Work Text:
The first time Tobias Hankel moved something with his mind he was seven years old. His mother had not long left him and his father, Charles Hankel, alone to rot on their quaint, old, farm.
She had run off with some old, prosperous, gentleman she met in her college years, abandoning her only son and her once beloved husband to survive on their own.
If you would've asked an older Tobias Hankel, why his father was so full of hate, he would’ve painted the blame on his succubus mother, that damn Jezebel!
But, in reality the man's perception of his father was fogged by how long ago it was. Charles wife’s adultery wasn’t the reason for his madness, it only helped blur the line between ‘loving father’ and ‘religious nut’ further.
Charles couldn’t help, as a father, to punish his son. Tough love. That’s what it was. And it wasn’t as concerning as it should be since every father in the state of Georgia at the time had adopted this method with their sons.
But his rage got more twisted and misdirected after ‘he’d found God’ and unfortunately, Tobias was at the other end of it. And deep-down Tobias knew that Charles hadn’t found God. Charles found religion. And for good people to do evil things. That could only be the work of religion.
It was during one of Charles punishments that he saw the devil in his son.
He’d dragged the screaming boy all the way to their grimy, shared bathroom where he’d plummeted his seven-year-old child into the tub-turned-makeshift baptismal font many times before. It should’ve only taken one small push to submerge the young boy completely. But he suddenly stopped, dropping Tobias on the cold floor.
Tobias opened his eyes, that he’d shut tightly in anticipation of the icy cold water. But he wasn’t met with the expected angry scowl that was usually plastered on his face but instead was met with a mortified Charles.
His face was twisted into a mix of fear and disgust. His lips quivered and his eyes darted at the boy, No, not at him. Behind him.
Tobias slowly moved his head, so he met what his father's gaze was on.
It was hard to explain, even as a child, what happened next. It all happened quickly, in a massive blur that an adult Tobias had repressed almost completely from his memory.
Shampoo bottles, toothbrushes, toilet paper, all dropped to the floor was a loud “THUD!” and left the two in complete silence.
For a brief moment, Tobias felt like he’d done that, that he’d caused every object in the room to float up to the ceiling and drop almost as quickly.
But his father quickly interrupted that thought and loudly exclaimed it was an act of Satan, promptly locking him up in their storage closet and leaving him there till nightfall.