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The longer Virgil was here, the more anxious he became.
The room, which he had been stuck in, was an off white color. In it the lights were very bright and the bed was very scratchy. This led to him choosing to sleep on the floor during the nights instead.
Virgil had also been granted a desk that held a Disney coloring book, along with many crayons to play with.
That had been Virgil’s only source of entertainment these past few months. By now all the crayons were broken and the pages almost filled. He hoped he could get new ones soon.
Every once and a while, the adults would check on him. Every time they did, Vigil tried to talk to them. Every time, they refused to answer any of his many questions. Even so, he wondered about so many things.
Where was he? Why was he here? Was he in trouble? When could he go home? When could he see his parents? Were his parents ok?
Virgil hoped they were. He missed them. His last memories, before he was here, was when he was at the store with them. As they walked down the aisle, he held their mom’s hand, feeling unwell. He was hungry. Very hungry. Yet he wasn't sure for what. He had eaten not too long ago, so not food… Perhaps he was just sick, he thought.
As they continued to walk, his thoughts grew fuzzy. The world felt like it was spinning as his vision started to shrink. His body was shaking as their breathing quickened. He needed food. Blood. Love.
“Sweety? Virgil? What's wrong dear?” He heard his mothers worried voice. “Listen to me. Just breath slowl-” As she put her hand on his face, Virgil’s mind seemed to sever from his body.
He couldn’t remember any specifics after. All he could recall was a wonderful feeling. Once it was over, Virgil felt satisfied in a way he had never felt before. Everything around him seemed to be perfect! Life was incredible! He was incredible!
Then he woke up here, trapped in the small room alone. In the beginning he had not cared, He was still living off his previous high of happiness. This was just a new wonderful place to explore, with new fantastic people to meet!
However, Virgil slowly realized over time, this was not the case. The room was cold, and the adults colder. They would come in twice everyday to offer food and water, and would only speak when they wanted him to do something for them.
Usually it was to inspect his legs. Not his human ones, but the eight that had begun to grow from his back. They were short, black , and skinny. It reminded Virgil of spider legs, if they were to continue growing out more. The adults seemed to believe they would.
Virgil worried that his spider legs were why he was here. So they could monitor their growth. Yet, it seemed a bit too extreme to be the case. Virgil had seen so many other hybrids. Why was he so special?
He hoped they were growing okay. Something had to be wrong with them for him to be here, right? Something had to be wrong with him.
Virgil’s mind began to wander, slowly evolving into a spiral. His thoughts were racing. He wanted to go home. He hated it here. He wanted his parents. He wanted food. He was hungry, and hurting, and everything in life was absolutely worthless.
“Four.”
A stern voice had echoed from the speaker. That had been what the adults had called him, but he wasn’t sure why. When Virgil tried to correct them, they simply ignored him. Why didn’t anyone listen to him anymore?
“We are sending in someone to bring you your dinner for the night. Behave yourself.”
Virgil attempted to cease his thoughts, but surpassing it only made it hurt worse. Still, he tried to neglect the pain for now. He would address it once the adult was gone.
Soon enough, a tall woman came into the room with a small cart. She had on their classic white cloak, as well a face mask. On the cart, there was a plate of food, some wipes, water, and a few syringes.
Upon spotting the syringes, Virgil froze. He hated this part. Once a week they would bring them in order to take a few samples of his blood. He never understood why, but he hated it.
The woman ordered him to sit. As he did, he had many concerns of this procedure.
What if the needle went too far? What if they took too much blood? What if the small puncture didn’t heal fast enough, and he ends up bleeding out and dying in this awful place.
Virgil was snapped out of his thoughts, when he felt the needle poke his skin. He let out a small yelp, and looked away as tears formed in his eyes. He wanted his mother to be here with him. He wanted her to tell him everything would be okay. However, he was instead here with them instead.
The woman, noting his teary eyes, took pity on him. He was just a young boy after all.
“I’m sorry, Four. However, this is for your best interest. We are only trying to help you”
She tried to reassure him. Then, Virgil felt it. His hunger rose, and he could smell the dessert. He could smell the care. The love.
It was sweet, far too sweet to resist now. So he didn’t.
Virgil’s hands moved to grab the woman’s neck tightly. He pushed her down onto the ground and bit her arm with his small fangs until she drew blood. The adult had screamed, as he sucked the blood and life out of her. When she slowly grew silent, Virgil looked back at her to see her eyes blank and emotionless.
