Chapter Text
Of all the things to happen to Virgil when he ran away from 'home', being chased by two gorgons trying (and failing) to give him free samples from Bargain Mart wouldn't have been in his top three guesses. Or even in his top one hundred guesses. And yet here he was. Legs burning. Heart Pumping. Adrenaline fading. Virgil had never thought of himself as particularly fit before but he'd ran surprisingly far. Although now it seemed his energy was burning away, legs and lungs ready to give up at any moment.
Before you get too confused, I suppose I should back track a little to explain how Virgil ended up in this situation. I think the best place to start would be at (or at least near) the beginning.
Six years ago, Virgil never would've even thought about running away. Partly because he was six but mostly because his mom was amazing. It was just the two of them and had been since he was born. Though his mother never explained why his father left, Virgil never really cared. His mom was all he needed. She had to work long hours at her job to support them but the time they did manage to spend together was magical.
For his sixth birthday, Virgil's mom gave him his best present ever. A jacket. It sounds simple but to him it was the greatest thing in the world. They couldn't afford much so anything was a luxury. The jacket was plain black with a fleece inside that made it perfect for winter but thin enough to be comfortable in summer.
The day after his birthday, Virgil skipped into school, excited to show off his jacket. It was as he was sat in class, running his fingers through the soft fabric of the jacket and trying to pay attention that he was called out of the classroom. It was that day he got the most devastating news of his life.
He'd cried, pleaded, begged it not to be true. But nothing could change it. She was gone. He was alone.
They took him back home, gave him a bag to pack a few important belongings. He barely thought about what he grabbed, too wrapped up in grief. He took some clothes, a couple of trinkets and a few of his mom's things to remember her.
He had to be put in an emergency placement. The couple was nice and very sympathetic but Virgil didn't process much of it. He cried himself to sleep for weeks, missing his mom's hugs and gentle words of comfort and reassurance.
Over the next few years, Virgil was moved around a lot. They never explained why, thinking he was too young to care or understand. After he was moved out of the fifth house, Virgil began to assume that he was the problem. That none of them wanted him. It wasn't that though. Most of the houses loved him but couldn't care for him, usually due to financial or personal problems but Virgil didn't know that.
By the age of eight, he began to grow bitter and resentful. 'No one wants me anyway' he thought 'no point getting my hopes up'.
He started to argue, to fight back against his foster parents. It felt good. letting all that bubbling rage and resentment seep out and leach onto someone else. He finally felt like he could breathe, no longer suffocated by his emotions.
Then he was hit for the first time.
He was stunned at first. Too terrified to move. He looked up at the rage-filled face, eyes burning with that same resentment he felt.
It stopped feeling good after that.
Now the anger felt more like a defence, a shield to hide his weakness and fear.
He continued to be moved around a lot. Although now it usually was because of him. He was too argumentative and hard to deal with, they claimed.
Eventually, when he was ten, he was placed with Mr and Mrs Carter who he hated. And they hated him right back. They fought nearly everyday, often multiple times a day. It was only a week into his placement with them that he was hit. He'd gotten into a fight at school and Mrs Carter (Alice) had started yelling at him so Virgil yelled back. After he told her to "fuck off!" he felt a harsh sting on his cheek and collapsed to the floor. He cried out, clutching his cheek as he stared at her from the floor. There was no remorse in her face, only cold contempt.
That incident seemed to open the figurative dam. Every fight ended with a slap or a punch or a beating. They even started homeschooling him to avoid people seeing the bruises. Virgil had always struggled in school with his dyslexia so they claimed it was to help him with one-on-one tutoring.
After two months, Virgil couldn't take it. He packed a bag and ran away, hoping to never see the Carters (or hopefully another foster home) again.
He was caught after an hour.
When his social worker, Ana, asked him why he ran, he tried to tell her that they've been abusing him. She just looked at him sadly and asked for the real reason. She didn't believe him. No-one would believe the angry, argumentative boy who'd cried wolf so many times before.
The Carters told her that they'd had an argument and had been lightly disciplining Virgil when he shouted at them and stormed off. Apparently they had been 'worried sick'. And after the social worker left that 'worry' turned into the harshest he'd ever been hurt.
Virgil tried running away many more times after that. It seemed like every couple of months he was packing a bag to leave. The longest he'd been able to avoid getting caught was five hours, that was his favourite day in a long time.
After a year of being with the Carters and his sixth escape attempt, Ana spoke to Virgil about why he kept running. He'd given up trying to convince her that they were hurting him as she never believed him so instead he just begged her to move him. As much as he hated the constant moves, it was better than staying with them.
"But Virgil," she explained to him condescendingly, as if he was younger than he was, "this is your longest placement. I know you have a lot of issues but Alice and Gabe are willing to stay and help you, why would you give that up? Can you try and get along with them, please? If you give them a chance you might get along better!"
He didn't give them a chance. He kept running. Every time he did, the beatings grew harder. But he wouldn't stop. He couldn't give up, couldn't submit and allow them to win. So he kept fighting back.
Today was one of the days he'd decided to run. It had now been roughly two years since moving in with the Carters and Virgil was now twelve. By now it was routine. He took out the bag from under his bed, opened the window (he still had no idea why they hadn't locked it or put bars on it), climbed out and took off down the street.
Even if he escape attempt was inevitably foiled, he liked getting to explore for a while. He wasn't usually allowed outside of the house so it was nice to see the town he lived in.
It was a scorching hot day and the sun beamed obnoxiously down onto the street. Usually, Virgil wouldn't take his jacket off but right now he was suffering.
