The Other Side of Me - Chapter 1
#1 of The Other Side of Me
Hello again, my lovelies! (I was actually playing back through one of the Paper Mario games recently and realized that the leader of the Shadow Sirens uses that to talk with her sisters. I don't think she'll mind if I borrow it though ^-^) So here we are again. As promised, I am prematurely uploading the first chapter of my new story. I say prematurely only because I haven't quite decided the complete direction of it yet, but this will be a good push to get the ball rolling.
Now, this is an original story focused mostly around my fursona and giving some backstory and a fairly in depth look at some of the things he's gone through in life. (Who doesn't love some good backstory?) A tiny bit of forewarning: This story contains graphic scenes of violence and is going to be very. very emotional. That being said, it's also going to be a wonderful "tail" (Hah! See what I did there) of trials and tribulations as well as a discovering of one's self. Also romance, because I'm a sucker for cheesy romances in stories!
But, I won't keep you're attention for long this time. I'll see you at the end! Enjoy the opening read for, "The Other Side of Me!"
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The sky was streaked with pastel watercolors; purple, orange and gold mixing and fading as the time marched on into the still, wintry evening. The sun had already begun its slow descent behind the horizon when an old school bus pulled slowly to a stop by the entrance to a small suburban neighborhood, squealing breaks sounding as it did. A hiss erupted as the wheels came to a standstill and a creaking door opened to reveal a young wolf child. He hefted his backpack up over his shoulder and gripped at the collar of his scarlet hoodie as he stepped from within the warmed school bus out into the chilled air.
"Bye, Sebastian! I'll see you at the game tomorrow!"
The wolf turned his head, a smile breaking out across his muzzle and his hand raised in farewell as his eyes rested on a white fox leaning out of his window, waving frantically to him as the hiss of the bus sounded once more, announcing its departure. He could have sworn he'd heard the bus driver yelling to the fox to sit down as the giant yellow contraption began driving away, and he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at his friend's expense.
Then he was alone.
He turned back to the lengthy expanse of sidewalk in front of him and began the daily trek back to his house. Looking up beyond the houses that lined the narrow street, he watched as the sun continued its slow, resolute descent behind a ridge of trees perched along the hillside, golden light coursing through the dense foliage into an array of wavering streams.
"Mom won't be happy with the coach," he said to himself.
It was late. Much later than it normally would be when he got out of soccer practice, but his coach had been pushing the whole team to its breaking point over the last week. The biggest game of the season was tomorrow night, and for the first time since Sebastian joined the team they had the chance to go into the finals. They all were excited; just thinking about the possibility got Sebastian's blood pumping. Had he not been so worn out, he most likely would have sprinted straight home to tell his parents.
The thought of both of his parents slowly etched into his mind and the little wolf stopped in his tracks. Perhaps it wasn't only the aching muscles that prevented him from running home. He looked to the ground, a forlorn expression covering his face. He wasn't sure how to explain it, or if he could even explain it at all, but something had... changed recently with his parents.
It may have been a desperate dream that everything remain as it had two months ago. His father had received a promotion at the bank where he worked. It wasn't the biggest company in the city, and it had its fair share of competitors, but his dad was exhilarated that he'd been chosen for the position, and Sebastian, seeing how happy he was, was happy for him.
Now, Sebastian was smart, but as a middle schooler he had a very limited vocabulary, so while he didn't know what, "embezzlement," "fraud," or, "pending investigation," meant, he knew that his dad wasn't happy anymore. He knew that his father didn't go to work anymore, even though Sebastian saw him up every morning with a suit and tie on, just like always, eating his cereal, while his mom smiled empathetically across the table. He knew that when he came home after school that his dad would be sitting in his leather recliner, staring vacantly at a blank television screen and rocking his foot to an unheard tune. He knew that, after a month of this routine, his father's suit had become increasingly more wrinkled, and his eyes would appear glazed over at times.
He also knew that his mom, recently named a best-selling author for the New York Times for her latest novel, was about to be gone for an extended period of time to showcase her book... and he saw the look in his dad's eyes when she told him the news.
He started walking again, this time much more slowly, tail partially hung between his legs. He wondered if other kids his age had to deal with these sorts of problems. From what he gathered there were only a handful of things his friends thought about: girls, sports, and video games. He wasn't too interested in girls, and his parents had never caved in to his requests for a gaming system, so that just left sports, and while he loved soccer, sometimes he felt it wasn't enough to keep his mind occupied and away from his homebound dilemmas.
