That night he slept a deep and dreamless sleep. His mind had always been active while sleeping, so to have a dreamless sleep at all would have been odd, but then he felt... something. That vague feeling of unease again. He bolted upright in bed, breathing heavy and eyes wide.
He felt Cygnus stir next to him, his boyfriend blearily rubbing at his eyes as he reached for his glasses.
"What's wrong, V? Nightmare?"
Virgil just shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips. For a few seconds he was worried that, in his half-awake confusion, Cygnus might try and press for an answer. His boyfriend must have felt that same level of unease however, for all at once he bolted upright in bed just as Virgil had and nodded. There was the sound of tin cans faintly chiming in the hallway, and he gulped down a hurried breath. He couldn't panic, not now. Something was coming.
Despite the fact that he hadn't said a word Cygnus must have known what he was thinking, for he nodded and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips before moving across the room to their desk.
"Wake the others, get them in here." He said. "I'll get the rifle ready, pistols as well after. I don't want anyone to be in danger. We don't go out there unless we have to, and if my assumption is right then it's just scoping out our home, whatever 'it' is of course. Be careful and quiet, as you always are, and before you know it this whole night will be over."
Virgil nodded, and before he'd even thought about anything else he was already knocking on the door to Sterling's room furthest from his own.
"Virgil? What's-"
Sterling answered the door in his pyjamas with a half-asleep look about him, rubbing at his eyes, but as soon as he took in Virgil's surely worried face and the finger pressed to his lips he nodded to show he understood. Virgil pointed at the now open door to his and Cygnus' shared bedroom and nodded in that direction, hoping to convey to Sterling that he needed to get in there right away. Sterling, without another moment's hesitation, walked calmly down the hall and into the room.
The next room was Madison, directly across the hall from Sterling's room and next to Cygnus' room. She was already awake and ready in her nightgown, so Virgil reasoned she must have heard something out there. Without him even needing to gesture she just smiled at him and nodded, calmly moving towards the designated 'go-here-if-everything-goes-to-shit' room.
Lastly there was the room shared by the Alistair twins, and Virgil wasn't even going to try to wake Wesley up. He knocked quietly on the door a few times and, thankfully, it was answered almost immediately by Lyla.
"Lyla, you and your brother need to get to my room now!" His words were a whisper, but he made sure to put enough inflection into them to ensure that she understood how serious he was.
A lazy grin came over her face, no doubt the result of her thinking of more than one joke to make in response to his statement, but it was quickly smothered as her more rational and sensible mind came to the fore.
"Okay. Wesley won't wake up, so-"
"We'll carry him. It's only across the hall, so let's go."
With greater ease than he'd expected the two of them lifted the still slumbering Wesley out of his bed and ferried him over to Cygnus and Virgil's shared bedroom. As soon as they were inside and the sound of clanging cans grew louder and more frantic Virgil bolted back out to shut the doors leading to his friend's rooms, not wanting the room they were all in to be the only one with a closed door. He must have made more noise than he'd thought, for whatever was outside seemed to be making a hell of a lot of noise now. There was the sound of banging on the door, fast and rapid, and Virgil found himself stuck frozen to the floor in fear as he stared towards the door of their apartment. No matter how much he willed himself to move he couldn't get his legs to comply with his mind, and in response he could only let out a terrified keen.
Less than five seconds later he found himself being half-dragged and half-carried back into the room by his partner and Madison, and the second he was inside the room the door was locked, bolted, and borderline barricaded. He let out a few ragged, terrified breaths as he clutched and leaned into Cygnus' chest, certain that he was at least a little safer now.
From outside the room there was the distinctive 'click' of the lock being opened, followed by the creak of a door that really needed some oil on its hinges. Virgil screwed his eyes shut for a moment, but quickly opened them when a pistol was pressed into his hands. He had a job to do, and he had his friends to protect. Whatever reservations or fears he had were meaningless in this moment.
He nodded once at his boyfriend to signify that yes, he was okay, he could do this, and in response he received a concerned look and a hand upon his shoulder, gently squeezing in a silent display of support. Soon afterwards a rather concerned and, if he was completely honest to himself about what his friends seemed like, slightly excited Sterling and Lyla were handed their pistols as well. They'd only had about four hours of training with them so far, but that would have to do. Cygnus raised an eyebrow at Madison and nodded towards the table that housed their small arsenal, but she just curled herself protectively over Wesley and shook her head.
