few days, he figured that he must’ve been in shock. He remembered them finding his room, looking through his stuff, taking a few pictures and then leaving everything alone. All physical evidence from outside of his room that his room even existed was probably still sat in a box somewhere, never touched.

He remembered the day he was announced officially missing, posters with a name that wasn’t his plastered around the town, and people desperately searching for him. He clutched at his head, like he was in pain.

He didn’t want to relive this again, he had gotten over it, he was dead, he wasn’t gonna come back to life, so why was he always longing to? What would life even give him? More pain, more heartbreak, more people calling him a name that he wasn’t?

He had been declared legally dead, after his body was found, though the murderer roamed free. Virgil could only imagine what was written on his grave

‘Here lies [REDACTED], she was a loyal daughter, sister and friend. She will be missed’

He shook his head. It wouldn’t do to think of his gravestone as if it could be changed. He was Virgil now, he wasn’t a girl, no matter what was said of him. He was Virgil, he was himself.

He could feel sobs wracking his body, and he was back to thinking about when it happened. The murderer pressing the gun to his heart, which was beating frantically, because of course it was! He could see the blurry silhouette of someone getting closer and he panicked, too deep in his own mind to remember that he wasn’t there anymore, that he wasn’t still being threatened at gunpoint.

He pressed himself into the wall, as far as he could, before stuttering out a plea

“D-don’t- don’t get any closer- please- I’ll do anything, just please don’t kill me- I can’t- I can’t die yet” He was getting thoughts of déjà vu, but he wasn’t sure why. Had this happened before? He was about to get shot, wasn’t he? He didn’t dare open his eyes, he couldn’t stare death in the face. Not again, a small voice in the back of his head reminded him.

He could feel himself shaking, and he curled up more, desperately trying to protect himself. The unknown person got closer, he could feel it. He whimpered, squeezing his eyes tighter

---

Roman was trying to have a shitty Netflix movie marathon with his friends, but he couldn’t focus on that anymore. After he had found the ghost- Virgil’s- room, all he could think of was the glare he had given them all. He could swear that the ghostly figure almost looked sad.

Another thing was that he had been expecting was something less human looking. Maybe a deathly pale figure in robes and hundreds of chains, but instead what he saw was a person only twenty or so years, old, with blood soaking through his patchwork hoodie.

Roman kept thinking back to that for hours, through each crappy movie he watched, until it got to one o’clock. He forced himself to watch the beginning of another movie from his pillow fort, curled up in a mess of blankets, his friends next to him, Patton hugging the stuffed bat that Virgil had gifted him.

A few minutes later, the lights started flickering, and the tv was glitching. At first he was annoyed, but then he noticed the faint glow against the wall. He looked closer and noticed the ghost curled up next to the wall, only appearing when the lights were out, and looking extremely distressed and his eyes focused on something in the distance. He was clutching at his head desperately, as if he were trying to force something out

Roman hesitantly got closer, and the lights stopped flickering, going completely dark. He could see the ghost faintly, outlined with a purple glow

The ghost’s eyes went wide before they squeezed shut, and he started shaking

“D-don’t- don’t get any closer- please- I’ll do anything, just please don’t kill me- I can’t- I can’t die yet” Roman froze. Logan placed a hand on his shoulder, which startled him. When had Logan even gotten up?

“I don’t think he’s in the right frame of mind right now, Roman. That sounds like what could’ve been his last words.. I don’t think he’s seeing you as you, I think he may be seeing.. someone else” Logan was also staring at the apparition with what seemed like sympathy

Patton looked down at the bat in his hands before at the ghost. He walked closer to the ghost, momentarily stopping at the pained whimper that escaped him. He set the stuffed toy down before walking back to the group

“He needed it more than me, it’s his anyway” He shrugged, sitting on the floor, getting ready to comfort the ghost if need be. Roman joined him, he may not have particularly liked the ghost, but being able to see the ghost had changed his perception somewhat

It was no longer that all ghosts were evil, because now that he had a face to attribute to him, a name, it reminded him that.. ghost stories are just tragedies told from another perspective. He couldn’t imagine begging for his life against someone who had presumably broken into his house.