A cold, fierce wind picked up as he passed around the corner for one of the branching side streets, nipping at his nose and ears with icy teeth, and jostling him out of his tense thoughts as his charcoal-grey fur wildly whipped about his face. He raised his head to look at the uniform houses lining both sides of the narrow boulevard. As he passed by one with purple siding running across it, he made a mental note to ask his parents if Ricky could come over and play after tomorrow's game. It was a long weekend, so he was sure they'd say yes, and Sebastian took every opportunity as of late to not be alone in the house with his parents around.
The sun continued to dip under the hill, casting menacing shadows across the street as Sebastian finally closed the remaining distance between him and his house. It looked like all the others in his neighborhood, save for the red paint job and a rather unkempt front lawn. Certain his mother would ask him to take care of that tomorrow, he already prepared a debate for why they should have chicken cordon bleu, his favorite meal, for dinner tomorrow evening. Surely the promise of him kicking in the winning goal and doing the lawn would be more than reason enough.
Smiling at his cleverness, he began walking up the concrete path and into the front door of the suburban home.
"Mom, dad, I'm home!" he called out as he hustled inside from the cold wind and rapidly closed the door behind him, unintentionally slamming it as the mixing hot and cold air sucked it into the frame.
He winced and turned to look at his father's recliner, surely gathering his attention from the loud slam, but to his surprise his dad wasn't sitting there. The television was dark and there were no lights on in the living room at all. Looking across the rather short room and passed the stairs he did see the kitchen light shining through the dimness, the hum of the refrigerator loudly audible as ice clunked into the freezer bin.
"Mom, what's for dinner?" he asked loudly towards the light. "Coach wouldn't give us time to snack so I'm starving!"
His sensitive nose picked up the distinct scent of boiling cabbage from the kitchen and his face grimaced. He hated cabbage.
There never was an answer from the kitchen though. In fact, he hadn't heard either of his parents since he walked inside; but they had to be home. Their blue sedan was parked in the driveway when he came up to the house.
He glanced around and slowly made his way into the kitchen. The countertops were littered with bags of groceries and cooking utensils, and sure enough there was a pot boiling on the stove. Casually, he made his way over and was surprised when he found the large pot indeed cooking cabbage, but the water had almost completely dissipated from inside. He fished a spoon out of a nearby drawer and tried to scoop up some of the disgusting leafy vegetable, inevitably turning to mush as soon as he began to lift.
Quickly he turned off the stove and stared peculiarly at the pot of green liquid. Sebastian had never known his mom to overcook anything. Perhaps it was a biased opinion, but to him she was the best cook in the world. He glanced over the remainder of the kitchen as well and realized that there was butter leaking down the marbled counter and chicken sat along a cutting board with the knife set to the side. There were other items out, he noticed, that definitely should have been put away a long time ago as well.
"Okay, this is weird," Sebastian thought. "Mom never leaves a mess like this either."
He called out once more.
"Mom! Dad!"
As if on cue Sebastian heard slight thuds resonate from above him.
"Oh good," he sighed in relief, "They must have fallen asleep."
He walked back out of the kitchen and towards the stairs, a bit more relaxed than he had been a moment prior, before beginning his ascent to the second floor.
"I'm gonna give her such a hard time for this," he chuckled to himself.
As he reached the top of the stairs he noticed that he was still hearing the thuds coming from the direction of his parent's bedroom, and now that he was closer, the distinct sound of arguing could be heard as well. Sebastian halted, now even more worried than he had been before. Slowly he creeped up the edge of their bedroom door and stuck his ear against it. It was still very muffled, even for his adept hearing, but he was able to make out a couple words here and there.
"... Such... bitch... lazy writer... harder than you... taking his... Sebastian... tired of..."
"Don't... Sebastian... he's got... this... why can't you... your ruining his... fed up... losing sleep..."
The words were thrown about into the air like bullets firing from a gun. Sebastian gulped. He had heard them argue before, but this seemed out of hand. This heated argument had hate and anger behind it.
He didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but Sebastian very quickly and deliberately stood and opened the door.