Throughout all the moves, he'd lost many things but the one thing that stayed with him was his jacket. He'd grown quite a bit in that time and the jacket had gotten ripped and scuffed but he'd always managed to repair it and fixed it up so it fit him once again. When he noticed a particularly large hole or felt it tugging at one area, he'd take an old shirt or scrap material and sew it onto the jacket it fix it. He tried to keep the patches purple but they were all different shades and patterns. He wasn't great at sewing so it looked rough and messy but he liked it.
Unfortunately though, he had to take it off and stuff it in his bag to avoid heatstroke.
While walking, he passed by a store he'd never seen before (though maybe that was because he was rarely let out of the house). The large, shining sign above the entrance read 'Bargain Mart'. Suddenly over come with an intense hunger, Virgil decided to check it out, he'd managed to steal some money from the Carters and he probably had enough for a snack.
The whole time he was looking through the shelves he couldn't help but feel uneasy. At first he assumed it was the heat, apparently this store had never heard of AC. However, he soon noticed someone following him. He didn't look at them properly but he did see that they were wearing an employee vest. Internally, he rolled his eyes. Probably just another employee assuming he was going to steal from them.
Eventually he chose what he was going to buy and was about to go up to the register when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Free sample, dear?" He heard as he turned around.
Virgil froze.
The woman stood barely a foot away from him was no average Bargain Mart employee. She was smiling widely at him which would be fine if she didn't have bronze boar tusks poking out from the corners of her mouth. The eyes that bore into him glowed bright red. Looking down, he saw not human feet but rooster feet. Most notably of all instead of hair, snakes poured from the top of her head, writhing and hissing around her face.
Virgil had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder quite early in life so he was quite familiar with the fight or flight response. However in this moment his body chose freeze despite his brain yelling at him to move.
Just as he began to regret every decision leading him to this point, he heard a voice as another snake-haired lady came around the corner.
"You idiot!" she snarled and whacked the other lady over the head, "You're not supposed to offer samples to demigods, we're the ones who are supposed to eat them!"
The first one rubbed her head where she had been hit, the snakes in that area hissing at the other woman, "But they told us in training to offer to everyone!"
"Not to demigods!"
The first crossed her arms, "I think you're being quite discriminatory."
Virgil was thankfully saved from hearing the rest of the conversation as his body finally decided to move. He took off running to the door, dropping his items as he did so. Once he was far down the street, he checked behind him. Sure enough, they were chasing after him.
And there we are, back to where we started. Does everything make a bit more sense now? Well let's continue.
Virgil didn't know how long he'd been running for. Hours, likely. He had no clue where he got the stamina from but he could tell it was running out. the adrenaline that had been coursing through him beginning to fade.
Currently, he was in a remote area with a woods to one side and hills in front of him. The stitch in his side was growing, seemingly spreading to his whole body. Up ahead, he saw a bench with a man sat on it. Checking behind, he saw that the snake-haired ladies were far away and had stopped to start bickering again. Good, he could rest for a second.
He reached the bench he stopped, legs nearly collapsing under him. Sweat dripped down his forehead, soaking his hair as his lungs heaved pathetically.
"You alright, kid?" the man on the bench asked. He held a newspaper which covered his face but Virgil could just about see a salt and pepper beard. He was dressed in a pin-striped suit, way too fancy for this random, empty path next to a forest.
Tired, hot and fed up at this point, Virgil snapped, "You know what? No, I'm not. I've been running for god-knows how long to god-knows where while being chased by god-knows whatever those things are. So sorry if I'm not okay!"
The man lowered his news paper, revealing a raised eye brow and stormy grey eyes. "My, that does sound like a predicament."
Virgil rolled his eyes. Yeah nothing too bad, happens every Tuesday!
The man turned a page in his news paper, "A little advice for fighting monsters, get to high ground," he looked to his side, "that hill over there should do the trick."
Now it was Virgil's turn to raise an eyebrow, "Thank you?"
The man reached into his pocket and produced a strange bronze coin, definitely not US currency, and handed it to Virgil, "Here, you might need this."
Virgil turned it over in his hand, confused how it would help him.
"Oh, and you might want to hurry,"
Virgil looked behind him and jumped, they'd stopped arguing and began chasing him again. Without another thought, he started running towards the hill the strange man had indicated.
Just as he felt like he was about to pass out, he reached the top of the hill. However, so had the snake-haired ladies.
This is it, he realised, this is where I'm gonna die.
He wished it not to be true but it was, they'd catch him if he tried to run down the hill and all he had with him was his backpack (which had nothing helpful in it). That and the…
As a last ditch attempt, Virgil reached into his pocket and took out the coin the man had given him. With seemingly nothing else, he threw it at the ladies, hoping it was secretly a bomb or a laser device that would vaporise them. It wasn't any of those things.
It didn't even hit them, landing about a foot in front of him. Virgil had never been great at sports but he didn't think he was thatbad.
As he was about to accept defeat, the coin started shuddering, growing and morphing and turning into a shining, bronze sword.
Virgil's eyes widened as he looked at, then looked at the snake ladies (who were also in shock) and lunged for it. He managed to get a hold on it and swung it up, slashing one of them across the chest.
Having had no training of any kind, Virgil was messy. He managed to get in quite a few hits but was also hit a lot in return. Eventually, with one conveniently timed move, he managed to slice the head off of one and quickly stab the other through the chest.
He watched in awe as they crumpled into dust and were swept away by the wind.
Virgil couldn't believe it. He barely understood anything that had happened since he entered that store and now he could only stand in silent shock.
Soon, the fog of disbelief in his mind cleared and he became aware of footsteps and voices behind him. Wearily, he turned around to see who was there and promptly blacked out.