2 Castaway and Awkward Silences
(Caution: chapter has some darker subjects)
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
{Parseltongue}
~???~
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(1st person/ Raphael POV)
"Umm, hi. I'm Raphael."
Harry looked shaken. He was slightly trembling, but only Death could tell if it was from nervousness or excitement. "Umm hi, I'm Harry. It's nice to meet you."
'He's being nice? I've never been spoken to with such kindness.' I was the one now struck with nervous hope.
Death interrupted before we could be more awkward, "~I will let you two finally reconnect.~" Death vanished with a smirk in another flash.
"So umm... tell me about yourself and I'll tell you about me." Harry said, while we were both oblivious to Death's absence.
"Umm... Well, to be honest, that's sounds like a really bad pick up line. Sorry Harry, but I'm straight."
"NO WAIT! I'M NOT A POOF!!"
"..."
"..."
".."
"..."
"Pff.."
We just stood there with conflicting stares for a few seconds before my pokerface started to slip. "Hehehe..." Harry quickly realized I what I was trying to do, and joined me in a giggle fit.
After a few minutes of laughing with each other."Ah. Ah...Fuck, that was definitely needed to break all the awkwardness."
"Ah. Yeah sorry about that. I've just never had a brother before so I didn-"
"Know how to break the silence?"
"Ye- Yeah."
"Trust me, it's the same for me."
"So, any family where you were?"
"... No. No one."
"... me too."
(Insert another uncomfortable silence)
"So... what... what was your life like?"
"..." I didn't say anything at first because I could see his face react when mine shifted to a frustrated disgust from his question. "My life... if I had to describe it in words..."
Harry could probably feel my reluctance to give a response.
"... it was a torturous nightmare."
Harry was abhorred from my response, but listened anyways as I started explaining my previous life...
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(3rd person)
Raphael Castor was in a non-magical world as an intelligent and tenacious young man. But he was an unwanted outcast...
He was born to a low income household in America, Texas to be exact. In the late 90's. To a precocious "family" which shifted quickly during childhood. His "mother" kicked, beat, screamed, starved and cast out young Raphael by the time he was no older than 6.
His birth giver had started to torture him at just over a year old, and learned very quickly, from infancy, to be a survivor. Raphael had the blessing and curse of Identic memory so he learned everything from observing his surroundings. Speech, natural body movements, habits. Everything.
Like Harry, Raphael was treated as the servant and the punching bag. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, yard work. His bedroom was the downstairs closet in the basement and his room mates were were cleaning supplies and an ungodly about of cleaning chemicals.
A few weeks before his 6th birthday, he made an accident while cooking a partial burned the food for the "family" which finally set off the implosion that was coming.
"YOU USELESS F****** WASTE OF SPACE! YOU CAN NEVER DO ANYTHING RIGHT!!"
His "mother " started to scream.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE I GAVE BIRTH TO SUCH A COMPLETE MISTAKE!! I SHOULD HAVE ABORTED YOU SO I WOULD NEVER HAVE YOU!!"
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Raph was shocked as this was the first time he learned that she was his mother. His torturous "masters" was actually his "family". Hell, he didn't even know his own name. He always thought it was "Trash" because of a hurtful joke his "parents" had.
"Take the trash out, because that whats you are!!"
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She started reaching into the knife drawer...
"NEVER GONNA MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN!"
Having learned that getting cut is extremely painful for a child due to experience. He started to panic and move away.
"NOW I MIGHT AS WELL FIX MY BIGGEST MISTAKE!"
Raph being terrified of dying, knowing he'll never be able to survive in a fight, turned and broke into a sprint. As fast as his tortured and malnourished body can take him, he managed to get out of the house before she could get to him.
"THAT'S RIGHT YOU FU**** DEVIL!! YOU BETTER RUN!!! I'LL KILL YOU WHEN I CATCH YOU!!!"