Roman started realising that something must’ve triggered this, and he looked around the room. The only thing that seemed out of place was the pillow fort. He shuddered

Your house could be broken into at any moment, even when you’re just sat in a pillow fort watching a movie. Maybe that’s what had happened to Virgil... He stared at the ghost, upset at the thought

He couldn’t even think how traumatic that would be, something meant to make you feel comfortable and safe to be the place where you were killed? He couldn’t bare to watch the apparition in pain any longer, and he got closer, determined to help somehow

One of the floorboards creaked under his weight and Virgil started shaking more, his form flickering, and the lights starting to do the same again. Roman stopped, before starting to approach again, this time avoiding any creaky-looking floorboards, and going considerably slower. He gently pushed the stuffed bat closer, and sat opposite the ghost

“Virgil, you’re not there, okay? I know it probably feels really real, and I understand that, but can you open your eyes please? I want you to name five things you can see, can you do that for me?”

Virgil shook his head, still with his eyes shut as tightly as ever, and Roman wracked his brain to remember other techniques to calm down someone with PTSD and other such disorders. He nodded to himself once he remembered. Man, that Mental Health Awareness course really turned out useful

“Okay, can you breathe in for four seconds for me? That’s it, you’re doing really well, now hold for a while, that’s great, you’re doing perfectly, now breathe out for eight seconds. You’re doing really well, now can you repeat that for me?” Virgil still wouldn’t open his eyes, but he wasn’t flickering as much anymore. He was getting gradually less visible, but he was definitely calming down

“That’s it, you’re doing great, keep going!” He gently encouraged, vaguely aware of his friends watching him. He ignored them in favour of coaxing Virgil into a healthier state of mind

Soon, when the ghost was just barely visible, and nothing was flickering anymore, Virgil opened his eyes

Roman smiled as warmly as he could manage, and the Ghost’s lips moved in a soundless word of gratitude, before fading. Trylla the stuffed bat was given to Patton. Roman got some paper and a pen out

“Virgil, if you’re still there, can you tell me what caused that episode, so we can avoid it, or give you a warning so that you can avoid it?” The pen was picked up from the table and Roman read the note

‘its a few things, long story’ Roman nodded

“We have time, if you’d like to explain?” He offered. The pen hovered above the page for a few moments before scribbling something down

‘no, you guys need to go to bed. I don’t like thinking that you’re down here when anyone could break in’ Roman read aloud, he nodded

That seemed pretty valid, he decided.

He knew he was acting pretty differently than he was a few hours earlier, but he was not going to be rude to someone going through a trauma induced episode. He didn’t want to stress him out any more than he already was

Patton spoke up for the first time in a while “Hey! Do you think we should buy some whiteboards so we can talk without having to get paper and a pen out every time?”

The pen scribbled something down and Roman once again read it aloud

“‘Sure, you should buy the big ones and stand them up in each room’ Great idea, my superb, stupendous spirit!”

He could practically feel the eye roll that nickname was greeted with, though he couldn’t see it

‘dont call me that’

Roman laughed at the quick response

“Would you prefer if I called you ‘Emo nightmare’ for the rest of my life?” He suggested, crossing his arms in a joking manner

‘You probably won’t live here the rest of your life, so in the very little time you’re gonna live here, you can call me whatever you want, just not that’

---

Virgil had fun with the humans. Even Roman didn’t seem to dislike him anymore. He tried to ignore the fact that it was probably just because he had just relived a traumatic experience, and they had to help him through it, and so far that was working.

After he had convinced them to go to bed, he started cleaning up the living room, folding blankets, putting pillows and cushions where they were meant to go, making sure everything was in place, before floating through each room a few times, checking for intruders, checking for things out of place, making sure the house was safe

He floated up to the bedrooms, checking on Logan first, then Patton, then Roman. He sat down in the corridor between their rooms, staying there until they woke up. They needed to be safe. They didn’t seem to be leaving any time soon, so he needed to protect them whilst they stayed

He waited, sometimes looking out of the window, looking into their bedrooms, making sure nothing was wrong.