His boyfriend nodded, respecting her choice to not use firearms or weapons in general. Besides, with how she was practically preparing to use herself as a shield for Wesley none of them could really complain. If four pistols and a rifle weren't enough to protect them if the creature forced its way into their room then he highly doubted that a fifth pistol would make much of a difference.
There was the sound of footsteps out in the communal area of the apartment, probably the living room given how the muffled nature of the footsteps likely meant they were on a carpeted floor. Virgil steeled himself and moved to whisper quietly to Cygnus.
"Hide everyone," he said as quietly as he could, "under or behind the bed. Or behind the desk, for that matter. We need to make sure we're hidden if this thing breaks into our room."
Cygnus nodded, not for one moment even questioning Virgil's words, and moved over to Madison.
"Get yourself and Wesley under the bed," he whispered out, "because it's one of the only real hiding places we've got here. Sterling, Lyla!"
The two others responded to his boyfriend's whisper-shouting with looks of urgency and confusion, but Cygnus didn't let confusion stop him even for a moment. There was a reason he'd been sort of designated their unofficial leader when everything had vanished, after all; he was good at taking charge and organising them all in situations where everything might otherwise have been utterly unplanned.
"Get behind the bed, you too Virgil. I'll wait behind the desk. Everyone stay as quiet as you possibly can, okay? We'll all be out of this in no time at all, I promise you."
He received a series of nods and silent affirmations for his words, and the others quickly and yet quietly moved to follow his instructions. The coming night would be tense and frightening, that much he knew, hell, he was pretty certain that they all knew it, but at least they had someone who could lead them through it and make sure they were as safe as possible.
It wasn't a perfect solution, but they were hidden, together, and had what might charitably be termed a firing line ready to take action if it were needed. Virgil wasn't actually sure whether they'd try and take down this monster if it got in here or stay hidden and hope it didn't find them somehow, but he was adamant that whatever they did he would do his part. So long as it wasn't his responsibility to make that judgement call, so long as he did his part well, he would be content. The only thing he was truly worried about in that moment was being responsible for his friends being found or hurt. He'd never forgive himself if something terrible happened to any of them on his watch.
Cygnus caught his gaze as they all settled into their new positions for the rest of the night. Cygnus was behind the side of their wooden desk directly in line with the door but hidden by the wooden panelling, whereas Virgil was hidden against the side of their bed furthest from the door and parallel to his boyfriend. He was the one basically at the end of the bed, with Lyla directly to his left and Sterling to her left in turn. Madison was underneath the bed now, clinging tightly to the still sleeping Wesley, and Virgil felt a small spike of anxiety at the thought of Wesley waking up in the midst of them trying to hide. He really hoped his friend would manage to remain asleep through this entire scenario, or else he might end up getting himself found out.
No. He couldn't let himself think like that. What would happen would happen, and all he could do was wait and see exactly what that would entail. There was little to no sense in allowing himself to be consumed by the thoughts plaguing his mind at this moment.
He wasn't going to let anyone down. He was going to do his part.
He swore it.
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They'd been sat here, covering, for hours. He couldn't see the clock on the wall, for that was in the living room and there was no way in hell he was heading out there to check right now, but it must surely have been hours. According to the watch Cygnus was wearing it had been somewhere around three hours at this point, and Virgil was afraid to admit that he was close to losing his nerve and bottling it all.
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Three hours. Three hours spent slumped against his bed with his terrified friends. Three hours in the middle of the night spent in a state of dreadful wakefulness. Three hours with his finger resting on the trigger guard, afraid of what might be coming for them. Of what was looking for them.
All he'd heard in that time were the sounds of something moving clumsily and yet somehow deftly around the living room and the kitchen, moving what could only be random objects around either accidentally or like some manner of curious animal presented with the trappings of humanity for the first time. It was probably a mixture of the two, all things considered.
He pushed his head back against the side of the bed, closing his eyes and trying to dispel the tension he could feel rising in his temples. God, he just wanted this to be over. He wasn't sure if he'd inadvertently brought this thing back with him from the school, or if this was going to happen at some point anyway, but he was leaning more towards the latter of the two options. He and Cyg had both felt uneasy that morning anyway, long before they'd gotten anywhere near the school, and for that matter the feeling had faded as they'd made to cross the path of the leviathan on Main Street. Whatever was out there had likely been scoping them out for quite some time by this point.
