| FAM ILY |

dad 1: Logan won't talk to me...

dad 1: Or let me in his room

dad 1: He's being distant, did I do something?

train engine: I'm sorry Patton, you didn't do anything wrong. I'll talk to him later, is that okay?

dad 1: Okay :D

son: wait what do you mean he's being distant

son: he's literally avoiding us all

son: i'd say that he seems suspicious, but it probably isn't the best time

son-in-law: But you just said it, sunshine!

son: ik

dad 1: No, maybe it's important. Let's let him do whatever he needs to do okay?

son: but i'm already near his room

son-in-law: Is that why you just left my room?! Whilst in the middle of watching Descendants 2?!

son: we've watched it like, 3 times now. let me bother my other dad.

-----

Virgil placed his phone back in his pocket and grabbed the door knob, twisting it. The door's locked. He raised his fist, about to knock on the door, when he heard other voices.

He was sure Logan's the only one in his room. Patton's with Thomas, Roman's in his room, and he's there, standing in front of Logan's room.

He figured there were more than two. That it wasn't just Logan and another voice. There's more of them. He heard a voice getting louder, as if it were going near the door. He still couldn't make out what they were saying, but he saw the door knob twist, and he panicked. He ran to the nearest room. Patton's.

Virgil locked the door. He sat down on the floor and tried to breathe normally. It took about a minute or so to get his breathing to slow down. He immediately went through his contacts and clicked on Roman.

"Virgil, darling? Where are you?"

"I... I he-heard L-Logan talking to someone."

"Maybe it's Patton, or Thomas. Is it?"

"No... no it's n-not them, oh my god, there's s-so many of them!"

"Can you come to my room?"

"I don't think so... I think Logan or one of the others went out of the room..."

"I'll come get you. Where are you right now?"

"Patton's room... but please knock five times. I locked the door."

"I'll be there soon."

Virgil ended the call and sat on Patton's bed. He was probably being paranoid, but it wasn't easy getting in the mindscape. It felt like everything took a 180 degree turn. Just a few days ago, everything was fine. And it had been like that for a long time.

Now, it seems like everything was reverting back to before. They were all going to start being distant again. They're going to leave him out again.

Five knocks.

Virgil heard five knocks.

He opened the door and saw Roman.

"You okay?" Roman asked Virgil.

"I'm fine. Is Logan outside his room?"

Roman looked behind him and shook his head no.

Virgil went to Logan's door and pressed his ear against it and listened. He heard three different voices, one of which he recognized to be Logan's. He still couldn't understand what they were saying, but he heard one word. A name, actually.

The name Gabriel felt familiar...

"Roman can we go back to watching movies, please?"

"Sure."

[ e n d c h a p t e r ]

where is my motivation to write lmao. probably finishing this earlier than i thought. i'm going to leave out a lot of details as well, just cause i don't really know where this whole story went.

-n i c