Soon enough, Logan’s alarm rung, and the human was starting to get ready. Virgil followed him as far as he could, watching through a window as he drove away, presumably to his job. Virgil had overheard at some point that he was a teaching assistant

He vaguely wondered which school he worked at, before floating back upstairs to stay with the others. It was a few more hours before they woke up, but Virgil stayed alert the entire time. Intruders could show up at any point, he had let his guard down for one night, not going to his hidden room, and- well you already know what happened

Roman awakened first, walking down to the kitchen whilst rubbing his eyes. Virgil watched him intently as he started cooking. He was always extra cautious around fire, even in life. Such an intense power of destruction at the disposal of a person felt wrong to him

He flinched as the stove turned on, watching Roman prepare his breakfast. God, he missed eating. After he was sure that a fire wasn’t gonna consume the entire house, he went back upstairs to check on the still sleeping human.

He felt a small tug in his chest when he noticed Patton holding Trylla. He smiled, sitting down on the floor and messing with something. He waited for just about half an hour before Patton woke up

He grinned, starting to follow the human around. He knew that he wasn’t helping himself by doing this, it would just make everything harder on himself, but for once, he could feel like a part of something. He could pretend to be one of them

Roman greeted Patton good morning, before starting up a conversation

“Oh, just so you know, Remus said he’d be coming up to see me today with his partner, so he’s probably gonna burst in here at the most inconvenient time ever” Virgil listened, before humming in thought

Nice to know there’d be more people in his house. He sat on the table cross-legged and hummed a song to himself

“Oh, we should probably tell Virgil then”

He listened to Patton’s response and laughed

He wrote on some paper that was on the table with him

‘Im right here :)’

Patton walked over to read it “Oh, hi Virgil!” He exclaimed once he had. Virgil smiled at that, writing out a greeting. Roman walked over as well, looking to be thinking

“Wait- were you spying on us? Why are you just here?”

Virgil laughed again whilst writing his response

‘not spying, im just hanging out in my house and making sure you dont burn it down’ Roman made an offended noise upon reading it

“Excuse you, I am amazing at cooking and I am not dumb enough to burn down the house!” Virgil smiled at that as Patton made a small noise of disagreement

“Patton, you’re supposed to be on my side!” he complained, making a pouting face

Virgil sat there a while, content to just watch them and answer any questions they asked

After maybe ten minutes, Roman’s phone buzzed, and he nodded to himself

“Remus says he’ll be here soon, so we should probably get ready. Oh, and, Virgil, I’ve told him about you so if you decide to do any ghost stuff, he won’t be freaked out, just so you know”

Virgil smirked to himself before writing his response ‘well now im not gonna do anything, im gonna make you look crazy’

Roman gasped dramatically, placing a hand on his chest and staggering backwards

“How dare you betray me so? Once, I may have trusted you with my life but now you have taken your sharpest blade to my back and I don’t think I can forgive you for that” He placed the back of his hand to his forehead like a damsel in distress. Virgil laughed at that, writing down something telling the human to stop being so dramatic

‘dont be dramatic, what if i want to have a nap?’

Roman paused his woeful sorrowing to think for a moment “Do ghosts even need sleep? Can ghosts even sleep, actually?”

‘meh, we cant really sleep but i like to call it sleeping. its more like i disappear for a while and it shows me my happiest memories for a few hours’ He wrote, feeling like it was an inadequate explanation

Both humans nodded at that, before there was a knock on the door. Roman started grumbling about not even having enough time to do his hair before Remus showed up.

Whilst Roman was greeting his brother and his brother’s partner, Virgil got an idea

‘do you wanna team up with me to make roman look crazy? all you have to do is deny that i exist or that you know me’

Patton read what he had written and nodded, a mischievous smile on his face. Virgil also grinned, going to hide the note to get rid of evidence

Once he had done that, Roman walked in, with what looked like a clone of him but with a moustache and a tall, pale person wearing a they/it pronoun badge. Virgil nodded at that, committing it to memory before going to float in a corner and watch the events unfold

Patton walked over to the other humans happily “Hi Remus! Hi Janus! What are you guys talking about?”

