He'd never liked this school. He'd never liked the people who had gone here. More than most he'd hated this classroom. English. He loved English as a subject, it had been one of his favourites second only to music, but the teachers he'd had and the people he'd been forced to sit with had all but beaten his love of the subject out of him. He could still remember most of them by name, not that he had any wish to do so, and more than that he could remember their constant bullying and ill-natured teasing. Despite that he felt himself saddened a little when he beheld this room, empty and silent. There was a stack of books that had obviously been left there overnight, probably to be handed out in the next day's morning class, and as he walked around the various tables he couldn't help but give a small smile at the graffiti on the desks. Most of it was crude, yes, but there were still the bits and pieces of art he'd made on them back when he was bored and needed to do something to ignore the people around him.

So far he and Cygnus had made some pretty good time looking through the school, but Virgil knew that they wouldn't be able to cover the whole building that day. Hell, there were probably upwards of two-hundred rooms in the school, so there was absolutely no way they'd be able to cover it in three hours. Cygnus must have realised as well, if the awkward shifting of his feet and the mildly guilty look he had was anything to go by. He'd promised Virgil they'd be done with this place today after all, so he probably felt like he was going back on his word. He was compassionate like that. Compassionate, and completely hopeless. It was as though he didn't understand that Virgil wasn't going to be mad at him for this. Ah well, I'll make sure to let him know I don't mind too much in the future if he's with me.

"So, this was your old English classroom, was it? I recall you mentioning your classes here in rather... rather, ah, 'strong' terms."

He raised an eyebrow and smirked at his partner.

"You mean I called it a 'fucking nightmare' and that I 'wish the earth would open up to swallow the entire class whole whilst I cackle and laugh at their miserable fate'?"

Cygnus nodded, stone-faced.

"Yes, I believe those were the phrases you used. It was rather inventive of you, I'll give you that."

"Inventive is one way of wording it, yeah. I'd say 'accurate' is another."

"Those two terms aren't mutually exclusive, love. Still, at the very least we can mark this room as clear. Onto the next, I suppose. Hey, did you ever have Ms Eleanor at this school? I was taught by her back in West Hill until she transferred here, but she was gone again by the time I started my A-Levels here."

Virgil made a so-so motion with his hands.

"The name rings a bell. I wasn't ever taught by anyone with that name, but I think some people I know were. Again, I wasn't taught by anyone with that name, but I'm gonna say that I'm pretty sure she taught here for a couple of years. Middle aged woman, white hair obviously dyed brown, bob cut, that sort of look? Taught combined science and chemistry, I think."

Cygnus nodded back at him.

"That's what she taught back at West Hill, and that's vaguely what I remember her looking like. Yes, I believe that to be her. I never got on well with her particularly, but I would be lying if I said I didn't believe her to be one of the best teachers I had in my early schooling. I didn't particularly care for how abrasive she was, but in terms of keeping the class in line and making sure that we actually learned what we were supposed to learn in her classes she was admittedly very good."

"Sometimes teachers like that are what you need," Virgil responded with a shrug as they marked down the room they'd entered as being clear and walking to the next, "'cause the ones who act all friendly and popular with the class are great up until they stop actually keeping everyone on track. It's a proper tightrope to walk, and there aren't many teachers who can do it properly. If they can't then I'd rather they were more boring and actually did their jobs than try and be 'fun' without actually preparing anyone for the tests."

Cygnus nodded, opening the door to the next room and holding it open so that Virgil could enter. He nodded his thanks and looked around. Nothing again. Despite the fact that walking into a room just to mark it as empty before moving on to the next was quite boring, he understood why Cygnus wanted them to do it. A dedicated map of the entire town with every monster, hazard, and strange phenomena marked down would certainly be a godsend for them both, especially given the fact that at the moment they were sort of running blind with educated guesses and inferences based on what little they knew to avoid the monsters.

Of course, even putting that aside, whilst it may have been boring to keep marking down rooms as empty it was certainly better than walking in there and having it not be empty. He wasn't overly keen to have a monster prowling through his old music classroom, nor any classroom he'd ever used, truth be told.

This did still feel a little excessive though. Virgil was personally of the mind that, if he and Cygnus needed to go somewhere, they'd take down this information whilst they were there for the first time. It seemed odd that his boyfriend wanted to all but map out the entire town anew just to make certain of things that they were already half-sure of anyway.