For a moment, the argument didn't halt. Only when the door was about halfway open did his parents stop their ranting and meet his large, confused ocean blue eyes. His mom was red in the face with frustration, her pink blouse and skirt ruffled, and his dad was still wearing his wrinkled suit, canines partially shown from inside his maw. Both of them had their white fur standing curled and on end, though his dad's was considerably messier.
Sebastian's mother instantly sobered her expression as she looked at him, tears forming on the edge of her eyes.
"Oh, sweetie," she cooed, "I'm sorry you had to see us like this." She wiped the back of her hand across her cheeks as the tears began to soak into her fur. "Go on downstairs; your father and I will be down shortly..."
She gave a halfhearted smile to Sebastian, who, although still worried, relaxed a little at the sight of his mother's smile. Her blue eyes connected with his, creating a sense of tranquility only she could provide. As he turned to leave, though, his eyes grew wide with fear. His father had picked up a sturdy looking book and smashed it into his mother's head, instantly sending her to the hard, wooden floor in a daze.
Sebastian gasped and covered his mouth with his hands. His father dropped the book and looked to his terrified son in a haze, only partially registering that he was even there, before barking an order to get out of the room. Dropping to his knees, his father flipped over his mother in a quick motion and began to hit her repeatedly.
"Dad, stop!" Sebastian cried. "You're hurting her!"
His father didn't listen, he just continued punching and slapping and shaking, all the while screaming profanities and insults that Sebastian either could not comprehend or wouldn't believe was true.
"You're trying to steal my son from me, aren't you? You think you're better than me, Miss Best-Selling Whore? Just because I got blamed for something that wasn't my fault, you think you can decide what goes on with our lives? I'll show you whose leader of the pack in this house!"
Sebastian had started crying by this point. Tears cascaded down his cheeks in never-ending waves. His voice was locked in his throat. He fell to his knees in despair, not knowing what he should do. He was scared. Absolute terror was coursing through him, and in one last-ditch effort, screamed at the top of his lungs.
"STOOOOOOP!"
As Sebastian screamed, the end of the word tapered off into a high pitched, ear piercing howl. His dad stopped, fist raised for another strike, as he looked towards him.
Sebastian had fallen to the floor, hands and feet firmly positioned underneath him. His back began to curve and elongate, stretching and ripping holes into parts of his clothing, and his fur began to curl and spike wildly. His claws jumped out from all four of his appendages, scratching at the wooden floor beneath them. His teeth grew outwards as well, causing his gums to swell and bleed, and he bared his newly outstretched fangs in a menacing, bloody snarl.
His dad, the hazy look in his eyes gone, drew back, leaving Sebastian's mother bloody and bruised on the floor ahead of him, breathing in shallow, painful breaths.
"Sebastian?" he called out in a barely audible whisper.
Hearing his name Sebastian snapped his head up from the floor, blood still dripping from his snarling mouth into crimson pools below him, and looked at his father. His eyes were narrowed and honed in, fear and angst replaced with a revolution of rage roiling within his pupils, and his left eye no longer had its usual blue tone, but rather, a silvery white coated his iris in a splendor that could rival the moon.
"You... you've turned feral," his father stated, voice cracking. Now he was the one who was scared, frantically kicking himself further and further back from his son, but Sebastian didn't hesitate in giving him time to escape. He let loose another blood curdling howl and leapt at his father from across the room, claws and teeth gnashing violently.
Another scream tore through the air; this time it wasn't Sebastian's.
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,0_0, So many feels! I know this is probably not what you were expecting for an introduction, right? Well, it was a shock for me too. Hopefully this didn't turn too many tears from you guys. (Audience gets up to leave) No wait don't go! (Gets into begging position) I promise, the whole story isn't going to be this sad! (Audience reluctantly returns) Phew! Okay you guys, so this was only the beginning of yet another new adventure! I can't wait to see where this goes in the future, and hopefully you feel the same.
*And now (trumpets sound), our daily question! *
Sometimes you just walk in on things that you don't expect, be it a surprise party, an argument, your friends doing... uh, something... *Ahem!* well you get the idea. So you're QOTD: What is some crazy experience that you had walking in on something happening and what was your reaction to it? (Note: I'm expecting quite a few hilarious responses to this one)
Well, as always my lovelies, thank you so much for reading and feel free to leave a question, comment, concern, an answer to the QOTD or whatever you'd like down below. Have a good day and I'll see you all next time!