Roman looked at him “Oh, I was just telling them about Virgil!”

Patton looked at him with an innocent face “Who’s Virgil?”

Virgil, meanwhile, was laughing extremely hard in the corner, Roman’s face was just priceless. The human sputtered and stammered a few times

“Did you team up with him to make me look crazy?” he pouted, crossing his arms.

Virgil took the time whilst Roman was sulking to look at the guests. He didn’t much like new people, but in this instance, as long as they didn’t find his room, he’d be fine. There wasn’t much need for scaring them out, since they were only visiting, and since that would blow his cover

Remus looked almost completely identical to Roman except with different make-up and a moustache. He was wearing a dark green leather jacket adorned with spikes on the shoulders and back, with a brighter green shirt on underneath. Virgil started to suspect a possible favourite colour, with the outfit choice and green and purple makeup. Virgil started looking at the other person

Janus was tall, about 6’1 to Virgil’s 5’6. That immediately filled him with irrational rage. He start looking at its outfit. They had a few piercings, and tattoos. Virgil could admit they definitely had style, begrudgingly. Still didn’t make up for the tall thing. It was also wearing some fingerless gloves, and a black and yellow shirt on top of a white vest. The outfit certainly matched their two-tone black and yellow hair, which was a half/half style.

He sat on the countertop, almost wishing he could have some popcorn for the high-quality acting Patton was pumping out at pretending he didn’t exist. Janus was narrowing its eyes at the act though, like they almost didn’t believe him. Huh, it was smarter than it looked, he noted, before floating off to his room.

The act lasted for a few hours, until Remus and Janus left to go to their apartment. The minute they drove away, both Patton and Virgil burst out laughing

Roman pouted at them, well, really only at Patton, but Virgil was floating behind him.

“Patton, why’d you do that? You betrayed me! I would expect this from Virgil, yeah, but how’d he get you to team up with him?” He had his hand on his heart, as if extremely emotionally wounded, but it was very obviously joking. He paused for a moment “Logan is now my favourite roommate, you two have officially betrayed me, and therefore have plummeted to the bottom of the list!”

Virgil touched a hand to his heart. He was classed as a roommate? He thought for sure he’d just be ‘annoying ghost that lived there too’ (well, he didn’t really live there but that was just a technicality). He was touched by the notion, and he grew more and more attached to them. He winced. It was so gonna hurt when they left him

---

It was a few months later when anything exciting happened. And by exciting, Virgil just meant different. Life got pretty boring when you’re confined purely to 10 rooms in the world.

He floated into the living room boredly, scrawling a greeting on the dry-erase board in that room. Roman (the only person currently in that room) looked up at him distractedly

“Oh, uh, hi Virgil. Uh, Remus and Janus are getting kicked out of their apartment ‘cause their landlord wants to sell the house, so would they be able to stay here for a while?”

Virgil groaned. He was gonna let them, of course he was, but the problem was that he’d have to give up his act that he didn’t exist. He had been perfecting it for months, he had even managed to convince Logan to get in on it. Months of hard work down the drain. He didn’t actually care that much, but he liked to pretend he did, picking up the dramatic tendencies from Roman

‘sure i guess. Why not’ he wrote out, waiting for Roman’s response

The human smiled “Thanks Vee”

