It didn't matter though, he thought later, when he mas actually able to think again without his thoughts becoming jaded, and sharp, trapped in a endless circle of pain-anguish-hatred-loathing-suffering, what had set him off and into the woods, for in that one moment he could not quite remember, in which he was sitting on the forest floor just like he had been doing the moment before, everything grew exponentially worse.
He remembered hating for the first time, long ago, before he even knew and fully understood what hate was, when he stood in front of a long, fully-body mirror somebody had put in his room despite the fact that he was barely five or six years old (maybe seven-he wasn't sure, he didn't care, the point was that he was young anyway) and had absolutely no use of it yet (or ever; he had not once looked himself in that mirror until ten years later when all he managed to capture was a quick glance of his own, rage filled face, and a reflection of a fist, breaking the glass).
He remembered pulling off his shirt (did somebody help him put it on that morning? Or had they already started avoiding them so far back, leaving clothes and food for him before he was awake, cleaning the room while he was at school. He didn't know. It was a blur. But it still hurt, worse than it had ever hurt before), getting stuck in it and crying out in panic before finally managing to pull it off. He remembered throwing away, a frown on his face, as he turned his back to the mirror, and feeling nothing but hatehatehate, the ugly scare-like birthmark of his lower back mocking him as he did so. He didn't understand fully what it meant back then, but he was just beginning to understand that that, that right there was the reason why everything about him was so different, so off, why his cousins wouldn't play with him.
He remembered trying to reach for the mark and claw it off of his back whit his short, five-(six-seven-)year old hands, and failing.
William felt like he had been submerged under water, the memory of that time so strong, so real that he could still remember the clear, cold scent of his room, the silence which always followed him whenever he went, how big the house had felt at that time, when he was still barely tall enough to see over the table.
It certainly didn't feel big (despite the actually size of the ruin) once he had finally opened his eyes those two or three months ago, waking up hours after to see what he had done. Spirit and Warrior might have knocked him out, stopping the damage from growing exponentially worse by each minute he stayed alive and conscious, but the damage had still been done, and that last blast, the desperate act of a creature knowing it was falling into an oblivion it would not leave soon again, must have knocked them out as well, in a way, for they were still all there, lying in the ruins, bleeding, crying out in pain: he, himself, and his family.
He remembered being confused at first, then in pain. It took him almost half an hour of just lying there to slowly start remembering, and once he did... he almost drowned under the guilt.
The part of him did sing, however, in pleasure, such pleasure at seeing those who had hurt him, who had ignored him simply because of something as irrelevant as a mark on his back, all those who had refused to look at him, touch him, play with him, lying there, having been hurt themselves. By him. By the darkness inside of him.
The days after that were lost. He remembered nothing but more pain, more guilty, fear, loathing, fighting with pleasure and the darkness which wanted to come out and be allowed to eat the word. Here and there, there should have been Spirit's calming words and touches of a hand meant for attacking calming him down after he had spent the whole of himself crying. His mind, however, seemed to skip over them this time, focusing on the fear and dark, on all the things which had hurt him, without giving him one glimmer of hope. In some ways thus, sitting through the family trial in his memories had been so much worse than when it had actually happened.
Dark, cold room, again, faces in shadow discussing his death. Stocks and reputation put before the life of their own son. A suggestion of a school, and a plane ride to the parts unknown. And through all of that painpainpainpainpain hate, God I hate them so much
@"Anzellous": *looks at own post* I really don't think there is anything for you to appologize