Wonderland

Chapter 6

Remy was groggy when he woke up in a medical bed. There was a clamp on his finger that connected to a monitor of sorts, but otherwise, he was completely untethered as he sat up. His memory was foggy at first, but slowly, he began to remember everything. The door opened to reveal the doctor that had been primarily working with Emile.

"Is he-" Remy started.

"He is fine. The transplant is so far proving a success," the doctor said, offering a reassuring smile. Remy sighed in relief and fell back against the pillow. "He is still unconscious at this point, though we hope he will wake soon now that his body can properly recover." Remy smiled broadly.

"Thank you so much Doc."

—//—

It had been over two months for Emile. He still missed Remy a lot. He was showing strong progress in his sessions with Janus, now. Another soul had come and gone, a thirty-seven year old man by the name of Henry. He had mostly kept to himself, and passed onto the world of the dead by the end of the week. It had scared Emile, as had the girl's death. Any day now he could fade away and never see his brother again. What scared Emile morr though was that he was beginning to become conflicted.

Yes, he missed Remy, gods he missed him, but here, in the In-Between, Emile had friends, real friends, family, even. They may squabble occasionally but never had any of them tormented him or intentionally hurt him or isolated him or insulted him. Emile was safe here and cared for in a way he never remembered feeling before. Emile found himself wondering what it would be like if Remy were with him too. Remy would have fit right in, he realized, between Patton's fatherly personality, Virgil's wit, Roman's sense of adventure, Remus' free spirit, Janus' groundedness, and Logan's knowledge.

"Yo, Emi-" Remus cackled as he approached Emile, who jumped as he turned to him, caught slightly off guard by Remus' seemingly sudden appearance.

"Yes, Remus?" he questioned, getting an odd feeling of concern from Remus' wide grin.

"I'm bored, let's go on an adventure!" he grinned. Emile flashed an excited smile.

"Alright. Should I change, then? Are we going to climb or something?" Emile asked. Remus blew through his lips, unamused with Emile's answer.

"Who do you think I am, Roman?" Remus laughed. "Look, my adventures are much different than my brother's."

"Your brother?" Emile questioned, trying to ignore how the word struck home.

"Yeah, you know, Roman?" Remus said, tilting his head in confusion. Emile gasped.

"Wait, Roman is your brother?" he exclaimed. Remus gave him a weird look.

"Uh, yeah? He's my twin brother. Didn't anyone tell you?" Emile shook his head.

"No one told me anyone here was related. I just assume you and Roman just happened to have similar features," Emile reasoned, "and just acted brotherly, I guess?" Remus laughed at him.

"Nope! I'm related to that sappy whale penis of a Disney prince. Now come on, let's prepare!" Remus called as he walked towards his room. Emile had never been in his room and was naturally curious, and so he followed.

Emile walked into a surprisingly clean room, however, it was far from well organized. The floor was easy to walk across, but the desk and dresser and bookshelf was covered in piles of things, some Emile recognized, some were clearly creations of Remus' that had been discarded and were honestly quite horrific. Emile's eyes locked on one such creation. It had the legs and claws of a crab, a sort of body that looked like the surface had been made out of grafts of different material and harshly sewn together. It's black eyes felt as if they bore into Emile's own soul, sending a shudder down his spine. Emile forced himself to look back at Remus to rid himself of the uncomfortable sensation. Remus had moved some of the stacks off his desk and thrown them carelessly onto his bed before rummaging through more of the things.