Content Warnings for Pair of Eights:
These are impactful moments from Drian and Callie K's backstories and take place when each of them is eight years old. Callie's backstory is not explored in ToV, nor do any characters outside of those listed in these moments know any of the details, including her spouses.
That being said the content warnings for *Drian and the Alley* are: dehumanization/dehumanizing language, harm to minors, extreme physical violence, death of several minors, emotional trauma.
The content warnings for *Accalia Knealy's 8th Birthday* are: extreme poverty, depictions and descriptions of drug use, needles, neglect, child endangerment, death of a parent.
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Drian and the Alley
The boy stumbles as he runs through the streets of Valinor, his too-big shoes threatening to fall off his feet. He is eight and one would not be remiss if they mistook him for a skin-wrapped skeleton. His brown hair is thick in his face and it blinds him as he dashes into an alleyway to try and lose the other children chasing him.
"Get the freak!"
"Don't let it get away!"
"We'll show you not to hang out in our town!"
It's been the same everywhere. The boy did not think it would be this bad in a larger city. It was too much. These kids have rocks and the boy realizes too late that this alley does not have an exit.
He stops before he hits the wall and turns to face them. They're older than he is, teenagers.
"Please," he pleads with his hands up, "I promise I'll leave, just please don't hurt me."
The rags he's wearing don't protect him from the fist rock that's thrown. He hits the ground and curls into a defensive ball shape, the protrusion of his spine more evident than before.
"See!" One of the younger boys shouts, "I told you he was a freak!"
"Oh, you're right!" An older boy says with venom in his voice, "Only one way to deal with this kind of monster. We have to kill it before it grows up."
"No, please!"
The other children don't care to hear the boy's cries. They throw stones until they run out, covering the boy's body in bruises and breaking fingers that desperately try to protect his neck, and then they move in to do more violence.
After the first kick cracks a rib, the boy starts to feel it. It's white hot and starts at the base of his skull before it travels down his spine. He can't hear his own scream as crackling fills his ears and his vision goes white. He feels the heat spread across his face, around his arms, down his legs and through his feet. He is unaware of the screams of the children who had been so eager to end his life as theirs come to a violent and electrifying end.
He shudders and loses consciousness for a moment. When his vision goes from white to red from the blood in his eyes he instinctively curls back into a ball, but finds no violence coming at him. He stands, shaky and broken and realizes what must have happened.
"I think it came from down there," a man's voice echoes through the alley.
The boy runs. He runs faster than he thought possible and his old and too-big shoes fall off. He runs past the men coming to investigate. Runs through the streets of Valinor and out. He runs until his body can't sustain it anymore and he collapses in exhaustion.
Accalia Knealy's 8th Birthday
The girl wakes up in the shack that she calls home on a day just like every other one. It's cold in Spokestadt and she shivers as she pulls the rag she calls a coat tighter around her shoulders.