Virgil, on the other hand, felt fantastic again for the first time since being here. His smile grew, as his hands tightened around the woman’s neck, until she was no longer struggling against them.
That disappointed Virgil a bit. Now who was he supposed to play with? Perhaps she could still work as a lovely puppet!
As Virgil began to decorate his new doll, an odd smoke filled the room. Virgil had been too distracted to notice it, but once he breathed it in, he began to grow sleepy.
Everything had gone fuzzy, and there was no need to even stay awake. Perhaps a quick nap wouldn’t be all that bad…
Soon enough, he was knocked out. Sweet and glorious dreams filled his mind as he slept.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
When Virgil awoke, he instantly felt something was wrong. He felt lighter. Yet, not in a relieving way. He felt like something important was missing, like a part of him had been removed.
All the while, he also felt a new aching pain in his back. At first Virgil just thought he had slept wrong on the awful bed.
His spider legs.
Virgil screamed at the realization that they had cut them off. What before had been about two feet were now small nubs.
How could they? He had done nothing wrong! They weren’t dangerous! Why were they gone? This wasn’t fair! What had they done to him? Would they even be able to grow back?
Tears rolled down his face as his body grew shaky. His mind was spiraling. It had taken so long for them to get so long and now those monsters had destroyed all his progress! That power had been all he had left from his family! How dare they?
His thoughts were interrupted by the speaker.
“Quite down, Four. It is quite late and we do not want to wake the other guests. This is your own fault for removing the nurse from this world. She was quite a sweet young lady as well. It is such a pity she had to go out in such a way. Now I hope this gets to your head. You better learn to control your hunger before we remove more than just those disgusting spider-arms of yours. We wouldn’t want any more accidents, would we?”
Was that true? Had he killed the nurse? Virgil couldn’t remember. All he could recall was feeling absolutely miserable, while his blood was being drawn. Then feeling incredibly wonderful after. How he had got from one place to another? He was not sure.
If they were right though, then Virgil deserved to be locked up here. He had no idea of how to stop or control his actions. What would he do if it happened again?
Was this what had happened to his parents? Is that what happened after his mother touched his face? How could he do that? He killed his own mom, he must have, there was no other option. He was a monster. He was a-
Due to Virgil’s lack of proper breathing, his body gave out. He laid unconscious with the remainder of tears sliding down his face.
Even so, his dreams were not joyful ones. He dreamed of his mom. How much she had loved and cared for him. Then he dreamed of the nightmare. The day he had attacked her. The day he had killed her.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
Over the past few years, Virgil had grown absolutely miserable.
There were hardly ever times where he was in control of himself. Instead, he would always fall prey to the adults, who he had come to learn were also called Progessors, or his own powers.
Majority of the time, he followed whatever commands the Progessors gave to him. In more recent months, there had been a new voice. It sounded younger, like a teenager, and they were upset when they spoke. Yet, every time they gave commands, Virgil couldn’t help but obey. He didn’t want to make them more upset.
The voice would always come through the speakers, though. This was because the Progressors refused to enter his room, in order to avoid Virgil from giving in to his desires.
Any time a Progressor would enter the room, Virgil would cause them to pity him. Then, once feeling their emotions, he’d attack. His teeth would sink into the victim as he drank in all their emotions. It made him feel wonderful. It made him feel alive.
Yet, it had been over a year since he got that joy. Now, he was starving. The world seemed to blur and he could hardly move. As every moment passed by, he could feel his life slipping away. His emotions were gone, and his memory was fleeting.
He couldn’t remember his parents or life outside anymore. In fact, he could hardly remember his name. But he was determined to keep it.
Virgil.
He repeated the word over and over in his head, until it was the only thing he could be sure of.
As the world felt destroyed, he at least had that.
Virgil was about to drift back out of consciousness, he heard a Click.
Not even ten seconds later, a blaring alarm sounded. Virgil covered his ears. It was loud. Too loud. Why did they have that siren? What was that other noise? Wait…
Virgil used what little strength he had left in him to stand and walked over to the old door. If he was correct then that would mean-
The door was unlocked.
A wicked smile beamed upon his face. He knew food would be nearby.
Virgil followed the screams. He knew it would lead him to the people he wanted, and it did, so he attacked.
Virgil tackled the first person in sight, their teeth tearing through their throat. Then he felt it. The life seeping back into his soul. It had been so long since he had been able to feel anything but dread. Now, relief and joy began to flow into his mind.
