Chapter Text
After a slight freak out, Virgil steadied his breathing in order to study the area. There was a cliff before him, that much was obvious. After he fell backwards, he was too unwilling to get closer, so it dropped further than he could tell. All he could see was that visibility disappeared into a thick fog down below. It made him dizzy thinking of the unknown drop he’d been a hair’s breadth away from, less than a shift of his weight to.
He craned his head away from the cliff, trying to focus on his immediate surroundings. The cliff face was stony and gray, hard and gravely beneath his hands. Behind him there were trees. Of course. There were always trees there. Dried and shriveled leaves littered the area that separated the cliff from forest. Virgil touched one of the leaves and the forest reacted immediately, shadows reaching out.
He snatched his hand back. Well, at least now he knew he wasn’t too far off. This was still the forest.
But he couldn’t go back in. Not alone, he couldn’t. He would hear the empty silence again; he would feel that distinct slip, of losing something, of becoming trapped.
Yet, that silence already encroached. Ever since Remus had approached, it had grown stronger, refusing to go away, no matter how closely he stuck to one of the others. Now, alone, it was even stronger, despite not being in the woods. He could see the shadows already stretching towards him, begging for just a touch, beckoning him in. He wouldn’t go in, though. Not alone. He wasn’t that stupid.
Or, maybe…
Where had Remus sent his friends? Were they in there, all alone themselves?
He thought of Thomas. And Joan and Talyn. Getting split, Thomas finding the edge of the forest before his friends, circling town for them, for a sign. Virgil remembered his friend’s regret, the haunted look in Thomas’ eye when he’d come face-to-face with their absent figures.
Virgil had to find the others. Just because he’d been sent outside the woods didn’t mean his friends were that lucky. And Remus seemed to have taken interest in Roman. Did he want to isolate Roman so he became lost to the woods first? Who knew what this guy’s plan was…
The woods were so wide; there was no way Virgil would find his friends before time ran out. But, then, if Virgil kept standing there, his friends would lose what time they had by searching for him too.
They would do the same. They probably were doing the same. He could see them: Patton calling his name, Logan trying to dodge the shadows, Roman covering his ears against the silence. He thought of their souls, lost to the ghost town.
That was it for him, all it took to convince Virgil. At last, his feet moved.
He darted into the forest.
Blindly he raced through the trees, crashing through branches and tripping on tangling shadows. His eyes went here and there, looking for a familiar red tie or taped glasses or the paint in Patton’s hair even the river couldn’t wash out.
Once or twice Virgil was sure he got turned around. He tried another way, and another. Without the river to guide him, he couldn’t be sure if he was going in circles. It all looked the same. Trees upon trees upon trees, tangled in bushes and roots and broken sticks.
He was becoming more lost.
“Shit,” Virgil breathed hard, hands on his knees as he tried to pick another direction. He stayed away from the trees and their shadows, but, at that point, the entire forest was a shadow. He could feel tendrils wrap around his ankles. He yelled, jumping up, back back back--far away from the danger.
“Girl, what is the matter?” a voice sounded behind him, and Virgil yelled again, spinning to face it. There, leaning against a tree, was Remy in sunglasses and a raised eyebrow. “And where are the others?”
“Remy!” Virgil exclaimed, relieved. He wasn’t alone anymore. Maybe the shadows would back off, just a little bit. “We got separated.”
“Separated?” Remy asked, standing up straight. “Oh no. That is not good.”
“Yeah, which is why I’m trying to find them,” Virgil said.
Remy shook his head. “You can’t be in the forest alone.”
“I know,” Virgil said. “Which is why I really need you to stay until I find them,” he practically begged, which he might not have done if not for his screaming fear of the shadows.
“That won’t work, hun,” Remy said. Virgil’s brow furrowed.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t count. I’m not human, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Virgil’s eyes went wide. “Not human?”
