Chapter 3: Can I Remove an Organ?

Logan tried to be more accomodating to Virgil's feelings.
He stopped talking about experiments. He stopped talking about kill stats. He stopped talking about Roman.
But he never stopped talking about this one guy.
"He calls himself Deceit." Logan scoffed. "I know. What a shitty name."
Virgil would listen with a rapt attention. Logan could spin a story as well as anyone, as long as he didn't have to make it up. But he could make the most minute detail into the most amazing thing Virgil had ever heard.
"I've been after him since I was twenty two years old."
Virgil did the maths. He'd been after him for... seven years. He'd only surfaced at all two years ago, so he'd been searching for five before that.
Still a hell of a long time to hold a grudge.
Logan would talk about the valuable thing that this Deceit guy had taken from him, and about how he'd never get it back. Virgil had registered the sadness and pain in Logan's eyes when he spoke about it. It must have been really important to him... one day, he got the courage to ask about it.
"What did he take from you? Why can't you get it back?"
Logan shut down. He stared blankly at Virgil until he sighed and sat back.
"What happened?"
"Well, I ran in with this guy when I was twenty two. He took everything from me... The police were no help at all." He scowled. "That's actually how I met Roman. Fucking useless, just like the rest of them."
Virgil blinked. "Roman was a cop?"
"More like a Private Investigator. He turned up at the scene, took one look at it, gave me his number and left." Logan smiled, as if remembering a fond memory. "Didn't even say anything."
Virgil nodded.
"I called him a few hours after the cops left, he turned up at my house, and he told me he knew the guy."
Now Virgil was interested. "Then what happened?"
"I asked him if we could find him. Roman shook his head and told me he'd been off the grid for months. That he used to work with the guy. At first I thought it meant that the guy was a P.I, like Roman, but it surfaced five years later that he was just a murderer and Roman was corrupt."
Virgil sat back to process the story. Then something clicked.
"Just a murderer?"
Logan blinked, then cursed. "No. Forget I said anything."
Everything slid into place. "The thing he took... it wasn't an object. It was someone you loved."
"I said forget it!" Logan snapped.
He scowled at Virgil, as if daring him to ask another question.
Virgil took that challenge.
"Who was it, Logan?" He asked softly.
Logan slumped against the wall, as of all the fight had gone out of him.
"My mother."
Virgil waited for him to continue.
"This is going to sound cliche, but I hated my father. He left when I was a teenager, but my mother was a saint. She did her very best for me, and I didn't always appreciate that." Logan closed his eyes.
Virgil knew the feeling. "She sounds like Patton."
Logan laughed softly. "Mm. Maybe so. When I got the call, I'd just gotten off the phone with her, where I'd told her that I couldn't come to dinner that night because I was too busy."
Virgil bit his lip. "Oh."
"Mm. She gasped, then said, in a rushed sort of voice, 'I love you, Lo. Never forget that.' And you know what I said to her?" Virgil shook his head. "'Stop being so melodramatic. I'll see you tomorrow.'"
He paused for a moment, as if to let Virgil process it.
"She knew she was going to die. And I told her to stop being melodramatic."
"You couldn't have known." Virgil said softly.
"I spent years, with aide of Roman, trying to figure out what could have possibly possessed this dick to kill my mother. But... books could only teach me so much, you know? So... Roman told me that I could... try it for myself." He paused. "At first I was appalled. I refused, even threatened to call the cops on him. Then I thought... what have I got to lose?"
Virgil was rapt. He couldn't believe that anyone actually had stories like this that were true.
"So... I did it. And it was oddly satisfying." Logan looked at his hands, folded in his lap. "So... I guess I became a sort of vigilante. I took a leaf out of Jack the Ripper's book, except the people I went after were criminals."
As he wrapped up his story, he stood. He dusted himself off.
"That's enough of that. I'll be back later with some food."
He left Virgil alone in the dark to mull over his words.

True to his word, Logan came back in later with a plate of food. As Virgil set to eat it, he sat down and looked him over. Virgil raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Can I remove an organ?"
Virgil choked. "What did you just ask me?"
"It will be nothing important, something you can live without, but I need it for an experiment."
Virgil blinked at him, astonished.
"Like your gall bladder or your appendix-"
"You cannot remove any of my organs, you psycho."
Logan smiled slightly.
"Wow. I thought we were getting somewhere."
Virgils eyes widened, and he curled up in a ball.
This was his kidnapper. He was a hostage. Why were they engaging?
"Virgil?" He didn't reply, and waited for Logan to get angry.
But he just heard a sigh.
"Whatever. I don't have time for this."
Then he was left alone.

Logan didn't come back for... god knows how long. It's felt like two days, but he wouldn't have neglected him for that long. He would have come in to feed him.
But the issue wasn't that he felt lonely.
He shifted on the spot, biting his lip, crossing his legs tightly.
It honestly felt like his bladder was going to explode.
Should he call out for Logan?
The door opened. Oh, perfect timing.
He turned, but it wasn't Logan who walked in.
"How's it hanging, Charlie Frown?" Roman said cheerfully.
Virgil squeaked a little and shifted again. Roman blinked at him.
"Are you okay?" He cocked his head.
"Bathroom." Virgil managed.
Roman blinked. Then he burst out laughing.
"Oh my-!" He wheezed.
Virgil bounced a little, frowning. His suffering was not funny. Roman stopped laughing.
"Sit tight. I'll get Logan." Roman left.
Virgil crossed his legs tightly and bit his lip. Logan came in a few minutes later, looking amused.
"Come with me." He said, untying Virgils wrist.
Logan had gripped the back of Virgil's jacket to make sure he didn't get away. He steered Virgil through the hallways, then pushed him into the bathroom.
"Do your thing." He called.
Virgil blushed as he heard Roman burst out laughing. 

Logan was still mad at him.
He didn't know why, and he doubt Logan remembered even why he was mad, but it stung a little.
Roman came in every second day and had a cheerful chat with him, and it didn't matter if Virgil didn't reply, because Roman loved talking.
Virgil had asked Logan if he could have a watch, if only to watch time pass, and Logan had thought for a moment before taking off his own and tossing it at Virgil.
It had the luxury of the date on it, so at least Virgil could figure out how long he'd been there.
Although time still went by very slowly. He'd check and only five minutes would have gone by. The Disney Prince often came in to visit him, and more than often would leave in a huff with Virgil losing it behind him. But Logan couldn't seem to get over it, and Virgil didn't know why he cared so much.
Maybe it had something to do with the twinge of sympathy he felt whenever he saw him.
He'd stopped trying to work it out.
In fact, he'd stopped trying.
Let Logan be mad.
He didn't care anymore.