But then it wasn't like they were going to do anything else with their time, and Virgil would be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy the time he got to spend alone with Cygnus. At some point on one of their journeys he'd make sure they found a hotel room in an area free from creatures, somewhere away from the others at the apartment so that the two of them could 'enjoy each other's company' so to speak, and if mapping out the town gave him an excuse to do that then it was fine by him.

He wasn't going to suggest such a thing in his old school though. That would just have been weird.

"I agree with that statement, yes. It would be rather odd to suggest such a thing in your old school."

Virgil, who hadn't realised he'd said that aloud, made a noise that could only be described as a 'squeak' and pulled the strings on his hoodie as tight as they could go before mumbling out something about wanting to die on the spot.

"Fucking kill me. You didn't hear that."

Despite being unable to see through the hood of his hoodie, Virgil knew for a fact that his boyfriend was smiling about as wide as he possibly could.

"I'm afraid I most certainly did, dear. Might I just say I'm flattered that you'd want to take me out to a hotel?"

"Okay, listen, those were just supposed to be inner thoughts. It's not my fault I said them out loud."

"It quite literally is your-"

"Cygnus if you are not immediately quiet about this I am prepared to withhold all physical affection from you for the next twelve hours."

There was a snort from his left and an arm wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him into a gentle side-hug.

"Alright, alright. My lips are sealed on the matter. For the record however, I'm quite partial to that idea as well."

And if Virgil wasn't already a blushing mess before then he certainly was now.

"Cyg, have I ever told you that you're not allowed to make me blush in public."

"You have, or rather did, quite often. However seeing as the 'public' doesn't really exist anymore I didn't think you would mind. If it is something you wish for me to cease when outside of our safe areas then I will do so of course, for it is never my intention to make you genuinely uncomfortable."

Virgil opened the face of his hoodie a little, a dopey smile on his face as he leaned into Cygnus' side.

"I know that, Cyg. I don't mind it too much, not really. Like you said, there isn't really anyone left to comment on this, so I'd say you're okay to continue. Just don't... don't mention that sort of thing too much? It's not that the idea makes me uncomfortable, because it doesn't, but I really don't need the others teasing us constantly for it."

"You don't need to justify anything to me, V. I'm thankful for an explanation, but that's more so I better understand what sort of things to avoid bringing up than because I believe you owe me one or anything foolish like that. You don't need to give me an explanation, not at all."

Virgil nodded again, squeezing his partner's side one last time before moving to separate the two of them so they could carry on with their work.

"Yeah, thanks. Christ, I can't believe I'm not used to this yet. We've been together for what, a year now? We've been together for almost a full year and I'm still a gay disaster around you."

"The feeling is mutual on that last part, worry not. Every time I wake up with you sleeping peacefully next to me I'm afraid that it's all been a dream, and I'll wake up to a cold apartment back in the run-down part of town having imagined the last two or three years of my life. But then you wake up, and you're still there next to me, and everything I was worried about seems far less important than it once did."

Virgil smiled, half embarrassed by the sappiness from his partner and half feeling like his heart was going to explode from just how vulnerable and open Cygnus was willing to be with him. They'd both come a long, long way since meeting each other for the first time.

"Ah, that's enough of that. We'll be here all day acting mushy otherwise. Come along, there's still a few classes we need to look at in the English section of the school, then we'll move on to science, then languages, and I think we'll probably call it a day after that. I know I promised you we'd only be here today, but-"

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"Yeah, that was a little ambitious of both of us. We can come back in a few days and look through the maths, humanities, and A-Levels sections of the school. The arts section and cafeteria as well. That should be the last of it, I think. Then we'll be done here properly. I know we could hypothetically come back here tomorrow, but we're overdue for a quiet day and I don't really want to-"

"Hey, breathe." His partner cut him off with a quiet, fond tone. "I understand. There's no pressure on you to come here at all with me in the future. I don't mind if you take the day off when we're scheduled to finish up here. I can manage the day by myself, and if you so wish you can spend some time with the others and rest up. I know coming back here is hard for you, hell, if I had to go to West Hill or Cairn Heath I'd find it really rather difficult, so I understand. There's no shame nor harm in wishing to sit the rest of this out and let me do the rest of it."

Virgil smiled at him. It was a genuine, warm thing, and he nodded his understanding at his partner.

"Thanks Cyg, but I think I'll still come down with you anyway. As bad as my memories of this place are, I still think I need the closure. I need to know this place is gone and that I'm done with it, and I think the best way for me to do that would be to make sure that I'm by your side as we make sure that this place is empty and mark down anything of use."

Cygnus smiled at him and entwined their hands once more.