Virgil smiled back. It was gonna be different but, different didn’t seem to be all that bad sometimes

~~~~~

Taglist: @a-chilly-pepper

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delimeful · 5 months

Text

the end of being alone (6)

remember how this installment was mostly fluff up until this point? we'll get back to that!

... just not this chapter <3

part 2: how does a kid end up stranded in space, anyhow?

warnings: bad self care, illness, panic, child in distress, minor injury, non-consensual drug use, trafficking, unethical imprisonment and treatment of prisoners, child endangerment, implied offscreen minor character death, ambiguous character fates, this is a heavy tearjerker chapter but it does have a hopeful ending, lmk if i missed any

Virgil’s condition hadn’t improved.

They’d tried as many non-medicinal techniques as they could, struggling to figure out what would help and what would harm an unpredictable biological system that they barely understood.

Nothing had helped. Nothing was working.

And each time Virgil woke up to the sight of the ship around him, he wept and struggled and shouted, burning through his meager energy and only worsening his health.

He didn’t respond to heartfelt pleas from any of them, rarely even seeming to understand they were in the room with him. His stare was distant and terrified, his mind somewhere else, and each time it happened, Logan wanted to understand how to help so badly.

So, after several cycles without sleep and with the pressure of increasing desperation weighing heavy on his head, he finally succumbed to the deeply unwise impulse to start a Vidi.

He’d only wanted to understand what Virgil was yelling, try and grasp the reason behind his fear in the hopes that they could abate it, even slightly.

The moment he’d made contact, however, his mind had been dragged into a memory with intense force, the metaphorical handles of the Vidi ripped away, leaving him unable to steer and barely able to move.

His fingers twitched with the urge to pull away, but he stopped himself. It could hurt Virgil, and he’d endured plenty of traumatic memories before. He could handle this.

With a blink, he was looking through a much younger set of eyes.

—

The ship came during the summer.

Virgil remembered, because he’d been reviewing holidays and important events with his class before the break, and his half-birthday was coming up in a week!

His birthday was in winter, so his half birthday was in the opposite season, summer! He’d said as much before trying to debate his way into a trip to the park with his friends, and failing miserably.

So, he’d snuck out. And gotten himself lost between one turn of the neighborhood and the next.

He’d run into one of his neighbors, who’d been more than a little concerned to see him wandering around alone, especially because there had apparently been some people disappearing lately.

“Where did they go?” he’d asked, and gotten an uncomfortable reassurance, which definitely wasn’t an answer.

He’d frowned, tried to ask again, but his neighbor had gone quiet and grey-faced, staring at something over his shoulder. Before he could turn to see, there was a sharp thunk, and a bright bolt of pain in his shoulder.

There was a high, crackling scream, which was bad, but Virgil couldn’t keep his eyes open long enough to figure out where it came from. A pair of warm hands caught him when he staggered, and then he was out.

He barely recalled what happened next, the memories fragmented like someone had taken a hammer to them. He didn’t want to think about them, but he kept the pieces close and tucked away anyhow, knowing they were important even though they hurt.

He felt flickers of awareness, the sensation of eyes rolling against heavy eyelids, a rapid pulse pounding away in his ears like a big drum, angry and fearful shouting barely audible beyond the clamor.

And then: the barest glimpse of the docking port of a ship from the inside, the entrance ramp folding up and sealing away the green trees and blue sky on the other side. Replacing the brief vision of home with cold metal and unearthly lights.

There weren’t any warm hands holding him, now.

His whimper turned nearly soundless on the way up his throat, but it drew the attention of his captors regardless.

A rush of unfamiliar language above him, another flood of numbness spreading through him, but even from that one fragmented moment, Virgil understood that they were taking him away.

Another blank period, like dipping one's head briefly underwater, and then he was waking up again.

“Easy, baby,” a familiar voice said, a hand stroking through his hair, slow and gentle. “You’re okay, you’re alright.”

“Miss Susan?” Virgil asked, and his voice came out small and crackling. He coughed, trying to force his crusted over eyelashes apart with a growing sense of panic.

“Hey, I need some water for the kid!” Miss Susan called lowly, before setting a hand against his back and helping him shuffle upright. “Take it slow, baby, don’t choke. There we go.”