But it wasn’t enough. Fear was never strong enough to truly satisfy.
The feral boy turned and spotted two others. Both looked terrified. Perfect.
As Virgil went to tackle the closer one, they spoke sharply to him.
“Stop!”
Virgil did.
“You will not attack either of us. Do you understand”
Virgil blinked as he recognized the voice as the same one who had recently been on the speaker. That meant he was not to be trusted. Yet, Virgil still obeyed his words, nodding in response.
The two teenagers then looked at each other. Silently asking each other what they were supposed to do now.
Suddenly, another Progesser showed up behind them. Virgil did not hesitate.
The two quickly moved out of his way in fear, though were relieved when it wasn’t either of them who Virgil jumped for.
The speaker had not tried to stop him.
Once he was finished, he no longer felt out of control. In fact, he felt great!
“You’re Four.” The speaker spoke up, recognizing Virgil as well.
“Your’re the voice” the spider hybrid responded quietly.
The teenager smiled. “My name is Janus,” the speaker introduced. “And behind me is Remy” they said, nodding to the boy behind him.
Now that Virgil had come to his senses, he took in their odd appearance.
Janus’, as they called themselves, face seemed to be split. On one side, it was like normal humans, with a tired blue eye and a few freckles. On the other side, however, it was like a snake. Scales all over it, with a sharp yellow eye. He had short blonde hair and wore a black hospital gown, just like Virgil. They seemed to be about maybe fourteen.
Meanwhile, Virgil had to guess the other boy was about seventeen. His appearance seemed normal for the most part as he had blue eyes, tan skin, and brown hair. Their clothes were the same as the other two boys, though he wore short sleeves instead. On his wrist, Virgil could see some old wounds.
“What’s your name?” The boy, apparently named Remy, asked. “And not your number. Like, the name you actually want to be known as,” he specified.
“Virgil.”
He spoke it without hesitation. It was the only thing he had left of himself after all.
“Nice to meet ya! Wanna help us get out of this hellhole? Well let ya nibble on any ‘Proggers’ as we go!” Remy asked cheerfully.
While Virgil felt bad about killing more people, he couldn’t help but want to leave this awful place. So, he nodded.
“Wonderful. Another person,” Janus rolled his eyes, but made no attempt to send Virgil back. “Well we should get a move on before more show up.”
Remy agreed, and they set off.
On their way out, Virgil was able to figure out what their powers had been. Remy could emit a smoke from his old wounds, that would put the Progressors to sleep. While he did this, Janus and Virgil had to hold their breaths while running past.
Janus on the other hand, could make anyone obey their commands. That is why Virgil, even when feral, had obeyed.
Then it hit him. Both of their powers had been used against Virgil many times while here. Janus ordered him to do the Progressors’ will through the speaker, and Remy’s smoke had put him to sleep whenever Virgil had gotten too loud or feral in his room.
He wondered if they had done it by choice, but perhaps he could ask later.
As they were walking, Janus stopped them. “Hold up, I want to grab a few things from here. Come with me me,” he ordered
The two boys listened. They were on alert for any possible threats as they followed the snake hybrid.
Janus began to dig around through the drawers, muttering as they read the titles. It was clear they were looking for something specific, and just as they had found it, Virgil spotted her.
A Progressor came up from behind Janus with a syringe, and Virgil tackled her. She was now filled with anger and fear as Virgil drank her emotions. However, once she passed out, he pulled back. He didn’t want to kill her if he could help it. Now that he had more control over himself, he was able to stop. Plus the taste of hatred wasn’t all that addicting.
“Hell yeah! Get ‘em, girl!” Remy called out.
Virgil glanced over, smiling wildly. He wiped his mouth on sleeve before standing again.
“Thanks. I tried not to kill her though. Hopefully she will be knocked out till we leave”
Janus nodded, holding a bunch of papers. “Well then we better not waste any more time. I got what I need, are you two ready to go?”
“Been ready! Though whatcha grab, snakey?” Remy questioned curiously, trying to look over Janus’ shoulder.
“Nothing you need to worry about, I can assure you,” As he spoke, Virgil noticed the way he twisted his words to get Remy to back off.
“Whatever you say, girl.”
With that, they continued to make their way out. They passed a few other Progressors, but Janus ordered them to turn around and act as though they had never seen any of them.
