A Distorted Reflection | Virgil Sanders

ADR:_.|4|._: chapter four

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The stone walls of the castle were large blocks of cobblestone merged together with dark clay paste. The red torches that hung against the walls were infrared, and burned their eternal flames with prosperity. Dim, but giving off enough light to see their way down the hallway. There were army and marching uniforms on display in the hallway, along with guitars and medieval instruments on the walls in-between the torches. Large, unlit chandeliers hung low from the ceiling. They were a rusted silver, yet hung strong from the chains securing them into the ceiling.

"W-what is this place?" Anxiety asked shakily.

Virgil looked at the small boy behind him, he was hunched and his hood was pulled up. His fists were clenched in his pockets, drawing blood until his palms. Virgil huffed, holding out his right hand for Anxiety to grab onto. Anxiety glared at him, and shiveringly gave him his left hand, leaning into the security wearily.

"I'm scared too, but it's okay. We can't die, just remember that." Virgil assured. Anxiety nodded.

"I'm just paranoid." Anxiety said. Virgil looked at him with sighing eyes.

"Is that really a bad thing?" Virgil asked.

"To them," Anxiety said softly. Virgil sighed.

They walked forward side by side towards the center concourse of the castle. A low grumble came under their feet, causing them to jump as the ground shook under them. There was a large, circular table under the middle of the castle.

"That short hallway, just like that?" Anxiety asked with a nervous laugh in his voice.

"I guess." Virgil said. He tugged Anxiety along with him to discolored bricks in cobblestone on the wall. He hummed at them, pressing his left hand into one perfectly circular stone in the wall. It pushed into the wall, and above them, a staircase dropped into the hole in the middle of the wooden table in the center of the room.

"How convenient." Anxiety commentated. Virgil pulled him into the center of the tower, climbing on top of the table and onto the staircase.

"Wait, you're seriously going up there?" Anxiety asked cockily.

"Yeah, why do you think I hit the wall?" Virgil asked. Anxiety shrugged. Virgil pulled him onto the stairs, and they started to run up them.

"Since when have you cared?" Anxiety asked. Virgil continued to run, letting go of his hand.

"Since I learned that I was in pain a couple of years ago." Virgil said, stopping on the steps.

He continued to run and run, surprised at his own stamina. Anxiety trudged behind him, running at the same speed, but behind him. The tower soared into the sky, Virgil and Anxiety along with it.

They reached a sudden stop at the top of the tower, a small cobblestone platform, where Anxiety almost fell off of before Virgil pulled him back against the wall next to him by the arm.

"You're welcome." Virgil said, grabbing the aglet of his hoodie string and shoving it into the large keyhole. He fiddled with it, hearing a click in the lock and pushed the door open a little. Anxiety looked at him with wide, shocked eyes.

"How did that even work?"

"It's the mindscape, anything can pick a lock."

The growl came in low toned and loud. Anxiety squealed a little at the loud noise, Virgil grabbed his hand once more, tightening his grip to give assurance. He peered in through the door.

"Come in, you worthless soldiers." A deep, semi-accented voice growled from the top room of the tower.

"Oh great, he's calling us out now huh?" Anxiety asked. Virgil hushed him.

"Shut up!" Virgil hissed.

"Oh come in Virgil, I know you're out there. There's no point in fighting me, you know my presence is too much for you to bear anyway." The voice said aloud. Virgil huffed, marching into the room with Anxiety beside him. In front of them was a red dragon witch, it stance tall in a large, golden throne with a purple sash across their torso.

"What the hell is that?" Anxiety basically shrieked. Virgil hushed him, the fear running through his veins quickly.

"A dragon witch." Virgil said plainly.

"You don't scare us!" Anxiety yelled with tears running down his cheeks. Virgil grabbed his hand again and pulled him to the side towards the wall.

"You're a liar, little one." The dragon witch said.

"Just like the snake, or the six armed triangle with a hat, you never change much, huh? Why so worthless? You lost your potential years ago. Same goes to you older one, just because you flipped the script doesn't mean that your past doesn't define you, especially after the bomb you dropped tonight." The witch said. Virgil sighed shakily, looking over to Anxiety. The dragon cackled, putting his witches hat on again. Virgil huffed, pulling Anxiety behind the golden throne.

"I need to you hold your breath for four seconds, hold for seven, and let out for eight, okay? Everything is okay. He isn't going to hurt you, I'm going to play with him f-for a bit. A-All right?" He asked. Anxiety nodded, sitting against the back of the chair anxiously. Virgil turned around determinedly, and marched to the front of the dragon.

"What are you even trying to prove?" Virgil yelled.

"Only the doubtful truth," The witch replied. Virgil bit his lip.

"Why are you telling me things I already know?" Virgil asked.

"So they can truly define who you are, older one." He said. Virgil raised an eyebrow, looking into the imaginary office camera.

"You're worthless, you should have stayed clocked out when you left. Thomas seemed quiet all right without you there, did you see how calm he was?" The witch asked, curling his long, scaly tail around his sword.

"Did you see how much heh didn't care? How lack luster he was?" Virgil asked.

"Seemed like his best fit to me." The witch said. Virgil snarled.

"I don't know if you know this, but without me, Thomas has no amount of care. He becomes a being with no sense of reality. I'm what makes him realize things, I'm what makes him worthy, able to think the deeper thoughts. I let him do his most critical thinking as Logan fills the answers of the holes that I dig for him when we have to. So don't you dare tell me that if I'm gone, stuck in this corner of the mindscape with you of all beings, that it'd be better for him. He'll accept me in time, it doesn't matter how much I put him through, all that matters is that he knows I care more about him than myself. If you can't see the good in that, you're no one to judge. So go stuck yourself in the sun you purple bastard!"

The dragon witch was hit with an imaginary blow, darkness swirling under him as he fell through the floor and disintegrated into the dark abyss. Virgil smirked at the sight, before the glow in the portal turned orange and grew to the size of the floor under him, sucking both him and Anxiety, and only him and Anxiety through to another world on the other side of the mirror.