Virgil opened his eyes and got his first look at the room he’d be stuck in for the next several months.

It was dimly lit, and smelled bad. The floor was metal, with a few thin stripes of grating, like a shower drain. The walls were made of tinted plastic and covered with sharp-edged wire netting, and there were a whole bunch of people inside with him and Miss Susan.

They all spoke to him at one point or another, but he only remembered some of their names. The thought made his stomach twist painfully, and he clamped down on the sensation.

He couldn’t be sick. Being sick was bad.

The time shifted, Miss Susan still at his side but her hair longer and her skin sallower. They were all seated, tired from the cold and the dark and the gross food that he wasn’t allowed to throw up.

Mister Ben was coughing, hard and rasping and wet, one after another. A few people were crouched near him, talking to him in hushed voices as they tried to coax him into stopping, but his body curled in and convulsed like he couldn’t control the coughs at all.

Before long, there was a clang, and a spraying sound like that time a fire hydrant down the road had been busted open. A few people stood between the door and Mister Ben, but the room grew more and more hazy with the thick air that made his legs go all numb, and they were swaying with the effort of staying upright.

Virgil knew by now what happened next. He turned and pressed his face against Miss Susan’s side, and she drew him close and held him tightly as the suits came in.

The aliens were always wearing them when they came into sight. Thick rubbery suits with dark-tinted visors, each with an electric zapper in hand. They’d drag the sick one out, and Virgil would never see them again.

“Leave him alone!” Miss Susan cried, joined by the rising voices of the rest of their roommates. “Don’t touch him, you leave him the fuck alone!”

Virgil kept not looking, but he said it too, into the worn fabric of Miss Susan’s blouse. “Leave him alone, don’t touch him, leave him alone, don’t touch him, leave him alone…,”

It didn’t work. It never did. The aliens didn’t listen to them, and they made them weak and floaty if they tried to intervene.

His voice cracked as he kept repeating it, even as the door clanged again and the hiss of air stopped. If he didn’t look up, he could pretend that Mister Ben was still there, only quiet because he was all better from his cough.

"It's okay. I know. It's alright, honey." Miss Susan’s hands shook as they stroked carefully through his hair, soothing him to sleep through the last of his hiccuped sobs.

Everyone who spoke to him was kind, even when they were unhappy. When Miss Susan slept but he was awake, Mister Aaron would invent word games to play or Miss Kelsey would challenge him to push up contests, and they would all take turns trying to think of the worst possible combinations of foods to compare to their mush food.

The best was Miss Susan, though. When he was bored, she would tell him stories about her nieces and nephews, and the farm she grew up on, and silly people at her job before they got taken. When he couldn’t sleep, she would hum whichever parts of lullabies she could remember.

Even when he got sad and didn’t want to move or talk at all, she would hold him close and poke at his side and gasp about seeing the firefly that had snuck onboard with them, until he had no choice but to wiggle free and inspect every corner for its light.

The other adults would spot it every once in a while, too, and try to point it out to him. He never saw it, which he would report back to Miss Susan every time.

“Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there,” she’d tell him, waving at the dark ceiling of the room. “Glowbugs can’t be bright all the time.”

“Why not?”

“Well, they’d get too hot and sweaty. They’d have to go swim in the ocean, and then they’d probably all turn into anglerfish,” Miss Susan said, even though she hadn’t known what an anglerfish was until Virgil had told her everything he could remember about them.

“No way,” he said, laughing despite himself. “Bugs can’t turn into fish!”

“Maybe they just get too tired, then,” Miss Susan said, ruffling his hair. “It must be exhausting, being so bright.”

She went quiet for a moment, and Virgil leaned into her touch, squinting at the dark corners and willing the bug to show itself.

“Even when they’re blending in with the dark, though, they’re still there,” Miss Susan finally continued. “So don’t give up. You’ve just gotta trust in it, and eventually, you’ll spot it.”

“I want eventually to be now,” Virgil had responded, petulant as he flopped against her side, eyes growing heavy.

Miss Susan pet his head, humming quietly until he was almost asleep. She let out a big sigh, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet. “You and me both, kid.”

And then it was the last day.

He knew because Miss Susan’s hands were carefully cupping his face, coaxing him into waking up with a careful tap to the nose. They never woke him up on purpose, because 'growing kids needed their rest', except for the last day.

