Chapter Text
March 3rd, was Ithaqua’s second day in the manor and so far, everything had been going just fine for him. Or at least that was what he kept on telling himself.
He had met all of his new hunter peers, tall and short, human and monstrous, and all the in-between and had seemingly taken a liking to his new home, Oletus Manor. It was a nice place to reside in and the other hunters of the manor were certainly very excited about his arrival.
However, there was still a few things that he missed from his old life back on the Plateau.
He missed the morning snow, he missed the beautiful skyline of the mountains in the distance, but most importantly, Ithaqua missed his mother oh so dearly, she had been the one to save his life from that blizzard 18 years ago, the one to raise him into the young adult he is today, the one to comfort him when he got upset.
”Its not your fault my Dove, you are kind, smart, and responsible.”
He hadn’t seen her since…the incident…the incident where his twin brother had, in his own words, “corrected” her, taking over the household as he and his other magistrates infiltrated the Norwell household, holding his mother Hostage and keeping Ithaqua isolated from his mother so many years ago.
At the time, Ithaqua’s mother was accused of being “a witch” under mysterious circumstances, he couldn’t understand why? She was a believer in God and was loyal to her religion, so why was she bound to a pole in the basement and tortured beyond belief until she could no longer recognize the difference between Ithaqua and the Magistrate, Nathaniel Norwell?
Ithaqua’s mother fought hard to defend herself against all of these accusations, but she fought even harder to try and protect her adoptive son.
So when those monsters came and stormed into their household, she was the first one to stand in front of her son, begging them to take her instead of Ithaqua, as much as Ithaqua pleaded for her not to listen, or as much as he begged her to let him go, his mother just wouldn’t give up.
He was only 5 at the time.
Ithaqua tried to stop the men, oh he really did try, but his brother, the Magistrate, grabbed onto him tightly, restraining the thrashing man and refused to let go until his mother’s cries for help could no longer be heard anymore and the only sound that could be heard was his own wailing.
The next few years were filled with hell.
Ithaqua became a pawn to his brother and the rest of the magistrates.
To his brother, he was a dirty imposter. To the rest of the magistrates, he was a pawn, a tool to be used to carry out important tasks for the group.
Handlers. He called them, they were handlers.
They made him perform grueling tasks, tasks no child should be doing at that age. Dangerous tasks that put his life at risk.
When he complained that it hurt and was so tiring, he was corrected by the metal handle of a rod.
Any form of resistance was immediately turned down and frowned upon. And was immediately punished.
”You don’t want to end up like your mother now, do you?”
”Do you want to get your throat slit open?”
Ithaqua hated it, he hated himself. But he didn’t want to die, he was so scared, so scared that he just listened patiently.
He listened so that he would be safe.
”We will kill you if you even dare to run away, and when we catch you, the last thing you will be hearing is a gunshot.”
The handlers would make him serve his brother, he would give and give and give precious possessions away to his brother while Ithaqua was left with nothing. His room became his, his life became his. They shared the same face, so even Ithaqua himself, was him.
He remembered the pungent smell that lingered in the household, full of torture and misery.
As the young boy grew older and older, the whereabouts of his mother started to grow more and more prominent. He was never allowed in the basement, as it was reserved for the Handlers, and the handlers only.
When Ithaqua turned 7, they taught him how to kill.
’When I was young I saw a Goblin tearing apart a Elf with the beak of a Griffin while his friends watched and danced happily.’
At first he was sloppy, dragging back corpses to the what used to a house as his handlers showered him with praise he relished in hearing.
He would kill and disassemble anything his handlers and brother would give him, anything to please them. And then the handlers would sell them. They would sell his work for money.
”100 dollars made tonight, well done.”
But one thing was for certain, he wanted to see what was inside the basement so badly.
Where was his mother?
One day when it seemed as if everyone was asleep, Ithaqua snuck to the basement door, using a pin to break apart the locks. His bloody hands gently opening the door as he climbed down the stairs. Hoping not to wake anyone.
”Mom? Are you there?” Ithaqua whisper-shouted, a faint shuffling sound had emitted from the dark corner, and Ithaqua had used a flashlight to shine a light onto the area.
Ithaqua’s eyes had widened and he had seen the sight of his mother. Disheveled and limp in the corner. Her image broken and destroyed from everything that it had used to be.
”Mommy? Mom? Are- you alive? Please wake up. It’s your s-son, it’s Ithaqua-“ The young boy cried, he was only 9 years old at this time, too young to understand what was happening.