When they snuck out the back exit, Virgil was glad no one else had been alerted of the break out, but they knew they didn’t have much time, so they ran into small woods behind the building.
The trio kept walking until they found a back alley way of a street and decided to settle down there for the night. Tomorrow they will focus on finding a place to live.
For now they made a small fire and sat around it. Virgil thought it would be a perfect time to ask his questions.
“So,” he started awkwardly, but pushed onward, “When you ordered me to do what the Progressors wanted… why did you do that if you don’t like them?”
Janus and Remy glanced at each other. It was clear neither expected these questions right now. Nevertheless, Janus responded.
“I did not want to, but they threatened to peel off my scales if I refused. So, I did what I had to, Virgil.”
They hadn’t sounded very apologetic to Virgil when they spoke, but that could have just been the way they talked. Plus, Virgil understood the threat. They had cut off his own parts before. It indeed was not pleasant. Thankfully they had grown back since their last ‘trim’. The eight extra spider arms were now about three feet each. Every time they had been cut, they grew back faster.
However, that did raise another question in his mind.
“Couldn’t you have just used your power then? You can make people do whatever you want, right?”
Janus grimaced, “Ah yes, why didn’t I think of that brilliant idea. Too bad they had earplugs any time the bastards spoke to me.” They paused and then smirked. “They were smart, but unfortunately today one of the men had not worn them correctly. That let me be able to make my escape. I told the man to unlock on the doors, which is most likely how you two escaped”
The two boys nodded.
“Then I ran into Remy,” Janus continued, “we quickly realized we were after the same thing, freedom. And as we fought through the assholes, we found you.”
So that was how the doors had unlocked. Janus seemed very strong. Virgil was glad to be on his good side right now.
Yet he was still curious about Remy.
“What about you? Why did you use your power-“ Virgil didn’t have time to get the whole question out before Remy interrupted.
“I didn’t use anything! The stupid Proggers poked at me and then stole my smoke!” He complained, clearly upset. “Since it came from my wounds, the bitches also created more holes for it to seep out of!”
They had given him more wounds.
Janus turned to Remy, “You will be alright.” Their words seemed to smoothen Remy’s outburst.
Virgil felt it. The world suddenly seemed so much more peaceful.
Unfortunately it didn’t last long. Remy Remy’s question had snapped him out of it.
“What about you? What’s your little gift all about?”
The arms on his back twitched slightly. “I have these guys. So I suppose I’m a sort of spider hybrid.”
The other two stared at him, blankly, Janus being the first to speak.
“I think he was referring to you… eating others, Virgil. Unless, that has nothing to do with it?”
Virgil froze. Right. Of course they would ask about that. He would too. Oh god they probably think he’s a freak. He should probably clarify before they hate him forever!
“Ihavetodrinkpeople’sbloodinordertofeelalive” He answered very quickly:
“What?” Apparently too quickly for the two.
Virgil took a deep breath and tried again, this time slower.
“I have to drink people’s blood in order to feel alive. If I don’t then… Everything is miserable, and I will lose control at the first sight of a strong emotion. They didn’t ever exactly feed me. Who would? But once I got out, I was desperate. I’m sorry.”
“Hey girl, it’s all good. It’s not your fault the Proggers are a bunch of sadistic bitches,” Remy reassured him.
“We won’t have to get you other people anytime soon, will we?” Janus asked, slightly bothered by the idea.
Virgil shook his head no.
“Usually one person lasts about a month or two. Though I’ve never had as much as I had today so… maybe I’ll have longer?”
Janus seemed satisfied with that answer. “Future problem then.”
After that, there was a comfortable silence for a bit until Remy spoke.
“Well, it’s been a long and stressful day, girlies. I desperately need my beauty sleep. Don’t wake me until the sun is in the sky. Good night!”
Remy leaned against the wall of one of the buildings and closed his eyes.
“We should probably sleep as well. Commanding so much is exhausting,” Janus spoke as they sat near Remy.
Meanwhile, Virgil decided to stay up for a while and keep watch. He had too much energy still from the emotion high, so he couldn’t even fall asleep if he wanted to. Plus, he was worried someone might find them when asleep and take them back.
Instead of thinking on how chaotic today had been, he tried to focus on the future. How would they get food? Money? A shelter? They couldn’t be on the run forever, could they? Maybe they could get a job? Would they all stick together? Was there much of a choice?
He hoped they all could be okay, but for now he was happy with his new friends