:September 30th, XX46; Monday.

:POINT OF NO RETURN.

•~~~~•

"...And so, after murdering more than fifteen people throughout his lifetime, Remy Café brought his own life to a close. Not many words on the note left with him were able to be read legibly, but it was gathered that he was done with his own life and the heartbreak he had caused to many, many families throughout the area in Florida. And... alright! Your homework is a worksheet I'm going to pass out to you all right now, it will be due next class period tomorrow. The bell should be ringing in a minute but don't leave until you have the homework."

Joe sighed quietly, laying his head down on his desk for a brief moment as students started chatting around him. He was actually starting to enjoy this class... but now that he's actually met the guy they were learning about? That made it hard to get through.

Did he actually see that ghost, though..? He had to of- would his mind make up that everyone was pronouncing his last name wrong and that he suddenly had some husband that loved him despite the fact he was literally a murderer? Maybe. Probably, actually, that did sound like something Joe's mind would do.

The homework worksheet was placed in front of him, and he slipped it into his bag, noting that it was about ten questions based around Remy. Hah- well, if Joe's mind wasn't tricking him, maybe he could just hunt the guy down and make him give Joe all the answers.

The bell rang, and Joe met up with his friends, the three of them chatting as they exited school. Oliver got picked up by his mom, leaving Sage and Joe to walk the rest of the way home- usually, they would walk until they reached Sage's house, and then Joe would just walk the rest of the way. It was a pretty short distance, all in all, though.

"Hey, Joe?" Sage suddenly asked, prompting Joe to stop staring down at the sidewalk.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You were kinda glossy eyed in history."

"Oh, I'm good," Joe chuckled. "I just can't stop thinking about Remy Cafe. Nothing really makes sense anymore..."

"You mean Café? Wait, is it that or am I just dumb?"

"Uh- no, I mean, I don't know. I... I was trying to Google some stuff and a bunch of websites spelled it without the little line above the e but that might have been a mistake," Joe quickly lied, not wanting to risk Sage thinking he was crazy by explaining everything that had happened the Friday before.

"Huh, that's... wait, Remy. I'm forgetting something again. Uh... oh! Oh my gosh, I totally forgot- agh, I'm gonna have to send a picture of this to Oliver, too, hold on."

"What is it?"

Sage stopped walking and hastily set his backpack on the ground, kneeling down to reach the front pocket. He dug through it for a moment before he pulled out three printed pictures.

"My parents sometimes let me go in our attic when I'm bored and want to explore and shit, and I found these. They have dates on the back, too, I think they're from our parent's junior and senior years of highschool."

"Wait, seriously? Oh damn, lemme see those."

Joe took the pictures and Sage stood next to him, looking over his shoulder. The first picture had 10/5/XX17 on the back, which should definitely have been their parent's junior year. The picture was pretty simple, it was of their parents standing in front of a bunch of lockers together. Sage's pop had his arm around Sage's dad- which was an interesting sight, because now Sage's dad was a bit taller than his husband but apparently that used to not be the case. Joe's father was staring at his now-husband, and the latter was beaming, being the only one who was truly paying attention to the picture that was being taken.

"Huh, my father looks kinda creepy in his," Joe chuckled. He brought the next picture to the front- it was dated 8/1/XX18- what Joe assumed was their first day of senior year. It was a bit similar to the last one, Sage's pop was just taking a selfie with the other three in the background. They were all at a lunch table, too. Joe's father was flushed red, Joe's dad was giving the former a large hug, and Sage's dad was just holding up a peace sign.

"I think my father was a huge simp in highschool," Joe chuckled once more. "This one is pretty similar to the last one, though."

"Well, that's what I thought at first, too... but look in the back."

"Where in the back?"

"Right above your father's head."

Joe looked there, and he couldn't believe it, but leaning up against a wall was a figure dressed in a leather jacket and sunglasses- none other than Remy. Looking directly at the camera.

"Oh, wow- so they did go to the same school! Well- unless that was some other guy, right? I don't know."

"...Look at the last one."

