Insane

Finally

TW: Panic Attack, Cursing, Punching, Mention of death penalty, mention of arson, rough treatment

Today is Sunday June 11th. We're getting out of here, well, most of us are. In the days before today, Janus has been quite calm and collected about the whole thing, but today, he broke. It was when we were packing our little blongings. Logan had packed his mountain of books and sodokus into his small bag. I didn't have anything, Remus and Roman only had each necklaces, one with a sword and one with a shield. They weren't allowed to war them when they were patients here because they were deemed as 'weapons' because they had sharp metal edges.

Patton just had a faux leather notebook, and I don't have anything. Janus has a small little snake plushy that he's had since he first arrived, or so I'm told. I look across from me and see that Janus is sitting on his bed, his knees up to his chest, shaking like a leaf with streams of tears going down his cheeks. I try to remember what he said and did to me when I was shaken up, first arriving. I try to mimick it.

"J? H-Hey, hey, c-can you h-h-hear me?" He looks towards me and nods. I tell him to try and match my breathing and he does quite well. By this time, the others are all standing either behind me or behind the shaking boy. All five of us climb onto his bed and sit around him. He starts to calm down and we all take eachother's hands, sitting in a circle. He smiles softly and looks down to the mattress.
We stay like this for a while, I'm not sure how long.

It doesn't seem like long before the door opens and Remy comes in.
"Your carers are gonna be here soon, you should all come down to the reception to wait for them." 
"Can I c-come?" Janus asks, looking for an ounce of compassion in Remy's eyes.
"Sure. But if you try to run there's going to be a lot of trouble."
"Thanks."

I turn around and look back at our room. It feels so distant even though I slept in that middle right bed just last night. The hospital did a staggered leave, and we are the last room to get picked up by our parents. I haven't been to the reception area since I arrived, and it feels eerie. Patton stops when he sees the double doors leading to the outside world. Theres a woman standing by the double doors, her hair a dark auburn. She's wearing an expensive dress and her face lights up when she sees Roman and Remus, and Roman breaks into a run, Remus walking behind, still quickly.

"There's my boy! Honey! I'm so sorry you had to spend so long here because of your brother!" The woman says, smiling and pulling Roman into a hug and ruffling his hair. He smiles as he warms into his mother's touch. Remus stands behind their embrace impaciently. When they pull apart, their mother faces towards Remus and slowly wraps her arms around him uncomfortably.
"I missed you guys! The house has been so empty without you boys." Remus looks uncomfortable, as if this isn't what normally happens.

"Mother, these are our friends." Remus says, jesturing to us. She looks to us and her lips curl upwards in disgust for a second, before her mouth forms into a smile. I notice, and I see that Logan does too.
"Anyway, there isn't time to sit and converse, your father is waitng to see you at home." Remus flinches at the word 'father.' It must be a sore topic. Roman seems completely unfazed by the word though. There's some clear favourism in the family.

Roman quickly walks over to Patton, Logan, Janus and I, pulling us into a hug. "I'm gonna miss you guys." We all mumble responses, pulling away slowly, Patton stays the longest, shuffling his neck into Roman's shoulder. Remus is talking to his mother, then he turns around and walks towards us. He hugs us induvidually this time, slipping each of us a peice of paper with a phone number. I assume it to be his landline and I shove it into my pocket. Everyone else takes theirs, knowing they can also contact Roman through it. Remus stumbles over to Janus last, and pulls him in quickly, holding him in a hug for a good minute atleast.

"Enough, Remus, we have to go." Remus seperates from Janus and they both have tears streaming down their faces.
"I'll see you later, Remus." Janus says.
"Yeah. S-See you later." Remus replies, hoping it were true.

Just as the twins walk out behind their mother, a tall-looking man comes into the building. He has jet black hair, and I can tell immdiately that he's Logan's father. He makes eye contact with Logan and paces straight towards him, grabbing his left wrist harshly. He scanned around and saw Dr Sanders through an open door. He walked towards the door, pulling Logan behind.
"Thank you for helping fix him, Doctor." The man says, Logan trying to pull his arm from his dad's grip. He looks back to us.
"I'm gonna miss you. You can call my landline on 01234 56789." Logan says, looking to us with desperation. I take the paper that Remus gave me out, pulling a pen from the reception desk and writing down what he said.  His father finishes talking and starts to drag Logan out of the hospital. He scrunches his eyes and trys to pry his father's hand from his wrist to no avail, and before I know, he's gone.

Now there's only three of us left. About two minutes later, my mother walks through the doors, laughing with another woman her age.
"Patton!" The woman cries, her son running up to her and jumping into her arms, despite being 17-years-old. My mother walks up to me and puts her hands on my shoulders.
"Do you feel better now, Virgil?" I stay silent, looking up to her. She rolls her eyes and turns to Janus. "Hello. You must be a friend of my son's?"
"Yes Ma'am."

"Since he's completely ignoring his own mother, could you tell me? Do you think he's no longer ill?"
Janus considers this question, looking up at her before answering. "No. No, I think that this shithole has made his condition worse."
My mother gasps as I look at him with a large smile. He smirks and adjusts his eyes towards me.
"How dare you use that kind of language infront of me!" She says before smaking him accross the face. He gasps and holds his face, looking up at her. Without a second thought, I punch her square in the face. Damn, that felt really good. She screams at the top of her lungs, then points accusingly at Janus.

"How dare you corrupt my son! You should be killed for this!" Janus laughs under his breath before doing exactly what I did. Punching her. One of the remaining nurses runs behind Janus and grabs him, putting one of those wet cloths over his mouth. He lets out a muffled scream before looking at me with fear in his eyes. I start to run towards him when another nurse grabs me from behind, doing the exact same thing with the cloth.
"I'll take him to your carrige, Ma'am." She says, dragging me. I can't even compete with her, I'm so weak from the little food we were given that I have no chance of fighting her. I blink tears from my eyes as I see Janus dragged off back towards our room. That's the last time I'll see him, I guess. Unless the author has any other plans, that is.

I'm not sure why I said that. Huh.

Sitting, handcuffed in the carrige, I sigh, looking down to my shoes. My mother walks down the pathway, talking to Patton's mother, who has Patton by the hand in a happy grasp. Patton pulls his hand fromo his mother's and skips towards the carrige. "You'll call, won't you?" He asks.
"Of c-c-course, Pa-Pat." He smiles, pulling me into a hug from the carrige door. He turns and heads away. His and my mothers seem to exchange numbers and shake hands, before splitting up. Mother clambers into the carrige beside me.

"I cannot believe your behaviour, Virgil."
"S-s-sorry."
"And that stutter! Stop doing it."
I just nod. I can't stutter if I'm not talkinig.

We pull up to our house and I step out, walking towards the door, and going inside.

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It's been only twenty-four hours since I got home. Janus' public execution should have been about an hour ago. I try not to think about it too much as tears prick at the corners of my eyes. I hear my father yell at me to go and grab the newspaper from the lawn. I open the door, seeing the paper boy cycling off down the street. I bend down and pick up the rolled up newspaper, unrolling it. I drop to my knees and start to cry when I read the headline at the top of the page.

GENERIC NEWSPAPER NAME
monday 12th june
Convicted arsonist, Janus
Griffis escapes police custody
an hour before execution
See page 3 for more information

He's alive. He did it. I can't believe this. I grin goofily and look towards the sun, high in the sky.

I smile, knowing that all six of us are looking up at the same sun.

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The end

1619 words