The woman at the corner of the room’s eyes fluttered open, and her sight was filled with the face of that monster.
”Get away from me!! Stop- what are you doing?!” Ithaqua’s mom cried out, shielding her face with her arms as Ithaqua saw the rope bound to her wrists, tied so tightly that her wrists were terribly affected with friction.
”Mom! No! Shhh! Be quiet! I’m your son! I’m Ithaqua!” Ithaqua tried to say, trying to unbind the rope bound to her wrists as quietly and quickly as he could.
”You liar?! Look at what you’ve done to me! You’re not my son! You’re not my son! My son would never do this to me!” The lady sobbed out, screaming uncontrollably as Ithaqua started to cry, his heart broken at the things his mother was saying about him.
Even though she never meant to direct them towards Ithaqua specifically, Ithaqua felt upset and hurt because he carried the face of his brother.
But his time with his mother was cut short as the Handlers had entered the basement, his brother standing closely by.
”What the hell do you think you’re doing down here?!”
Ithaqua gasped and cried out as he was taken by hand away from the basement.
”That hurts! It hurts so bad!” Ithaqua wailed, to no avail as he was dragged to what used to be his room.
”We haven’t had a conversation in a while brother.” A small voice had rang out from behind one of the Magistrates.
The door had shut behind him. Leaving the two brothers alone together.
The tension in the room was unbearable.
“W-why did you do that!? The fuck’s wrong with you?!” Ithaqua had sobbed angrily to his brother, “it’s for her own good, she deserved it…” his twin brother sneered, laughing as he slipped off his coat.
“You know, you’re kinda lucky my dear brother, it could’ve been you in your “mother’s” place, no one likes two of the same person brother, they’re gonna keep confusing us…but don’t worry, we already have a system made so that we can be identified separately. Why won’t you speak now, hurry up…cat got your tongue, you don’t wanna end up like our mother do you?”
Ithaqua could only sob at his brother’s cruel words “no…I don’t wanna…”, hot tears of anger ran down his face, as Ithaqua hid his face between his knees. Face burning with humiliation.
All his brother could do was sit there and just watch his brother break down in tears over his damn mother. He found it rather amusing and even stupid to see his brother acting like such a baby.
‘Why wouldn’t you just comfort me? We are so young, we are so young. Why won’t just tell me that mother would be alright, why? Why? Why? Was it really that damn hard to tell the person you’ve been connected to by blood that everything would be alright? All of these horrific years and yet you haven’t changed one bit.’
“Now dear brother, stop your crocodile tears you know those aren’t genuine, right? You always were good at pretending to be a hard, diligent worker. Those organs you cut open weren’t sold for nothing.” Ithaqua’s brother had bent down to Ithaqua’s level and had stifled a chuckle, “the other men want me to play with you, like children do.”
”Play?” Ithaqua muttered, slightly curious as to what he meant.
”Yes! Play! Like how man and women play!” His brother said, grinning happily as he took his wrists and Ithaqua had felt himself falling backwards.
Down..
Down…
And under…
__________________
Ithaqua snapped awake in the manor caught up in a cold sweat, his heart was beating so fast at the flashback that he just had. It was pitch black in his room.
“A nightmare? What the hell? Why?” He muttered to himself, trying to recollect his mind as he had sat up in his cold, lonely room. He hadn’t had one of these in a very long time.
A stack of his personal items sat untouched in the empty corner of the room, barely able to be unpacked before he had passed out with exhaustion for the night.
A sharp pain rang through his chest and Ithaqua immediately felt a familiar tingling sensation go throughout him. ‘Oh god…why now? Why here?’ Ithaqua thought, grabbing his chest.
Painful, horrible memories had immediately rushed back to him all in an instant.
”Touch me too…”
“Dear brother, you don’t seem like you’re having fun.”
“This is how others show love.”
”I don’t think this is that weird, it’s normal to show love like this…”
Oh the scrubbing…
Oh how he had scrubbed so hard until his skin turned red and raw after that happened, why did he say yes? He cried so badly that night when it happened while curling up on himself in a ball, he wished to the stars that he had chosen the first option instead. He felt as if he was torn in half and he could no longer put himself back together again.
He wished that his heart was torn out and ripped apart instead of this, he that wished his mother had gouged out his eyes and told him the cold bitter truth, he wished that his mother had just abandoned him in the mountains as a baby and left him to die. He wished he was dead.
He wished the handlers killed him when they infiltrated his house that night.
”It’s all my fault… It’s my fault for being born a Norwell. If I had maybe grown up with a different identity and a different name, maybe I would’ve had ended up like this. It’s all my fault for wanting to play.