Joe flipped to the last one- he was met with the back of the picture, and a small very messily scribbled sentence- "8/17/XX18; day before Remy Cafe was arrested." Joe stared at it for a second before slowly flipping the photo over. His dad was in the center of the photo, and he was grinning, body facing outward and very noticeably flustered by something. Two hands were holding steadily onto his hips from his side, and Joe realized someone was kissing his cheek, but he couldn't see who- there was a small piece of paper taped over the entire person that read, "this is definitely logan. yup."

"You can lift the paper, it's only taped at the top," Sage told him. Joe gulped.

"Man, I don't know if I wanna see my dad being kissed by a serial killer..."

Sage let out a breathy laugh. "That's fair. Aren't you curious, though?"

"...A little."

And so, Joe pulled up the piece of paper, and yes, he was right- it was Remy. He wasn't really kissing his dad's cheek, though, he more had his forehead leaning against the side of his head. Strangely enough, he wasn't wearing his leather jacket, only a white t-shirt. He was smirking, but another odd thing was that the smirk looked completely fake. He looked...

"...Okay, now I'm freaking out even more because we have proof my dad does have a thing for that, I guess- but why does Remy look so sad?"

"Sad? What do you- oh. Huh. He kind of does."

Joe stared at the image for another second.

"...I'm gonna take a picture of this. Just in case."

"Alright."

So, with Joe's newfound knowledge of his parent's highschool experience, the two friends continued walking home. When Joe got home, he ate dinner, and the rest of the day seemed to go by fast enough.

"Joe? When were those ancestory results supposed to come back in?" Joe sat up in bed, suddenly hearing his father knock and speak from outside his door.

"You can come in. But uh, I don't know. They're supposed to be three to four weeks but I think this one is like really fast for some reason."

Joe's father opened his door, nodded, and closed it. Joe wasn't surprised by his eagerness- when he told them about the project, his father was the one who offered to take the test. He was very interested in how the process worked and honestly always wanted one, but had always put it off and never had time to do it. Apparently then was the best situation as any.

...

Why did Joe really want to go outside suddenly..? Maybe he was just bored and wanted to move around. He got out of bed and decided to open his window and climb onto his roof.

But as soon as he did that, he scurried back in, because he was pretty sure Remy and Emile were coming up the sidewalk. Oh, oh, this was perfect, wasn't it? That's why he wanted to go outside- he just had to go and talk to them.

Joe grabbed his skateboard from his closet, running downstairs and telling his parents he was gonna go and skate outside. He bolted out the door at as slow of a pace he could go to not raise suspicion, and slowly crept forward in the grass next to the sidewalk, knowing that if Remy saw him before he got too close he'd just turn around and walk the opposite direction.

Joe got close enough to them, and got on his skateboard, letting himself slowly drift forward. When he finally got close enough, Remy saw him, and Joe grinned.

"Uh, hey, so, I-"

"No."

Remy turned around. Joe groaned, and Emile, who was also at the scene, shot a very sympathetic look towards Joe before starting to follow his husband. Joe picked up the speed a bit on his skateboard.

"Wait up! Can you at least acknowledge I exist?"

"No," Remy shouted back after him. Joe wasn't even sure what he was after at this point, but he just had to talk to them. They were ghosts. They were literally ghosts, and he could see them.

Suddenly, Joe saw an opening to get their attention again- there was a dip in the sidewalk onto the road, which would allow him to get in front of the two ghosts without having to pass through them. He took it, even though he wasn't sure if he'd be able to maneuver it without falling. Miraculously, he ended up in front of the two, and both stopped walking abruptly.

"Oh my fucking- what. Literally what do you want, kid?!" Remy finally asked. Joe grinned.

"Uhm... I don't know. Oh! Wait, aren't you like- huh..."

"Oh yeah, sure, take your time. Yup," Remy shook his head, likely rolling his eyes underneath his sunglasses. He put a hand on his hip.

"Okay, okay. Okay, but... aren't you, like, curious, about what my parents are like now? Don't you wanna see them? Even just a little bit?"

"...So you're asking if I want to come into your house."

"If you wanna phrase it that way, yeah."

"Uh, no, no," Remy's hand moved with his words in a very dramatic and gay sense. "Why would I want to do that, huh?"

