J."Dee". // Sanders Sides AU

Chapter 26

Roman frowned, entering the restroom. How dare Damien get every single fucking line correctly?! He didn't even give him a chance to speak up! He hated that he was in drama. He wasn't even that good at it!

He clenched his fists and looked at himself in the mirror. Fucking failure. Fucking fraud. He clenched his jaw and punched the mirror, shattering it. He hated Damien for everything. He hated himself for everything. He hated Remus for dying. He hated Patton for dying. He hated the others for sticking around with Damien instead of him. He was the victim!

He took a deep breath, seeing some blood coming out of his knuckles. Fucking great.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut. He turned. There was no one there. Why did he feel as if there was? As if he was being watched?

Out of nowhere, he was forced to turn and slammed against the wall. His eyes widened. There was /no one/ there. He looked around for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. The answer Logan would give him. The logical answer.

There was none.

There was no logical answer.

There was nothing physical holding him against the wall. And, yet, he couldn't move an inch.

Shit.

He froze as he figured it out. There was nothing /physical/ there. Physical. But there was something there. Someone there.

He tried to move away and get the fuck out of there, but he was shoved against the sink, making him hit it with his face, getting a cut on his cheekbone. He looked up and was pushed to the ground.

The air was knocked off his lungs and he could barely breathe. He tried to push that- thing away, but he couldn't touch anything. It was as if it could touch him and hurt him but he couldn't touch it.

He didn't understand anything. He didn't understand and he wanted to. He wanted to know why all that was happening to them! Why Damien was being J.D's puppet. Why he'd killed Patton and his brother. Why was he getting hurt now? What had they done that was so wrong? Mess around with a board? With something you could get in a toy store? Why was J.D doing that to them? And why them?

Virgil was right! He was going to propose to Damien at prom. Nearly everyone was in on it. The entire fucking school. And he let something Damien could do nothing about break them up. Fuck. He really was an asshole.

His eye started feeling numb and his sight blurring. It hurt, so he'd been hit there. How could a /ghost/ hurt someone physically? And- wait-

Where was Damien?!

What followed was a train of thought he could barely follow. As he tried to understand his thoughts, he was hit over and over again. A couple more bruises on his face, a few on his body... the usual when being beaten up by a ghost.

He didn't feel the hits, just the numbing pain they left.

Then, as if nothing had happened, the presence disappeared. He was finally alone again. He laid on the floor for few moments. He breathed heavily, on the verge of a panic attack. What the fuck had just happened?! He didn't want to look at himself. He never took his makeup since he never really needed it. God, he wished he had...

He slowly got up, wincing every time he moved. When he managed to stand, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He had a bruise on his right eye, left cheek and the left side of his jawline. A cut on his right cheekbone, and another bruise around his throat. He sighed, rubbing it gently with his hand. How was he going to explain that...?

He made his way outside, noticing there was no one in the hall... great. He was late to class. He huffed and walked to his locker, sitting in front of it. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, letting out a breath.

At least no one would see him like that yet.

The door to the nearest classroom opened and, to Roman's luck, Damien walked out. He turned to walk to his locker and froze in his tracks as he saw Roman hurt on the floor.

"Roman?" He frowned. Roman tensed up, opening his eyes and turning his head towards him as Damien approached him quickly and dropped in front of him. "What happened? Who did that to you?" he asked worriedly. He felt strange, but in a good way for the first time in months.

Roman frowned, looking away from him to try to hide as many injuries as possible. "It's none of your business," he said.

Damien sighed. "Roman, don't... please..." he said softly, reaching out to lift his chin to see the injuries.

Roman pushed his hand away and glared at him. "Don't touch me." He hissed. "Why don't you go make out with your new girlfriend." Damien sighed. He knew Roman was hurt, but he had no idea what he was talking about.

"Wh- Roman... I can't have you hating me, please..." Damien pleaded, looking at him.

Roman lifted his head, looking at him in the eye with what seemed to try to be a glare. "Well, I do. Goodbye," he said. Damien shook his head, about to argue, but Roman spoke again. "You killed my brother."

Damien frowned, looking at him. Why was he so damn sure about that?! "I- I need you to be with me. You got beaten up, again, for some reason... why?" he asked softly, tilting his head a bit and looking at him sympathetically. Roman shrugged. "Who did it?"

"I don't know." Roman looked away. He was scared. For all he knew, that wasn't Damien. And he wasn't risking getting hurt again or even killed just like Remus and Patton.

"How can you not know? You got beaten up by someone. Who was it?" Damien insisted. He needed to know who had hurt Roman. He'd been hurt once before because of it, but he was going to fight for him.

"I don't know!" Roman snapped, making Damien flinch. That brought a somewhat sense of safety. Damien did that before the night of the ghost hunting. "There was no one around." Damien frowned. "It was like what happened to you that night... there was no one there."

Damien bit his lip and moved, sitting beside Roman and gently and carefully wrapping an arm around him. "Well... I'm glad you're okay..." he said softly. "Class can wait." Roman smiled lightly and rested his head against Damien's shoulder. He was going to take that opportunity as if it were the last time he could be with Damien... the real Damien.

His Damien.