Earlier that day...
"I can't believe Thomas knows about Deceit now, it's like he can't silence us any more!" Said Patton.
"Yeah, I know, it's fantastic. Finally, we can discuss that snake face without being slapped in the mouth!" Replied Roman with a hateful look of disgust on his face.
They were all sat in the common room having a mug of hot chocolate discussing the events of Deceit's, well, deception. Logan kept pretending that he knew all along that he was impersonating Patton, but everyone knew this was untrue. Virgil just sat on the floor of the common room drinking his hot chocolate and listening to the audiobooks Logan had given him for Christmas. He wasn't listening though, not fully, his mind was elsewhere. He kept replaying all the things that he had said to 'Patton', he had a very strong feeling that it was Deceit which is why he said a lot of harsh things. He was saying them to Deceit directly, but the others didn't know that, they thought he was talking to Patton. What should he do? If he let them believe he was saying those things to Patton, he would never forgive him but if he told them the truth, they would hate him even more. The others must have noticed he was getting anxious because Patton grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. This filled Virgil with comfort and briefly made him forget about his worries until Patton asked,
"What's troubling you kiddo?"
He couldn't answer, his mouth went dry. What could he say? He knew he had to tell the truth but how. He didn't want to destroy the friendships he had worked so hard to gain. He took a couple deep breaths and opened his mouth to speak.
"I...hmm I, I have something I need to tell you guys." He stuttered as a wave of instant regret struck him, no turning back now, "Today, when Deceit was pretending to be Patton, I, I said some things. I knew it wasn't Patton, I knew it was Deceit." He spat out, "I knew it was Deceit because we were friends once. He wasn't a good friend, I know that now, I have you guys, I hope. He used to threaten me and beat me and force me to do things, like, like randomly making Thomas look bad or doubt himself. I thought that was what friendship meant, but I was wrong, I see that now. A long time ago, Deceit had planned to do something like this, well, exactly this, and he made me go undercover to make Thomas' life hell, which in turn, made my life hell, but that was nothing compared to what he said he would do to me if I didn't. So, I, I did it, but then you guys accepted me as one of you and I left Deceit. I never really understood why he wanted me to do those things but I guess I was too scared to question him. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, I could have stopped this from happening, Deceit would have never drugged Patton and replaced him, Thomas wouldn't have had to go through so much stress. I, I'm sorry."
The others just stared at him speechless. They didn't know what to say. Virgil couldn't take it anymore, he had to get out of there. He rushed to his feet, and teleported to his room.
When he got there, he was so upset he didn't even notice the box next to his bed. He just locked the door and reached for a button he had in his draw, an old 'souvenir' from his time with the others. This button had the power to wipe any information he wanted from the minds of the positive sides. Without a moments hesitation, he hit the button thinking that it would give him some relief, but it didn't. They may not remember what he told them but Virgil did and the part he remembers the most was their reactions.
It was only as he crawled onto his bed that he found the box. It was fairly large and wrapped in purple and black paper. Who ever had given him this knew him well because these were his favourite colours. Maybe it was from Patton before he found out the truth, or rather, didn't. Cautiously, he began to unwrap the box. Inside, was a mirror. It was a beautiful mirror but it didn't make any sense. Virgil decided to put it up anyway to help with his guilt. He thought that if it was from Patton, putting it up would make him feel better. It was so strange. His reflection looked like him but it was off somehow. He couldn't quite put his finger on it. Hours past and the longer he pondered at the looking glass the more it made his mind fall through a rabbit hole of worry.
Which leads us back to the panic attack... (see previous chapter)