At Shadow's Gate

[TDLdark]

Prologue - Part I

[font=Fixedsys]The thick musk of men filled the air...

[font=Times New Roman]And it disgusted the cloaked stranger who walked into the bar. He sat at the counter and ordered a refill for his flask. Expressing great dislike at the odor, the man snorted loudly, coughing most noticeably. Another man, clearly a Junker, sat down besides him and ordered several pints of beer.
"What's yer story mate?"
"I have no story."
"Don't be a fool, everyone has a story, and it be clear by yer clothings that yer hav a interested tale."
"I have no story."
"Hey, tell yah what, tell yer story and you'll get a nice monuh bonus. Rich smuggler I am, got enough of the dough round."

The cloaked man, his head shrouded in shadows, stood still for a while, before finally nodding his masked head.


[font=Times New Roman]It began...

Many years ago. I was a child on New Berlin, son to a Military pilot and his loving house wife. I was, as my mother always called me, an angel. I received good grades, not top of the class, but certainly enough to get myself into a good university. Alas, my heart however, lay out at space, at "daddy's" work place. I loved space, and of course, being the loving father he was, my father took me out in his gunboat from time to time. Once, I recall, he even brought me aboard a battleship.


[font=Arial Black]798 A.S.

Father came home that day in a fit of rage. Cold and stolid, with rage in his eyes, he dragged my mother off into the bedroom. Unfortunately for myself, he had forgotten to close the door the entire way, leaving a small crack for me to peek through. As I squatted there, watching and listening, one of the most harrowing events in my life took place. I heard my mother, worried, asking what was wrong, and my father shouting that indeed nothing was wrong. Arguing then commenced, frightful to my ears. I was only 11 at the time, but still the argument brought pain to my ears and tears to my eyes.

What followed next had scarred me for life.

Staring through the crack, my mother had been forced onto the bed, and my father sat on top of her, pulling off his belt. Then, a few moments later, with the tearing of clothing, I saw mother violated terribly. I was still only 11, but I knew what was happening. The horror of the event shocked me, and scared, I continued to watch, but no longer able to witness the horrid atrocities my father was committing. I crawled into my bed, hugging Mr. Wiggles, my bear, tightly....

I could still hear the screams of "No Ted! NOOOO" as my mother continued to be brutalized. I clamped the pillow over my head, scared, confused and bewildered.



The next day, I awoke to the slamming of the front door. Peering out of my bedroom door, I saw that my father had just left, his shoes and jacket gone from the normal pedestal holding them. Remembering my mother's violation the previous night, I hastily ran into the master bedroom to survey what had happened.

Mother lay still on the bed, a large red blot on the bed sheet covering her legs. I immediately ran to call the hospital, but to my dismay, both my mother's cell phone and the home phones had been smashed, broken to pieces. Ready to give up, I remembered my own cell phone, and running into my room, quickly removed it from my drawer and punched in the 3 digits.

Relief flooded in as my mother's rescue arrived.



That night, my father stormed into the house, enraged at what had occurred. He knew fully well what I had down. Charging into my room, he pulled out my new cell phone and amidst my pleas for him to stop, crushed it beneath my feet. Enraged, I flew at him, attempting to strike this new horror, but to my surprise, he quickly cuffed me across the face and threw me across the room, where I hit the floor hard. Angrily, he pounded his way towards my crying body, and twisting my arm behind my back he asked whether or not I would help mother again. Crying uncontrollably at the pain, I could not say a single word, and to this my father responded with a twist of my arm.

Cracking loudly, pain burst into my elbow, and in the distance I could hear a horrible scream come from my mother. Choking out the words "no", I was finally freed, but no longer could I feel my arm. Again, my father dragged my mother, already wounded, back into the bedroom, stepping noisily over my prone body.

Again was I forced to listen to my mother's screams as again she was violated brutally. This time, my cries of pains mingled with her's until, either from a loss of blood, or simple exhaustion, I fell asleep.

In my dreams, I wondered what had happened to to good man I had considered my father. What had caused him to change so? I wondered, thinking, freed from my pains in the dream world. Only when exhaustion turned off the lights did I finally truly drift away.

Tomorrow would only bring new horrors.

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TDL Dark pretty much hit the nail on the head..

Ypsilantis Family