Losing Control - Sanders Sides

Part 20 - Roman

I started banging on my door with the palm of my hand frantically. I stopped for a second and waited but heard nothing in response. I took a step back from my door, beginning to pace around the room. I had to think of something. I had to get out of my room! More than likely, Patton and Logan are still in their anxiety-filled states. Poor Virgil. After being in that state for a least an hour, I can't imagine being like that all the time. 

I kept pacing around. My thoughts, buzzing like bees going a million miles per hour. That all stopped, when I heard a scream, "Help!" It cried. It sounded like Virgil.

"Virgil?" I yelled back. No sound followed. I began to feel tears threaten to spill. In a blind burst of either rage or fear, I walked back over to my door and started to kick my door down. It was making a lot of noise but if Deceit comes back, I really don't care. He may have bested me last time, but this time would be different.

I delivered one final blow to the door and watched it fall forward. I stepped out of my room triumphantly and called out once again, "Virgil!?"

"R-Roman?" I heard a degraded Patton yelled from his room.

"Patton!" I yelled back as I ran to his door. I tried to move his doorknob but to no avail. I knocked on his door with quickly and sporadically timed knocks, "Patton, I'm right here!"

"Roman! Quick! G-Get me out of here, we've gotta help, Logan!" He shouted back in a panic-filled voice. I nodded to myself and looked for any other way I could enter without breaking down his door. I followed the trim of the door with my eyes, and only stopped when I saw letters on the side of his door frame. I placed my finger over them, feeling them, feeling the bumpiness of them. I tilted my head, and read the message silently to myself. "Roman, you s-still there?" Patton questioned.

"Yeah, sorry. I just found something!"

"What is it?"

"'To open the door, you must find the key that is hidden within the truths you keep.'" I read directly from the door frame. There was a gap of silence between me and Patton. Trying to make sense of what the riddle meant. "Any ideas?" I asked hopefully.

"W-Well, the truths we keep? W-We need to share a secret?" Patton guessed.

"O-Okay. We might as well give it a try." A took a step back, just in case the door swung open into my face. "I created the Dragon Witches in the mindscape. I only blamed it on Remus because it came out a lot scarier than I wanted them to be" I confessed, biting my lip. 

I waited for the door to swing open and for Patton to come running out in a panic, but nothing ever happened. "It's not working!"

"Why not?" Patton said. I could tell he had begun to cry again.

"Patton, I think...I think you have to tell the secret." I suggested.

"I don't have any secrets. I tell you guys everything!"

I thought for a second. "O-Okay, tell me what Deceit put into your head!"

"No! R-Roman, I-I can't!" Patton screeched in between tears. "You won't trust me again."

"Yes, I will Patton. I love you, just like Virgil and Logan do. We're family. Brothers, even. We stick together and never turn our backs against each other. Please Patton!" I begged. I heard a muffled sniff before he took a breath.

"For the longest time, I've held my true feelings inside, replacing them with happy smiles or dad jokes. It was emotionally draining, but I had to be the ray of sunshine. Deceit only knew that that would mess with me because....b-because, I used to talk to him about it." I held back a gasp, knowing that would hurt him. "He used to visit my room, I-I never knew why until he took my place that one day. He wanted to know how to weaken me so he could take my place."

There were a couple more sobs leaking through from the closed-door before the door swung open. I could see a curled up Patton sitting inside. I ran in and hugged Patton, letting him cry into me. 

He returned the hug quickly and soon his crying stopped. We pulled away as he cleaned the dried tears from off his glasses. I put my hand on his shoulder and watched his sparkling wet eyes look at me. "I hope you know now, that you can talk to us. Any of us. Don't let Deceit fool you."

"I know that now more than ever." He giggled. "Thank you, Roman." We hugged one last time before I helped Patton up and we quickly ran to Logan's room.

Patton pressed his ear against the door, listening for any type of sound. "Logie? Logan! Please, can you hear me?" Patton yelled out. Doubting my success, I went to try the doorknob but the door opened before I could even touch the doorknob. Patton pushed the door open wider and we both gasped.

Logan was curled in on himself, surrounded by a dark cloud that seemed to be whispering to him. I could barely hear the whispers, but from the little things I could hear, they were saying awful things. Patton slid over to Logan, putting a hand on his back. I reached out to Patton, knowing that it wasn't a good idea. The dark cloud blew a strong gust of wind at Patton that sent him flying into Logan's bookshelf. "Patton!" I cried as I watched Patton's back hit the shelf, the shelves crash onto the floor with Patton landing on top of it all.

I ran over to Patton and helped him sit up. He groaned a little bit, but otherwise he seemed okay. We looked back at Logan who was shaking even more, the loud crash must've scared him. His eyes were locked to the floor, giving no sign of looking away. 

We moved closer to Logan again, not as close as before, but close. I waved my hand in front of his eyes, but that did nothing. "Virgil has had panic attacks almost similar to this before." I said. Patton looked over to me in hope.

"So you know what to do!?"

"No, actually." I sighed. "When they're this bad, I have to wait for Virgil to pass out..." Patton's smile faded and he suddenly looked lost. I hated the fact that I couldn't help Patton. I know how much he likes Logan. But if nothing worked for Virgil, more than likely, nothing would work for Logan. He looked back at Logan and made his next move.

"Logan, I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, please know that...I really enjoy your company. Whether we're filming or just hanging out in the mind palace, you never fail to put a smile on my face. Logan, you're so smart and incredibly patient with me. I could never thank you enough for that. You're kind and generous and everything anyone could ever want in a friend. In a partner. Logan, I love you." I watched, almost amazed as Patton locked lips with Logan. The dark clouds around his head faded and his eyes closed. Patton pulled back slowly and Logan's head fell into Patton's lap.

A couple of seconds later, Logan lifted his head slowly and looked around. He looked at me, then Patton, then back to me. "W-What happened? H-How did I get back in my room?" I smiled brightly and Patton wrapped his arms around Logan. He looked stunned before returning it with a warm smile. When they pulled apart, Patton went in for another kiss. They locked lips and my heart blossomed. As Thomas' romance, it always warms my heart when a couple, obviously meant to be, gets together.

They pulled apart and Logan looked around again. "Where's Virgil?" I looked down.

"We have no idea." Logan looked down, starting to thinking out loud.

"If Virgil made a deal with Deceit, he has to be in the dark mind palace."

"You don't think they're going to try to make him a dark side again, do you?" Patton questioned nervously.

"I do not know, Patton" Logan cooed. I sighed and looked back at Logan's door. I stared for a couple of seconds before looking back.

"If I learned anything from being trapped in my room, I learned we are doing no good by sitting here and simply remembering Virgil. If we treat him as if he's dead, sooner or later, he will be!" Logan and Patton looked at each other then back to me.

"Whatever it takes, to get Virgil back," Patton said. I smiled brightly while helping Logan and Patton off the ground. Logan's eyes wandered over to his lump of a bookshelf on the floor.

"What...what happened to my bookshelf?" Logan said.

Patton and I smiled and snickered to each other while Logan shrugged his bookshelf off his mind and we left for the backdoor to the imagination.

We're coming, Virgil.