WARNING: An episode? Like, a PTSD episode

Roman raised a hand to knock on the door and hesitated. He turned away and scrubbed at his face with his palms.

God, this was stupid. He didn't need to apologise to Remus. Why did he even want to, anyway?

Because night shift was truly a nightmare. He hadn't slept in over a day and it was starting to take its toll.

Roman sighed and rubbed his hands together. Jesus Christ, he really needed a drink.

"After this," he growled at himself, "you can drink yourself to sleep. Just do this and get it over with."

He knocked on the door before he'd even thought about it.

No reply.

Not a 'who is it' or a 'go away', which had been Remus' signature greeting when they were kids.

Or maybe that was just for Roman...

Doesn't matter. What mattered was that there was still no reply from his brother.

Roman knocked again. "Re?" He tried and cringed at himself. Change. Serious change. Come on, Roman, this wasn't so difficult.

Roman cleared his throat. "Remus?"

Nothing.

Roman frowned and his hand floated to the door knob. He tried it and was surprised to find the door opened with very little resistance.

"Remus?" He tried again.

"Stop." That wasn't Remus.

Roman opened the door a little more. Janus was sat in the corner, his hair loose about his face, arms hugged tightly around his knees. There was a book next to him on the floor, open on a random page. It looked like it'd been dropped.

Janus was staring directly at Roman. No, that wasn't right. He wasn't staring at him, more through him.

"Stop," he hissed again. "Do you not see them?"

Roman glanced around. There was no one else there.

"See who?"

"Be quiet, you'll kill us both," Janus whispered frantically. He unclasped a hand from his knees and pointed shakily to the door. "They're right there."

Roman stepped to the side and looked out into the corridor. There really was no one there.

He shut the door slowly.

"I've locked them out," he said. "And look," he pulled a small dagger out of his belt, "I've got a weapon. They try and harm anyone, they'll have to go through me first." He hesitated before sitting down slowly by the door. "Can you tell me where we are?"

Janus moved his head slightly. His gaze was still fixed on the door. "Can't you see?"

Roman shook his head. "No. Where are we?"

"On their ship." Janus pulled his knees closer to his chest.

"Where are we going?"

"They're taking us back."

"Back?" Roman repeated. "Back where?"

"Back home," Janus whispered. "But I didn't do it. But they won't listen. They're going to kill us. All of us."

Roman turned the dagger over in his hands and stood up slowly. There was a bookshelf near him. He walked to it slowly.

"You've got a lot of books here," he said quietly.

"Books, what're you talking about books?" Janus asked. "We aren't allowed books down here, we aren't allowed anything."

"Janus?" Janus' head snapped up to Roman but his eyes were still vacant. Roman slipped the dagger back into his belt carefully. "Can you reached your hand down to your left?"

Janus' brow furrowed in confusion. He reached down and jumped when his fingers brushed the book's pages. He picked the book up carefully.

"I'm going to wait outside," Roman explained slowly. "We're on a ship called the Captain's Chaos, heading to the Fountain of Youth. I'm going to talk to the captain, okay? Do you know who the captain is?"

Janus was still focused on the book, running his fingers up the writing. "Virgil," he said, slow and unsure.

"Yeah, right." Roman nodded. What the Hell was he doing? "I'm going to go find Virgil and tell him about this. I'm sure he can help you more than I can."

"Don't want you here," Janus said slowly. He looked up from the book and Roman thought that this was the first time Janus actually saw him.

"Yeah." Roman nodded. "Thought as much. I'm going to go get Virgil, okay?"

Janus looked back down at the book. "They'll come back while you're gone."

"If they do, Virgil will just fight them off, okay? You're his friend," God knows how, "he cares about you." God knows why.

Janus didn't say anything else. Roman opened the door silently and left, keeping the door ajar behind him.

I've no idea where the fuck I'm going with this, stuff is just happening and shit is just hitting the fan
Bye,
Blaize