When You're Broken On The Ground

Chapter 16

"He'll be there," Dee confirms before hanging up. He stares at the wall for a couple minutes, remembering the case nine years ago. 

The man who had died was a suspect in Thomas' attempted murder. They didn't have enough evidence to convict him so he went free, unfortunately. 

A year after the incidents (Thomas' attempted murder, half of their attempted suicides, the other half's self harm spree), he turned up dead. The murder was flawless, no fingerprints, no hair, no skin tissue, completely clean. Cause of death was strangulation via shoe strings. Weirdly, the body was stabbed in the stomach and had it's throat slit before it was dumped in the small river by the town. Forensics reported that the killer/killers had made sure to deflate the lungs before releasing the body into the water, a technique few murders actually do. 

Anyway, they had no leads until they came across the man's criminal record, which included the Sanders case. The entire family was questioned but everyone had alibis so they were let go. Once a couple days had gone by with nothing, they brought everyone back in and questioned them individually. 

Thomas was obviously first, after him Virgil, Remy, Patton, Emile, Remus, Logan, Roman, and Dee. For some reason, they pegged Remus and Dee as the most likely. That's when they moved on to formal questioning, taped and everything. Problem was, they were each other's alibis, as they had been out on the other side of town in the forest, spending some time together.

"Danger Noodle?" Remus interrupts his thoughts, breaking his unfocused gaze at the wall.

"Hmm? Oh, Re."

"Yeah hi babe, I'm home." Remus frowns at him in concern, taking a seat next to his boyfriend. "What's going on?"

"The courthouse called." Just saying those three words sends chills down his spine, reminding him of so many calls ten or nine years ago.

Remus pales, reaching for Dee's hands. Dee grabs them, moving into a half-crisscross seated position so he's facing Remus. "And what did they say?"

"The old murder case is being re-opened." He pauses, gritting his teeth. "And... we're being summoned for the Arraignment next week."

"Shit..."

"Re what are we going to do?! They know we don't have solid alibis!"

"But there's also no evidence pointing at us either," Remus reassures. 

"But you know our reputation, we weren't exactly angels at the time."

"We were sixteen, I highly doubt spray painting walls makes us eligible for murder, snek boi."

"I know we're innocent-"

"Case wise yes, everything else, hell no."

Dee laughs half heartedly. "You know what I mean."

"Always do my viper." Remus pulls Dee in close, cuddling the smaller man into his chest.

Rolling his eyes, Dee sinks into the embrace, curling into the warmth. "Different topic," he mutters, "who should be our lawyer?"

"Logan if he'll take us."

"Agreed."

"If not, I have a couple I've gotten to know who'd take it."

"Good to know there's a backup plan. Ask Logan in the morning?"

"Yeah."

They stay like that for a while, before Dee speaks. "We can't tell Thomas, at least not yet."

"Yep. If it gets more serious we'll tell him, but for now I say we keep this quiet."

"Let's hope this is dropped."

"God I hope so. My boss would kill me if I got myself in jail over false accusations."

"Your boss?! My boss literally works at jail! I work at jail!"

"So you know how to break out too?"

"Only with you rattle snek."

"Oh my god," Dee laughs out. "That was the worst one yet!"

Remus grins. Dee's noticeably less stressed now which is good, the past couple days have hit hard, the harsh trip through memory lane affecting them both. 

"Wanna Netflix and Chill?" he asks, grabbing the remote.

"One more episode, then we can 'chill'," Dee bargains.

"Done."

Ayyy, thank you so much for 400+ views!!!! I've had a rocky third week of quarantine so seeing this doing well really brought up my mood. Anyways, sorry this is a little late, stay safe kiddos and wash ya hands!