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Janus sighed. He was in front of a door that at one point might have been a regal green and black at one point, but now the paint was chipped and covered in dark maroon stains that looked suspiciously like blood. Was he seriously considering talking to Remus? They hadn’t had an actual conversation since…. since Virgil left, and even before that, they were never that close. He glanced at the bright orange door, chained shut down the hall. No, Janus scolded himself. Remus was his only option. For Thomas he thought. I'm doing this for Thomas.
He rapped on the door three times, carefully avoiding touching the strange stains. The feeling of regret filled him almost immediately as he heard a loud inhumane screech from inside. Then came piercing silence. He considered jumping into the empty void of nothingness neatly enclosed by a purple door frame. At this point, nothingness seemed pretty tempting. No.
Janus knocked once more, harder this time “Remus open the door! I need to discuss some things with you.”
“Oh, it’s only you. What can I do for ya?” Remus asked, opening the door just enough to poke his head through, obscuring any view of his dimly lit room.
“Well, I require your assistance to help Thomas... get to know himself better.”
“You must be desperate if you’re asking me of all sides for help. What happened? Did everybody else die? Because if so, I call dibs on the bodies.”
“No! Just listen! Nobody died!” Remus looked slightly disappointed. “Believe me, if I had any choice I wouldn’t be here. What do you want me to do, go to Virgil? Ask Patton if he wants to show Thomas anything other than ‘perfect’? See if Roma-”
“Alright, alright fine but why should I help you? We’re not exactly friends. By the way, how well do you think snakes survive when swimming in chloroform?”
“He needs to be more honest with himself, and have a more direct way of dealing with his issues. He won’t listen to me, the courtroom incident proved that.” He chose to ignore the bit about snakes.
“Ooooo, you’re saying we introduce him to some of the more ugly parts of his mind” Remus motioned to himself, a maniac grin on his face.
“Exactly.”
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“Where the fuck is it?”
Janus was anxiously ransacking his room in search of his hat, which had mysteriously disappeared while he showered. He frantically raised his arm over and over, each attempt more distraught than the last, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing appeared.
“REMUS” he desperately called while trying to summon the Duke. Janus let out a frustrated, somewhat over dramatic sigh. Of course. The one night he actually wanted him around, the sorry bastard was crashing the others’ movie night.
He yanked his door open, slamming it shut with the force of a speeding car into a tree as he sprinted down the hall. The rainbow door that led to the real world was just in front of him, he jerked it open and appeared in Virgil’s usual spot on the stairs. Nobody noticed him, they were too focused on Roman. What was he doing anyway? He seemed to be holding something round, black and- Oh. Oh no. Janus angrily stalked towards Roman, a cat- or should I say snake about to pounce on its prey.
“Don’t touch my shit!” Janus half yelled at Roman, snatching his hat out of Roman’s hand, disapprovingly waved his finger in front of Roman’s face, and stomped away.
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Remus liked to think him and Janus had improved their relationship since Remus first revealed his presence to Thomas. They would have the occasional conversation and sometimes when Janus woud cook, he’d let Remus have some. They could even go as far to be called friends. Come to think of it, they were closer with each other than anyone else, though that wasn’t a very high bar considering the fact that both sides never talked to anyone else unless it was debating yet another one of Thomas’ recurring dilemmas: Remus came to look forward to those few conversations with the only person who would listen to him. He was really starting to warm up to the deceitful side and could only hope Janus felt the same.
Janus, much like an actual snake, didn't typically like being poked with a stick right after he came back from a discussion with Thomas, so when Remus heard the yellow door close and lock in place, he didn’t leave his room and tried not to make too much noise. He was too busy training his pet raccoon to attack on command to notice the footsteps walk past his door and the side sink out from the ‘dark sides’ living room.
Lying awake in bed that night, the Duke had a thought. It felt good when Janus cooked for them so maybe, Remus could get up extra early and make breakfast to share and make Janus feel good too! Yes. That is what he would do, who cares if he’d been banned from using the stove after causing one too many ‘fire hazards’ Janus would’ve forgotten about that now, right?. Remus set his alarm for 7:00am and let himself drift off into sweet nightmares. His alarm could only ring twice before Remus jumped out of bed, he was ecstatic as a kid who had just eaten overwhelming amounts of stolen candy to be able to do something nice for Janus. He ran to the kitchen and quickly got to work mixing pancake batter and squeezing orange juice. Half an hour later, the table was set and everything looked perfect, well almost, Remus figured Janus probably wouldn’t like nails in his pancakes, The best part Remus thought bitterly.
Remus knew Janus, a man of punctuality would come into the kitchen in almost two minutes and pour himself a cup of coffee, so, needless to say he was quite confused and nervous when ten minutes passed and he was still the only person in the kitchen. Maybe he just wants to sleep in, or took too long getting dressed. Remus tried to rationalize. If he’s not here in five minutes, I’ll go check on him. He glanced at the time, glowing green on the microwave, 7:48am. How dare he be fifteen minutes late to a breakfast Remus had not invited him to, or maybe he died in his sleep, or maybe Janus knew Remus would be up and was intentionally avoiding hi- Enough was enough, Remus and Janus were going to have the perfect little breakfast, whether he liked it or not.
Remus walked through the living room he’d excitedly sprinted through not an hour ago, but now, as he trudged, eyes planted firmly on the floor, he couldn’t help feeling slightly abandoned. He turned into the hallway and stopped at Janus’ do- No. It wasn’t a door, it was… nothing. This couldn't be happening. Where had once stood an impressive yellow door with ornately painted snakes was a void remarkably similar to the one framed with purple.
“No.” Remus whispered. “NO!” He screamed. Not again not again not again NEVER AGAIN! Remus fiercely pounded on the doorframe in a futile attempt to deal with the overwhelming amount of emotion that was forced on him all at once. When Virgil left, neither Remus, nor Janus left their respective rooms for months, he couldn’t go through that again. Yet here he was, tears streaming down his face as he crouched in front of the void. The void. Maybe Janus’ room just got sucked up by the void. Yes! That was it! He stuck his head into the darkness. The rest of his body tumbled in after him.
Cold. Everything was cold. So bitterly piercingly cold. It was as if Remus had dove headfirst into the Arctic Ocean. A world of pure oblivion was before him; it was nothing but him and the freezing cold Remus suddenly felt exhausted, despite just waking up. Maybe he could just… take a nap, who cares if nobody gave a damn about him, he could deal with that later or just never leave. Here was calm. Here was safe. Someone was calling his name somewhere in the distance, he didn’t care. This is the best he’d felt in years. Is this what his bugs felt as they were slowly killed in any way Remus could imagine? He wouldn’t leave, the void was nice, all was well, all was calm. Remus could feel the life start to leave him, but it didn’t faze him. Nothing mattered anymore. Nobody cared, so what?
Nobody would notice he was gone,