There's a loud thump coming from Virgil's room.

I look up from researching ways to save sides from transferring, but no more sounds come, so I keep reading.

None of these are helpful.

I hear a knock on my door and stand up. My knees pop, and I wince.

I walk over to the door, attempting to ignore the pain in my legs, back, and heart, and open it.

I see Deceit's smiling face, and I smile back. We've become pretty good friends, as of late.

"How's it been?"

"Not great," I wince. "My crush is trying to exterminate himself."

A look of sympathy crosses his face.

"I don't know the feeling." His face starts collapsing into a frown, most prominent on the snake side.

"You have a crush?!" I don't know why I'm confused. Deceit is just another side.

He turns bright red. "Remember I said anything."

I smile, tempted to not let it go (can't hold it back anymooooooore!), but decide to just let it be water under the bridge.

"So, what brings you here?"

"I just wanted to show you how to cancel Virgil's request for a replacement."

"Really?!"

"Can have him break your heart, can I?"

I'm dying... every second is one too many.

"Letsgoletsgoletsgoletsgoletsgo."

I pull him into the hallway before I remember that he's the one who knows where we're going.

"S-sorry."

"I don't get it." Now I really want to know who this dude is. But Virgil comes first. Always.

He pulls me towards Virgil's room.

I follow. He is my friend after all, and the one who knows what's happening.

"So... why didn't you go to Patton or Logan?"

He gives me a look.

"They think I'm the Angel reincarnate."

I nod. That makes sense.

He opens the door, and I notice the mirror is knocked over. That's weird.

He goes over and rights it, before tapping it once.

He steps through, but not fully. "You coming?"

I'm not amazed by a magic mirror or anything since I spend a lot of time in Imagination, but this one gives a weird vibe. Anything for Virgil.

I take a deep breath and step through. It feels like my soul is being rearranged subtly. The light fades from my vision, and I take a step past the mirror. 

I'm in a dark, grungey place. This is place is NOT fit for royalty.

Deceit looks oddly gleeful, and I gather that this must be his home. I turn to look behind me, but Deceit grabs my arm and points.

"That's gotta not be where you file stuff."

He's pointing at a building labeled Recruitment Offices.

That sounds about right.

We walk over, and I realize I never got to see behind me.

"There aren't some effects that happen when so step through the mirror, so I'm blocking them."

Interesting. "What effects?"

"It's a big change in your personality."

That time, I couldn't tell if he was lying. I figured he was.

We got closer to the double doors, and I see a bored-looking guy sitting at the desk.

When we walk inside, I greet him.

"Hello, my lord. We require some help with our recent quest."

It might be just me, but I see Deceit roll his eyes.

The bored-looking guy straightens (if that's possible, we're gay haha), and his outfit unfolds. He's wearing a black sweatshirt, pink ripped leggings, and a cape-looking thing. He has a massive scythe laying next to him, and his hand twitches towards it. He has a black fedora with a rainbow stripe around it, a black choker, and purple striped socks fading into black combat boots. He studies me for a second, and half of his face suddenly decays, while the other half blooms with clown makeup. Darkness seems to surround him, and swarms of bees and wasps flow from under his cape. His fedora is gone, replaced by his hood to the cape thing, and scythe suddenly in hand, he looks like a grim reaper. He is the singular most terrifying thing I have ever seen.

He blinks, and it fades back to his gay outfit, with an amused smirk.

"Not so tough, are we Prince?"

"H-how do you know my name?" I ask, trying to keep the shake out of my voice.

"I know a lot about you."

"Are you a stalker?" I whisper, mostly to try and amuse him.

"Yes." He replies, all humor gone from his voice.

He sees the scared expression on my face and just about dies laughing. I notice Deceit looking pale and nervous.

"Dude, I'm just kidding."

I sigh with relief, but it's short-lived.

"Princey, you can't hide from me. I'd like to talk to you in a minute without Snake Nuggets over here." He jerks a thumb at Deceit. If I wasn't terrified, I would have laughed at the nickname.

"So what brings you here?"