Thankfully, after years of being lazy and commanding around her "servant", she was no where near in-shape to catch up. The house was on the outskirts of the county so it was miles of woods and forests so he could hide amongst the wilderness.
Not once did he turn back to see whether he was still being chased. His panic of what just happened and his fear of dying kept pushing him. He kept running, as far as he could, to escape his prison. He never felt at home, or believed he had family. He always thought that life wasn't supposed to be like this. Ironically he had never been so correct. This wasn't his intended reality.
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He ran for miles. Weak, hungry and in constant pain from previous injuries that was never healed. He couldn't focus on where he was heading.
His foot caught a tree root and he fell. Still in a state of hysteria, he didn't notice when became unconscious.
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He awoke after an unknown amount of time on the edge of a pond with a stream running through it. Not knowing where he was, if he was still being chased, if he would be okay... he finally broke down sobbing.
Because before his escape, tears, cries, or any noise out of him, this meant another punishment was soon to follow. Yet he didn't care anymore. Knowing that his delirious sobs were the first time he's heard his own voice in years, was euphoric. He had never felt so free before.
A soon to be 6 year old nameless, tortured boy spent an unknown amount of time experiencing his first feelings of joy sat in this pond for a long time just enjoying the exhilaration of freedom. Loving his freedom, he decided at that moment, he would never allow another person to take his joy away again.
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Unknown to him though, it was absolutely pure luck that the stream flowing through the pond had actually been the one his unconscious body had rolled into after tripping, had carried him downstream to a pond just outside a quaint little town near the Gulf of Mexico. This little town had been mostly deteriorating. Most people had forgotten this town had actually existed, so no one would ever look for him here.
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After enjoying his time of bliss. He took a look around and saw a little tiny fishing pier a little further away and at the end was a kind looking old man fishing. The old man had been enjoying the contagious joy and enlightenment that was pouring out of young Raphael.
This had began to terrify Raph seeing this old man, because he thought he was about to be sent back to his prison. But this old man had been living out here for so long he had developed a form of dementia that reality couldn't affect him. Raph following his luck again took a leap of faith and joined the old man on the pier, and the old man being as incoherent just started teaching Raph to fish not realizing this kid wasn't his grandchild. Raph took to learning like, ironically, a fish to water. The old man had been out here to quietly pass, for this was his last day on earth and wanted to leave this child a chance for a new experience.
This had been the only kindness that Raphael had ever experienced in this life.
He then took raph to his tiny little cabin not far away and then gave raph the key, because the old man couldn't keep going. He said to raph, "Now don't burn the place down and keep yourself full of that happiness I saw you with earlier." With a kind smile, the old man had turned to walk out into the forest without another word.
Raphael had been so in shock from all this kindness that he had been frozen on the spot still holding the key to the cabin in his outstretched hand.
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(Limbo/ Raph POV)
"... That had been the first and last time I had met someone who treated me with kindness. I never saw him again..." Tears had been slowly running down my face when I choked out, "I never got to thank him or even get his name..."
Harry had been patiently listening to my tale of misfortune with tears running as well. His heart was aching listening to his brother's life. Unconsciously he had cemented in his heart that Raph was his brother.
"I had lived in that cabin for the rest of my life... None of my previous injuries had ever been healed correctly so i was always broken and it was slowly killing me, but there was one thing I've always had that never failed me.
My mind. I learned from every book that the old man had in there. I figured he had some sort of brain issue because there was a ton of how-to books in case he forgot. There was hundreds of books, and they were my only friends. Hehehe" I started laughing. "It's funny to me because that's the same thing a character in one of those books had said growing up. It was from my favorite book series too."
Harry however had a shocked expression with his mind reeling back to a certain bushy haired friend of his. 'She was the same wa-... wait...'
"Wha- what book character?" Harry asked asked with a gut feeling.
"..Harry... the book series was based on a magical world... I have a feeling you know exactly who."