“Are you serious? I can literally disappear and reappear in places. I control people's sleep,” Remy said, like it was obvious. Virgil frowned.
“I thought you just had magic or something,” he said, but, before Remy could retort, there was a tug at the bottom of Virgil’s jeans. Looking down, Virgil yelled yet again and tried to shake it off. Remy ran over and pulled him back from the shadows that were again crawling towards him.
After, they were both breathing quite heavily, staring at where the shadows had retreated. Virgil cursed under his breath.
“I have to find the others,” he said, stepping out of Remy’s arms and looking around.
“ No ,” Remy protested, shaking his head. “No no no no no.”
“What?”
“You have to get out of here is what you need to do,” Remy said. “You’ll never find them before the woods claims you.”
“I’m not leaving them alone in here,” Virgil said, and, picking a direction at random, started moving again. Remy followed, still shaking his head.
“No, that’s a real bad idea. Can’t you see yourself? You’ve got real dark shadows under your eyes, babe. And the forest is getting loud .”
Virgil sighed, now annoyed. “I don’t care. If you aren’t going to help, you can leave.” Virgil paused, then frowned. “And what do you mean loud?”
Remy went silent. When Virgil looked over, he simply shook his head. “Just listen to me , babe.”
Virgil’s fist clenched.
Was Remy even trying to help them? Thomas had said he was the one to tell him about the clearing, how to escape the forest. Yet he’d never mentioned that to Virgil.
Virgil stalked away. That was a problem for another day. For now, he had to find his friends.
He continued to dodge along the nonexistent path, jumping over roots and shadows. He didn’t look behind him, but he knew Remy was still following. He could practically hear him trying to come up with a new protest.
As they went along, it became worse and worse. Instead of silence, Virgil began experiencing a loud ringing in his ears, and his vision was going darker. Like the forest itself was engulfed in shade, like nightfall was upon them. Which shouldn’t have been possible. It had just been morning.
He looked up at the sky between the trees. Still bright. He looked down at the path. Still dark.
“Virgil?” Remy asked, but Virgil kept walking. The trees were passing slower now. That ringing was getting loud.
“Virg-” Remy tried again, but Virgil had stopped. There was something wrapped up his legs, reaching for his arms. He could barely see anymore; the path was so shaded. “ Shit .”
Then, he felt it. Two fingers, the soft pads applying a firm pressure to the back of his neck.
Virgil couldn’t form coherent thought.
One moment, everything was ringing. The next, silence was back.
He never thought he’d be grateful to hear that silence.
-/-
Remy was sitting next to him, and Virgil was laying in the dirt. There wasn’t really anywhere else he could have gone.
It was obvious Virgil was asleep, from his closed eyes and peaceful face, the slow rise and fall of his chest. Remy looked over him, eyes darting from his figure, carefully placed upon the ground, to the trees surrounding them. It was brighter than it had been, the shadows having retracted from the scene. It was quieter too. Without the ringing, there was only the rustling of leaves as the wind blew by.
So Virgil had to be conscious for the forest to affect him, huh? Remy must have made him fall asleep then. It was protection, for now.
Attention shifted from the area around them, and Virgil was rushing through the trees, leaving Remy and himself behind, like the perspective was a camera which could detach itself. It wound this way and that, all in a sure, invisible marked path, until it arrived in another copse of trees not far from there.
There, a figure was leaning against a tree trunk. He yelled out and leapt away from it as a shadow brushed his leg.
He adjusted his glasses, ran a hand through paint-matted hair, wiped at a few tears that strayed.
“I have to find them,” he whimpered and looked this way and that, picking a direction at random, just like Virgil had done. The ringing had already started for the boy, and it grew louder around him.
He tripped. When he looked back, he couldn’t find a root or a rock, only the beaten dirt path. His eyes widened with fear and he tried to jump up. Something tugged him down. On his other ankle, a shadow was clutching to him tightly, like a vine, ready to dig its thorns in.
He screamed.
