T/W: abuse, not enough to eat, death, parent problems, trauma dump, mentions of cyber bullying, blood, child neglect, mentions of alcohol and car crash, trans hate/disapproving parents, adhd disapproval, gender nonconforming disapproval, sibling comparison, scars, forced amputation, pain, fainting/unconsciousness
Hermit(s): multiple, mostly Grian
Type: angst
POV: Grian
I run out of the house crying, my head pounding. I run as far as I can, deep into the forest, jumping over rivers and sliding under fallen logs, running purely on adrenaline. Finally, all the energy seems to drain from my body, my vision fuzzy. As I collapse on the ground, I'm vaguely aware of warm red blood flowing freely from my forehead.
### POV change: Mumbo
I storm off, angry tears blinding my vision. This time my parents had gone through my phone, checked my texts and photos, and grounded me because I was friends with 'those ridiculous hermit kids.' They had then proceeded to text every single hermit and say that I quit their friend group, insulted them, and then decided, as if that wasn't enough, to use all they had told me through the texts, which my parents had read, to cyber bully the other hermits. My parents had not only invaded MY privacy, but the privacy of my friends AND used their trust of me against them.
I had known that my parents didn't approve of my friendship with the hermits, but never in a million years would I have guessed that they would take it this far.
### POV change: Xisuma
I slam the door to my room, unshed tears finally spilling onto my pillow case. I had asked pa if he would go get medication for Xanthus. My twin had started throwing up last night and the only medicine in the house is kept in a safe. Ever since my ma died, pa had gotten increasingly negligent. At first it was coming home late, but now I was practically Xan's dad, even though I was only three minutes older.
It had never been dangerous for anyone involved until Xan got sick. We had plenty of money and food lying around, so other than the fact that I had to take care of my sibling and myself plus keep up with school, everything was fine. Not ideal, but not fatal. After all, pa wasn't abusive or an alcoholic, he actually swore off alcohol because ma had been killed when a drunk driver hit her car. But to get medicine or go to the doctor minors had to have an adult with them. And I didn't look old enough.
So Me and Xan had asked pa to take Xan to the doctor. And pa had scowled, told Xan to walk it off like a man, and then he had thumped Xan on the back and left without another word.
At that moment, Xan themself walks in, crying. I wiped my face and patted the bed next to me, carful not to touch her. She sat down, rapping my blanket around herself. A few months ago, Xan had admitted that she hated being touched, and had asked me to address her as she/her.
### POV change: Impulse
I sit at the dining table, leg bouncing. Mom looks up from her laptop and I force my leg to stop bouncing. Her gaze turns back to her computer. And with out warning, my foot starts tapping. This time she glares at me. "Can't you stay still?" She asks. I open my mouth to answer, but don't know what to say. The truth is that I can't help it. But mom would say I'm lying. If I do lie, say I can sit still and eat my breakfast, than she'll ground me for not doing as I'm told. Either way I get a talking to. They make me nervous and that means I fidget more. Finally, I just get up from the table and walk to my room.
### POV change: False
I grown when my mom Pulls out another dress. This one is worse than the last, bright pink with ruffles and lace. "No." I answer my mom's un asked question. She sighs, saying "what am I going to do with you? You won't wear dresses or makeup, you refuse to grow out your hair, what little you do wear is aviator goggles, jeans, boots and loos t-shirts. Why can't you just be a girl?" This is a conversation we have daily. She asks me to wear something un practical. I say no. She does the 'what am I going to do with you' line, then compares me to my sister, True. She wears dresses and makeup and drools over boys just like every other dumb blond I've seen.
As I push my way out of the dress shop, I hear my mom yelling at me to come back.
### POV change: Grian
I wake up in the middle of the woods, feeling lightheaded. My vision is still blurry, but my headache has dulled and the bleeding has slowed. I roll over onto my back, and ungracefully stand up, wobbling a bit. However long I had been unconscious ago, I had asked my mom to give me a pice of bread. Instead of refusing, like I had predicted, she smiled, held a baguette above me, just out of reach, and then hit me in the head with it. I probably had a concussion. Wouldn't be the first time.
Still wobbling slightly, I make my way back to the house to clean up for school. Judging by the sun, I guessed I had been out a few hours. I would be late for school, but that was the least of my problems.
Quietly, I enter the house, rush to the basement, where i sleep, and pull out a semi-clean sweater and pair of jeans with holes in the knees. At least these ones weren't drenched in blood.
I get dressed, grab the makeshift bandages I had made a long time ago, wrap them around my head, pull up the hood on my sweater and, grabbing my backpack, I leave for school.
###
When I get there, school has already started. Whatever. I just need to be away from mom. I enter the building and before any teachers can get me i trouble, i fast walk to my class, the wobbling from earlier all but gone.
I slide onto my seat next to Mumbo and Iskall, in front of Xisuma and behind Impulse. There seemed to be an argument going on in hushed voices so i listen in. "That was my parents!" I hear Mumbo whisper-shout. "Well, how did they get into your phone?!" I hear Impulse whisper-shout back. "Guys, guys, calm down." I say in a relatively loud voice. Everyone turns to look at me, but i blunder on. "Look, does it really matter how it happened as long as we know who to forgive and who to be mad at?" The arguing hermits nod their heads and murmur their agreement. "Ok. If Mumbo says that his parents did this, I believe him." I continue.
###
Soon, the argument is resolved and it's lunch time.
