One

*Crash*

Castiel slipped on a black hoodie on top of the white shirt he was wearing. Seeing as though he remembered to put his black Converse sneakers on, he slung his bag over his shoulder. Making his way down the worn, tattered stairs, a smell that he was all too familiar with filled his nostrils. Whiskey. The cheap liquid that he now despised due to his father, who was a drunk, although no one in the family would admit it.

"Oh, well if it isn't my greatest mistake!"

His father said, walking to the bottom of the stairs where Castiel now stood.

Castiel could smell the cheap liquor emanating from his father.

He was already drunk, or nearly drunk.

Mark Novak was slightly taller than his son, of whom if you haven't already guessed, regret having. Unlike Cas, he had blond hair, like his mothers. Cas was, as some people may call it, the black sheep of the family. Mark had suspected that Cas wasn't his ever since he held him in the hospital. Although Cas' mother never clarified it, no one needed it. The boy had pitch black hair, snow white skin, littered with the occasional freckle or two, but the most bizarre feature of him was his eyes. There were near a crystal blue. Cas knew that he was a mistake. Hell, he was Earth bound for eturnity for the mistakes he had made.

"Why aren't you dead yet?" Mark spat into the boy's face.

Cas could feel what was going to happen next.

He knew that his mother wouldn't stop him.

He knew that no one would care.

He knew that it would continue until his father either killed him, or he finally gave up once again.

Mark grabbed the boy by the neck, drug him to the nearest wall and pinned him there, suffocating him.

Cas' vision was starting to blur, everything was going black.

'This is it,' he thought to himself, trying to breathe, to get out of his father's grasp.

But of course, it wasn't the end. His father enjoyed beating him too much.

"Get your ass to school and don't you dare embarrass this family anymore than you already have."

With that, Mark released him. There was a bruise already forming around Cas' neck.

Cas nodded his head and walked out the door, not bothering with breakfast, not bothering to say goodbye to his mother.