-/-
Virgil jolted awake to the sound of Patton’s scream still ringing in his head. He jumped up and found Remy gawking at him.
“You can’t wake up yet,” he said, shocked and confused, but Virgil didn’t care. He turned around and sprinted through the trees, ignoring Remy’s protests. “Wait! Virgil!”
Virgil crashed through the trees, following a winding path that he could only understand by some imaginary string of fate and dreams. With some sense of deja vu, he swatted branches out of the way, arriving at a circle of trees, Patton kneeling in the center. Virgil stopped, surprised he had found the other so easily, breath catching in the cold air, freezing his throat on the way down. Then Patton shivered, looking about ready to hurl his stomach over the forest floor.
Virgil surged forward, kneeling by Patton’s side. Patton’s face was hidden in his hands, and he seemed to have collapsed to his knees, face inches from the dirt. “Patton,” Virgil breathed out, hands hovering before he snatched them back.
At the sound of his voice, Patton’s head snapped up, face emerging to stare at Virgil with wide eyes. “Virgil?” he asked, and his voice was wrecked. His cheeks were wet in messy fashion.
“I’m here,” Virgil said. It was the most important thing–that he was there now. Patton wasn’t alone, wasn’t as susceptible to the forest. Patton’s tears only renewed, however, and he launched himself at Virgil, clinging tightly to the front of his shirt. Virgil froze before forcing his muscles loose, bringing his own hands to place at the other’s back. Taking this as some sort of permission, Patton hid his face in Virgil’s shoulder. He was still shaking badly.
“Patton,” Virgil whispered, looking about the forest once for threats before focusing again on the task. “What’s something you can feel?”
Patton hiccuped, shaking his head. A larger sob broke out from Virgil’s shoulder.
“It’ll help,” Virgil said, and he hoped that wasn’t a lie. “Please?”
“O-okay,” Patton said, voice muffled. He took a second to think, then, “Your jacket.”
“Great,” Virgil said with a mixture of relief and gratitude. “What can you smell?”
“Your jacket,” Patton said again, and Virgil frowned. Was he allowed to do that? “It smells like you. Like sharpie and the leaves we’ve been sleeping on.”
“Okay,” Virgil nodded. “You’re doing good, Patton. Can you hear anything?”
Suddenly, Patton sat up, startling Virgil. He dropped his arms immediately, watching as Patton wiped at his face, looking down at his knees. “Sorry,” he said, a slump to his shoulders. “I’m fine now. Thank you, Virgil.”
“But-” Virgil went to protest. Patton shook his head.
“Really, kiddo,” he said, then looked up, smiling. If it wasn’t for the splotchy mess his face was, you wouldn’t have known he’d been upset. “I’m perfectly alright!” he said with false cheer. “Sorry. The woods must have gotten to me.”
What- what was Virgil supposed to do now? On the one hand, Patton seemed fine, had pulled himself together and smacked on a face like he'd never been crying in the first place.
On the other… Patton seemed anything but fine.
There were cracks in his facade, ticks Virgil had noticed before but never considered. It wasn't happiness, no. It was something bigger and more fragile.
"But-" he tried. Virgil was unsure what to do. Why couldn't he ever be useful in situations like this? Patton needed his help.
Virgil couldn't. Patton rose to his feet and reached a hand down to him. When they were eye level again, Patton said, "We need to find Roman and Logan, right?"
Virgil could only nod mutely to the boy.
He stared on in shocked wonder as Patton dragged him along. Neither boy was plagued any longer by the shadows in the trees. The dull ringing had returned, but it wasn’t as strong now. They had each other, and that helped.
All this time, he'd thought he'd know Patton. Every cheery hello in the hallways, his kind earnest eyes, those soft touches when he’d smoothed a bandage to Virgil’s face.
But that was simply a part of the boy before him. How had Virgil not seen that there was so much more?
"I don't know which way we're going," Patton admitted nervously, a small chuckle in his voice. Why? Why did he do that?
