Welcome to Hell {Prinxiety}

Chapter 32

Virgil's POV

The guards rush in and surround Castillo, who surprisingly has his hands up in surrender. A wooden board is sitting on his messy desk and it's clear he was looking for something in it. His pistol was on the desk so he obviously wasn't looking for that. One of the guards I don't recognize takes the gun and steps back.

"Alright Ryan, I'm gonna call you Ryan, you're under arrest for child trafficking, illegal digging, and a bunch of other stuff probably," Remy says, handcuffing him, "Any objections to these charges? Fair warning, I'll probably ignore any and all protests you have," Nice to know Remy hasn't changed I guess.

Castillo stays silent, glaring at Roman and I or more accurately, Roman. I would ask why but I get the feeling I already know. That 'thing' he had to do, was steal whatever Castillo was just looking for and he's obviously pretty mad about it. What that thing was specifically, I have no idea. Roman smiles widely, looking innocent as Castillo is practically dragged by us, glaring the entire way.

"So that's what you had to do huh?" I say, nodding towards the desk.

"Yeah..." He waits for the guards to leave the room, "I didn't want to worry you because he may or may not have rigged this place to explode," He admits.

"I'm sorry- what?!" At least that explains why he was so secretive about the entire thing.

He shrugs apologetically, "Sorry, I know I should have told you blah blah blah, can we just get out of here?"

I nod, and allow him to lead the way out of Castillo's office. Once we're out in the hall I see the royal guards watching Castillo's workers. I drag Roman off to the nearest strip of the mine, since we kinda have to find Patton and let everyone else know about this. What the guards will do with over a hundred orphaned children, I don't know. As I had advised Jacob, I knocked on the door first. You can hear some quiet arguing, so I slowly push the door open.

"We come in peace!" Roman announces.

Once the door is open enough, I notice first a scared but threatening-looking kid pointing a gun at the door, "Um, don't shoot?" I say awkwardly up in surrender.

The kid doesn't look very convinced so Roman steps forward. In retrospect it might not be the best because of his reputation, but it's a little late, "Karma's finally caught up to Castillo!" He declares proudly, "If you don't believe me then you can go out and watch him get dragged out of this hell hole in handcuffs."

With that, he leaves, taking me with him. We go around, spreading the word about Castillo and his 'guards' being taken down. A couple other kids help get the job done, and by the time we leave the last strip, almost all of Castillo's men are accompanied by a royal guard. Oddly enough, the rest have a couple kids watching them. Oh how the turn tables. Their expressions vary, many of them glare down at the a$$holes that helped oppress us for so long. Quite a few are smiling smugly, the irony not being lost on them.

It feels right.

Okay that sounds a lot more sinister than I intended, but in a way this has all come full circle and that's beautiful. It may have taken a while, but the wrong of Hell was finally righted, we finally got justice. Well, it technically hasn't been fully righted yet seeing as Castillo and his men aren't rotting in jail right now but we're at least miles closer to that ending than any of us had ever dared to imagine.

I spot Reese glaring at one of Castillo's lackeys with a certain fire, while Will seems ready to intervene if they snap. Patton is talking to Jacob, whose face is red from laughing. From the looks of it, Patton had told him his favorite dad jokes. I vaguely recognize several of the older kids, the ones that I had simply been acquainted with as a kid. Most of them, along with other kids of the older generations were watching over their own criminal.

I'm tempted to point all of this out to Roman even though he has eyes, and I notice him staring down the hall. Specifically, it's the hallway they would have taken Castillo down. It isn't too hard to guess what he was thinking about.

"He can't hurt us anymore," I assure him, squeezing his hand.

He snaps out of his daze, "It's not that it's just- can we go outside?" He asks, and I immediately understand why.

It's been over seven years since he's set foot on the grass, or been to the beach. It's been three months since he last saw the sky. He'd been kept down here for far too long, all of us had. The last months were easy for me so I couldn't exactly complain though.

"Yeah," I signal to Patton that we're gonna go up and hope he understands.

He nods before turning his attention to Jacob and a few other kids that hadn't been tasked with threatening grown men. By the somewhat quiet army of footfalls behind us I'm guessing that they're following us. It's reasonable to assume that some of them would have forgotten the way out but as for the others, I'm surprised they hadn't left already. They didn't exactly have a reason to trust authority figures so I'm pretty surprised that they actually listened to the royal guards.

We lead the way upstairs and to the single-file-requiring door which unlocks with a turn of the handle. I guess I never noticed but it could always be opened from the inside. Roman takes a deep breath before pushing the door open. He lets go of my hand and wonders out, obviously distracted by the scenery. The rest of the kids are pretty similar with their wide eyes and agape mouths.

I hesitantly follow Roman to a small hill, not really wanting to disturb him, "Ro? You good there?"

He's simply staring out at the water, which is still sparkling in the early morning light. It's not as good as the view would be at sunset, but I'm not about to pick and choose what time we get rescued. He nods, a wistful smile on his face.

"Yeah I just...I forgot how beautiful it is up here." 

A/N: Oh my god I'm so freaking sad now, this is the last chapter of the story. There will be an epilogue so don't worry, I don't think I'll ever end a book on an uneven number tbh. Please stick around for the epilogue, I know a lot of people skip them because they tend to be boring and predictable.