Ghosting

8

"Gods of hell..."

It summed the file up pretty well; force-feeding him sulfur, binding his hands together, isolation... had this really all been considered "treatment?"

Patton drew in a shaky breath. "Unless anyone has any objections, I'm gonna go let Deceit- Damien- out of the basement."

Before he could leave, however, Logan grabbed his arm. "As much as I would love to, we're going to have to ask him about these accusations made against him."

"You don't really think he killed his parents, do you?"

Logan sighed, snapping the file shut. "I do not know. I want to believe he didn't, however, I'm afraid experience speaks louder. I'm not saying I believe he did-" Logan raised his voice slightly, cutting off the beginning of whatever Patton was about to say, "I'm just saying we can't afford to not be cautious."

After a few moments, Patton nodded slowly, putting the file back into place. Thomas and Logan followed him back through the greenhouse and down the stairs.

"Hey there." All three flinched as Virgil appeared at the bottom of the stairs, Roman and Remus behind him. "Strange place for a party."

"Strange party for a threesome," Remus added helpfully. Virgil blinked a few times, then shook his head rapidly.

"Jesus fucking Christ- thank you, Remus, for that mental picture permanently burned into my eyelids-" ("You're welcome-") "What are you guys doing? What's up there?"

Patton, still blushing from Remus' comment, took a small step forward, "Guys... we need to talk."

"Uh-oh..." Roman whispered, glancing between Virgil and Patton. Nothing good ever came of "we need to talk."

"It's about Deceit," Logan interjected, drawing everyone's attention to him. "We've uncovered some startling information that we believe you should know. May we please exit the stairwell? I fear these stairs are unstable."

-

Virgil was the first to react to the news, sinking so low in his chair that he was almost parallel to the floor and swearing, covering his face with his hands.

"So... you mean he's..." Roman paused for a long moment, choosing his words, "He's not a demon? He's a regular spirit?"

"That is correct."

"But..." Remus' wild gaze shifted from Thomas to Patton to Logan, "He killed you!"

"No..." Logan sat down heavily, shoulders slumping, "he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time... and because of his inability to speak, he was unable to defend himself."

Roman thought about it for a quick moment, then shot to his feet, "Then we must release him from the basement."

"Not quite-" Patton interjected, stepping into Roman's path before he could get far, "There's still some questionable stuff in his file that we need to talk to him about before letting him out."

Rising to his feet, gaze still trained on the floor, Logan nodded, "The file accused him of three murders, two of them being his parents in a fire."

"Um..." Roman raised his hand slightly, "This may be some cross-channel thing in my mind, but I'm fairly certain you don't ask people about the death of their parents? I might be wrong, though."

After a moment, Logan shrugged, "I wouldn't know. My only sources are fiction... look, we just have to. He wishes to be released from the basement, and this, unfortunately, is what must happen for that to happen."

"Ugh..." Virgil groaned, getting to his feet. "Fine. Let's get this over with and release murder spagurder."

-

Damien's face brightened when he saw the six of them coming down the stairs, and he stood hopefully, looking between all of them.

"Damien, we've looked into your file... I'm afraid there's no way to sugarcoat it, so I'll just ask." Logan took a deep breath, "Were you behind the fire that resulted in the death of your parents?"

Almost instantly, Damien's face fell and his shoulders slumped. He sat down, putting his head in his hands. Logan seemed to remember something, then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and offered it to Damien. "I found this in your file. Do you want it?"

Damien stared at the paper, the burst into tears, snatching it from Logan and holding it to his chest.

"There's something else you should have," Logan sat across from Damien, "Your mother... she wrote you a letter. It's in your drawer in the luggage room. On the front of the envelope, it says, "To my Day, From Mama and Papa." It's in the same drawer as your black hat... If you want, I can take you to it." He reached over, gently brushing a tear from Day's face. "But if I do, you must promise to tell me why you killed Curtis Lepore."

Damien nodded and Logan helped him to his feet, leading him out of the basement and ignoring the questioning looks from the others. He gently nudged a hole in the salt line, and, for the first time in almost a century, Damien left the basement.