Literally just some concept ideas

Notes about the cult kids

Warning: Mentions of self harm, manipulation, neglect, abuse, murder, violence

Characters that will be mentioned are:

Norman - Otherwise known as "fox boy" he is the leader of the cult. His story is mainly a surprise and will be revealed later.

Simon - Otherwise known as "Tiny one" or "Unnamed", he is Norman's brother, and rarely appears within the sight of the other cult members due to the restrictions Norman had given him to ensure his "safety"

Matthias - Otherwise known as "Opossum boy", he's one of the members in the cult.

In Norman's cult, everybody joined consensually, even knowing (some) of the consequences to it
The way Norman recruited regular children is he, or others in the group, stalked those who were weak and interacted only when they knew that those individuals were at their weakest points
They take what they had observed from the individual, ex: fears, desires, etc, and use that to manipulate the individual into joining

For example, with Matthias, he was neglected and over time he started inflicting harm into himself in order to get he attention he craved from others, but nothing worked and eventually he became addicted to the pain
After time passed he ran away, and ran to the woods

Norman saw this and told him he'd give him a better life, attention, and he wouldn't have to keep hurting like he is, and of course Matthias was desperate and took this offer

However, they also manipulate the children using what they know about them from before, and what they know about them now

They can pick up on patterns or changes in their behavior, and they can spot lies easily
So if there were some sort of traitor or spy in their midst, they'd know

And the scary part is, they don't take it into action immediately

They treat that person like gold, giving them everything they'd want and even confuse them a bit with the generosity, and then they greet them with one of their worse fears

Ex: One of the children had been running away from the forest numerous times and almost got everybody caught; that child's worse fear was being burried alive, and one day, they found themselves tied down in a pit with rope, and everybody slowly started piling dirt on top of them, until they suffocated to death

Another fun fact: Normans character isn't completely centered around his brother. In fact, Simon is just a small part of what makes Norman who he is. However Simon does have a lot to do with him because he's the first and only person Norman has ever shown genuine care and worry for, despite his cold, sadistic, poetic exterior

Apart from Simon, what you know of Normans past is very little, but needless to say it's more of a surprise. Norman is literally the definition of a sadist. He feeds off the pain of others. However, despite being young, he's dangerously smart and pieced this all together himself

Oh, and you may be wondering, "Esryn, how tf haven't people noticed numerous kids go missing and the corpses of rotting animals everywhere?" They have. But guess what happened to the police :)?

They're gone too

Anyways

So far, what's going on in the forest isn't disclosed to the public to avoid panic. However, civilians have noticed their children going missing, of course. But there's so many of these kids, with such a high intelligence, they don't even need strength to ward off threats, they can use both grouping and phycological warfare and get people like that.

Oh and these kids are cannibals too, they'll eat both human meat and animal meat
Which is ironic because they're kids with the corpses of animals stitched to their faces
And they avoid vegetables at all cost

Anyways here's some more about Matthias because he's a very important character

Before the occult he was completely ignored, neglected and shunned by his family, and when he used to attend school nobody payed attention to him there, either. He tried to make himself included but never really received much of what he asked for, and eventually he gave up. He's very shy and skittish, and very jumpy too, so that messed with his social life a little. He's also the most anxious in the group, which is why he was given the opossum animal, because opossums are the most anxious animals.

He's very vulnerable and timid and starved for attention, so he can pretty much be molded like clay, making him an easy person to drag along

Before the cult he covered his entire body in scars, bruises and scrapes, hoping somebody would notice and worry or care for him, but still, he got nothing.
He's a very selfless boy, too. He never asked for anything other than somebody to care for him. Even if it was just one person. But you know what? He was called selfish for wanting somebody anyway.

And he couldn't take it anymore, so he ran away.
And then he met Norman, who promised him everything he wanted and more. And of course, Mattias was beyond desperate, so he took the offer without hesitation

But, despite everybody seemingly caring for him here, he started to realize that they weren't as good as he thought. He saw them kill, murder and eat people, he saw them turn against each other, and decided that maybe, just maybe, he didn't really want this sort of attention anymore. Especially coming from these people.

I have it planned for later in the story he befriends somebody from outside, and becomes a spy for them, pretending to still have interest for the occult. And Matthias learned from Norman how and what to do, so he 𝘸𝘢𝘴 able to get around all his obstacles pretty efficiently

My plan is to make him a very likable character :)