Virgil felt his brow scrunch with confusion even before his eyelids started fluttering, and Miss Susan chuckled and pressed her lips to the crown of his head for a moment.

“Come on, baby, wake up. It’s important, okay?”

He forced himself to open his eyes and keep them open, a little unease running down his spine.

Everyone had been scared, lately. Their group had shrunk in number, their room had been moved onto a bigger ship, and there were distant sounds of crowds at all hours, making his skin prickle with nerves when he was trying to sleep.

Some of their roommates were really smart, and they’d started puzzling out the words of the alien language from the ship directions that were given over the intercom and the overheard conversations of those passing by or rudely peeking in at them.

They’d taught Virgil some of them, whenever he was awake enough to remember. The words they whispered now weren’t ones he’d learned yet, though.

‘Transfer’ and ‘auction’. Everyone disliked them, felt too upset or angry about them to explain, even Miss Susan. Or maybe they just didn’t want to explain them to him, like they wouldn’t tell him what the aliens did with people when they got taken away. There had been a lot of arguing and shouting in low voices, trying to keep him from overhearing.

But now, they were waking him up.

Virgil let himself be coaxed to his feet, following Miss Susan over to the corner where everyone stood in a huddle, the tallest of them on the outside.

“Okay, sweetie. I need you to listen to me very closely, alright?” she told him, turning him to face the corner where they usually kept extra clothes in a pile. “You’re going to have to be very brave for me, okay?”

The clothes had been moved. There was a hole in the wall, where the netting had been peeled back. The edges of it were rough and curved like they’d been made with fingernails, like it had been painstakingly carved through one scratch at a time.

It was a small hole, barely the size of a vent, or a cat flap. Virgil could probably fit through it, but he was the only one.

“No,” Virgil shook his head immediately. “I don’t want to! I’m scared.”

Miss Susan squatted to be level with him, holding his hand in hers. “I know, honey. But it’s important, okay? We’re going to get out and find you, but you have to go first and stay safe until we do. I’ll send our little glowbug with you, and it’ll light the way in the dark.”

“What about your dark?” Virgil asked, rubbing harshly at his stinging eyes.

Miss Susan softened, pulled his hand away and smoothed a thumb over his cheekbone. “Oh, baby. I’ve seen that glowbug a hundred times, here with you. I’ll be okay without it for a little while.”

Virgil turned to look at the hole again, imagining a little firefly crawling through with him so he wouldn’t be alone.

“Do you promise?” he asked, and Miss Susan pulled him into a hug so tight, it felt like it squished all the air from him.

“I promise,” she said, and her hands shook a little but her voice was steady. Virgil smushed his face against her shoulder for the last time.

“Okay. I’ll— I’ll go.”

The barrier of bodies around them seemed to relax, just slightly, though it still took Miss Susan a few moments longer to release him.

They told him everything he needed to know, everyone chiming in. That he had to run, as fast and as far as he could, and be sneaky and quiet when he was too tired to run. That he should find hiding places and hole up in them, wait until nobody was around to keep running.

That he should always hide from aliens, even if they weren't wearing the suits. That he should never let them see him, because they hated humans. That if they did grab him, he could do whatever he needed to do to get away.

“Just like stranger danger, right, buddy? You can bite, kick, scream, whatever you need to do.”

Virgil nodded, trying to push down the sick, stressed feeling in his gut, and when there was finally no advice left to give, he turned to the gash in the wall.

Wiggling through it was hard, because there were still sharp, poky bits that scratched at his skin and the inside of the wall was dark and stifling, but every time he wanted to stop, he could hear the encouragement of everyone else, who was still stuck inside.

There was a little bug with him, he reminded himself. If he closed his eyes and froze up, he wouldn’t ever be able to see it glow.

Finally, he squirmed free of the last few inches, dropping onto the floor of a very small dark room with shelves in it, like a linen closet. He turned back to face the hole, calling out, and Miss Susan reached an arm through.

He grabbed for her hand and pressed his face to it, clung to her for a long moment, his breaths stuttering as she cradled him the best she could.

There was a muffled clang, and Miss Susan ran her wavering thumb over his cheekbone one more time before pulling away.

“Run, Virgil. Now. Run!”

So he did.

