Chapter Text
When Hunter was told he was to be taken away from his Uncle, it felt as if the whole world stopped. In a way, it did for him. His mother and father had died when he was only a few months old, and he had been placed in the care of his Uncle. He was his Uncle’s nephew, nothing more and nothing less.
It wasn’t all bad at first Hunter thinks, he had been a little strange but nothing out of the ordinary for a particularly devout Catholic. Hunter was raised on Christian children’s shows, quizzed by his Uncle on the lessons being taught. He had been raised to pray over his meals and before bed, and to thank and love God everyday for being allowed this opportunity we call life. When his Uncle had been excommunicated from the Church, he had discovered faith in televangelists…and the bottle. That’s when Hunter started questioning if his life really was as good as he thought
Hunter had been only around seven years old the first time his Uncle hurt Hunter. Hunter had been on the couch with his Uncle watching a show about surprisingly devout vegetables. It had always been Hunter’s favorite, he found the notion of talking vegetables really silly. When his Uncle quizzed him on what he had learned, he even stated as such. His Uncle did not find it as amusing as Hunter did. He thought Hunter had been calling the worship of their Lord silly. So Uncle Wittebane decided to teach Hunter what would happen to him if he turned his back on the Lord.
His Uncle had been drinking that day, and threw the bottle at Hunter, breaking it across the child’s face.
“How dare you mock the Lord? How dare you mock me? Have you any idea how much I have done for you, Hunter?” Wittebane said, his speech slurring from the alcohol.
Hunter’s cheek had a deep cut across it, bleeding profusely, blood mixing with the water of his tears and he struggled to get an apology out.
“Why are you apologizing to me? You should be apologizing to God right now, if you refuse to let me save you, then I don’t care what happens to you.” Wittebane continued.
Hunter had been thrown into the corner, he wasn’t to leave that spot until he had righted himself in the eyes of the Lord. Hunter hadn’t been quite sure what that meant. He had always been taught that God’s will was unknowable. How could he possibly know when God had forgave him for a transgression that never happened? What he did know though, was that his Uncle expected him to pray and pray until his voice failed him. So he started:
“Our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven….” Hunter knew the Lord’s Prayer by heart by now, his Uncle and him had always said it before every meal, no matter how small. Hunter thought it a good place to start searching for penance.
He prayed the Lord’s prayer over and over before he decided it wasn’t enough, that he had better start confessing to God, how could God ever forgive him if He didn’t even know why Hunter was asking for it?
“Dear God…” Hunter wasn’t ever truly sure how to word his prayers, his Uncle never told him, so he had started the habit of addressing them as one would a letter. “My Uncle says I’ve been bad, I don’t know what I did wrong but I trust him. He got mad when I liked the show we were watching. He told me that you needed to forgive me….” Hunter hated that he couldn’t tell God what he did wrong, but he didn’t know what he did wrong.
Hunter continued his prayers, telling God what had happened up until that point. He choked up when he got to his Uncle throwing the bottle at him.
“I…don’t know what I did” Hunter managed to choke out between sobs. “He told me I was bad, and he hurt me. I don’t want to be hurt anymore…” Hunter knew what he wanted to say next, but also knew he had to be sure. “I…just want this to end. I don’t want my Uncle to hurt me anymore, I want to be in Heaven with You and my Dad and my Mom…” Hunter choked out between his cries “Can you bring me to Heaven with You and my family?”
Hunter waited for his prayer to come true. When it didn’t, he had begun to question if God even could answer prayers. If there even was a God.
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Hunter was sixteen years old now. He had gotten used to his Uncle’s drinking and beatings. He wasn’t a believer anymore, but he wouldn’t let his Uncle know that. The last time he tried to talk to his Uncle about his faith, it had left him with scars across his arms. He knew better now.
One day, police had shown up at the door. They received a tip about a child not enrolled in school. A neighbor had noticed that they had never seen the Wittebane child leave for school in the morning, and never seen him return.
It was expected to be a simple welfare check. Perhaps there had been a simple misunderstanding and the child was being home-schooled. That was the expectation until the older Wittebane had answered the door, drunk off his mind, barely able to stand, let alone speak.
Social workers arrived not too long after. They inspected the house and found bottles and cans strewn every which way. Shards of glass broken into the carpet. And most importantly, a child. A child who looked to be malnourished and covered in scars. A child who seemed afraid to even look people in the eyes, let alone talk to them.
It had been a pretty quick job all things considered. The Wittebane house was filled to the brim with damning evidence towards Philip. It was very clear to everyone involved in the case that Hunter will not be under the care of Philip ever again. Hunter imagined that he’d be placed in the foster care system and bounced around from house to house until he turned eighteen and forced to leave. He didn’t know much about the world, but his Uncle told him about foster care, in an attempt to make sure Hunter kept his mouth shut.
