Running

Christmas

TW: Religion, Religious threats, Cursing, Death mention, Persecution, Yelling,

2 years before present day:

Virgil's POV:

"Come onnn Virgil! It's Christmas!" Melanie chants, trying to pull me up off the floor from where I slept last night.

I rub my eyes and sit cross-legged on the floor.
"You're crazy." I mutter.

At the usual time that we get breakfast, the door opens and one of the nurses that I've only ever seen around places two trays of food on the floor.
"Merry Christmas." She chirps, then pauses. "Do you know what Christmas is?"

"I know that it makes people nicer to us, so I don't really care." I retort, bringing my knee up to my chest and resting my arm on it.

"It's about thanking Jesus that he died for us, silly."
"Jesus?"
"You know, God! Our lord and saviour."

I look around the room to Mel and then back to the woman. "Why would I thank a God that's never done anything good for me?"

She huffs. "Maybe if you put your trust in him, he would."
I pick up the slice of bread and take a bite of it.

----------

Patton's POV:

Buzz. Buzz.

I walk over to Roman's phone while he's in the bathroom. It's a text message notification.
I unlock his phone with his passcode (which he told me, don't worry) and walk past the Christmas Tree to sit down and see who it is.

Remus: "Hey Ro, sorry it's been so long but I really need a favour"

As I'm looking at it, another one comes through. "Like, right now"

Who's Remus?
I scroll up the conversation and see a stack of text messages sent from Ro's end, all about six months ago.
"Remus?"
"Re, mom and dad are really worried"
"I'm sorry, please just come home"
"Re?"
"Bro??"
"Please just let me know you're okay"
"Remus, please"
"Remus? Mom and dad said they won't be mad if you come home now"
"Please"
"I'm sorry"
"Remus?"

Okay, lets try and visualise this.. Remus is a sibling? Or cousin? Or a relative of Ro's in some way. His parents are worried about him.. He ran away from home?

"Roman?" I call.
I hear the bathroom door shut and he comes down the stairs, waving a 'Hi' to Logan in the kitchen. "Yeah, Pat?"

"Who's Remus?"

His eyes widen and he grabs the phone from my hands, reading the message. "Oh my God."

Roman's POV:

"Yeah, what can I do?" I can yell at him later, I just need him safe.

Within ten seconds I get a reply.

"Do you still live with mom and dad?"

You see, it's funny. Most fifteen year olds don't live alone, but Pat, Lo and I all decided to move in together when the persecution laws for magical people were updated, and we need to be more careful. That's why I'm worried about Remus.

"No, why?"

"Where do you live now?"

"45 Fanfiction Street, why?"

"We'll be there in ten minutes. Explain later."

"Woah, woah, what?"
"Who's we?"
"Re, you can't just-"
"See you soon, I guess."