He ran and hid, just like they told him, but he picked the wrong place to hide because it was part of another ship, and it took him far away. He kept running, pulled himself into tiny little nooks on spaceship after spaceship, snuck food wherever he could get it and only ever whispered to his invisible firefly.

Eventually, he left a ship and there were no other ships around to board, only the wide landscape of a different planet, full of weird trees and weird animals and a weird town that he fled from. No more ships came, and that was fine because he didn’t want to run anymore. He wanted to stay and wait for them to find him.

He laid on his back and faced the sky, searching for a sign that they were coming. He was hungry and tired and lonely.

The stars above looked just like fireflies, hundreds of them. Enough for all of them to watch together. Except there wasn’t a ‘them’. It was only him.

Virgil felt his face growing hot, his throat closing up at the thought. It was too frightening to be alone.

No, he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t. He had their firefly with him, somewhere next to him in the grass.

“Just because I can’t see them, doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Virgil said to himself sternly, and rolled back to his feet.

He would find something to eat, somewhere to sleep, and he would wait. They would find him. They would find him. They would…

—

When Logan finally eased the mental connection closed and pulled himself free, he found there was a low, buzzing keen building in the back of his throat. The sort of sound he hadn’t made since he himself was a child.

Virgil still lay there unconscious, but his cheeks were shiny and damp with tears. Logan reached out, ignoring the heat radiating from the pupa’s skin, and gently smoothed a narrow finger over his cheek, wiping the wetness away as best he could.

It didn’t do much, but the crinkle in Virgil’s brow seemed to ease just slightly at the sensation.

Roman paced by again, pausing at the sight. “Specs? Is the kid alright? …Are you alright?”

Logan wondered what Roman would think about the fact that Humans and Crav’n had more in common culturally than he would have ever guessed. That an entire group of Humans had given up their only boon for the slim chance of getting the only child present to safety.

No time to waste, now. That conversation would have to wait until they’d launched.

“Let Patton know we’re leaving, and meet me in the navigation area,” he instructed, already turning to leave. “I’m going to clear our landing area for departure.”

“What— I thought we agreed it was a bad idea to actually leave?” Roman asked, glancing between Logan and Virgil with visible worry.

“It’s a worse idea to sit here and wait,” he replied firmly, and then he was down the hall and out the hanger door, ignoring the shiver of secondhand trepidation that Virgil’s mind had left in his.

He circled the ship, placing the warding discs that would keep their launch area organism-free down one by one, and then paused at the sight of a familiar creature standing by the main entrance hatch.

It was a Humlilt, one with a distinct little white splotch on its head. Logan was fairly certain that it was the one who had stood between them and Virgil during their second meeting, the most loyal of the bunch, only proved further by the way it had been waiting outside the ship since Virgil had been taken aboard.

Logan was also fairly certain that Virgil had named this one Susan, after his neighbor. The Human who’d taken care of him, in those memories.

“You’ve taken care of him, too, haven’t you?” he asked, still far too affected by the painful sympathy that had washed over him post-Vidi.

The Humlilt stamped a hoof and trumpeted at him warningly as he neared, still obviously holding a grudge at them for stealing Virgil away.

Logan attempted to rationalize himself out of the decision he was about to make, and utterly failed.

—

It took some digging and reaching out to a few of Logan’s less savory contacts, but the ship was on its way to a waypoint station that was rumored to have a Human expert in residence. It could have been a trap, a lie meant to lure interested parties into an attack, but they were going to have to risk it.

The three of them had all agreed to the plan. They wouldn’t be able to live with themselves otherwise.

Now that they were in transit, Logan sat down with his two closest friends, and began to explain just what he’d learned about their kid.

A few rooms down in the medical bay, a half-conscious Human reached out a feverish hand and found a small, fluffy presence curled up at his side.

The Humlilt crooned a few notes, sounding just like the aimless lullabies its namesake used to hum.

For the first time since boarding the ship, Virgil breathed a little easier.

#wibar #ts logan #ts virgil #ts patton #ts roman #space au #humans are deathworlders #teoba #the end of being alone #mind the warnings #writing #my writing

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