Running

A plea to the public

TW: Pain, Pills (Pain killers), Cursing, Threatened Implied non-con (Attempting to force two people into a sexual relationship (This is in a flashback)), Homophobia, Hospital mention, Surgery mention, Crude humor

I knew that Zion told me I'd wake up with a really bad pain in my ribcage, but, hell, I didn't know it'd be this bad. It feels like a thousand knives being plunged into my side, then twisted around.
Opening, my eyes, I see that everyone else is moving around already.

It must be pretty obvious that I'm suffering here, because Zion comes over to the couch, placing a cup of green tea infront of me. "Pain rating, 1 to 10?"

I think.

"Like eight." I cringe in pain when I sit up.
"If it makes you feel any better, most people on the comments of that video are on our side."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know, I guess all of this generation just hate the government. The clip as 75 million views now."

Then, Patton walks into the room holding a small pill bottle. "I come bearing gifts!" He cheers. "Ibuprofen."

I take some, shove it in my mouth and swallow it whole.
"Woah. I've never seen someone swallow a pill that easily." Zion says, looking astonished.
"It was a regular thing at the lab."

Remus and Janus come skidding in the room, looking excited. "We have an idea!"
"So, what if we filmed a video, and uploaded it to youtube, since, we're kinda famous now. Someone out there's gotta be able to help us. Also, people are begging to know our names online."

"That isn't a bad idea." Zi comments, sipping some of his own green tea.

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Roman begged and begged to be in the video, even though the public doesn't know he exists. We ended up deciding that we'd just all be in it.
"Hi there." Janus starts, looking at the camera. "It's come to our attention that people wanna know a bit about us, so, here."

"Even though only five of us were fighting in the video you probably saw, there's actually nine of us."
We all take turns telling the camera our names.

Pain continues to shoot through me, as we film.

"So, there is a reason that we've made this, but we're gonna answer some questions first, from the comments."
I drown out this part, trying my best not to focus on the pain that I'm feeling. They answer about ten questions, then decide it's time to move onto what this video is about.

"Right, do you want to explain from the beginning, Virgil?"
"Yeah, uh, sure."

"Hi. So, uh, you may or may not know that I uh, I spent nine years living in a lab, in which I was forced to wear a blindfold 8 hours a day, for, uh, obvious reasons. The only person who I was allowed to see was this girl, Melanie. That's because, when we turned eight years old, we were chosen to be eachother's uh, 'mates,' you could say.

"Because we both had wings, and they wanted to see what they could make if we, yknow, had a kid. So, she became my best friend. The only person we were allowed to see for seven years was eachother, other than staff. They were waiting for us to turn sixteen, because that's when she was meant to get pregnant, but obviously, we escaped. And, no, we aren't dating, or in love, or anything.

"I'm gay, to start with, and uh, when I was thirteen, I told the staff members that I would not get her pregnant under any circumstances. She didn't want to be pregnant at sixteen either, so thank goodness we got out, huh?" I try to laugh to hide the pain of it all. I don't mention any details, because I don't think they're relevant.

"So, when I told them that I was gay, they weren't too happy." I feel tears start to form in my eyes, the others watching, queued in on the story. "And, as my, quote unquote, 'punishment,' they had one of the doctors crack my ribs, among other things." While I say this, I rub the scars on my arms that still haven't fully healed.

Now, Melanie adds her input, because she sees that I'm on the brink of tears.

"Since we didn't have any form of first aid, other than tying my hoodie around his torso to keep them in place, his ribs didn't heal right."

Then, Zion.

"So, at the start of the fight recorded on video, Virgil got kicked in the stomach multiple times, rebreaking his ribs, and, since they never healed properly three years ago, he's in a shit ton of pain, that won't go away unless he gets surgery."

I decide to take over again. "But, surprise, surprise, we aren't exactly welcomed with open arms in hospitals."

"And," Remus starts. "To add to this, our favourite snake-boy-"
"Who has one dick-" Janus adds to the sentence, and we all laugh, even though it hurts a lot.
"He suffers with a conditon called Vasovagal Syncope, but, because we're being persecuted for something we have no control over, he isn't able to get medical help for it."

Now, Patton talks. "Baisically, we really need your help. I bake really good cookies, and if anyone can help us, I could give you one!"

"And, we have experience with how the government is regarding this sort of thing." Roman says, confidently. "So, please could you screen record this video incase, and, it probably will, get taken down to protect the image painted of people like us."

I remember something that I wanted to say, so I place my left arm onto my ribcage, so that it doesn't hurt more when I speak. "I also just wanted to say, uh, I don- don't know if the man- Matthew. Yeah, I- uh, I don't know if he had any family or anything, but if he did, I wanted to apologise to them. I feel really bad about what I did to him, and I hadn't willingly done it in ten years. Just, uh, yeah. That's all."

Logan wraps the video up. "Thank you for your time, we sincerely hope this will benefit us, and not hinder us. We're going to go and get Virgil some painkillers, since it's been a safe amount of time since he last took some. Goodbye."

He presses the button on the camera, and the recording stops. I flop back onto my chair and groan in pain. Everyone scatters to do various things, apart from me, Patton and Mel.

"I'm proud of you two for opening up about everything." Patton says, sympathetically.
"You know, Virge, tommorrow is the 17th."
"Really?" It doesn't seem like that long has passed.

"What's happening tommorrow?" Patton asks.
"Oh. April 17th, is the date that, according to the plan, our baby was supposed to be born. If we hadn't managed to make sure one of us was out by last July, that is."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The golden-haired boy offers.
"No, it's okay. It worked out in the end." Mel replies.

"I don't want this to sound insensitive, but, you were still there when you turned sixteen, right?" I'm asked.
"Yeah, no yeah, I was. But, there was an even number of
biological males and females. Which is why, after Melanie was nowhere to be found, the only thing they had for me to do was become their main test subject. With the others, they risked damaging them badly, but, they got to a point where they couldn't care less what happened to me." I laugh a bit.

Melanie squeezes my hand comfortingly.

"So, where's that Ibuprofen?"

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CaffineFander, the only fanfic writer who can turn a really wholesome friendship scarily dark in only one chapter.

I feel like I made this chapter really heavy, so please let me know if I missed any trigger warnings.
The veiws on this book have also been slowing down a bit, which is kind of de-motivating, but I'm gonna carry on writing either way.

Thank you so much for reading!
Stay safe!