Why wouldn't Patton simply be scared? Be sad?
“I don’t know either,” Virgil mumbled, biting his lip. Once again, he was full of questions he did not have the time for. Just because he and Patton had each other now, didn’t mean Roman and Logan had found one another. They could still be in danger of getting lost to the woods.
When something touched his hand, Virgil jumped, visions of shadows and familiar leering faces flashing through his mind. He spun only to be met with Patton's sheepish face, holding his hand back.
"Sorry," he whispered, trying to smile and, for once, coming poorly short. "I just thought- I don't want us getting lost and-"
Horribly, Virgil realized Patton was close to tears again. A small surge of panic overtook him, and he froze.
Then he lifted his hand, offered it. Patton, rapidly blinking away the moisture in his eyes, stared at it.
"You're right," Virgil said. "We don't want to get lost."
Even if it wasn't strictly to stay together, Virgil couldn't protest. Not with that broken look in Patton's eye, quickly masked again as the boy shook himself out. Not when Patton gripped his hand, and Virgil felt a little safer too.
Virgil took lead, winding once again through trees at random. Whenever his mind reminded him how big the forest was, how winding and impossible it was to get anywhere, how they may never find Logan or Roman again-
Virgil squeezed the hand in his and reminded himself he wasn't alone. If he could find Patton, he would find the others too.
He had to…
A couple more steps and Virgil paused. Patton made a noise of surprise behind him, but didn't protest.
Around them, trees were lush, full of leaves singing their last goodbyes before winter took. The colors seemed to celebrate life at its end, oranges and yellows of its happiness, browns of its comforts, reds of the struggles triumphed. They waved farewell to their brittle family that littered the path. Virgil couldn't imagine it–a great community all going to their end with each other.
What if that was life? If we were born with everyone we would ever know. We'd grow up with the same faces and walk hand-in-hand to the winter of our lives.
Virgil imagined all the faces he'd known in his life. Rarely was there anyone new in their small town. When someone passed, everyone mourned. Maybe they were like leaves.
But to walk to the end together? To face an end you had no control of but at least in it together with your neighbor and friend, sister and brother.
Virgil thought of dying alongside someone he cared for. Imagined lying down right here, among these leaves, next to Patton…
Could it bring solace? Comfort? To not go into that unknown alone?
Virgil couldn't imagine it–couldn't imagine not being terrified.
He would cry for his friend. He would curse the world for not giving Patton longer. Virgil couldn't be comforted by a thing like that because, where he might be gone without a trace, the world wouldn't be the same without Patton.
"Virgil?" Patton's voice, soft and hoarse, sounded behind him. Virgil turned, saw Patton's curious face.
There was ringing in his ears again. He flinched away from the sound, but Patton showed no reaction.
Virgil turned, now looking to the ground, not for leaves but shadows. And they were there.
Strong, long and twisting and excited. They were reaching away, further into the woods. Looking for something–someone.
"This way," Virgil said gruffly, then tugged on Patton to follow. Picking up the pace, they made their way in the direction the shadows were reaching. The ringing grew louder, but still remained muted. Virgil couldn't begin to fathom why he heard it in the first place. He had Patton with him.
Finally, they pushed through one last thicket and found themselves in a darker part of the woods. Trees were dense around them, but more leaves had dropped, giving at least a bit more room in that respect. The shadows, however, were heavy.
The brightest things in the area were a red tie and a rather unhinged grin.
"Roman," Virgil breathed, unaware he'd even been holding it in. He was relieved–not completely, not until they had Logan too–but Roman's presence was like a dip of cool water. Slightly shocking, but an almost reverent experience.
Neither occupant reacted to the boy's name. In fact, they stood face-to-face, a determined set to both of their eyes. Roman's looked pained, but Remus… he still looked so happy, so completely ecstatic over something, and it was a bit frightening to see.
