Chapter Text
Neil's life has always been a struggle against the inevitable. From the time he was old enough to understand it, Neil knew that his existence was doomed to revolve around the shadow of his father, a ruthless killer who cared nothing for his family. Growing up under the hand of such a man meant not only living in fear but also learning to survive in a world where no one could be trusted, where any carelessness could be the last.
Once his mother decided she couldn't stand him anymore and they had to flee, that's when a different life began. For years, he and his mother were constantly on the move, jumping from one country to another as if they were ghosts without a past. Different cities, opposite climates, and languages he barely had time to learn before he was required to forget. His life was a succession of airports, cheap hotel rooms, and suitcases he never quite finished unpacking. He didn't even remember all the names he was forced to use, the superficial stories, non-existent family.
Neil never had a childhood in the traditional sense of the word. There were no Christmases with twinkling lights or mornings of carefully wrapped presents. There were no birthday parties with candles to blow out or friends who remembered his name fondly. There was no family beyond his mother, and even with her, he could not share a real sense of home. All he had was the urge to run away, the certainty that staying meant death. What he remembered from his days living with his father was pain, blood, and punishments for reasons he could never understand. How behaving well was not enough to prevent harm.
Sometimes, in the loneliest moments when his mother was asleep or they had a few days of peace, Neil allowed himself to wonder what life would be like for a normal person. What would it feel like to return to the same house every day? Or to meet someone without the fear that any ties would be a risk? What would it be like to live outside the violence of his family or people he didn’t even know? What would it be like to have the peace of mind of belonging somewhere instead of just being a shadow in transit?
But those thoughts were dangerous. Wanting something he could never have only made it harder. So he forced herself to keep going, not to look back, not to let herself feel too much. Neil couldn't want things.
Until everything changed.
One day, his mother decided it was time to return to the United States, where it was only a matter of time before his father caught up with them. The smell of burning fuel, the leather, and the sound his mother's remains made when he pulled them out of the seat will be things that haunt him for the rest of his life.
When Neil decided that he had had enough and that he no longer had the strength to continue running away, living under false identities, and being afraid of the shadows, that's when he decided to go to the FBI. It was difficult, there were weeks of statements, identification of bodies, and questions from people he knows he saw in the living room of his house. Not to mention how they were constantly looking for some fact to incriminate him, but being a minor forced by his parents and circumstances to live a life he didn't want, they didn't find much. The only thing he was never able to reveal because he felt he owed it to his mother was where her remains were. She died in California and a part of him would stay there forever.
Months later, living under witness protection in Millport, the news reached him. His father was dead. When they went to arrest him, he resisted and attacked an agent; another who was there did not hesitate to shoot him in the head. After that, a life he never thought possible arrived from the FBI: a new start. An official identity, a stable home, the possibility of studying, of living without fear. And although normality had always been a foreign concept to him, he decided to try it out with his heart in his hand.
But Neil doesn't know how to be a normal person. He never learned to follow routines, to meet expectations, to fit into society like any other person his age. University feels like a completely unknown world, an environment where, despite being surrounded by people, he still feels alone.
And that's where his story begins. Because for the first time in his life, Neil has the choice to stay. To build something. To discover what it means to live.