"Virgil submitted a request for a replacement. I'm stopping him."

"That idiot! He told me it was for a friend! I'll help."

"Thank goodness."

Deceit looks terrified still, and I almost laugh.

"Now, Roman, I'll speak to you if you'll follow me. And," He turns to Deceit with a snarl. "If you don't get out of here in the next three seconds, and if you ever dare to show your face here again, I will send my mongooses to hunt you down, flay you alive, and I will have the honey badgers sent to everyone you love. Leave. Now!"

Deceit takes off running. His hat falls off, but he doesn't bother to pick it up. Something about this man scares the Sh-poopy out of him.

That bodes so well for me.

"Now, with that lying snake out of the way, let's talk." I can't help but wonder what happened between them.

"So, Princey. You are seriously messed up." I'm so outraged. I am ROYALTY and a mere commoner shall never talk to me that way!

He sees my expression, and sighs, rubbing his temples. 

"Let's see. You're claustrophobic, spheksophobic, autophobic, achluophobic, alektorophobic, atelophobic, atychiphobic, catagelophobic, genuphobic, and sociophobic."

Because you probably don't know what these are,

spheksophobia is the fear of wasps (I have it)

autophobia is the fear of being alone

achluophia is the fear of the dark

alektorophobia is the fear of chickens (because that was too funny for me not to include it. If you have it, sorry, but that's hilarious)

atelophobia is the fear of imperfection

atychiphobia is the fear of failure

catagelophobia is the fear of being ridiculed

genuphobia is the fear of knees (again, how could I not?)

sociophobia is the fear of social evaluation

I'm sorry if any of these are wrong.

"Basically, you're a mess. And most of all, you're afraid of my- Virgil not liking you. Even though you already know he doesn't."

How did he? 

And what was he going to say? My- what?

And ouch, that still stings. Virgil rejecting me hurt.

"How did you know?"

"My trait is Phobia, and I can see your deepest fears." He smirks. "Nice to meet you."

He brushes his brown hair out of his eyes and almost stares me down. His eyes are brown, like all of ours, but the sparkle with a pink light. Not in a cutesy princess way, but in an I-will-make-you-go-insane-if-I-so-chose way. He's kinda cute.

He smirks, and it reminds me of my brown-haired boy. The one who doesn't love me. I'm going to save him because I owe him deeply. After that though... this guy is cute. No. I'm getting Virgil.

"My name is Roman, what's yours?"

He smiles. "It's not that easy."

"I'm just gonna guess then. Sunshine? Buttercup? Angel? Tiny? Flower? Violet?"

He frowns. "Stop that!"

"Your wish is my command." I bow to him and earn a chuckle.

He's making it really hard to not like him.

"What's your middle name?" He asked. I do not want him to know that. Back to the names.

"Dove, Rose, Fuschia, Amaranth, Steve, Kevin, Carl?"

"Wow, you changed tactics very quickly."

"You know what, I'm just going to call you... Stephanie. Until you tell me your real name?"

"No." He's turning pink. It worked!

"Virgil might have filed a recruitment request that can be redacted. I'll try through the official channels."

"Alright, Stephanie."

He turns pink again. "It may take a few days, but it should go through."

He looks me in the eyes again, and it's my turn to change color. "Don't trust Deceit. He broke my brother's heart. He tried to kill them when they'd been dating for 5 years. Don't trust him."

I nod, but Deceit is my friend. Stephanie must have it wrong. Right?

"Bye Stephanie!"

"Bye Roman."

I leave the building and walk outside.

I don't see Deceit. I start calling his name. "Deceit? Deceit!"

Suddenly, the world changes a bit. My outfit is blood red, with a black sash and a cyan ax, one side a mallet type, one side sharp.

The cement is weak. It needs to die. Weak means death in this world. I bring the weapon down. The earth shakes, and a huge crack splits down the road, creating a chasm.

I'm practically beaming. I don't know who I am, or what I'm doing here, but this is fun.

With an ecstatic smile, I bring the ax down again.

We're just getting started.