"Then I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to help you gain your closure in this place. If that's all I manage to do here then I'll still count that as a successful outing. Now, let's get a move on; there's plenty more to check here and we've not got an infinite well of time to draw from."

Virgil rolled his eyes at his boyfriend's words, but smiled nonetheless. What would I do without him?

----------------------------------------

Virgil did a double take as he almost missed a turn, scanning the area for room zero-one-two. That was what Cygnus called it anyway. The rest of them, Virgil included, simply read it as 'twelve'. It was quicker than sounding out all three numbers.

Christ, I almost forgot how maze-like the maths area was to navigate.

The section of the school with all the maths classrooms were was indeed a maze, all awkward turns and sudden stops, rooms of wildly different shapes and sizes, even a staircase that didn't go anywhere. When he'd seen it Cygnus had gone to note something down, muttering about the building surely having been changed by something or other, and Virgil almost felt bad as he let down his boyfriend by telling him that no, that staircase had always been there. No-one had ever been able to work out what it had been there for, the teachers never seemed to go up there so it wasn't like there was something hidden that only the staff knew about, and there was no way it was some sort of bricked up passage because there was simply nothing on the other side when you walked around it.

He fucking hated this area of the school.

Granted he hated most areas of his old school, but he hated the maths area itself for what it was, not what it represented. He didn't hate this area for having shit teachers and unbearable students like the rest of the school, no, he hated the building itself. It was obviously designed more as an afterthought than the rest of the school, using what was left of the building budget to see to the expansion of the grounds whilst also somehow using as little space as possible.

Either that or the people who'd built it had been laughing their asses off for the last three decades since it had been built, knowing that they'd been responsible for more students getting lost in their first year than anything else, and also probably because they were consequently responsible for several generations of students being given detention for being late to class.

Almost every day back then Virgil had thanked God that he'd been given a steady hand and a knack for noticing how other people wrote. Forging a doctors note or a slip from his parents had gotten him out of detention on more than one occasion, for the school never checked with the doctors office and they quickly realised that his parents wouldn't pick up the phone if the school was calling.

That was normally a bad thing, but at least it had a silver lining where avoiding punishment was concerned.

Still, that was all in the past. Quite literally, to be honest. There was nothing here anymore save poor memories and a shit ton of textbooks.

"Hey, you wanna set some fires with this stuff?"

Cygnus snorted from somewhere behind him, then coughed as he quite clearly attempted to sound stern.

"Virgil, you know that isn't a good idea. There's no telling how out of control a fire like that might get, especially since there isn't a fire brigade around to stop it if it really does begin to spread."

"Yeah, I know. You wanna light a fire anyway?"

Cygnus was silent for a while, eventually sighing as though giving in.

"... maybe if we make it in an open area. That might be nice."

Virgil pumped the air with his fist, exaggerating his excitement.

"Fuck yeah! I always wanted to go mental and commit arson!"

There was the sound of soft laughter from behind him, and he turned a little to see his boyfriend slowly shaking his head.

"Okay, now that much I can at least be certain is true. You never really hid that desire around any of us, did you?"

"Of course not! Lyla's just as excited about the prospect of burning stuff as I am, probably more so actually, and I think Wesley is just as excited by the idea of falling asleep next to an actual fire. Anyway, you can't lie to me and tell me you wouldn't want to burn down a bunch of shit you'd nicked from West Hill and Cairn Heath."

Cygnus nodded slowly, conceding the point but seeming mildly disgruntled about it.

"I suppose that much is true. Yes, you're correct on that front. I'd burn both of them to the ground if I could, so I suppose it makes sense you have similar feelings where this school is concerned. Not that I was particularly fond of it either, but at least when I was here it was in a marginally better point in my educational life."

"See, that's the spirit! Now come on, let's finish up in the maths area. I don't like it here, since it's a fucking labyrinth."

Cygnus snorted.

"Very well then. Let us be on our way."

The next couple of rooms were a borderline waste of time. Virgil knew why they were there, so it wasn't really a waste of time, but it sure as hell felt like it. Seriously, who cared if a monster had made its home in Ms Heatherston's old maths classroom? It wasn't like anyone would be able to tell the difference from before. As it stood though there was nothing but empty whiteboards, silent projectors, mistreated textbooks, and loose mathematical equipment.

And of course, the dull humming of the lights once they were turned on. There was still the light in the back corner of room fourteen that stubbornly refused to turn on unlike the rest of the lights in that room, but that one had been broken for as long as Virgil could remember. Hell, he was pretty sure that specific light in fourteen had been broken since he'd started at this secondary school in year seven, when he'd been eleven years old.