The terrible memories were all too much for Ithaqua to remember, and hot, wet tears had ran down his face and soon he had stifled back a sob with his hand, trying to cry softly but the memories kept on berating his mind. Which had then caused the man to begin sobbing so hard that even muffling it with both hands didn’t work anymore. Ithaqua struggled to control his breathing, as he frantically kicked away his blankets furiously in an attempt to try and calm himself down.
Meanwhile, the graceful, docile Michiko was going for a late midnight stroll through the manor when she heard a strange noise coming from the new hunter’s dorm. A faint thudding sound arose in the hallway.
“Hmm? I could’ve sworn that sound came from that door down the hallway,” Michiko said softly to herself.
Leaning her head near the newcomer’s door she listened closely, realizing that the sound genuinely WAS crying, but not just regular crying, oh no, it was sobbing, gut-wrenching sobbing that came from the gut.
Knocking gently on the door, she looked around quickly, hoping that nobody would be disturbed and woken up by the loud noise.
Ithaqua had stopped mid-sob, he couldn’t stop involuntarily sobbing and heaving. She could totally hear him! His hands were shaky and uncontrollable. The knocking continued after a few seconds, but Ithaqua couldn’t bring himself to get up and open the door. ’Please just leave me alone…’ Ithaqua had muttered to himself in his head.
The door had slowly creaked open, revealing a mid-height lady with long, black hair parted in two strands falling over her shoulders, she bore a black and red kimono with a Traditional Chinese Lantern in her hands. Her eyes were dark and kind, the same eyes his mother used to bear. It was Michiko, the Geisha. One of the first people to greet him when he had arrived.
Ithaqua instinctively hid his face between his knees as he always used to do to protect himself.
“Forgive me for the intrusion, I heard something alarming in here and I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright.” the woman said softly, slowly entering the room, she immediately took notice of the slightly quivering young man huddled on his bed with his head in his knees and his hands on his head.
“Excuse me, Ithaqua dear, I’m sorry for eavesdropping on you, but I overheard some, rather troubling sounds coming from your room, would you like to talk about it? I’ll listen, I promise!” Michiko gently offered.
Hot embarrassed tears ran down Ithaqua’s face without warning, he was glad that the room was dark and quiet so that the two couldn’t see each other as well. Ithaqua’s hands trembled.
Still involuntarily dry sobbing, Ithaqua tried to speak. “I…I-I don’t…I don’t know! Don’t force me to talk-I don’t wanna- I can’t talk about it-” He cried, he was awfully embarrassed having been seen crying by someone that wasn’t part of his family.
Slamming his face back down into his knees, his back continuously rose and fell as he sobbed, Michiko was at a loss for words, but she knew the right procedure as she cautiously placed a hand on his back, rubbing it gently in a circular motion to try to attempt to comfort him.
Burrowing his face into his knees, Ithaqua cried for what seemed like hours, feeling horrible and very humiliated in front of the Geisha, but Michiko stayed beside his side the whole time, rubbing his back and pulling his wet hair out of his tear-stained face. The gentle hunter had offered a small bag of tissues in her pocket that the newcomer had gladly accepted.
“I…” Ithaqua began, he had started to calm down now and his body had started to hurt from the aftermath of crying so hard. Holding his shaking hands, he was trying to catch his breath, but it was too physically painful to do so.
“I…I can’t speak-I can’t catch-can’t catch my breath-” Ithaqua had began, his voice trembled tremendously and he struggled to find the right words to say. “It’s alright, make sure to take as much time as you need.” Michiko reassured.
Ithaqua wiped away some tears from his face as he began, cold dark memories returned to him once more, but he had looked at the gentle face of the Geisha and had knew that she wasn’t going to hurt him or berate him anytime soon, he drew in a long shaky breath “can you stay here for a while and pretend that you’re my mom?”
As Ithaqua was lying in the bed with the Geisha singing him soft lullabies, he swore he could see his dear hunter’s face shift into sadness for the man. But it was too dark in the room for him to confirm so.
When he was done, he couldn’t remember what had happened after that but what he did remember was the Geisha silently leaving his room with her lantern, but not after tucking the boy into bed before she left.
Faint shuffling was heard outside of his dorm, Ithaqua had assumed that it was the latter running back to her dorm, but Ithaqua had already drifted off to sleep by then…
As he dozed off, he swore he had a dream about red flowers growing and sprouting from his body, but Ithaqua had shrugged it off as a weird dream.