There was a deafening silence for a few seconds, and then the lock to their door made a 'click' sound. It was still bolted shut, but with enough rattling that bolt would come loose. He knew it, Cygnus knew it, and he'd be surprised if whoever had bolted the door to begin with hadn't worked it out when they'd slid it into place. It was loose and unreliable.
Sure enough it didn't take long for whatever creature waited beyond the door to start trying to force its way into the room they were all hiding in. Cowering might have been a better term than hiding, actually. Sterling, Lyla, and Cygnus all seemed to be holding themselves together pretty well, but given Madison's quickened breaths she was probably in a state more reminiscent of Virgil right now than she was of the others.
After only a few minutes of the door being forced backwards and forwards the bolt came fully loose, uselessly sliding free of the catch. After a few more seconds of horrible silence there came the creaking of the doorway as it opened, and Virgil watched as his boyfriend went ramrod straight. He turned to Virgil, who realised that he as well as Sterling and Lyla were waiting on him to give the word, but he shook his head with a worried expression on his face. He isn't confident that we'll be able to best him in here, not in such an enclosed space. He wants us to wait for it to get bored and leave back for the living room before we try anything. But why wait until now? If Cygnus wanted them to strike it down whilst it was in the living room then why not have done so hours earlier? Why not-
Ah. Of course. Natural light. Cygnus was hoping to wait it out until natural light came forth with the sunrise, weakening or at the very least throwing off the creature. Cygnus wanted to make sure that they had the advantage over whatever this fucking creature was, and when he came to that same realisation Virgil nodded back with a resolute feeling he'd been lacking all night. They could do this. They'd make it through this alive and unharmed. He knew they would.
The creature slowly stalked through their room, and Virgil stayed as still as he could. Luckily the monster seemed more interested in the wardrobe to the right of the door as you walked into the room, pushing and prodding it with what almost appeared to be interest. Virgil stole a quick glance at the monster despite the risks associated with such an action, but quickly wished he hadn't.
The creature hadn't seen him, not at all, but he still wished he hadn't seen what that thing looked like. It looked more human than pretty much any creature he and Cyg had come across when travelling through the town before now, but warped and wrong. It was made all of shadow and an inky blackness that seemed to hover around it like some form of hazy, half-formed skin. It's body was all wrong in proportions as well, as if a person had been taken and stretched out twice as tall as they should have been. It's head was stretched, as were the features upon it, and its eyes were the worst part. They were so bestial and yet... and yet they were so human. God, what was this thing?
He hurriedly ducked himself down further and all but curled in on himself, shaking his head at Cygnus' worried glance. His boyfriend was right, they weren't going to be able to hurt this thing at the moment. They were too enclosed, too... too scared. Virgil latched onto that last thought, pushing his anxieties from his mind. They were scared despite the fact they'd faced creatures that looked and acted worse than this before. Not ones that acted this smart, no, but worse in other ways. There must have been something about this creature that just... made them afraid. Almost like a predator deploying a paralysing agent so that its prey remained helpless as it moved in for the kill, this creature must have unconsciously used fear for the same sort of reason.
It was a bit of a reach, he knew, but was it any weirder than some of the things they'd already faced?
If they wanted to beat this creature then, perhaps it was best to start acting like it? This creature had observed them and likely tried to scout them out before making its move, so maybe he should use this time to do the same thing? If he could learn more about this creature then maybe, just maybe, they'd be able to take it down if they encountered it again in the future. It wasn't a perfect plan, but in this moment it was all he could come up with. He'd wait it out tonight, but as soon as it was gone and the coast was clear he was going to make a profile of this creature and write down every single thing he could think of about it, as well as noting down as many theories he could think of about it as well. He might not be able to kill it tonight, none of them would, but he knew they'd be able to come out on top in the future. They just had to make sure they learned what its tactics were so that they could expect them and be ready for it, then they'd strike it down.
Of course, before he could actually do any of that and share his beliefs with the others, he had to ensure that they all made it through the night first. Well, he said that he had to ensure it, he knew that there wasn't really anything he could do apart from what he was already doing when it came to making sure his friends survived. At the end of the day it would just come down to a matter of staying quiet and still, and hoping that the creature's fascination with the furniture on the side of the room farthest from them held up and it didn't move anywhere near them.
It was foolish and stupid to hope for such things, and even as he thought about how much he hoped the creature wouldn't come near he recognised how unlikely it actually was. What would keep such a monster away from them? The wardrobe would only hold its attention for so long, and there was no telling what it would do next. It wasn't like any of them could say what a deranged monster with a shadowy form and an aura of fear was likely to do, so all they could really assume was the worst case scenario.