Who's idea was it to put eleven year olds and sixteen year olds in the same area for schooling anyway? Who the hell could possibly have thought that was a good idea?

"Hey, do you reckon the speaker system here still works?"

Cygnus furrowed his brows, confused.

"What, do you mean the speakers for the interactive whiteboard and projector systems? I assume so, why?"

He shook his head in response.

"No, not them. The uh, what do you call it, the announcement speakers?"

"The PA system? Again, I imagine they should still work fine, but may I ask why you wish to know?"

Virgil shrugged.

"Well, I just thought it might be easier to just make an announcement on the 'PA system' or whatever you call it and ask all the monsters to please calmly make their way to the front of the building and line up for execution. Might save us some time."

Cygnus huffed out a laugh, shaking his head.

"You're mad, you know that right?"

"Absolutely. You love it though. What does 'PA' mean anyway? Like, the PA system I mean. What does it actually stand for?"

"Public Address system."

"That's what that means!? How the hell did I not know that already?"

Cygnus shrugged.

"To be fair to you, you had no reason to know what it was called. It wasn't like you'd be able to use it at any point in your school life, so there was no need for you to know that sort of thing. To be honest, with how poor maintenance has always been at this school I'm surprised the building hasn't already caught fire thanks to faulty wiring or somesuch thing, let alone the fact that most of the smaller electrical devices still work properly. Lights are the main one of course, but I'm willing to bet that the public address system and classroom speakers all work fine. Unless the meatheads that you used to tell me about somehow managed to break it all before vanishing of course."

Virgil huffed out a laugh that was equal parts bitter and amused. There were a great many things about his secondary years that he wished he had the power to go back and change.

"I wish some of the bullies from when I went here had met some of the ones that bullied you at West Hill when you were that age. They'd have eaten the ones who bullied me alive."

"Virgil, I understand the point you're making, but you cannot conflate two different scenarios and make yourself the one that gets off 'lighter'. It was a terrible time for you as well, no matter how much 'worse' things appeared to be for me on paper."

"Yeah, but I was never the victim of an actual, honest-to-God prosecutable crime whilst I was being bullied. You got held at knifepoint more than once. My point wasn't that I was getting off lightly, though I'm always warmed by your reassurances, it was just that the bullies from this school would have shit themselves in front of the ones from the schools just out of town on the outskirts. Besides, I-"

"Wait," Cygnus said in a hushed voice as he ducked down, looking outside the door of the room they were in and up the hallway, "I hear something up ahead."

Virgil fell silent, ducking behind the same corner Cygnus was crouched down at. He cupped a hand to his ear, focusing on his hearing as much as he could, and sure enough he heard it. A wheezing, gurgling breath from down the hall. Another. Another. Wheezing breaths, the breaths of a dying man in a regular pattern, echoed throughout the building.

Virgil turned back to his partner, who had a look of concern and morbid curiosity on his face.

"What do we do, Cyg? Is it a-"

"Creature? Undoubtedly. I suppose we'd better- I mean, it might be best for us to get a look. So that we know what we're dealing with. At the very least we'll be better prepared moving forwards."

Virgil nodded, readying himself for what was about to happen.

"Do you think we'll be able to make a kill attempt?"

Cygnus bit his lip a little, clearly thinking hard.

"I left the rifle back at the apartment, since I wasn't expecting to be making any kill attempts here due to the number of creatures I expected to be here, but we have seen remarkably few so far. I think... I think we observe it a little for now, getting an idea of what it seems to be capable of, then we leave and check the surrounding area in case there are any more creatures nearby that might be drawn to the noise. If the coast is clear, or relatively clear in any case, we move in to make a kill attempt. I still have my pistol on me, and I take it you've got yours as well?"

Virgil nodded resolutely. He'd never liked the idea of using guns before, but Cygnus had taught him well. Besides, it wasn't like he was at risk of hurting another human or even an animal with one anymore.

"I do, yeah."

"Good. We'll make our rounds count; we spend one magazine each on what's making that noise. I wish I had the rifle on me, since that one has far more power than these sidearms, but these will do just fine if there's only the one monster and it doesn't seem overly powerful. For now however we'll step away and leave it be."

Virgil nodded once more. They would observe it, scout out the rest of the maths building to make sure it was alone, and if all was well they'd come back here and kill another of the fucking monsters. They weren't easy to kill if they got the drop on you, especially not if you were running, but if you could catch them unawares?

They went down easy enough.