Joe blinked. Why did he even want Remy to come in his house?

"...I don't know. I just think it would be cool."

"Oh, good god, he's been infected by the author to try and move the plot forward. I am leaving."

"Wait, what?-"

"Remy, hold on," Emile grabbed his arm with a sigh. Remy looked back and forth between his husband and Joe.

"Who's side are you on?!"

"I'm on your side, of course I am. But I think you're right, Rem, and if you are, you know you're gonna end up there eventually, if not tonight then later. You might as well get it over with."

Remy stared at Emile for a good fifteen seconds. He let out the longest sigh Joe was pretty sure he had ever heard someone exclaim, throwing his head back a bit before rubbing his face exhaustedly.

"...Okay. Fine. Fine, I will come into your house, kid. But I'm leaving after five minutes, and then we are never walking this way ever again. Got it?"

"Yay!"

And that was the day Joe lead a dead serial killer and his oddly wholesome husband back to his house. As he got there, he noticed that an Amazon truck was leaving, and so he sped up the pace of his skating, hearing Remy complain a bit behind him.

When he got inside, both his parents were sitting on the couch, his father's laptop on the coffee table. He looked up and smiled ever so slightly- Remy gagged, for whatever reason.

"Oh, Joe, good, you're just in time. We just got a package, it has a few things in there, but mainly, we now have the code needed to access my ancestory results."

Joe smiled, and then remembered Remy and Emile probably knew nothing about that. "Oh, cool! Uh- the ones you took so I would have a family-related DNA sample for my science project, right?"

Joe's father raised an eyebrow at Joe's clarification. "Well, yes, I don't see what else it would be."

"...Don't those usually take three weeks or something?" Remy mumbled.

"Plot convenience," Emile mumbled back. Remy hummed, apparently in agreement.

Joe shrugged, walking over to the couch and standing a few paces away from the coffee table. He heard Remy and Emile take a few steps themselves. "Are you putting it in now?"

"Yes, I am."

"What are you gonna look at first, hon?" Joe's dad asked.

"I'm not sure, I'm interested to know what regions and countries of the world my ancestors were from but I know there's also a section to see what famous people you may be related to, which I find a bit interesting. Ah- here we are, I see the button to view that, so I'll look at it first."

Joe watched both his parents lean into the computer screen- Joe began to walk over as he heard his father click something, but he stopped in his tracks when his parent's eyes snapped to one spot and immediately widened. Both gasped, his dad slapping a hand over his mouth and his father's hands flinching away from the keyboard.

A good few seconds passed where no one moved a muscle.

"...Uh, are you guys okay?" Joe asked slowly. The two stared at the screen for another moment, pure terror in their eyes, slowly beginning to turn and look at each other.

"I... no. No, that cannot be right... how could it be?" Joe's father mumbled, looking back to the computer. "It's not- no."

"I don't know, aren't these supposed to be really accurate?"

"Perhaps, but I don't want to believe it, Patton."

"I don't wanna believe it either!"

"What is happening?"

"Jeez, do you have to deal with your parents acting this dramatic every single fucking day?" Remy suddenly asked from behind Joe. He walked a bit forward, standing a few paces to Joe's right, Emile next to him.

"It- It's nothing, Joe, okay?"

"No, Patton, we... god, I don't- he's going to have to look at these eventually for his project. Whether it is true or not, he will find it."

"Ugh... oh, you're right. But... okay. Just tell him. Get it over with."

"Alright..."

Joe's father sighed, and began to speak, seeming like he was restraining himself from sounding overly panicked.

"Well, Joe... based solely on this test, and this test alone, which I am not yet inclined to believe but it still nevertheless may be true... I have a half-brother, that I did not know about."

"Yay, congratulations," Remy muttered sarcastically.

"...And he is Remy Cafe."

Joe's eyes widened. He heard Remy sharply inhale, and then everything was silent.

...What?

•~~~~•
OMG SURPRISE!!!! 🤪😍😃😋🥰🥳 Y'ALL BETTER BE READY FOR THE SHITSTORM BREWING

See ya in the next chapter!💖
    ~Maxx(SanderShipper)