“Just what I need, have my life messed up even more” Hunter thought to himself. He wasn’t exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of never being able to settle down, and never being able to have a stable life.
Hunter continued “Why couldn’t they have left me there? I knew what I was doing there. I knew how to handle myself”
There was a knock at the door of the room Hunter had been staying in. Before Hunter was able to answer it, the door opened and showed Hunter the face of a stranger.
“They’ve placed me as your case worker it seems…” the stranger said, almost coldly. “I’m Darius Deamonne, and you’re…” Darius looked at the clipboard in his hand “Hunter Wittebane” he finished.
Hunter couldn’t help but notice just how coldly and clinically the man was speaking to him. Hunter got the notion that this Darius person didn’t like him very much. Hunter tried to keep his eyes on the floor, he was never fond of eye contact, but when he glanced up to look at the stranger, he noticed just how intensely this man was staring at him, as though Darius was looking straight through Hunter and into his soul. Hunter’s eyes quickly found the ground again.
“You’re going to placed with the Noceda family tonight…” Darius started reading off the clipboard again. “They live in a nearby town called Gravesfield, and consists of a single mother and her two daughters.” Hunter felt himself tense up at being told he will be living with complete strangers. “Normally it takes the system a while longer to place children in homes, but the Noceda’s have experience dealing with cases similar to yours. They have agreed to take you in, so that’s that.”
Hunter was mentally freaking out. He hadn’t believed in things like “God” or “sinners” for some years now, but he still was terrified at the prospect of living with people his Uncle would consider to be sinners. He was terrified of being that little child stuck in the corner again, of being the tween begging his uncle to not hit him.
But Hunter was too scared to speak up. He wanted to, he knew he had to. But it felt as though the second he opened his mouth, ready to speak, he was in a car driving to the Noceda residence.
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Hunter had been introduced to a man named Eber, who accompanied Darius and Hunter on the car ride to the Noceda’s. Hunter wasn’t thrilled at the idea of being in a car with two strangers for two hours (nearby town his ass). But he knew he couldn’t exactly fight it. Part of him didn’t want to anyways.
The car ride was quiet, much to Darius’s gratitude and Eber’s dismay. Darius had never really enjoyed small talk, while Eber found nothing more enjoyable. But every time Eber would try to start a conversation with Hunter, it was shut down very quickly.
Eber had tried to find out what kind of music Hunter listened to, what books he liked to read, any hobbies he had, but every time he would ask a question Hunter didn’t answer. Though, Eber thought, it was more as though he couldn’t answer. As though he didn’t know what music he liked, or what he did in his spare time.
At that realization, Eber decided to sit quietly, and not accidentally bring up a topic that’d hurt Hunter. Something that Hunter was quite grateful for, He wasn’t too sure why Eber had been asking him these things. He couldn’t remember anyone ever caring about him in that way. Even Hunter never cared about himself in that way. He had never learned what his hobbies are, or if he liked to draw or not. When Eber asked what he enjoyed doing, Hunter had considered telling him that he likes biting his nails, but quickly decided that wasn’t exactly a “hobby”. He was very grateful when Eber had finally shut up and left him to his peace.
He was just about to doze off when the silence was broken by Darius of all people.
“We’re here” was the only thing Darius said before he got out of the car and stood by Hunter’s door, ready to catch him should he try to run off, as so many of them have tried before.
Hunter took the hint and got out of the car gently, and standing still until it was clear he was allowed to move. Hunter actually enjoyed the certainty of the situation to an extent. He was never fond of how his Uncle seemed to always ask him to do things in riddle format. Granted, it was never properly a riddle, but to Hunter, it may as well have been.
When Darius and Eber started to move towards the house, Hunter took it as his cue to follow them. Before he knew it, they were standing in front of the Noceda’s front door, with Darius gently knocking.
The door opened to reveal the face of another stranger. Hunter thought he seemed to be meeting a lot of those in the past couple of days. He zoned out as the stranger, Darius, and Eber began talking, lost in his own world until he felt Darius’s hand on his shoulder. When he looked up, he saw the stranger looking at him, as she began addressing him.
“I’m Camila” the stranger introduced herself, her accent unfamiliar to Hunter, but able to be understood. “You’ll be staying with me for a while.” Her voice was warm on Hunter’s ears, and it seemed as though her smile was genuine.
Hunter was never particularly good with niceties and introductions, so he kept his short, as to not embarrass himself.
“Hunter”