When You're Broken On The Ground

Chapter 6

Oof, today is a very angsty day/night readers. It's okay if you can't read, I completely understand.

Trigger Warnings: media insensitivity, mentioned suicide, mentioned cutting, forced revival of bad memories, mentioned child and domestic abuse, mentioned alcoholism, mentioned murder, implied depression.

Be careful kiddos, this is taking a sharp turn from the lightness of before. Remember to practice self-care and love, and always remember that you are beautiful, amazing, and a valuable human/alien/being (I'm not trying to assume your species!) bean.

EDIT: I CHANGED ONE THING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER, TO BETTER RUN WITH THE TIMELINE.

Word Count: 1419

They sit at the large table, laughing and joking with each other, catching up with Dee who's been out of touch for a month due to "work". No one's supposed to know what he does, but he couldn't lie to his family, especially not Patton. Literally no one could lie to Patton for more then a week (Dee set the record) (he regretted it for years, the guilt tore him apart).

"Alrighty kiddos, here's the pancakes!" Patton sets down a large platter of pancakes and sits in between Logan and Emile. Thomas is at the head of the table, with Virgil on one side and Remy on the other side. Next to Virgil is Roman, then Remus and Dee. And of course, on Remy's other side is Emile.

"Thanks Dad," Virgil mumbles, mouth already full of pancake as Roman and Remus begin fighting each other with forks over the last pancake. 

"Yes thank you Patton, your pancakes are well made," Logan says, cutting his pancakes into even pieces. The others chime in with their agreement, even the twins as they keep trying to stab each other. 

"Aww thanks everyone!" Patton giggles, blushing from the attention.

"Remus no," Dee states right before Remus pulls out his knife.

"Aww come on Dee," the man in question whines.

"Roman." Virgil's voice warns as Roman makes to grab his knife. "No."

The twins sigh but drop their utensils and dig into their pancakes while Thomas nabs the pancake they were warring over.

Thomas' phone rings, causing everyone to look at him in confusion. "I have no idea," he says before picking it up. "Hello?"

"THOMAS HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEWS YOU NEED TO SEE THE NEWS IT'S BAD," Joan shouts in one breath from the phone. 

"Joan?" Thomas asks as Logan rushes to put the news on the TV. "What's going on?"

"It's bad Thomas, it's really bad. Are you with your family?" 

"Yeah, we went to my house after Roman's premiere. Joan, are you okay?"

"T-Thomas?" Emile stutters, eyes glued to the news. Patton chokes back a sob.

The family stares at the TV in mounting horror, the text scrolling on the screen enough to destroy any happiness they had just a minute ago.

[ON SCREEN TEXT] Sanders Family trying to escape violent past? [END SCREEN TEXT]

On the TV is a woman behind a counter, fiddling with her papers unhappily. "At the movie premiere of Disney's Red String, lead actor Roman Prince appeared with a man he claimed to be his boyfriend, Virgil Shadow. Shortly after Prince and Shadow entered, seven more men appeared, welcomed warmly by the two. These men have have identified as Logan Braine, Patton Hearte, Thomas Sanders, Remus Duke, Remy Starbuck, and Dr. Emile Picani, with the seventh man identifying himself as, quote, "Devin Líar", end quote, though there seems to be no trace of a Devin Líar." The host behind the counter shifts her papers, looking very uncomfortable. "And now to Lee."

The camera cuts to a man in a suit, smirking. "Thank you Hannah. I have spent all night researching these men, and I believe I have found the threads that connect them to each other. As one of our reporters recorded, Devin Líar calls the group a family, which the rest seem to agree with. Now, they all have different last names, so the immediate thought is that they are a chosen family, however as I dug into their histories, I found something quite," he pauses, "interesting."

 The mentioned family sink on to the couch in shock, Joan still on speakerphone. 

Lee continues. "Thomas Sanders, a popular YouTuber, does a series called Sanders Sides, where he and parts of his personality called 'sides' talk through issues and grapple with understanding yourself. He and eight others who look very similar to him work on these videos, however all Sanders will say about the eight men are that they are family."

Everyone stares at the TV numbly, shock and helplessness filling the air.

"If you take the pictures taken at the premiere," the pictures fill the screen, "and line them up with the Sanders sides," the Sanders Sides' character profiles appear next to their corresponding picture, "they look exactly the same." 

Thomas' mulberry purple hair is a stark difference from his current rainbow, but everyone else's  faces line up perfectly. Patton's mousy brown hair with light blue tips, Logan's dark chocolate and deep blue ends, Roman's shining milk chocolate with bright red tips, Virgil's almost-black brown hair and midnight purple ends. Remy's dark mocha hair with silver tips, Emile's dusty brown and princess pink ends, Devin's mahogany hair fading to a sandy yellow at the tips, Remus' caramel with neon green ends. 

"Ten years ago, there were two incidents that happened concerning Thomas Sanders. First, he was hospitalized after being found almost dead in an alley."

Patton is covering his mouth, tears pricking his eyes as Logan hugs him close. Thomas isn't much better, both Remus and Dee holding him as he begins to tremble. 

"The reports say he died but was brought back."

A choked sob from Emile and Virgil as Roman bites his lip. Remy is choking the life out of a stress ball, his coffee on the table. The phone crackles, Joan's shaking breath the only sound coming through. 

"He was found by, quote "Remus King and Devin Hart" end quote." He raises his eyebrow, the names appearing next to Remus Duke and Devin Líar. "The second event that happened was the attempted suicide of his friend Virgil Thunder, which were linked to the following attempted suicides of Patton Hart, Emile Empath, and Remus King, followed by reports of severe cutting by Roman King, Devin Hart, and Remy Caffe." Lee pauses, shivering slightly before continuing. "And an unsettling report of attempted suicide where Logan Roboten began to carve out his heart after cutting the word robot into his arms."

Virgil sobs into Roman's chest as Roman clutches Virgil's shirt while crying into his shoulder. Remy and Emile are hugging each other tightly, eyes streaked with tears as they press their faces into each other's necks. Dee, Remus, and Thomas sob in one big group hug, trying to keep each other from a panic attack. And Logan? Logan is shaking as tears pour down his face, Patton frozen in place as ghosts of the past haunt his vision. 

"Not long after these reports were filed, everyone except Thomas Sanders disappeared. In their place, men with the same faces and first names but no family except the Sanders. The Hart parents were arrested for domestic and child abuse, the King parents murdered by two gangs' crossfire, Mrs. Thunder died from a heart attack after which her husband abandoned everything, the Roboten parents were arrested for child negligence, Mr. Empath (a single parent) committed suicide, and Miss Caffe drank herself to death after which it was discovered that she was an alcoholic." Faint sobbing can be heard in the background of the TV, Lee briefly concerned before going back to cold indifference. "It's recorded that these boys lived as Sanders for five years then disappeared. Not long after that, everyone except Devin Líar appeared from nowhere."

The camera switches to a cruel-faced host, who says, "Thank you Lee. And now, breaking news on this story: Remus King, aka Remus Duke, was charged nine years ago with assisting in murder of a civilian, Devin Hart charged with the actual murder. The charges fell through, but-"

"Shut it off, PLEASE SOMEONE SHUT IT OFF," Talyn screams from the phone, apparently somewhere with Joan.

No one can move. Some drown in memories, others try and are failing to fight the all-consuming guilt, all too far in their personal spiral of hell to feel reality. 

"Thomas? THOMAS?! GUYS?! ANYONE THERE?! GUYS!" The two are screaming, begging through the phone, trying to get someone, anyone to respond. "PLEASE, SOMEONE, ANSWER US!"