When You're Broken On The Ground

Chapter 32

Trigger Warnings: murder, drugs, sleeping pills, swearing, knives, blood, lying, plot twists you probably saw coming, if the pov changes the author's sorry because they did try to edit this, the author was too good at figuring out how to murder someone, if the author doesn't update next Sunday without an announcement as to why then the FBI got them.

Word Count: 1184

"Dude just say it," Thomas says. "This is too suspenseful."

"Sorry," Patton apologizes, "it's just that we've never told anyone since it happened and we never thought we would."

"Just- just tell me, okay?" Thomas asks.

Virgil sighs. If anyone, it should be him who tells Thomas. "It was us. Me, Roman, Logan, Patton, Remy, and Emile. We- we're the ones who killed him."

The silence is suffocating. Thomas just stares at them, face moving from emotion to emotion too quickly for Virgil to judge what he's feeling. "You're joking, right?" he asks.

The group exchanges glances. "I wish we were, Thomas," Emile says. "But it's the truth. We killed him."

"But... but that means that you were lying when you said you were at home. Watching movies."

Patton winces. "Yeah..."

"How? How did you manage to do it? I- my mom-"

"Let us start from the beginning," Logan suggests.

"Great, maybe this'll make more sense!" Thomas says desperately.

"That night, we told them we were watching movies in the living room with you while your mother slept," Logan begins. "That is only partly true. We were doing that when you fell asleep on the couch, and when your mother went to bed."

"Hold up, hold up. My mom goes to bed at 9:30, but they said William Delaney died at 9 o'clock. How-"

"I used my sleep pills," Remy admits shortly. "Mixed them into you and your mom's tea. Knocked you two out around 8." Virgil has to look away from Thomas' face, the betrayal written across it breaking his heart.

"Once we were sure you two would be out for the night, we left," Logan continues.

"You'd planned this ahead of time." Thomas leaves no room for denial.

"Yes, we did," Roman confirms.

"Me and Lo did research," Virgil adds. "How to cover tracks, the best way to kill someone older than you, stuff like that."

"It was me and Roman's job to collect the things we needed," Patton says dully.

"And Remy and I stalked him," Emile states, taking a shuddering breath. "We watched him deal drugs to people on the streets, visit clubs, and then go to his house as if he wasn't doing anything, as if he was a good person." Emile is trembling, voice tight with fury. "I watched him go to the park, in that spot, every single fucking night, handing off drugs to people who looked close to death-" Virgil's eyebrows shoot up, normally Emile doesn't swear.

Remy pulls him into his chest, pulling his back as Emile sobs. "Shh, it's okay Emmy." He turns to Thomas. "We started planning this months ago. We knew where he'd be, and what to do. He would be in the park, in the forested area, ready to hand drugs over to yet another person. Only this time, we'd kill him."

"I was the one who strangled him," Virgil speaks up. "Used the shoelaces Patton bought. It was a lot easier than I thought."

"After that we laid a tarp underneath him, to catch any blood," Roman says.

"I-I was the one who cut his gut open," Patton whispers, voice trembling, arms clutching at his side in a bruising self hug. "With that knife Roman gave us a year or two ago from then."

"Then I-" Emile takes a deep, shaking breath. "I was the one who stabbed deeper, cutting into his organs. The police didn't notice, it looked like one clean sweep did it. With the knife I-" He buries his head back into Remy's jacket, but they all know. With the knife he tried to kill himself with.

"I slit his throat open with my knife," Logan admits monotonously. "The body did not bleed much due to the cuts being done after his death, so we simply had to cut his lungs open before we could start moving him."

"I was the one who did that," Remy says. "It was easy, even used my knife like the others. Then I pushed down on his chest, getting the air out."

"Then we picked up the tarp by its edges and moved it to the river," Roman recounts. "Emile and Virgil checked the nails and cleaned them out so no evidence would come back to us. I pressed down on the chest again to make sure the air was out, then me, Remy, and Logan got him into the water, pushing down on it until it was fully submerged."

"Me, Emile, and Pat washed the knives off in the river," Virgil adds.

"Then we abandoned the tarp in a dumpster ten miles away from the site, along with the clothes, shoes, and gloves we used-"

Thomas interrupts Remy for the first time. "Why do that?"

"Different shoes and sizes to throw off suspicion. Different clothes in case blood got on them. Gloves for prints," Logan answers in quick succession.

"Oh."

"Then we came back home, about thirty minutes before Dee and Remus came home," Virgil says.

"We cleaned up any other evidence there may have been, cleaned the cups of tea so no one could test them for the residue of the pills. We'd been letting Netflix run while we were out so it looks like we were watching a movie just like our alibi said," Roman continues. Virgil remembers checking in on Ms Sanders, finding her sound asleep, just like she was supposed to be.

"And when we came back," Dee picks up, "they sat us down and told us what they did."

"I kinda wished they'd included us, gotten that closure, but that's life," Remus adds.

He regrets not getting them into the plan, maybe then they wouldn't have had to go through everything they did. But, he reminds himself, that's the past, he can't go back and change it. As much as he wants to, he can't.

"Why?" Thomas asks. "Why- why do that? Why go through that?"

"Because you're our brother," Patton answers. "We love you."

"And what happened to you was unjust," Roman adds.

"And you almost died," Virgil continues.

"And we all had to go through so much shit just for him to walk away," Remy says.

"And he'd ruined so many lives, he needed to go," Emile growls, abnormally aggressive.

"And," Logan finishes, "he hurt us. Mentally, emotionally. What he did to you was the tipping point for our issues, and I know it is not logical at all, but I wanted, I needed him to pay for what he did to all of us."

Thomas stares at them, face impassive. "You murdered a man, the man who nearly killed me and tipped you guys over the edge, because of love?"

They glance around at each other. "Yes," Patton answers.