Will's struggle.

Realization

Tw: mention of (slight) self harm.

"Good morning"

It was a sunny morning, after a heavy night. Will slept for 1.5 hours after the attack, but the little sleep was far from peaceful. The cold nights from Skandia creeped into him, leading to restless, frightful nights. 

Halt looked suprisingly up. In front of him stood Will, who spoke clearly for the first time in days.

''Good morning Will, how are you feeling?" asked Halt.

"Tired" responded Will. 

Halt looked at Will. The boy looked awful. His hair was messy, skin pale and his eyebags were outstanding from his face. He lost a lot of weight, Halt noticed. His cheekbones were present, and Halt could see his bones stick out from his clothes. This boy has been seriously underfed and ubused, Halt thought. 

'' I understand. You need to eat. Can you help me with making breakfast?" Halt asked.

Halt saw that Will was thinking. Even if he did not want to eat, Halt would make breakfast for him. His muscles needed some strength to survive the way back home. 

''Okay Halt''

A few minutes later, they were cooking breakfast. Halt decided it would be best to make some filling breakfast, so Will and him would be well fed for the long ride for today. In a few hours, they will be back at Redmont. 

Halt looked at Will. The boy was peeling some bananas, but with extreme concentration. It was almost like he couldn't do it, Halt noticed. He was worried about him, thinking about the recovery that Will had to make. Normally, Halt wouldn't look at his apprentice peeling bananas. But it took Will over 6 minutes to do the simple task. First, Halt wanted to ask him if he wanted help, but later he decided that he wanted to watch how Will would solve the situation.

After the six minutes, Halt decided to help him.

"Do you want a knife, Will?''

Will looked up, his eyes wide open as he heard the word. Knife. Just in a few seconds, Will was taken back to the terrible days he spend in Skandia. He began to breath heavily, not knowing what to do and where he was. The scene played in his head as he tried to act normal in front of Halt, but without any luck.

"Are you okay, Will?'' Halt asked.

"Go stand up you coward! A little faster kid, mommy is waiting for her son to make her some food!"  Shouted Lennon at Will. After a few seconds without seeing no movement, Lennon grabbed Will without any hesitation by his arms. He dragged him across the room, just because Will didn't have the energy to stand up. 

''Alright little boy, you want trouble? You get trouble. Get up."" Will tried his best. But he just couldn't move. All of his energy was gone, nothing left. He didn't eat in a few days and he knew he wouldn't be able to.

''I c-cant" Will spoke softly. 

"Don't be such a fool. You really want me drag you onto the chair? Don't expect a soft ride, boy.'' As Lennon said spoke, he grabbed Will roughly by his shoulders and made him sit on the only chair in the room. 

And Will knew what char that was. It was the chair of death, as the slaves called it. 

Before Will could respond or even look up, he felt a sharp, intense pain on his face. Will realized that Lennon had cut him with his knife, like he did before to many other slaves. As the minutes passed, more and more cuts began to show all over his body, leaving red stripes. Will couldn't take the pain anymore. 

"Please s-stop'' Will cried out. His throat was dry and his voice was cracking as he desperatley  gasped for air.

''You want me to stop huh? What do we say then? What do we do to make the master stop? Or can't you remember it?'' Lennon replied in a semi pitty voice.

"I will obey you and i will do anything f-for you'' Will said softly. "Please just stop hitting and cutting me, I b-beg you." Will tried to stay strong in front of the huge guy in front of him, but he couldn't. The pain was to intense for his weak body. Will cried as he felt more and more beatings coming. 

Then, everything felt numb. His vision became blurry. Everything went dark.

''Will, talk to me."

Will looked up. His breathing was unsteady, making Will exhausted. He looked Halt right in the eye, trying to act normal. 

''I'm fine Halt, can you pass me the knife?''

Halt hesitated for a second, but then gave the knife to Will. He would talk to Will about what happened in Skandia and this situation when they got home. Not now. The boy went through so much and probably wasn't in the mental right state to talk about it already. 

A few minutes later, Will was done cutting the bananas and was now cutting the dry meat. Will was quite, and there was a tense feeling between Will and Halt. Halt had been secretly watching Will over the past minute, noticing the strange behavior of his apprentice. 

Halt did not pay attention to Will for a few minutes. He thought he needed some space. When  he came back from the horses, he saw Will doing something different then cutting meat.

''Will, give the knife back to me.""

Will snapped out his trance. He quickly realized that Halt came back. And Halt saw what he did. He slowly  pulled the knife out of is soft skin. It wasn't deep, but deep enough to show a little bit of blood. 

''I-i'm sorry Halt.'' Will replied.

"Let's take a look of that, then'' Halt replied.

Halt walked over to Will. When he arrived to the spot where Will was sitting, his heart skipped a beat. He saw that Will had harmed himself all over his hands. It wasn't much, but he saw the small red lines crossing on his hand. 

Halt realized that recovery would be much harder then he thought.