"And that's why I'm now grounded!" Mumbo finishes his story. Everyone murmurs comfort, things like 'it wasn't your fault' and 'don't blame yourself'. I feel the urge to shout that at least his mom doesn't leave him bleeding in the woods with a concussion, but I bite my tongue.
Next is Xisuma's turn. "And that's why sh- he isn't here today." He finishes. Again, more murmurs, more outrage, and more biting my tongue. At least they have each other and ample food and money.
"And I don't know what to do about it!" Impulse fumes. Suggestions of what to do and some jokes about kidnapping and murder follow.
And finally, False complains about her mom constantly comparing her to her sister.
Just before the end of lunch, i over hear one of the popular girls complaining about her parents. "They won't get me the iPhone 15 until my iPhone 14 breaks! It's not fair! So that's why I brought a hammer to school! I'll break it, come home in tears, and say that one of those nerds over there broke it!" At the words 'those nerds', she gestures rudely in our direction.
The ridiculousness of her words hits me like a truck. And i loos it.
"AT LEAST YOUR PARENTS LET YOU SLEEP IN SIDE! AT LEAST YOUR PARENTS FEED YOU! AT LEAST YOUR PARENTS CARE ABOUT YOU! AT LEAST YOU HAVE A PHONE! AT LEAST YOUR THOUGHTS DON'T CONSTANTLY TELL YOU TO KILL YOURSELF! AT LEAST YOUR PARENTS DON'T HOLD A BAGUETTE JUST OUT OF REACH WHEN YOU ASK ONLY TO HIT YOU ON THE HEAD WITH IT! AT LEAST YOUR PARENTS DONT LEAVE YOU BLEEDING IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WITH A CONCUSSION AND BLOOD LOSS! AT LEAST YOU'VE NEVER BEEN FORCED TO TAKE THINGS OUT OF THE OVEN BARE HANDED! AT LEAST YOUR BODY IS-N'T A- A pat-ch work of s-scars."
My shouts trail off into quiet sobs. Somewhere in between when I lost my temper and now I had ripped off my sweater to reveal scars, everywhere. My torso, arms, what little you could see of my legs, my face, everything had scars. And at that moment, I wished more than ever that my mom hadn't cut off my wings.
###
I was 8 when it happened, just about to go to school when my mom told me to wait at the door. I wasn't old enough to realize that what my mom was doing was wrong. After all, I had nothing to compare it to. So when she came back with a large knife, I thought nothing of it. But then she dragged me down to the basement and chained me in place, my wings to her. At this point I was wary, but not nearly enough.
The first cut was fire, and sharp needles, and thousands of swords. By the third I was almost unconscious. And I remember my 8 year old vision finally fading to black.
This had been the routine every year, as my wings would come back every fall. And as I was crying and remembering and hurting, I felt a familiar tingling in my back, the tips of my toes and the points of my fingers. And suddenly, I remembered something.
I was small, gardening alongside a faceless man with blond hair. He wasn't faceless really, It was just blurred out, as if I couldn't remember. Little me broke free of the man, giggling and flapping my already enormous wings. The man laughed along with little me, before spreading wings similar to mine but much bigger and just purple and black, unlike my purple, gold and black wings.
The man swooped down, picking me up in strong arms and little me let out a happy screech. The man was laughing and I was laughing and then my stomach dropped. Something had been shot from somewhere I couldn't see, something that looked like glowing purple rope, crackling with energy. It hit the man square in the chest, and his eyes closed. He started falling, arms limp. Little me's instincts kicked in as I spread my wings and called the man. "DADDY!"
My little self watched helplessly as my dad fell to his death, to shocked to do anything.
I started crying, running to a small cottage a few miles away, dragging my dad's body the whole way.
When little me got home, the door was opened by a woman who i knew was my mom. Not the mom who abused me, but someone else. She had brown hair and a kind expression, with bright blue eyes.
When she saw dad she rushed forward, hugging me and wrapping golden wings around me, not bothering to hide her tears.
All to soon, she told me to run as far away as I could. I heard my little raw voice ask where I should go and why and my mom said "if anyone finds out who you are, really, they will do terrible things to you and me. So please, run far, far away. Go north over the mountains and across the sea. Hide your wings and never, never tell anyone where your from or what me and your father were."
And with that, little me grabbed a leather satchel, put a water bottle, some bread and apples inside, and ran north.
###
The next few memories where quick flashes. Me flying high over the mountains, me fighting my way through a town full of gangsters. Me almost starving as a stowaway on a ship, me flying out of the wreckage of the boat when it was hit by lightning. Me stealing food and medicine for a group of kids who had been thrown out of their houses by their parents and me, rescuing people from burning buildings. And finally, me being taken to an orphanage, adopted by that monstrosity of a parent and forgetting everything that happened before.
As the flashback ended, I opened my eyes to the truth. "I- is th-the prime a-admin Alive?" I ask in a quiet voice. And just as I say this, I feel a burning sensation in my shoulder blades and my left arm. There, right there in the cafeteria, my wings grew back, and a mark appeared on my upper arm. A circle with an upper case 'a' inside with an extra line on the bottom to make the 'a' a triangle with a line through the middle.
I look up as the intercom system for the school went off. The announcement was five words that changed my life. "The Prime Admin is dead."
###
This was repeated a few times before the announcement continued. "She died of a wound from the recent battle. Her son, Xelqua, is the new Prime Admin. One Xelqua, Grian, is required to make his way to the front office."
2300 words. Longest yet! :D pls tell me if I missed any T/Ws.