Roman blinked. Remus burst into a cackling fit, clapping his hands in glee. "I win!"
"Bring them back," Roman growled, eyes screwing shut in a grimace. His protest was weak, and Virgil could hear the ringing circling him. What a strange noise, when a sound itself seemed to target something. Virgil didn't understand what he was hearing.
He did know one thing though, and it was that they needed to get closer to Roman. Whoever this Remus guy was, he wasn't keeping the shadows at bay.
I don’t count. I’m not human, in case you hadn’t noticed , Remy’s voice rang in his ears.
Virgil shoved yet more questions he had no time for aside. He stalked into the clearing, finally gaining the attention of Roman at least. The relief in the boy's eyes was immediate.
Remus, however, still wasn't paying any mind, as if the only thing he could see, could hear, was Roman standing in front of him. He was like a puppy, vying for the attention of his owner. The speed in which Remus had latched onto Roman made Virgil uneasy, like Remus was a ticking time bomb, ready to go off as soon as something went wrong.
Virgil stepped between Roman and Remus, effectively blocking his friend and giving him a bit of space to breathe. The ringing stuttered out, quick this time, as if afraid. Virgil wasn't going to question it.
Remus tried to ask another question, head craning itself around Virgil as best he could. The guy hadn't even looked at Virgil when he'd stepped in, too fixated on the nonsensical conversation he was trying to hold. When Virgil blocked him again, moving into Roman's line of sight, Remus finally looked at him.
Virgil tried to stand tall, folding his arms in front of him, squaring his shoulders, and setting his mouth to a firm line. He wasn't normally all that intimidating–his glowers in the school halls only worked if you didn't look too hard–but he had to stand up for his friend. Virgil had to get this guy away from Roman because Roman looked ready to scream.
When Remus fixed him with his gaze, though, Virgil could feel his glare waver, shifting to one part confusion, one part fear. With clear green eyes, Remus tilted his head up at Virgil.
"It's you," he said.
Virgil didn't like that.
"You're shorter than I thought you'd be."
Virgil really didn't like that.
"And how do you know me?" Virgil asked, shifting his stance to rest on one leg, trying to come off as challenging. Remus didn't seem phased.
"The Wood talks about you often."
"M-me?" Virgil stuttered. Talking about him ? Why him? Virgil wasn't someone to talk about, someone to notice.
He didn't even know where to start with Remus' statement, but he didn't have to. "Hey," Patton spoke up, stepping forward.
The two of them stood side-by-side now, blocking Roman from Remus' view. Virgil was still confused, but they all turned to Patton who seemed confident, demanding. Virgil had never seen him like that before.
"Where is Logan?" he asked. A stone, cold and heavy, dropped in Virgil's gut. Logan . "Where did you send him?"
Remus wasn't looking at Patton. He wasn't even looking at Virgil anymore. Instead, his eyes were back on Roman, tucked away behind them. He was frowning.
"You guys are done playing," he said, sounding disappointed at the fact. "Okay. We can play more later."
"Wha-" Patton started, but, before he could get it out, Remus' wide grin was back, stretched like taffy across his face.
He waved to Roman. "Bye."
And then he disappeared. They all stood for a minute, eyes glued to the spot. No one said a word.
What…. was that?
Virgil couldn't quite process what had just happened. Not the boy or his crazed expressions or sending them across the forest or odd fixation with Roman. Not running into Remy, not the strange dream he'd had under Remy's magic-induced sleep. Not finding Patton, shaking and afraid, not the mask Patton dawned as soon as he gained control. Not what Remus had said about the forest.
Then Patton turned to them, and Virgil was knocked out of his reverie. Brought back to the present, he was made aware of the stress and the fear and the worry behind Patton's eyes.
Virgil's stone of worry grew heavier in his gut. He knew something was very wrong. He knew they had to act quick. Virgil's hands balled into nervous fists when Patton opened his mouth.
"We need to find Logan."
End of Part One