Given how the other monsters and creatures had all acted, Virgil was pretty sure that the worst case scenario was the one that was most likely to happen.
Soon enough he was proved right. It wasn't Virgil who made a noise, nor was it either of his pistol-wielding friends cowering behind the bed beside him. It wasn't Madison who made the noise, stuck under the bed with the still-sleeping Wesley huddled next to her, nor was it the sleeping boy himself. No. Cygnus, despite being the most careful of their group, had accidentally tapped the end of the rifle against the wall to his left. It was an extremely dull tap, one that in any other circumstances the rest of them probably would never have heard, but in the silence of the room it was deafening. The creature was too still for a moment, and Virgil was almost convinced that it had left the room when the sixth minute had passed and there was no sound of movement, but he was of course wrong in that regard.
Slowly, painfully slowly, the creature made its way towards them. It moved at an almost unnaturally slow and cautious pace, inch by inch and moment by moment, but it would be upon them all soon enough. Virgil turned to his boyfriend, waiting for the signal to move and fire, but Cygnus had his eyes screwed shut and appeared to be mouthing seconds to himself.
"One, two, three, four..."
It was hard to read Cygnus' lips in the dark, but Virgil managed. He'd been reading the man's lips for months now, especially when kill attempts were on the table, so he felt fairly confident he knew what his partner was mouthing.
"five, six, seven, eight..."
The creature continued moving towards them, a gnarled and almost taloned hand clawing its way around the corner of the desk mere inches from Cygnus' face. The man opened his eyes and stared directly forwards. There was something that he was waiting for, something important, but Virgil couldn't work it out for the life of him. Just as he was about to have enough of his boyfriend's apparent freezing up and start shooting the monster without waiting for an order that wasn't coming, he heard something fall from out the way the creature had come in by.
"Nine, ten."
There was the sound of one of the tins falling from their position out in the hallway, the strings no doubt having been weakened by the creature's careless and forced entry into their apartment. Immediately the creature looked back at the doorway it had come through into their room, and then it ran back out and made off towards the hallway that the noise had come from.
A moment later, seemingly almost without thinking, Cygnus leapt up from his hiding spot with his rifle in hand. He ran out of the room and into the hallway, took aim, and with a thunderous 'crack' he pulled the trigger.
Virgil, also without thinking, had followed closely behind his boyfriend. He watched as the shot went half an inch wide and pinged off of one of the walls down the hall, sending a small dust cloud of plaster up as it impacted. Whether or not the shot hit however, the creature had seemingly had its fill of observation for the night, as its extremely fast and almost scrambling footsteps sounded out from down the hall. More of their rudimentary tin-can alarms chimed out as it ran through them, and a few minutes later it was gone.
Virgil felt his shoulders slump as he all but collapsed and let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding in. It was over for the night. Lyla came out next, saying something in a half-scared half-confused tone, but he was too tired and spent to really comprehend what exactly it was she was saying. It didn't sound like the question was aimed at him though, so he was content to remain silent and shakily take the magazine out of his pistol. The last thing he wanted to do was to accidentally pull the trigger and shoot one of his friends now that he was shaking so much, after all.
"Okay, so, what the actual fuck was that?"
Cygnus slung the rifle over his shoulder and took off his glasses to clean them with a sigh.
"That was... well, I'm not entirely certain. It's smarter than any other creature we've encountered out there, that much I'm sure of."
The man paced over to the doorway and locked it once more, this time making sure to move one of the chairs from the kitchen under the doorknob so it would be harder to break in.
There was the sound of panicked kicking and commotion coming from back inside the bedroom, and when Virgil re-entered he saw an almost manic Wesley trying to get out of Madison's grip from under the bed.
"The fuck is going on? Where am I? Get me- let go of me, where am I?"
"Wes, Wes, calm down! It's us, it's just us! There was a creature in the flat, so we carried you to Sea and Virgil's room and hid you under the bed until it was scared off. You probably got woken up by the sound of Sea firing a rifle round at it as it left."
"Easy there, bro. We're all fine now. Come on, lets get you out from under there."
Lyla knelt down and gently pulled her brother out from under the bed, Madison following soon after at a slightly slower pace. Cygnus walked back into the bedroom, and almost immediately the others looked to him for answers and for instructions. Virgil moved to hold his boyfriend's hand in a show of support. He didn't think any of them were going to get much sleep tonight.