The New Age of Wilhelm and Audrey

An Old Wound Reopened

Wil sat right by Velvet with his head held low, forcing himself to remember his past. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to." "I've already got myself into this, so I'm gonna do it." He then began to talk about his early childhood.

"I remember, we were all born in Drakon, but lived in the Reach in Skyrim. Small shitty house. Mom left the family. Don't know the whole story behind it. She left us. She left me and my eight brothers. We were all left behind and now at the hands of a monster. We were never starved, but we were beaten. Wilhuff one of the older brothers started fighting our dad to treat us like human beings. He came back upstairs with a busted lip and a broken nose."

"No secrets were ever kept in that house, especially since those walls were thin. When we crossed the line... we'd get dragged into the basement. Getting dragged down there was when the beatings were worse. Broken bones and sometimes burns. We all tried to gang up on him, and you'd think that nine could overpower one, but we couldn't. He was too strong, and way too quick."

"Being in that house was like being in a prison. It was Hell on earth. I was getting beaten one day, until I saw the wall of that cell fall away, the sky came down, and I saw a big yellow bird. I thought it was gonna take me away from all my suffering. Then I realized that if I left, my brothers would be given more beatings. So I stayed." "Around that time...my schizophrenia started showing itself."

"I remember seeing a man wearing a suit while I was in the forest. He looked as lonely and inappropriate as a seagull in a wheat field. I started hearing voices, telling me to kill. They didn't say who or why, they just told me to do it. I can't say much more." "It's okay, you don't have to" Velvet said nervously. "No, I feel like I need to keep going."

"One day I remember my brothers were all out playing in the yard except for me, I hadn't eaten yet. I think I was eating a biscuit at the time. he came downstairs and started yelling what a greedy, selfish bastard I was. Yelling and yelling till I couldn't stand it no more and I grabbed his throat, I couldn't stop myself. He tore loose, got a gun. He said, "Look at me, boy, take a good look, 'cause I'm the last living thing you're ever going to see.!" And he pulled the trigger. But the gun wasn't loaded. He began to cry. Bawled like a kid. I went for a long walk. When I got back the place was dark, door was locked. All my stuff was piled outside in the snow, where he threw it. I walked away and never looked back. I guess the only thing I'm going to miss in the world...is that poor old man. And his hopeless dreams."

Winter had walked in five minutes before, intending on asking him about the Dallas incident as it had been called, she just listened to him. "I'm...I'm glad you don't hate your father anymore" Winter said. Wil got up and stared directly into her eyes. "But I do. I hate him. And I love him."

Wil then looked at Velvet. "I don't think I can say anymore." Wil then walked out, wiping his eyes with his hand. Wil then sat on a nearby staircase, trying to calm himself. Winter then sat next to him. "I knew you'd come eventually. I'm guessing you're here to ask me about what happened in Dallas." "I am. What happened?"

"Herma-Mora. Malick wanted to gain knowledge from Herma-Mora, and Herma-Mora promised to give him knowledge, but the price was knowledge from others. Malick just picked somewhere random, which was Southern Methodist University. Crusader Corps and the Coalition showed up and found a big number of people being manipulated by Herma-Mora. We didn't want Malick gaining more knowledge, so we had to stop Herma-Mora from taking knowledge. We couldn't just stop him. The only thing we could do was kill the people he had under control. We had no choice. It was either them, or possibly millions of others."

"I wish...this war wasn't real. I wish this was all a bad dream. If you're here to take me away, then do it." Winter looked at him. She saw absolute desperation in his eyes. She remembered reading his military records, seeing that he'd saved millions with his and Audrey's actions. Slaying the demons of Blackwater Cove, helping Alec and Hazel free Epos the Phoenix, slaying the Baltic Sea monsters with only knives, which was possibly exaggerated.

"I'm not taking you." "What?!" "I know what you've done. You've saved so many with your actions, and now I know you didn't have a choice at the university, and I know you wouldn't lie about something like that. It's obvious that the world needs you and Audrey Redheart. All I can say now is good luck." "Thank you." "Say hello to Weiss please." "Of course." Winter then got up and walked away. "Penny, we're going now." Penny looked down. "I guess I gotta go now. It was great meeting all of you." "Likewise" Alec said. Winter and Penny then left.

Hazel then walked over to Wil. "You look down." "I just had to talk about my childhood for a girls book, of course I'm down. It's not easy to talk about your childhood when you were abused."

"Well, it's over now. Not just talking about it, but your childhood itself. Now come on, let's just live." "You're right. Thanks." "No problem." "So who was the orange haired one?" "Her names Penny, and she talks kinda weird." "Well, we do have time on our hands. I think we should train before we head into the war." "Then let's go!"